Solemn Evening Prayer

Back on the first Sunday of Advent, our parish bulletin (pdf 5 mb, p. 2) had this item.

During your hectic preparations for Christmas, set aside time for prayer and reflection. On the Sundays of Advent we will celebrate Solemn Evening Prayer at 3:30 PM in the Chapel. Quiet instrumental music will begin at 3:30 and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours will follow at 4:00 PM.

Not only is this time of year hectic, many people find all times of year so. Perhaps acedia is the sin characteristic of our time. But the Church has become hectic, as well. I recall the parish council retreats, with every minute over-scheduled and no time for reflection. Even in the prelude to Solemn Evening Prayer, there is not quiet but instead "quiet [meaning soft] instrumental music."

The hard copy of that bulletin included an insert on "What is The Liturgy of the Hours?"

While certain members of the Church, Priests, Deacons, and Consecrated Religious are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, anyone who wishes to deepen their relationship with God may and are encouraged to participate in these times of prayer.

Looking back, the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), sections 83-101 discuss the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours. It does encourage the laity to also pray the Hours, to some extent. But it says little about is how the clergy, religious and laity might pray the Hours together.

What I had thought the Council had in mind was priests with religious leading parishioners in Lauds and Vespers in the parish church. Our parish has two priests, and one religious on staff, and one of our two deacons also has a staff position. I had wondered why they with our entire parish staff couldn't start and end the day praying the Hours (still on the clock would be fine with me) with the parishioners invited to attend. Looking back at Sacrosanctum Concilium, what I pictured isn't explicitly what the Council contemplated. But it didn't contemplate, either, that forty years later there would be only rather tentative steps toward the laity praying the Hours.