We have marked some occasions (after praying) with songs, recitations, chat and storytelling from the gathering. You may meet regularly or occasionally, come and go as you please, be on camera or off camera, on your own or with others including children and babies, and the dog. It might be raining, snowing or the sun shining out there but we will be there. ![]() You don’t have to worry about the weather. Some of the regulars when they can’t join from their home have joined us from their cars or even their hospital bed. Many join us from farther afield than the Pastoral Area, such as, Dublin, Waterford, England, Spain and Slovenia. You can join from the comfort of your home. ![]() It takes about 20 minutes, or longer if you want to chat afterwards! During the service there is an opportunity for anyone to make a prayer request. The format that is followed includes: a welcome individually, opening reflection, music, examine and quiet time, a short reading, petitions, and finishes with a hymn. Casey” segment, but there is definitely a lot I left out! If any of these reasons interest you, you can try praying it yourself using a breviary, downloading any number of cellphone apps (iBreviary, Divine Office, Universalis) or finding the prayers online ( Divine Office or Universalis, among others).Night Prayer on Zoom is a virtual gathering of parishioners who come together nightly to pray The Compline of the Church, Night Prayer. I did my best to share what I like best about praying the Office in this week’s “Ask Br. (This is a lot like the later-developing Muslim prayer, Salat, in which Muslims will stop to pray five times a day.) As religious, we are required to pray the major hours, Morning and Evening prayer, but are encouraged to say one or two of the minor hours as well. The reason that it is called the Liturgy of the Hours is that it designates certain times of day to pray and specific prayers for each hour. In the Catholic tradition there are seven possible times to pray: Morning, Midday (consisting of Mid-Morning, Midday, and Mid-Afternoon), Evening, Night, and the “Office of Readings,” which can be prayed at any time. For those who know much about the Mass in the Catholic Church, it is similar in many ways to Liturgy of the Word, as Scripture and prayer are its focus: there is a hymn, multiple psalms and canticles, a reading from Scripture, a Gospel acclamation, and intercessions. Also known as the Divine Office or Breviary, the Liturgy of the Hours is a prayer that pre-dates even the New Testament in its earliest forms. With that said, there is one prayer that unites us all as it is the universal prayer of the Church: The Liturgy of the Hours. Each friar has his own set of prayers that fill him and guide him back to God. There are devotions such as the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross, and ancient prayers like Lectio Divina. Some pray in silent meditation, others sing loudly as prayer some focus on relieving their mind of all of life’s trouble through centering prayer, others fill their mind with the words of Holy Scripture. ![]() So how to do we pray? The short answer is “any way we feel called.” There is no true “Franciscan” way of praying that all of us do every day. We could not do what we do, nor do I think we could find the motivation to even try, if we didn’t start with a relationship with God. You may not think about it much, given the amount of ministry and work we do, but the Franciscan charism is rooted in an experience of God through prayer. As friars, prayer is essential to who we are.
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