The Office of Readings and the Book of Revelation

Priests and religious are required to pray the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours, everyday.  It is also referred to sometimes to as the breviary, the book that contains the prayers themselves.   These are liturgical in nature, which implies that they are recited publicly and in common, though diocesan priests normally pray it in private.  There are seven individual "hours" that are to be prayed at various times of the day, though there is some leeway on that.  Monastic religious normally pray all seven, secular clergy and active religious can choose one of the three "small hours" that are prayed during the daytime period.  As Salesians we pray Morning Prayer (Lauds) and Evening Prayer (Vespers) in common, while the priests have to find time on their own to fit in the other hours. Salesian Brothers are not required to pray the other hours, though they are free to. 

I make this brief introduction because periodically I'll be sharing reflections on one of the Offices in particular, the Office of Readings.  This is one of the major Hours, though it isn't attached to a particular time of day like the others are. It can be prayed at anytime, though most priests either pray it first thing in the morning before Lauds or, like I often do, treat it as a night office and pray it before saying Night Prayer and going to bed.  Like all the Hours the Office of Readings involves the praying of the Psalms (the usual three, though often it is a longer Psalm divided into three parts).  Then there are two lengthy readings, one from Sacred Scripture and the other from one of the Fathers of the Church, the writings of a saint on his or her feast day or, on occasion, a document from Vatican II.  This assured me that no matter how busy I get during the day, I am reading the Word of God daily and being nourished by the wisdom contained in Tradition.  One down part right now is that the English addition, which hasn't been revised since the 1970's, only has one cycle of scriptural readings where as the Spanish edition, updated in the '90's, has a two year cycle, thus containing a greater selection from God's Word.  Just as the Roman Missal was revised a recently, I understand a new English breviary is being worked on, and I hope that this deficiency is corrected.

The Office of Readings usually tackles a book at a time, spreading the selections out over a period of days or weeks.  From this Second Week of Easter through about the sixth we'll be reading the Book of Revelation.  I will be offering reflections as we go along.  But these will be personal reflections.  I will not be trying to answer questions of the controversies of the book, and I am certainly not offering anything scholarly.  What I will offer is something more along the lines of a Lectio Divina;  this is the way I heard the Lord speaking to me and how I believe he wants the Word to influence my life as a disciple.  This is probably the most difficult book of the Bible to do this with because of its obscure symbolism and wild imagery.  We tend to look at the universal meaning first, but I do believe God is saying something to us, not just about the End of Days or the plight of empires, but about our lives here and now in the micro setting of our lives.  

I've taken enough time on the setup.  Soon my first reflection on John, Patmos and the Seven Letters.