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From the time of the early Church, the practice of seven fixed prayer times has been taught, which traces itself to the Prophet David in Psalm 119:164. [6] In Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray seven times a day, "on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with ...
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice. [1] Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, which contains the canonical hours that are said at fixed prayer times.
As the form of fixed-hour prayer developed in the Christian monastic communities in the East and West, the Offices grew both more elaborate and more complex, but the basic cycle of prayer still provided the structure for daily life in monasteries. By the fourth century, the elements of the canonical hours were more or less established.
Cistercian monks praying the Liturgy of the Hours in Heiligenkreuz Abbey. The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia Horarum), Divine Office (Latin: Officium Divinum), or Opus Dei ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, [a] often also referred to as the breviary, [b] of the Latin Church.
Opening verse of matins. Nocturns (Latin: nocturni or nocturna) is a Christian canonical hour said in the nighttime.. In the liturgy of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, nocturns refer to the sections into which the canonical hour of matins was divided from the fourth or fifth century until after the Second Vatican Council.
Catholics consider vocal prayer an essential element of the Christian life. Vocal prayer can be as simple and uplifting as "Thank you, God, for this beautiful morning", or as formal as a Mass celebrating a very special occasion. [7] When two or more people gather together to pray, their prayer is called communal prayer.
Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Within Christianity, liturgies descending from the same region, denomination, or culture are described as ritual families.
The Angelus, depicting prayer at the sound of the bell (in the steeple on the horizon) ringing a canonical hour.. Oriental Orthodox Christians, such as Copts and Indians, use a breviary such as the Agpeya and Shehimo to pray the canonical hours seven times a day while facing in the eastward direction; church bells are tolled, especially in monasteries, to mark these seven fixed prayer times.