Transcript

DiscerningHearts.com in cooperation with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary presents Praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Father Timothy Gallagher.

Father Gallagher was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.

He obtained his doctorate from Gregorian University and has dedicated many years to an extensive ministry of retreats, spiritual direction, and teaching about the spiritual life.

Father Gallagher has numerous books published by the Crossroad Publishing Company on the spiritual teachings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and on the life of the venerable Bruno Lanteri, founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, as well as Praying the Liturgy of the Hours: A Personal Journey.

Father Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series Living the Discerning Life and Finding God in All Things.

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Father Timothy Gallagher.

I'm your host, Chris McBriar.

Welcome, Father Gallagher.

Thanks again, Chris.

We've been discussing the theology behind the Liturgy of the Hours, and we've had some wonderful Popes who benefited greatly and, and wanted to encourage us to enter into this great work of the people.

Yes.

Let's begin to look at them now.

Just, um, a few short selections of things that the Popes have said since the Vatican Council, building on that invitation of the council to all in the church to consider praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

Uh, Paul VI in, uh, 1974 wrote a document on devotion to Mary in the post-conciliar church, Marialis Cultus, and I always remember this document because I was a seminarian when, uh, this came out, and I remember reading it.

Of course, anything, as an Oblate of the Virgin Mary, anything on Mary, um, was of great interest, but I've never forgotten what he had to say about the Liturgy of the Hours and the family in that document because it was so new to me.

I never even thought of what he was going to say here.

And the context is, he's speaking about the, uh First, he's talked about the Angelus as a beautiful Marian prayer, and then about the rosary.

Uh, as he turns to pray, uh, to, to discuss the rosary in family prayer, that leads him along the way to say some things about the Liturgy of the Hours as a possible prayer for the family.

So he says, In accordance with the directives of the council, the general instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours And I mentioned last time, that's the key document for understanding the Liturgy of the Hours.

I should say that if anybody were to take up that invitation to, to read that document or, uh, as a shared study to go through it, the first half of it is really the most important because that's where you get the church's understanding of what the Liturgy of the Hours is.

The second half is the really practical kinds of things.

This is what you do on a more important feast or a lesser feast, and so on.

Th- those kinds of things, which can be picked up in the praying of it.

But it'd be the first half of it that would b- really be the key part.

Uh, so, In accordance with that general instruction, the council rightly numbers the family among the groups in which the divine office, or the Liturgy of the Hours, can suitably be celebrated in community.

Now, that's a striking thing.

So we've been speaking thus far about the Liturgy of the Hours as something that individual members of the church might wish to pray, but here the church explicitly is inviting families to consider this as a form of family prayer.

And so, uh, the Pope quotes the, the text which says this, It is fitting that the family, as a domestic sanctuary of the church So there's the, the understanding of the family as the domestic church, the domus, the household, and that's a lovely concept of a family.

You know, the family is the place where the royal priesthood of the baptized is exercised.

It's the place where the fais- faith is first learned.

It's the place where the family members together learn to live the l- the love that Christ teaches, where their lives are based on His Word.

Um, that's, that's the church's understanding of what the family is.

It's a domestic church or a domestic, um, realization of the life of the church.

So, It's fitting that the family, as a domestic sanctuary of the church, should not only offer prayers to God in common, so it's fitting that family members, because they are a part of the church, should join together to pray together, but also, according to circumstances, because this is going to be very different in the lives of very different families, according to circumstances, should recite parts of the Liturgy of the Hours.

So just to make this concrete, we could image, for example, um, a family at the end of dinner, um, praying maybe the shortened form of evening prayer, which is found in the monthly publication of the Magnificat.

So you have just a short hymn and then one psalm and a shorter reading from scripture.

Let's just dream of a family that prays this daily form of evening prayer as a part of its life in the family.

Or those who can gather together, uh, as today is ending, to pray the single psalm and hymn and brief reading of night prayer together.

Th- this is the kind of thing that the, the council would have in mind.

So that the family, according to circumstances, should recite parts of the Liturgy of the Hour in order to be more intimately linked with the church.

And this is something you raised, Chris, when we spoke last time, that this binds us to the church.

We're sharing as a family now more and more intimately.

You know, I remember growing up.Um, one thing that m- my parents had the custom of doing during Advent, we would have the Advent wreath with the candles on the, um, supper table and the meal would begin by reading the prayer from the respective Sunday of Advent, so the opening prayer, or the collect as it's called now, just that brief prayer.

But that was a lovely thing, because it linked our prayer as a family to the prayer of the church.

Now, that's just a- a- a little window into what praying the Liturgy of the Hours in these short forms which are practical and can be done within a family.

Uh, what- what that will do as the church here says, In intimately linking the family with the church, no avenue should be left unexplored.

The striking words, No avenue should be left unexplored to ensure that this clear and practical recommendation finds within Christian families growing and joyful acceptance.

It- it strikes me in w- when you brought that forward, I- immediately I thought of the, uh, Holy Family and how the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph probably did the same thing with a young Jesus as they sat as a family and, uh, offered the Psalms and reflected on the Psalms.

It- I mean, that i- we really, it's- it's a practical thing because they were able to do it.

It's a very nice link of any family with the Holy Family.

If the Holy Family is the image of the fullness of family life, where holiness is present, where Jesus is the center of the household, where Mary blesses and loves the family, where Joseph is paternal presence and the image of the Father just to think of them and they- as they would have done it as Pius II is praying the Psalms together and Mary and Joseph teaching the growing child the Psalms and to pray them and to love them.

It's a beautiful image.

Doesn't it come down, Father Gallagher, in some cases, to our desiring a proper order, uh, ordering in our homes, in that domestic church?

And the reason I say that is that for many families today we lament, and I'll include the- our- my own in that, we lament how we allow the world to kind of fashion our day, that we have all these different schedules we're trying to meet, we all have different practices.

And not that- that any of those things necessarily could be termed as wrong, but putting this first, this practice maybe first just a few moments in that ordering, it could transform all those other things that we're doing.

It- it puts everything in a- a proper balance in a way.

Keeps bringing it back to the center, which is Jesus.

Keeps bringing us back to prayer, which is the real source of the strength of- of a family.

There are many sources of human strength, it's the love between the members, but what keeps any vocation, my vocation as a religious and a priest or the vocation of married men and women in families, what keeps any of them strong and vibrant, um, in- in springtime as it were, you know, over the many years of life is prayer, because that's where the strength comes from.

Without me you can do nothing, Jesus says.

But as he also indicates there if- if the branches are grafted into the vine then everything is possible.

So to have a form of prayer, and this again is unique, this is the Liturgy of the Hours of the day, to have a form of prayer which periodically invites us to return to prayer and to do it as the- as- as Paul VI says here, in a way that is- respects the circumstances of the individual families, working schedules and the schooling and all the medical needs, whatever- whatever it might be, um, the size of the family, all of these kinds of things, it respects all of that and finds practical ways to bring as the church also says, these parts of the Liturgy of the Hours into the family is an enormous source of blessing.

Let's just think of the difference between a family rising from the supper table, simply rising, it's been good being together and the meal has been shared, and the family that spends three to five minutes praying a shortened form of evening prayer together each evening, um, and the difference that that's going to make as the years of the family- family's life go by.

And- and you're so right, Chris, that there are so many influences in the culture around us and they're everywhere now digitally and electronically in the screens and, uh, all around us all the time, uh, that can distract us away from this.

They have their real use, um, but they can also, immersion in them can- can pull us away from the center.

Here is this periodic return.

And as I said before, what I love is that what makes this periodic return to prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours more accessible than it ever was in the history of the church is precisely the digital and electronic, uh, accessibility of it.

We- we love as families I think, and- and we actually get excited about it when Advent comes along, and you mentioned, you know, gathering around the Advent wreath and we have a period of prayer, I don't know very many, uh, especially the young families w- but also, you know, any of the families that engage in that, that aren't just a little disappointed when Advent's finished, because that was the time we gathered, and so then we here comes Lent, and we find some type of practice that we can engage in.

And w- what you've shared with us from Blessed Po- Paul VI was that he said, Find a way to make that happen every day.

Well, what you say, Chris, um, permits me to extend an invitation then to any who may be listening to consider this year in Advent or Lent, or both, as a Lenten practice, as a practice for Advent, to bring in the simplified form of evening prayer, or if night prayer works better, or morning prayer, whichever it w- would be, um, certainly personally, but to consider doing this as a family.

And my wager would be this, that if a family does this for the four weeks of Advent, or the roughly six weeks of Lent, the family's gonna want to continue, because the blessings of this will be evident, and this is a form of prayer which is there every day.

It doesn't end with Advent.

It doesn't end with Lent.

It's there every day given to us by the Church.

Those would be wonderful opportunities to begin this kind of practice.

Well, let's look at, uh, just a little more of what, um, Paul VI says here.

So he continues and he concludes here, But there is no doubt that after the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours Now, this was what really caught my attention as a seminarian, and still does today.

But there is no doubt that after the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, the high point which family prayer can reach, which is striking, after that, the Rosary should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite.

And this really spoke to me, because my parents did pray the family Rosary.

We prayed it every day in our family growing up, and I witnessed, and our family, um, has always recognized the power of that prayer.

You know, we would complain.

We'd be out playing ball or something and get the call to come in and, and pray the Rosary, but on a deeper level, something in us n- didn't complain, and because we knew the goodness of that.

So the Pope has great, great esteem, the Church has, uh, holds the family Rosary in very, very high esteem, and nothing that we're saying here at all minimizes that.

These are not either/or kinds of things.

But having said that, nonetheless, there is no doubt the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours can be spoken of as the high point which family prayer can reach.

And this too is what makes me so desirous of speaking about this, because here's a power.

This is the high point that family prayer can reach, and here are families who desperately, deeply need that vital grace and energy that can transform families and help them through difficult times and, and change the direction of the lives of members of the family.

Here is this uniquely powerful source of prayer which is available and ready.

So that's what the Pope says.

No avenue should be left unexplored to ensure that this, uh, clear and practical recommendation finds within Christian families growing and joyful acceptance.

John Paul II, and this was in, well, a trip to, uh, Thailand.

I am pleased to know that special efforts are being made to make the treasures of the liturgy more accessible to the faithful.

And then something more ample, ample now.

I hope that more and more lay persons will be able to share in the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the hymn of praise addressed to God by Christ and by the whole Church, as we saw earlier.

This prayer of the Church belongs to all the people of God.

I hope that more and more lay persons will be able to share in the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours.

And then, uh, Saint John Paul II just a little bit later, this is in 2001, what, uh, John Paul II did to try to foster, uh, and promote the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours within the Church and all vocations in the Church, was to dedicate, um, a series of talks, and this is his Wednesday audience talks, to the, the Psalms and the Canticles which are prayed in morning prayer over the cycle of, of four weeks.

And so what he did was over a number of months, weekly would give a talk on each one of these different Psalms and Canticles, so that reading that, those who pray them would have, um, a window into the richness of the, um, of those particular prayers.

And he began doing this also with evening prayer, but his death interrupted that, and Pope Benedict continued that and brought it to its conclusion, and, uh, these two cycles have been published as, as books.

But that's the occasion which, which leads him now to speak about the Liturgy of the Hours for, for lay people.

In the apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, which was the document which John Paul II gave to the Church at the close of the jubilee of the year 2000, and it's the program of pastoral life for the Church in the new millennium.

I'll never forget that because I was actually there in Saint Peter's for that closing mass.

I was in the square in front of Saint Peter's, and we were all, um well, I'll remember it because it was an overcast day, maybe just a little bit of rain here and, and there, but when after the mass, the Pope went over and sat down at the the table that was set there to sign this document, the sun broke through and shone right on him there.

It was kind of a striking conclusion to the, um, the jubilee year.

But in that document, the Pope says, I express the hope that the Church would become more and more distinguished in the art of prayer, learning it ever anew from the lips of the Divine Master.

This effort, he says, must be expressed above all in the liturgy, the source and summit of ecclesial life.

Consequently, it is important to devote greater pastoral care to promoting the Liturgy of the Hours as a prayer of the whole people of God.

And this is what I was saying earlier, you see this quiet thread, you know, since the council, it's there in the Popes, this warm invitation that comes back over and over again, to consider, um, the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours for all in the hope the whole people of God.

If, in fact, priests and religious have a precise mandate to celebrate it, um, I remember the evening before I was ordained as a deacon, and being very conscious that we had prayed parts of the Liturgy of the Hours as seminarians, but now I was going to promise to pray all the five hours faithfully for the rest of my life.

I always remember being on that, um, and aware of the significance of that promise that I was taking.

Well, this is what the Pope is saying, Priests and religious have a precise mandate to celebrate it.

It is also warmly recommended to laypeople.

And he goes on to indicate how Paul VI had said the same thing 30 years earlier in the document that we had just read.

It is an encouraging fact that many laypeople in parishes and ecclesial associations have learned to appreciate it.

Nevertheless, it remains a prayer that presupposes an appropriate catechetical and Biblical formation if it is to be fully savored.

And this is another important point which we touched upon briefly earlier.

For the Liturgy of the Hours to be prayed in all the richness that it has, a certain preparation for this is of great, great value, um, to break open the richness of what it really is.

As I said earlier, it's like the Mass.

We can benefit from, benefit from it in any case, but if we know what's really happening there, that changes everything when we're And that's why we don't wanna miss it, and we know the power of it, and it can transform us.

So that as people consider undertaking the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, it is good to consider, if we're alone, there are, there are books that can help us with this.

And if we're as part of a group, there is a shared study which could be very, very helpful in making all the difference.

I will say that in the 40 years that I've prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, what more than anything else has helped me to come to appreciate it is the reading of these documents, and just the kind of reflection that we're sharing, um, in these recent conversations, because that lets me know what I'm doing when in the midst of the activity I pick up the book to pray it, or in the tiredness and, and, uh, and so on.

So he says, To this end, we begin today a series of catechesis on the Psalms and canticles found in morning prayer.

In this way, I would like to encourage and help everyone to pray with the same words that Jesus used, words that for thousands of years have been part of the prayer of Israel and the Church.

Okay, so that thread just keeps coming back.

And strikingly here, we're praying, as we pray the Psalms, we know that Jesus Himself prayed these same Psalms.

You know, Oh, God, you are my God.

For you I long.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

And to pray those knowing that Jesus Himself prayed those same words.

And then, uh, Pope Benedict XVI, when he finished that second series of talks on the Psalms and canticles of evening prayer, went on to say, Dear friends, in these recent catechesis, I wanted to present to you certain Psalms, precious prayers that we find in the Bible, and that reflect the various situations of life, joy and sorrow and struggle and praise, and so on.

And the various states of mind that we may have with regard to God.

I would like then to renew to you all the invitation to pray with the Psalms, even becoming accustomed to using the Liturgy of the Hours of the Church, morning prayer in the morning, evening prayer in the evening, and Compline or night prayer before retiring.

So he mentions those three parts of the Liturgy of the Hours.

And then in this lovely sentence he concludes, Our relationship with God cannot be, but be enriched with two things.

With greater joy, which we all desire, and greater trust, which we all desire, in the daily journey toward Him.

Those will be the fruits of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Now, to my knowledge, I'm not aware that Pope Francis has yet, in the, uh, brief time of his pontificate to date, has spoken about the Liturgy of the Hours with a specific invitation to laypeople.

As you can see, it won't be surprising if that comes, but just a few things about the Liturgy of the Hours in his own life.

Um, the picture was taken, I believe this was when he went down to Brazil for World Youth Day, so it was just a few months after he was, uh, named Pope.

And the famous picture of the Pope walking up the ramp into the airplane carrying You can s- It stands out against the white papal garment, his black briefcase.

So, of course, um-The journalist at one point asked him, Well, what was in there, in the, uh, briefcase?

And he answered, Just the normal things that you take for travel, a razor, an appointment book, a book to read, which at that time he was reading something about Saint Therese, and his breviary.

And then he said to the journalist, I pray the breviary That's the Liturgy of the Hours.

I pray the breviary every morning.

I like to pray with the Psalms.

And then later, in another interview, um, the journalist asked the Holy Father a theological question, and he tells us that the Pope didn't immediately answer.

He got up, walked over to his desk, and got the book of the Liturgy of the Hours, and opened it.

In this particular case, it was, um, the Office of Readings for one of the Fridays of the year.

Opened it and read a quotation from Saint Vincent of Le- Lérins, who was the, um, whose text was given for that day in prayer, and read something that Saint Vincent said in answer to, as an answer to that theological question.

Now, what's striking about that is that this interview took place in August.

Uh, I won't get into the intricacies of the, of the different weeks of, o- of the Church each year, but what I wanna point out is that the last time the Pope had read that quote from Saint Vincent was 10 months before this interview, which tells us that he had prayed that with enough attention over the years so that it was right there in his consciousness, um, as a, as a spiritual resource to deal with a particular question, which tells us that this man is praying the Liturgy of the Hours, uh, faithfully and deeply.

And then finally, in an interview when he was still a cardinal, I am very attached to the breviary.

It is the first thing I open in the morning and the last thing I close before going to sleep.

So, I think that brief, um, review of the Council, the Catechism, and the Popes extends a very warm, repeated, quiet but warm invitation to all in the Church to consider making at least some parts of the Liturgy of the Hours, in ways that are practical and can be done, a- as a part of our regular life of prayer.

There's so much more to explore in this catechesis on the Liturgy of the Hours, and we will in, uh, in our subsequent conversations, but in closing this one, Father Gallagher, any final thoughts?

Well, my final thought is really the same as in preceding conversations.

Let's just let the question be there in our hearts: Is it possible that this prayer of the Psalms, which is the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours, and which is given to me, uh, as an option at various points of the day, is it possible that this could come into my own personal life of prayer?

With all the richness and blessing that this has, as the Spirit lifts my humble efforts to pray this to Jesus, who always stands at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for us, as the scriptures say.

Jesus, who will take my prayer and raise it up to, to His Father as a source of blessings, certainly for, for me as I pray it, but through my prayer presented to the Father by Jesus as a source of blessings for my family members, for my parish, for our nation, for our Church throughout the world, for the many nations in need.

Is it, is that something that I could consider possibly exploring?

Thank you so much, Father Gallagher.

Thank you, Chris.

You've been listening to Praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Father Timothy Gallagher.

To hear and/or to download this discussion along with many others, go to discerninghearts.com.

This has been a production of discerninghearts.com.

I'm your host, Chris McGregor.

Join us next time for Praying the Liturgy of the Hours with Father Timothy Gallagher.