XXX — THE DIVINE OFFICE

Presence of God. — O Jesus, unite me to your great prayer, to the great prayer of the Church.

Meditation

1 — The liturgy surrounds Holy Mass with the recitation of the Divine Office which - as Mediator Dei teaches - “is the prayer of Christ’s Mystical Body, offered to God in the name of all Christians and for their benefit, being made by priests, by the other ministers of the Church, and by religious delegated for this purpose by the Church herself.” The great dignity of the Divine Office lies precisely in this: in being not a private prayer, but the public, official prayer of Christ’s Mystical Body, in which the members do not pray alone, but pray together with Christ their Head. “By assuming human nature, the Word of God introduced into this earthly exile the hymn that is sung in heaven for all eternity. He unites to Himself the whole human community and associates it with Himself in singing this hymn of praise” (ibid.). In the Divine Office “Jesus prays with us as our Priest; He prays in us as our Head... Let us therefore recognize,” says St. Augustine, “both our voices in Him and his voice in us.” What a great gift! Jesus, the Son of God, associates our poor, miserable prayers with his great and most precious prayer.

Although the Divine Office is obligatory only for priests and for religious charged by the Church, one can say that it is the prayer of all the Christian people, in the sense that it is raised to God “in their name and for their benefit.” It is therefore highly praiseworthy that lay faithful too seek in some way to participate in it, for example by reciting Sunday Vespers, Prime, and Compline. Besides, at every hour of day and night they can offer God the Church’s great prayer according to their own intentions and needs, thus supplying for the deficiencies and brevity of their personal prayers; moreover, even in the midst of daily occupations, they can unite themselves from time to time through pious aspirations to the “perpetual praise” that the Church raises to God in the name of all Christendom.

2 — The Divine Office is composed for the most part of texts drawn from Sacred Scripture and therefore inspired by the Holy Spirit; we cannot therefore find more beautiful vocal prayers, more suited to praising the divine Majesty; through them the Holy Spirit himself “prays in us with inexpressible groanings” (Rom. 8, 26). And on the other hand, these prayers being so rich in doctrine and unction, they also help nourish personal piety. All these reasons make us understand that “the lofty dignity of this prayer must correspond to the inner devotion of our soul” (Med. Dei), so that, as St. Augustine says, “our mind may agree with our voice.” The Divine Office, being the prayer the Church raises to God together with Jesus her Head, and being inspired by the Holy Spirit, already has in itself great value; but it has no value for us - for nourishing our union with God, for drawing down divine blessings - it does not become our prayer if we do not accompany it with our own personal devotion. As society of the faithful, the Church prays with the heart of her children, she prays with our heart; and the more this heart is fervent and full of love, the more efficacious and living the prayer of the Church will be.

Though not having the obligation of reciting the Divine Office and limiting itself to a few brief prayers taken from the Breviary, every soul of interior life should seek to grasp the spirit of liturgical prayer and make it its own. Spirit of praise and adoration that wishes to render God perpetual worship in union with Christ and in the name of the whole Church; spirit of solidarity with Jesus our Head and with all the faithful our brothers; universal spirit that embraces the needs of the whole world and prays in the name of all Christendom. How the horizons and intentions of our prayers then broaden! And in praying we no longer feel alone, but little ones praying beside Jesus, the great One who prays!

Colloquy

“O Lord, your ears are turned not to the mouth, but to the heart; they are open not to the tongue, but to the life of the one who praises you.

“I sing with the voice to awaken piety in me; I sing with the heart to please you... May not only my voice praise you, but my works also praise you. Grant that I may not cease to live well, so as to be able to praise you without interruption. If at times my tongue must be silent, may my life cry out; your ears will be turned to my voice, but You direct them to my heart...

“I do not want to stop at the voice alone; when I praise you, I want to praise you with my whole self; let the voice sing, let life sing, let actions sing. And if here below I still have to groan, to suffer tribulation, to be tempted, I hope all will pass and the day will come when my praise will never fail. Let my voice fail, but not my affection.

“It is better for me to spend my strength praising you than to take breath praising myself. But it is not possible to grow weary while praising you. To praise you is like taking food: the more I praise you, the more strength I gain, because all the more You communicate to me your sweetness, You who are the object of my praises.

“Help me then to praise you with voice and with mind and with good works, so that, as You exhort me in your Scriptures, I may sing to you the new song. To the old man, old song; to the new man, new song. If I love earthly things, my song is old; to sing the new song, I must love eternal things. Your love is in itself new and eternal; it is always new, precisely because it never grows old. Sin is what made me old; renew me You with your grace” (St. Augustine).