The Divine Office in the life of a Priest
The Divine Office: Praying with the Psalms
by Mr. Barry White
Stuck for words
Sometimes words fail us. When we experience beauty particularly in nature, like mountain peaks and seascapes, we may exclaim “Wow!” We can find it difficult to express our human experience, either positive or negative, when encountering some form of transcendence.
Falling in love can be exhilarating while the death of a loved one can leaves us feeling empty and confused with many questions. In these moments there can be an inner traffic jam of thoughts and emotions which we can struggle to put into words.
Praying for Others
In the life of a deacon or priest there can be a roller-coaster of emotions from laughing with a couple preparing to celebrate their love in the sacrament of marriage to sitting in silence with a couple who have lost a child. The priest or deacon can bring these experiences of parish to prayer particularly when praying the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours. In a deacon or priest’s Divine Office there may be memorial cards and slips of paper with intentions – for relationships, operations, medical test results, school exams, successful job interviews, and the dead. While praying the Divine Office allows the deacon or priest to communicate his own experiences to God, he is called to present to God the intentions, needs and concerns of the People of God.
Praying with the heart
While praying the Divine Office is obligated for deacons and priests by the Code of Canon Law, it certainly is not to be reduced to a legalistic burden. Praying the Divine Office is a relational experience between God and the one whom he has called and sent to serve his Church. In any relationship each person, in their vulnerability and honesty, reveal themselves to the other and in this way, they learn how to communicate with each other.
It is like learning a new language. They grow in understanding and appreciation of each other’s quirks, strengths and growing edges. Similarly, God in his vulnerability reveals himself to us, opening his heart to us, and teaching us how to communicate with him through the scriptures including the psalms. God gives us his Spirit which inspires the word of God in speaking to us and helping us express the deepest prayers of our hearts: “… when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words…” (Rom. 8:26).
A psalm for everything
The Divine Office offers words with which to express our experiences to God. In the psalms, practically every human emotion and experience — anxiety, fear, joy, repentance, thanksgiving, sickness, and death — is expressed to God. Tradition claims that the psalms were composed by King David; they express the prayers of the people in the Old Testament who in joys and tribulations turned to God to find meaning, consolation, and purpose. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it beautifully in his General Audience on 29 September 2012: “God has given us the word and the sacred liturgy offers us words; we must enter into the words, into their meaning and receive them within us, we must attune ourselves to these words; in this way we become children of God, we become like God.”
The prayers of Jesus
Candidates for priesthood are encouraged to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and to use the psalms to deepen their relationship with God. Jesus himself prayed the psalms. Most of the psalms in the Old Testament are recited in the Liturgy of the Hours over a four week-cycle. It is “devised so that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praises of God” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 84). This fulfils the call of St Paul to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:11). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us in Verbum Domini that praying the Liturgy of the Hours is “a privileged form of hearing the word of God” (VD, 62). The Liturgy of the Hours contains hymns, psalms, scripture readings, and petitions, all inspired or drawn from the word of God. When someone prays the psalms, a phrase or word can stand out for them and give them food for thought — or, rather, prayer. Sometimes a phrase can be taken from one of the psalms and repeated internally throughout the day: “O Lord I trust in your merciful love” (Ps. 13:6) or “May your love be upon us O Lord as we place all our hope in you” (Ps. 33:22). Praying the psalms can offer strength and direction, especially in moments of distress and confusion:
Struggling with fear: “When cares increase in my heart your consolation calms my soul” (Ps. 94:19).
Surrendering to God: “Commit your life to the Lord, trust in him and he will act” (Ps. 37:5).
Seeking guidance: “Send out your light and your truth, they shall be my guide” (Ps. 43:3).
Barry White is a seminarian of the Diocese of Meath who will be ordained a Deacon on the 14th August 2021 in St Mary’s Church, Navan.