Vatican website translation:<\/p>\n
88. Because the purpose of the office is to sanctify the day, the traditional sequence of the hours is to be restored so that once again they may be genuinely related to the time of the day when they are prayed, as far as this may be possible. Moreover, it will be necessary to take into account the modern conditions in which daily life has to be lived, especially by those who are called to labor in apostolic works.<\/p>\n
Latin text:<\/p>\n
88. Cum sanctificatio diei sit finis Officii, cursus Horarum traditus ita instauretur ut Horis veritas temporis, quantum fieri potest, reddatur, simulque ratio habeatur vitae hodiernae condicionum in quibus versantur praesertim ii qui operibus apostolicis incumbunt.<\/strong><\/p>\n Slavishly literal translation:<\/p>\n 88. Since the end\/purpose of the Office would be the sanctification of the day, so the cursus of the Hours that has been handed down is to be restored in such as way so that truth of time for the Hours, insofar as it is able to be done, is re-achieved, and likewise the reason [for reforming the cursus of the Hours] should be maintained for the conditions of contemporary life in which those who are burdened with apostolic works especially carry on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Council Fathers here establish two principles that will guide the further reform of the Office.<\/p>\n First, since the Liturgy of the Hours exists as a liturgy of time, the various hours should be prayed at the times for which they are intended. Practices such as priests in active ministry praying all of the Breviary prayers for a particular day (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline) in order from 11:00 PM till midnight, followed by the same set appointed for the new day from midnight to 1:00 AM are to end. Similarly religious communities were not to continue practices such as praying Vespers between the noon meal and one\u2019s assigned afternoon labor or \u201canticipating\u201d Matins and Lauds for the next day in early evening BEFORE praying Compline of the given day.<\/p>\n Second, presuming that the \u201ctruth of the Hours\u201d is re-established, the further reform of the Office must take into account the wide variety of circumstances in which the Hours might be prayed. While an enclosed Trappist monastery might be able to celebrate Matins as a genuine Vigil sometime after midnight and before dawn with the \u201chinge\u201d Hours of Lauds and Vespers coordinated with dawn and dusk, far too many active diocesan priests find interrupting their pastoral care to read sections of their Breviary at the appropriate times burdensome if not impossible. Some bishops agitated for a reform of the Divine Office in which monasteries and religious houses might continue to sanctify the day with liturgical prayer at various hours while active diocesan clergy would substitute devotional prayer (like recitation of the rosary) or a certain length of time spent in spiritual reading for the pensum of the Office, even though this would radically change the foundation of the Office as a liturgy of time.<\/p>\n Pray Tell readers might want to discuss how these two principles coalesce or conflict in the present circumstances of daily life. Enclosed and \u201copen\u201d monastic communities; contemplative and active religious communities; deacons, priests and bishops bound to the recitation of the Office; and laity praying their daily prayer might share how the balance between the sanctification of time and the demanding circumstances of contemporary life shape your experience of the Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vatican website translation: 88. Because the purpose of the office is to sanctify the day, the traditional sequence of the hours is to be restored so that once again they may be genuinely related to the time of the day when they are prayed, as far as this may be possible. Moreover, it will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,3814,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgy-of-the-hours","category-re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium","category-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n