"A Continual Sacrifice of Praise": The Liturgy of the Hours

“Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am, to behold My glory which Thou hast given Me in Thy love for Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). The heart of our beloved Lord, so richly manifested in these words to His Heavenly Father, bares itself, wide open, so that we may deeply comprehend it with every fiber of our being. This radical exposition of Divine Love has the power to transform us in mind, body, and soul. Can you hear the heart of our Lord, our Saviour and Redeemer, our Brother and Friend, our Divine Bridegroom? Take a moment now to ponder these sacred words of Jesus uttered the night before He died.

            Contained within the priestly prayer of Jesus, these words addressed to the Father make up what I propose to be the heartbeat of the prayer of the Church, known as the Liturgy of the Hours. For without this impulse of love directed towards the Father and sustained by every soul destined for Eternal Glory in Jesus through the Holy Spirit, there exists nothing that can generate true life for the world. Thus, the world remains lifeless unless animated by the love of the Trinity in every praying soul. The Liturgy of the Hours seeks to answer the cry of God that every soul be given true life in His name and fulfils His divine will “that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature” (Dei Verbum 2) – and behold His glory.

            Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Constitution promulgating the Liturgy of the Hours, writes that this prayer of the Church is a “Canticle of Praise unceasingly hymned in Heaven and brought into this world of ours by our High Priest Jesus Christ.” The notes of the Liturgy hymned in Heaven are intoned and composed by the sacrificial love shared between God the Father and God the Son. This Spirit-filled Love, offered and received within the Trinity before the foundation of the world and until the end of time, begets true glory. We see this divine reality mirrored in Christ’s words during the Last Supper after Judas “had gone out” and betrayed our Lord. Jesus exclaims, “Now is the Son of man glorified…” (John 13:31). Now in the hour of rejection, suffering, and anguish is Jesus glorified. This is the hour when Jesus consummates His love for mankind. This is the hour when Jesus makes a perfect offering of Himself to the Father. This is the hour that gives melody to the chorus of the “Canticle of Praise.”

            During the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and at its climax, the priest raises the sacrificial offering and prays the doxology, “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, O God,

Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, forever and ever.” The Church assents to this proclamation by responding “Amen.” In that moment, the veil between Heaven and Earth is lifted. We behold the glory of God and listen with our hearts to the notes of this perpetual Heavenly Liturgy. The Church is invited to ceaselessly sing along, so to speak, with Jesus in the Holy Spirit to the Father. St. Paul exhorts the body of Christ, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews13:15). The Liturgy of the Hours fulfils this purpose. It extends the highest act of worship of God – the Sacrifice of the Mass – to all hours of the day. 

We, as baptized members of Christ’s body, reborn as sons and daughters of God, do what we see our Father doing. Returning to the priestly prayer of Jesus, He prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (John 17:1). We, like our Father, strive to glorify Jesus. We do this by conforming ourselves to Him. As the Church prays the Liturgy of the Hours, its members hold before their hearts the pattern of Christ’s offering and cannot rest until their offering is united to His.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, throughout the recitation of the psalms, readings of the Old and New Testaments which highlight the history of Salvation, excerpts from the Church Fathers and Saints, and intercessions and supplications offered to God for His beloved people, the voice of the Bride, the Church, is united to the voice of Christ, the Bridegroom. Through this union of voice and heart, countless souls are conceived into the fulness of life in Christ. St. Augustine affirms that “God created us without us, but He did not will to save us without us.” Let us then, with renewed zeal, consent to and participate in the salvation of the whole world through the prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, and therefore quench the thirst of Jesus that “they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am, to behold My glory which Thou hast given Me in Thy love for Me before the foundation of the world.”

Sr. Chiara, CFR