Unit Eight: The Liturgy of the Hours
1. The Power of the Liturgy of the Hours
The reason to celebrate
The Aim of the Reform (SC83-10l)
•	Prayer of praise and thanksgiving
•	Prayer whose chief source is in scripture, sanctifying the day:
morning and evening
2. Historical Development
Hebrew prayer before Christ (showing continuity to present day)
The Prayer of Christ
The prayer of the early Church (Acts)
'Cathedral' office — simple form followed in parishes
Monastic development — growing elaboration
Rome, 'the breviary', Council of Trent
2nd Vatican Council: SC Ch.5: to bring LOH back to everyone's reach
3. Theology
1 — Basis: SCl-14. GILH chaps. 1,2
2 — Meaning
Praise — thanksgiving
praise —a warm human acknowledgement of God as he is Chief means of expression: THE PSALMS
Priestly work of Christ (SC7, 83,94: GILH 7, 12)
•	Where there are even two or three, Christ is among them All share in this communal prayer
•	Sanctification of time
•	Concern for world of today
4. Content and Structure
Examine principally Morning and Evening Prayer 
•	Adaptations and simplifications
5. Celebration (GILH 27)
How & when
Music
The setting; the use of symbols 
Ministers
Ritual
Styles
6. Preparation
Practical, Theoretical, Spiritual
APPENDIX: other forms of prayer
Simple forms of LoH (revived 'cathedral' type)
Use of elements of LoH on particular occasions:
o	legion of Mary, parish meetings
o	Weekday morning prayer in the absence of a priest
Prayer around the Cross
Prayer at Home
Blessings
Documentation and Bibliography
General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours [GILH]. Recommended version: The Liturgy of the Hours, ed. with a commentary by A-M.Roguet OP. Geoffrey Chapman 1971.
D.A.Withey Catholic Worship: Kevin Mayhew 1990, ch.13
J.D.Crichton Christian Celebration Part 3: The Prayer of the Church. Geoffrey Chapman 1981
George Guiver Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and the People of God SPCK, 1988
Robert Taft The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West. Collegeville, Liturgical Press, 1986. Detailed and scholarly.
Articles in Liturgy, VoI5:1; Vol 13: 4 and 5.
A.G.Martimort (ed) The Church at Prayer, Vol IV, pp 151-275. Geoffrey Chapman,1986