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Liturgia Horarum
Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours Catholic Book Publishing
Christian Prayer from Catholic Book Publishing is the official one-volume edition of the internationally acclaimed Liturgy of the Hours . This regular edition of Christian Prayer contains the complete texts of Morning and Evening Prayer for the entire year. With its readable 10-pt. type, ribbon markers for easy location of texts, and beautiful two-color printing, this handy little one-volume Christian Prayer simplifies praying the official Prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours , for today\'s busy Catholic. Available with flexible maroon cover and with a current annual guide.
2080 pages, Leather Bound
First published July 1, 1976
32 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
376 books61 followersThe United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy (i.e., diocesan, coadjutor, and auxiliary bishops and the ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter) in the United States and the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses form their own episcopal conference, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference (Spanish, Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña). The bishops in U.S. insular areas in the Pacific Ocean – the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of American Samoa, and the Territory of Guam – are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Latin, Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici).
The USCCB adopted its current name in July 2001. The organization is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the recognitio, or approval of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope.
The USCCB adopted its current name in July 2001. The organization is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the recognitio, or approval of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 1, 2015
A beautiful prayer book that takes a bit of work to know what pages to flip to.
Why pray in this tradition?
1.) The essence of praying with others and in ancient tradition has a depth to it - prayer feels like a connection to the ancient way asked for in Jeremiah 6, something beyond the emotion or sentiment I can muster within myself each morning.
2.) The rhythm of each day and each season can be marked with prayer like this as sacred time; in such prayer, you can begin to see time in a different light - with seasons made to shape the soul in particular ways, according to the seasons.
Why Use a Prayer Book or Breviary?
--- To get me out of my own self and begin to absorb the words around me as living words (namely, the Psalms and Gospels).
Why would a Lutheran, like myself, pray with a traditional Catholic prayer book?
--- There's deep tradition that Catholics, Lutherans, and others share; this prayer book contains it - with exception to the occasional prayers to Mary, etc. (I skipped those parts.)
--- I wanted to experience something akin to the monastic rhythms of prayer; this book connected me to something like that.
Other Prayer Book Preferences:
1.) The Benedictine Short Breviary (St. John's Abbey)
2.) The Treasury of Daily Prayer (Concordia)
3.) Common Prayer (Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove, Okoro)
Why pray in this tradition?
1.) The essence of praying with others and in ancient tradition has a depth to it - prayer feels like a connection to the ancient way asked for in Jeremiah 6, something beyond the emotion or sentiment I can muster within myself each morning.
2.) The rhythm of each day and each season can be marked with prayer like this as sacred time; in such prayer, you can begin to see time in a different light - with seasons made to shape the soul in particular ways, according to the seasons.
Why Use a Prayer Book or Breviary?
--- To get me out of my own self and begin to absorb the words around me as living words (namely, the Psalms and Gospels).
Why would a Lutheran, like myself, pray with a traditional Catholic prayer book?
--- There's deep tradition that Catholics, Lutherans, and others share; this prayer book contains it - with exception to the occasional prayers to Mary, etc. (I skipped those parts.)
--- I wanted to experience something akin to the monastic rhythms of prayer; this book connected me to something like that.
Other Prayer Book Preferences:
1.) The Benedictine Short Breviary (St. John's Abbey)
2.) The Treasury of Daily Prayer (Concordia)
3.) Common Prayer (Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove, Okoro)
April 8, 2008
Apparently many of the clergy of the Catholic church are required to use this daily prayer book. feeling left out, I decided to join this communion of people praying the same morning and evening prayers across the world. It makes me feel connected to something much greater.
August 20, 2025
Goated. Common liturgical W.
July 27, 2018
10 stars! This is the ultimate Catholic prayer book. If you're not familiar with the Liturgy Of The Hours it will take some learning as like most things in Catholicism, it's a little complicated but once you understand the rhythm of this daily prayer gold mine, it quickly will become an invaluable resource you'll treasure. There's so much contained in this one volume set you'll never run out of something fresh to pray daily (depending on how you use it).
There are 3 main Breviaries (which is what the book/books of the Liturgy Of The Hours are called) which are "Shorter Christian Prayer", this one volume "Christian Prayer", and the 4 volume set of Christian Prayer which is the most complete. This one volume edition has the complete Morning, Evening and Night Prayers, and most of the Daytime Prayer (I think the standard Psalter and not individual holy days) and a lot of the Office of Readings.
Catholic priests are required to pray each of the prayer times daily, which is quite a lot for any lay person, making this one volume a really good choice for us laity. Personally, I have developed my own little routine which with the vastness of prayers and readings to choose from here makes it easy to customize.
There's plenty of info online about using this. One the absolute best resources I've found is this free online daily guide so you know exactly what page we're on for morning and evening prayer each day:
http://liturgyofthehours.org/singlevol/
Here's probably the most helpful website I found about getting started in the LOTH:
http://www.philipkosloski.com/a-begin...
The photos on this blog look an awful lot like the book I own even with similar ribbons!
The entire LOTH is available free online in a few places including here:
http://www.ibreviary.org/en/tools/ibr...
and there's a free app. Personally, I much prefer to not only read, but also pray from paper than an electronic device, but it's sure handy to have this other option at times, and makes it available for free!
It took me a REALLY long time to understand how this is laid out and the prayer cycles. There is a lot of page flipping in this Catholic Book Publishing Company edition. The Daughters Of St. Paul edition is a little more cohesive, but it is out of print (there's more info on these comparisons online too). I was actually ambivalent about using this regularly until it eventually clicked. Then, a few times since I thought I had it down, I would still get confused, but I kept on learning. But I don't think anyone needs to feel obligated to use this the way it's "supposed" to be every single day, so don't let the "methods" stop you from using this. I also find changing my routine from time to time help keeps my prayer life fresh.
I use this Breviary usually more than once every day now. The best advice to learning this is knowing the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar as it's all based off that, and like the Daily Mass, will change depending on the day of the Liturgical year. Of course, this is not a novel, and isn't intended to be read/prayed from cover to cover, but is more like the Bible or the Roman Missal.
My book edition is a leather bound current 1976 edition, but a major update is now in progress by the bishops which may be a few years yet before it's available. This prevented me from purchasing a new copy deciding to wait until the new one is out if I do. If you like the paper versions like I do, there are many used copies available at a low cost.
If you want to have a more structured prayer life, this is the ultimate prayer book!
There are 3 main Breviaries (which is what the book/books of the Liturgy Of The Hours are called) which are "Shorter Christian Prayer", this one volume "Christian Prayer", and the 4 volume set of Christian Prayer which is the most complete. This one volume edition has the complete Morning, Evening and Night Prayers, and most of the Daytime Prayer (I think the standard Psalter and not individual holy days) and a lot of the Office of Readings.
Catholic priests are required to pray each of the prayer times daily, which is quite a lot for any lay person, making this one volume a really good choice for us laity. Personally, I have developed my own little routine which with the vastness of prayers and readings to choose from here makes it easy to customize.
There's plenty of info online about using this. One the absolute best resources I've found is this free online daily guide so you know exactly what page we're on for morning and evening prayer each day:
http://liturgyofthehours.org/singlevol/
Here's probably the most helpful website I found about getting started in the LOTH:
http://www.philipkosloski.com/a-begin...
The photos on this blog look an awful lot like the book I own even with similar ribbons!
The entire LOTH is available free online in a few places including here:
http://www.ibreviary.org/en/tools/ibr...
and there's a free app. Personally, I much prefer to not only read, but also pray from paper than an electronic device, but it's sure handy to have this other option at times, and makes it available for free!
It took me a REALLY long time to understand how this is laid out and the prayer cycles. There is a lot of page flipping in this Catholic Book Publishing Company edition. The Daughters Of St. Paul edition is a little more cohesive, but it is out of print (there's more info on these comparisons online too). I was actually ambivalent about using this regularly until it eventually clicked. Then, a few times since I thought I had it down, I would still get confused, but I kept on learning. But I don't think anyone needs to feel obligated to use this the way it's "supposed" to be every single day, so don't let the "methods" stop you from using this. I also find changing my routine from time to time help keeps my prayer life fresh.
I use this Breviary usually more than once every day now. The best advice to learning this is knowing the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar as it's all based off that, and like the Daily Mass, will change depending on the day of the Liturgical year. Of course, this is not a novel, and isn't intended to be read/prayed from cover to cover, but is more like the Bible or the Roman Missal.
My book edition is a leather bound current 1976 edition, but a major update is now in progress by the bishops which may be a few years yet before it's available. This prevented me from purchasing a new copy deciding to wait until the new one is out if I do. If you like the paper versions like I do, there are many used copies available at a low cost.
If you want to have a more structured prayer life, this is the ultimate prayer book!
September 4, 2017
Wish I could say I do this every day, but I can say that I try and when I succeed my day is much better.
March 15, 2024
A single volume edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, the post-Vatican II version of the Divine Office.
This is the closest thing we currently have a monastic diurnal for the modern Roman Rite. It isn't great. It includes a lot of useless stuff: psalm-prayers, an abridged version of Daytime Prayer, an even more abridged version of the Office of Readings, many bad hymns (with some good one), a poetry section, and an unusable appendix for singing the office.
If you want to sing the office, maybe get Shorter Christian Prayer and use the guide I found here.
I sincerely hope we get a good single-volume edition when the USCCB eventually published the new translation of the LOTH (2026?).
This is the closest thing we currently have a monastic diurnal for the modern Roman Rite. It isn't great. It includes a lot of useless stuff: psalm-prayers, an abridged version of Daytime Prayer, an even more abridged version of the Office of Readings, many bad hymns (with some good one), a poetry section, and an unusable appendix for singing the office.
If you want to sing the office, maybe get Shorter Christian Prayer and use the guide I found here.
I sincerely hope we get a good single-volume edition when the USCCB eventually published the new translation of the LOTH (2026?).
December 17, 2010
I am an IS/N T P/J. this was a hard book for me to get used to. I have since found other liturgy of the hours books that suit me better. For an SJ this would be a good daily prayer book. It takes much discipline to use it daily and get used to where to look for each day's set of prayers. I have since learned to love it, but not as my favorite daily prayer book. I recommend 'Divine office for Dodo's' to learn to use this book.
Read
March 24, 2008Want this book
December 30, 2008
Really enjoy the psalms and uplifting passages from new testament.
January 30, 2014
Life changing...
March 1, 2014
A vital part of my daily walk with God.
August 16, 2017
A one volume edition of the Liturgy of Hours (canonical hours or breviary) of the Roman Catholic church. I stumbled upon this book as I was reading the online booklet "Discovering Prayer: How to Pray the Liturgy of the Hours" by Seth H. Murray, to which his instructions in using this book I found very helpful. The book definitely has a learning curve to it, to which I have continually referred back to the introduction to for assistance, but the rhythm and patterns of praying the breviary are beautiful and well worth the effort. I especially enjoy the hymnal section of the book, although I have more than once had to look up YouTube videos of the tunes to get a feel for some of the less known tunes. The one main drawback (beyond the learning curve) I have found with this book is that it requires a lot of 'thumbing around' to the various sections for each prayer time. Another, although less minor drawback, is that it does not provide a complete Office of Readings, but this specific prayer can still be completed with a personal Bible. I recommend this to anyone looking to add to their personal devotion time or prayer life.
April 12, 2020
This is an ongoing reading that follows the liturgical calendar. If contains four sets of prayers for each day. It’s a condensed form of the Divine Office, which is itself four volumes. I would recommend instead one of the online apps that serves the same function: Christian Prayer is extremely confusing to follow. There are I think six place-holder ribbons and you’ll need all of them to bounce back and forth among the different sections, which can be distracting.
Finally, if you decide to get this book get the annual “Ordo” that goes with it for a few dollars. The only other way to figure out the appropriate sections is to get the liturgical calendar and extrapolate to the current week.
Finally, if you decide to get this book get the annual “Ordo” that goes with it for a few dollars. The only other way to figure out the appropriate sections is to get the liturgical calendar and extrapolate to the current week.
January 8, 2024
Such a beautiful prayer book … i am catholic so this is and always will be a reread for me. It is really a book for a year but i just cant do that. I simply read through then set it aside… it teaches you to pray the liturgy literally for anything. If your looking for something religious and uplifting this is the book for you however take your time. This isnt the first time i have read it so i didnt have to be so slow and think about the prayer and what it means as i have read them before.
May 25, 2019
Wonderful tool for prayer and meditation.
Currently reading
December 16, 2025I've been praying the Divine Office for a while now using the iBreviary app and the "Sing the Hours" channel on YouTube. I also love praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (an absolutely wonderful prayer book).
So I decided to splurge on this book so that I can minimize screen time and limit distractions.
I don't know how one can ever be "done" with this book? Maybe after I pray through a full 1-year cycle with it I'll rate it? But even the 1-year cycle doesn't repeat, it has variations every year with all the memorials, feasts, and more. We'll see.
So I decided to splurge on this book so that I can minimize screen time and limit distractions.
I don't know how one can ever be "done" with this book? Maybe after I pray through a full 1-year cycle with it I'll rate it? But even the 1-year cycle doesn't repeat, it has variations every year with all the memorials, feasts, and more. We'll see.
August 9, 2011
Excellent daily prayer guide.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews