Is Shorter Christian Prayer considered the "Prayer of the Church?"

[DebChris]

Originally Posted by John Carlton

If you're using shorter Christian prayer, the recommended time for Morning is daybreak, and evening is sunset. It doesn't have to be those hours, you can pray it as 'close to the proper' hour as you can. We pray after 8:00 mass at our Parish, around 9:00. When I'm doing it at home though (Thursdays for instance we don't have mass at 8:00 am) I do it at sunrise or as close to it as I can.



Thanks all for the input.
God bless,

People did not always have watches, and were dependent more on whether it was sunrise or sunset than a specific time of day.
The LOTH comes from the Benedictine tradition which uses the hours given. Reading my post closely, you will find that I did say that some religious communities may use slightly different times as fits them.
On reform of religious communities, Vatican II stressed the importance of separating the hours so that they are truly honored. Some communities had actually developed the habit of praying all the hours in a single setting.
My parish has a 6:30am daily Mass. Lauds is prayed before Mass. When I was first introduced to LOTH while on retreat, Mass continued from Lauds. The same was done while on retreat in Conyers. Morning hour's concluding prayer is the same as the opening prayer for the Mass. Of course, while LOTH honors the hours, the Mass is celebrated outside of time.
I rise about 5am., pray the Office of Readings immediately followed by Lauds. Both are finished before 6am which gives me time for breakfast before catching my morning transportation. Sleeping late on a weekend or holiday means praying Morning Prayer later than I would on a workday. The time at which we pray need not be rigid, although it is important to safeguard the time that we set aside for prayer.

[DebChris]

I did not mention in my post that I currently reside in the Middle East. Since the liturgy is translated into the RSV, instead of NAB, I purchased the three volume set of Collins Divine Liturgy. This way I have the daily readings for the Liturgy of the Hours.
When I was stateside, I did use the single volume Christian Prayer. The Office of Readings contains both a scriptural reading and a non-scriptural reading. Since the single volume does not have the second reading, I would substitute a spiritual classic or other book. I would read either a chapter or a couple of pages from the book selected. It is how I read books such as St. Augustine's Confessions, St. Theresa of Lisieux's Story of a Soul, and others. I found it was easier to remember what I had read than if I read them in a single setting. It is more difficult to find spiritual classics here, which is why I splurged on the three volume Divine Liturgy.
If a time should come when I return permanently stateside, I most likely will purchase the 4 volume LOTH. The Marianists, who introduced me to the LOTH, used the single volume Christian Prayer while the Trappists in Conyers chanted the hours using the 4 volume set.

[Russ of Tokyo]

Originally Posted by DebChris

Since the liturgy is translated into the RSV, instead of NAB, I purchased the three volume set of Collins Divine Liturgy.

Really? It uses the RSV? Lately I've been reading the Scripture portions from my RSV-CE Bible during the Liturgy of the Hours, so this would be welcome news. The Psalms are not RSV though, are they?