Praying Mattins and Evensong at home

A while back, on one of the many Catholic prayer groups I belong to on Facebook, someone posted that since the Liturgy of the House is the prayer of the Church, to depart from the the prescribed format was a form of liturgical abuse.

I was a bit taken aback because I had not tried to conform my praying Mattins and Evensong exactly to how we do it at church. In fact, I was as likely to be praying it using my phone via John Covert's Daily Morning and Evening Prayer site. I highly recommend this site because Covert has tried to make it as close as possible to what the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter's offices will look like when approved by Rome.

Being someone who abhors liturgical abuse, I thought I would ask around a bit. The person arguing in the Facebook group said that even to pause for lectio divina of one of the Psalms or readings was wrong.

"The liturgical abuse thing is total nonsense if we are talking about lay persons," one knowledgeable person told me. "Only clerics are bound to a canonical FORM of the office.  Lay people, from the very beginning of the public offices, have interacted with them in various ways, picking up parts of them here and there, adding to them, subtracting from them.  It is a participation in the Church’s liturgical prayer, yes, but done from the perspective of someone’s devotional life.  Of course, lectio divina can inform (enhance) someone’s prayer of the office." 

"If for a layperson this is a devotional act, then the office can be the mode of prayerful reading of scripture.  One need not adopt specific postures, etc.  Just pray the thing quietly in your chair," he said.

Many a morning or evening this summer, I prayed the offices in my backyard.

Another authoritative individual agreed with what the other one said, but encouraged me to try taking a more formal approach at home. So, I have been doing that too, from time to time, complete with lighting candles, using the books, including the Ancient Office Hymnal, standing, kneeling and so on. Sometimes, I even use the Psalter and sing the Psalms and the Canticles. (Interestingly, if you hold your finger over one of the Canticles at the Daily Morning and Evening Prayer site, a musical version will appear)

This is my prayer corner, facing East, in my home. How about sharing yours in the comments section?

In subsequent posts, I will examine this further. But first of all I want to stress that we should all pray as we can, not as we can't. It's better to do a little prayer at home than none at all!

How do you pray the offices at home? Do you light a candle? Do you use the books? Your phone? What form of the offices do you use? Have you tried the Daily Morning and Evening Prayer site? How important to you is this tradition? Please join in the conversation in the comments section!