"Pray without ceasing." -I Thessalonians 5:17

"Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws." -Psalm 119:164

The verse shown above (Psalm 119:164), seems to be the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament admonition to "Pray without ceasing." (I Thessalonians 5:17), as the Jewish people never formally observed more than three times of daily prayer.  Seven is the Biblical number for "completeness".  However, the early and medieval monks took it more literally, and created four additional Hours of Prayer to observe (in some cases even more!).  

The Holy Land is near the equator, and year-round the days and night are each 12 hours long.  Sunrise occurs at 6:00 a.m., and was called the "First Hour" in Roman times; 7:00 a.m. was the "Second Hour", and so on throughout the day.

The early Christians during the times of persecution held worship services in the catacombs (underground tombs).  They added to the three traditional prayers of the Jewish people that we see the Apostles in the Book of Acts praying, by just continuing in the catacombs to pray every three hours.  After the end of the persecutions, these additional prayertimes were continued by the later monastics.

...medieval monastic (Canonical) Hours of Prayer...

The traditional medieval monastic (Historical/Canonical 2) Hours of Prayer with some of the Latin names you will often see in historical books and films are listed below (in one case Greek: "Orthros").  The actual times at which they were observed, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, has differed through the centuries, and some of the Hours were at times combined.  The Orthodox Communions pretty much maintain the same order and timing, except that their monks at one period added to them until they were observing nine different Hours of Prayer, and still later combined the observance of them back into just three "Aggregate Times".

However, although The Prayer Foundation Monks ™ do not as a Religious Order observe more than the historic Three Hours of Daily Prayer spoken of in both the Old and New Testaments; we have designated specific Psalms to be used at the other Hours of Prayer if so desired.  Some individual Prayer Foundation ™ Monks pray from memory Psalm 5 upon rising, and Psalm 4 before retiring.  Psalm 119:621 and Psalm 134 are prayed when awakened in the middle of the night, or when staying up until midnight.  

Personal, individual extemporaneous prayers may be added at these times, and also at all regularly observed times of prayer.  We have never seen a dichotomy or contradiction between observance of these two types of prayer.  

In the New Testament, the apostles are seen offering extemporaneous prayer as needed (think of Paul and Silas, in chains in jail, praising God at midnight), in addition to observing the Three Daily Prayers (On the Day of Pentecost; Peter praying on the rooftop when he had the vision of the cloth being let down; Peter and John without silver and gold healing the lame man on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer, and so on.  For a brief Bible-study in the New Testament on this subject of the Apostles and other Christians praying at the historically observed three hours of prayer, see: Matthew 15:36; Luke 18:10; Acts 2:15; 3:1; 10:3,9; 10:30;  16:25; 27:35).

Remember, with the freedom that we have in Christ, none of even the three historic specific Hours of Prayer are required of Christians.  Any that we observe, after the example of the apostles, is only done out of love for God, who has given us prayer as a means of communion with, and growing closer to, Himself. ____________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2007 S.G.P. All rights reserved.

Daily Prayer: Praying the Hours   PRAYER Category