Canonical hours are ancient divisions of time (also called "offices"), developed by the Christian Church, serving as increments between prayers. Christianity is the worlds largest religion. ... Prayer is an effort to communicate with God, or to some deity or deities, or another form of spiritual entity, or otherwise, either to offer praise, to make a request, or simply to express ones thoughts and emotions. ...

The practice grew from the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day: for example, in the book of Acts, Peter and John visit the temple for the afternoon prayers. Psalm 119:164 states: "Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws." The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ...

This practice is believed to have been passed down through the centuries from the Apostles. In 525, St. Benedict wrote the first official manual for praying the Hours, and the Vatican wrote the first official breviary in the 11th century. Events Bernicia settled by the Angles Ethiopia conquers Yemen The Daisan river, a tributary of the Euphrates, floods Edessa and within a couple of hours fills the entire city except for the highest parts. ... This article is about Saint Benedict of Nursia, for other uses of the name Benedict see Benedict (disambiguation) Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. ... A breviary (from Latin brevis, short) is a liturgical book containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially for priests, in the Divine Office (i. ...

Already well-established by the ninth century, these canonical offices consisted of eight daily prayer events and three (or four) nightly divisions (called "nocturnes", "watches," or "vigils"). Building on the recitation of psalms and canticles from Scripture, the Church has added (and, at times subtracted) hymns, hagiographical readings, and other prayers. The practice of observing canonical hours are maintained by many Churches, such as the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican communions. Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... A canticle is a hymn (strictly excluding the Psalms) taken from the Bible. ... Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ... A hymn is a song specifically written as a song of praise, adoration or prayer, typically addressed to a god. ... Hagiography is the study of saints. ... ... The term Anglican (from the Angles or English) describes those people and churches following the religious traditions developed by the established Church of England. ...

The daily events were:

• (at dawn) Matins ("MATT'-inz") called "Orthros" in Eastern Churches

• (at dawn) Lauds ("lawds") later separate from Matins in the West; aka "Morning Prayer" or "The Praises."

• (at ~6 AM) Prime (the "first hour")

• (at ~9 AM) Terce (the "third hour")

• (at Noon) Sext (the "sixth hour")

• (at ~3 PM) Nones (the "ninth hour")

• (at sunset) Vespers (aka "Evensong" or "Evening Prayer")

• (at bedtime) Compline ("COMP'-lin", aka "Night Prayer")

The remainder of this article is divided into three sections: the Catholic usage, the Anglican usage, and the Orthodox usage. Matins is the morning prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ... Lauds is one of the two major hours in the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. ... Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ... Evensong is a liturgy from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer used in the evening, especially when the service is rendered chorally. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wikisource. ...

Catholic Usage

Early Church

Middle Ages

Council of Trent

Further reforms before the Second Vatican Council

Catholic usage in the Roman Rite following the Second Vatican Council

Following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church's Roman Rite simplified the observance of the canonical hours and sought to make them more accessible to the laity, hoping to restore their character as the prayer of the entire Church. The office of Prime was abolished, and the character of Matins changed so that it could be used at any time of the day as an office of Scriptural and hagiographical readings. Furthermore, the period over which the entire Psalter is recited has been expanded from one week to four. The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. ...

Formerly referred to popularly as "The Divine Office", and published in four volumes according to the meteorological seasons "Spring", "Summer", "Fall", and "Winter", the Church now publishes the related liturgical books under the title "The Liturgy of the Hours", and issues them in four volumes according to the liturgical season: "Advent and Christmas", "Lent and Easter", "Ordinary Time Vol. I", "Ordinary Time Vol. II".

Current Catholic usage focuses on two major hours and from three to five minor hours:

• Morning prayer (Lauds)
• Evening prayer (Vespers)
• the Office of Readings (formerly Matins)
• Daytime prayer, which can be one or all of
  • Midmorning prayer (Terce)
  • Midday prayer (Sext)
  • Midafternoon prayer (None)
• Night Prayer (Compline)

The major hours

The major hours consist of Morning and Evening Prayer (or Vespers). The character of Morning Prayer is that of praise; of Evening Prayer, that of thanksgiving. Both follow the same format: Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ...

• a hymn, composed by the Church
• two psalms, or one long psalm divided into two parts, and a scriptural canticle (taken from the Old Testament in the morning and the New Testament in the evening)
• a short passage from scripture
• a responsory, typically a verse of scripture, but sometimes liturgical poetry
• a canticle taken from the Gospel of Luke: the Canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus) for morning prayer, and the Canticle of Mary (Magnificat) for evening prayer
• intercessions, composed by the Church
• the Our Father
• the concluding prayer, composed by the Church

Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... Magnificat is the Latin name of the canticle of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which she speaks to Elisabeth, the wife of Zechariah. ...

The minor hours

The daytime hours follow a simpler format:

• a hymn
• three short psalms, or, three pieces of longer psalms; in the daytime hours it is usual to begin one part of the longest psalm, psalm 119
• a very short passage of scripture, followed by a responsorial verse
• the concluding prayer

The office of readings expands on the format of the daytime hours:

• a hymn
• one or two long psalms divided into three parts
• a long passage from scripture, usually arranged so that in any one week, all the readings come from the same text
• a long hagiographical passage, such as an account of a saint's martyrdom, or a theological treatise commenting on some aspect of the scriptural reading, or a passage from the documents of the Second Vatican Council
• on nights preceding Sundays and feast days, the office may be expanded to a vigil by inserting three Old Testament canticles and a reading from the gospels
• the hymn Te Deum (on Sundays and feast days)
• the concluding prayer

Night prayer has the character of preparing the soul for its passage to eternal life: General definition of saint In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ... The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. ... The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. ...

• a hymn
• a psalm, or two short psalms, or simply Psalm 91
• a short reading from scripture
• the responsory In manus tuas, Domine (Into Your Hands, O Lord)
• the Canticle of Simeon, Nunc dimittis, from the Gospel of Luke, framed by the antiphon Protect us, Lord
• a concluding prayer
• a hymn to Mary, the mother of Jesus

In each office, the psalms and canticle are framed by antiphons, and each concludes with the traditional Catholic doxology. Nunc Dimittis is the Latin name of the passage in the second chapter of Luke that is commonly called the Canticle of Simeon. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... This article is about the musical term. ... In Christianity and Islam, Mary (Judæo-Aramaic מרים Maryām Bitter; Septuagint Greek Μαριαμ, Mariam, Μαρια, Maria; Arabic: Maryem, مريم) is the mother of Jesus and the betrothed of Joseph. ... This article is about the musical term. ... A doxology is a short hymn sung in praise of God (often the Trinity) in various Christian liturgies. ...

Liturgical variation

In addition to the basic four-week cycle of prayers for each of the canonical hours, the Church also provides an alternate collection of hymns, readings, psalms, canticles and antiphons, for use in marking specific dates on the Roman Calendar, which sets out the order of celebrations for the liturgical year. These alternate selections are found in the 'Proper of Seasons' (selections for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter), and the 'Proper of Saints' (selections for feast days of the Saints). A breviary is generally keyed to help the user navigate these overlays in the liturgy. The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. ... The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in some Christian churches which determines when Feasts, Memorials, Commemorations, and Solemnities are to be observed and which portions of Scripture are to be read. ... Adventure (also known as ADVENT or Colossal Cave) was the first computer game to appear in the genre of interactive fiction (before it was even called that). ... Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. ... In Western Christianity, Lent is the period preceding the Christian holy day of Easter. ... Easter is the most important holiday of the Christian year, observed in March, April, or May each year to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead after his death by crucifixion (see Good Friday), which Christians believe happened at about this time of year around AD 30-33. ... The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organising a liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more saints, and referring to the day as the saints day of that saint. ... A breviary (from Latin brevis, short) is a liturgical book containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially for priests, in the Divine Office (i. ...

Orthodox usage

Orthodox prayer books typically provide prayers to be prayed at these hours:

• (at dawn) Matins ("MATT'-inz")

• (at ~6 AM) the "first hour"

• (at ~9 AM) the "third hour" (remembering the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which happened at this hour)

• (at Noon) the "sixth hour" (remembering the death of Christ, which happened at this hour)

• (at ~3 PM) the "ninth hour"

• (at sunset) Vespers (aka "Evening Prayer")

• (at bedtime) Compline ("COMP'-lin", aka "Night Prayer") (preparing for death, our final "falling asleep")

• (at midnight) Midnight prayers (to be prayed if one happens to wake up in the middle of the night and wants to pray)

In cathedrals and monasteries, it is more common to find someone present at the church praying these prayers at each of these hours. In many churches, it is common on Sunday mornings to read the third and sixth hour prayers prior to the Divine Liturgy. Other churches have an entire matins service which precedes the Divine Liturgy. In either case there is usually little or no pause between the end of one and the beginning of the next. The Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, in Trinitarian Christian belief, is God, the third Person of the Holy Trinity; the word Spirit commonly translates the Greek New Testament word pneuma. ... The name of the Jewish holiday Shavuot is commonly translated as Pentecost. Pentecost is the Christian festival that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus at Easter, and ten days after the Ascension. ... A cathedral is a Christian church building, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy (such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican churches), which serves as the central church of a bishopric. ... Buddhist monastery near Tibet A monastery is the habitation of monks. ... The Divine Liturgy is the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern-Rite Catholic eucharistic service. ...

In "liturgical timekeeping", a new day begins with the Vespers service, specifically at the reading or singing of the Prokeimenon during the Vespers service, rather than beginning at midnight.

In addition to these prayers, there are also canons to be prayed in preparation for receiving the Eucharist, and also akathist prayers regarding specific subjects, and which may be addressed directly to God or to a saint, asking that saint to convey the petitions to God. These canons and akathist prayers are inserted at specific points in the prayers of the hours. The Eucharist is either the celebration of the Christian sacrament commemorating Christ’s Last Supper, or the consecrated bread and wine of this sacrament. ...

Anglican usage (the Book of Common Prayer)

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The Book of Common Prayer constitutes the basis of the liturgy for Anglicans. The Book of Common Prayer is the prayer book of the Church of England and also the name for similar books used in other churches in the Anglican Communion. ...

In the United States, the 1979 BCP has four offices:

• Morning Prayer, corresponding to Matins
• Noonday, roughly corresponding to the combination of Terce and Sext
• Evening Prayer, corresponding to Vespers
• Order of Worship for the Evening, a prelude to or an abbreviated form of Evening Prayer
• Compline

In addition, there is a section of "Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families". Matins is the morning prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ... Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. ...

Noonday and Compline are the result of a gradual liturgical revival in the ECUSA beginning about 1913. They were originally part of a supplemental liturgical book called A Book of Offices, published after 1914. Eventually these services were incorporated into the Book of Common Prayer in 1979.

Certain Anglo-Catholic groups use the Anglican Breviary, which is an adaptation of the Pre-Vatican II Roman Rite. It contains all eight historic offices in one volume, rather than the traditional four.

Muslim prayers

Muslims still use a modified definition of canonical hours when they pray five times a day. Their prayer (salah) times are Salat al-Fajr, Salat al-Zuhr, Salat al-Asr, Salat al-Maghrib and Salat al-Isha. Islam  listen? (Arabic: al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Salah (also known as salat, solat, solah and several other spellings) (Arabic: صلاة, Quranic Arabic: صلوة) is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. ... In Islam the Fajr is the dawn prayer performed before sunrise, it is mentioned by name in Quran 24:58. ... The Dhuhr prayer (dh pronounced as th in Thou) is the mid-day prayer recited by practising Muslims. ... ASR is an initialism that may mean: Acceleration Slip Regulation Automatic Send-Receive, a type of teleprinter that contains a keyboard and punched tape equipment Advanced Science Research, an high school course in some schools, that allows a student to perform research on a desired topic with help of a... You may be looking for The Maghreb, a region covering most of North Africa. ... The Isha prayer is the night-time prayer recited by practising Muslims. ...

External links

• The Canonical Hours traditional Catholic