Byzantine "Liturgy of the Hours"

[rciadan]

Is there a Byzantine equivalent of the RC "Divine Office" which includes things like morning prayer, office of the readings, etc?

[Aelred Minor]

Originally Posted by rciadan

Is there a Byzantine equivalent of the RC "Divine Office" which includes things like morning prayer, office of the readings, etc?

Yes, but the hours are more often prayed communally. Vespers services seem to be especially common. I'm sure our Eastern brothers can give more specifics.

[Zekariya]

The Byzantine Liturgy of the Hours is called the Horologion. Check here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horologion and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonic...Orthodox_usage

There are services led by a priest: http://www.saintjonah.org/services/f...horologion.htm

There is what is called a Reader Service for when no priest is available: http://www.saintjonah.org/services/horologion.htm

[Phillip Rolfes]

The problem in comparing the Byzantine and Roman Liturgy of the Hours is that the "Breviary" in the Roman tradition has evolved into something more akin to a private prayerbook. This is understandable since mendicant clergy needed to be able to pray the hours while they were traveling. In the Byzantine tradition, however, the Hours have always maintained the element of being the public worship of the entire Church, not just the prayer of the clergy and religious. For this reason we've never really developed an handy breviary that can go with us wherever we go. Instead, in order to celebrate the Hours in the Byzantine tradition, you need a small library of books:

Horologion
Octoechos
Menaion
Triodion
Pentecostarion
etc., etc., etc.

Each of those, with the exception of the Horologion, is a multi-volume set unto itself.

So the short answer is, yes, the Byzantines celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours. But Nno, we do not celebrate them privately.

[5Loaves]

Originally Posted by Phillip Rolfes

...in order to celebrate the Hours in the Byzantine tradition, you need a small library of books:

Horologion
Octoechos
Menaion
Triodion
Pentecostarion
etc., etc., etc.

Each of those, with the exception of the Horologion, is a multi-volume set unto itself.

For this reason Eastern Christian Publications recently began a by subscription electronic form of the Byzantine Daily Office. I haven't used it but Jack Figel/ecpubs does great work so I expect this is well done.

As others have said chanting the Hours alone isn't normally an Eastern practice.
There is at least one current thread here in the EC section discussing prayer books used for personal prayers.

[Phillip Rolfes]

Originally Posted by 5Loaves

For this reason Eastern Christian Publications recently began a by subscription electronic form of the Byzantine Daily Office. I haven't used it but Jack Figel/ecpubs does great work so I expect this is well done.

As others have said chanting the Hours alone isn't normally an Eastern practice.
There is at least one current thread here in the EC section discussing prayer books used for personal prayers.

The electronic Horologion that Jack has produced is good. He doesn't include Orthros/Matins or Vespers because those can't really be prayed privately. So he provides the standard Morning and Evening prayers along with the Lesser Hours. But if you want to pray those all you really need is the Melkite Horologion, which contains everything you need for the Lesser Hours, and a good prayerbook containing the standard morning and evening prayers.