Monastic Life at Minster Abbey

What is the Divine Office?

The Divine Office is the official daily prayer of the Church, carried out according to the Church's own instructions and faithul to her time-honoured tradition of liturgical prayer. In the monastic life, we are privileged to gather seven times a day to sing the different hours of the Divine Office.

The prayer book for these offices is the Psalter. The psalms are ancient prayers, yet timeless. Int hem, every human emotion and experience is set forth in poetic form. When we pray the psalms, we make the emotions they express our own,a nd we unite ourselves with thosewho suffer and rage, or are sick and alone, or who rejoice and exult. In the psalms we are given words by which we can offer the joys, hopes and sorrowas of all people to the Father of mercies.

The Divine Office is integrally related to the Eucharist–the source and summit of our life. In the Eucharist we receive Christ Hismelf, the gift of God par excellence, in Word and Sacrament. He is what we are meant to become–loving sons and daughters of the Father. The word "Eucharist" means thanksgiving. As we respond to God's gift by giving thanks with our entire lives, the Divine Office enables us to renew our thanksgiving and self-offering throughout the day. The psalms were originally written in Hebrew, and were composed to be sung. We sing the Divine Office in English with the exception with the office of Vespers, which is sung in Latin plainchant.

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