Photo by Julianna Leopold

ATLANTA—Mary Mead used to open her daily prayer ritual tucked away in her school office before the first bell. As an assistant principal in a North Carolina public school, she treasured the moments before students arrived. In the quiet, she prayed the morning Liturgy of the Hours which grounded her for the school day ahead.  

“It really strengthened me. It put my heart in the right place and my mind in the right place, and it was a big help to me,” said the 84-year-old retired educator, thinking about that timeperiod in the 1990s. The ritual has only grown more important over the years, especially after her husband’s death in 2020.  

“It makes me have a constant awareness of the fact that Jesus is right here beside me every day, every minute, all the hours.” 

She isn’t alone. Across the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Catholics rely on this prayer that structures the day, from sunrise to sundown.  

The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, has been a daily prayer for clergy and others living in religious communities for centuries. 

The Divine Office follows the day, from lauds at sunrise to compline after sunset. Its origins go back to Jewish tradition, when the early church adopted the practice. More than 60 years ago, bishops at the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council encouraged all believers to adopt it, declaring in the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” that the Liturgy of the Hours is “the public prayer of the Church.” 

Pope Paul VI later called it “the prayer of the whole people of God,” although for some learning to navigate the ribbon markers and the multiple books can be formidable. Today, digital apps have replaced the routine for many. It’s been prayed and sung over the centuries in different forms, from monks chanting to family recitations. 

The Martins family lives in Decatur, but the parents’ roots are in India. The family embraced the traditional prayer during missionary training that brought them to new cultures. It is part of the household rhythm now, amidst the busyness of home life. 

Gerald and Melody Martins met at a Catholic college in Mumbai. He worked as a photographer as she built a career as a teacher. After a spiritual retreat, they felt drawn to share the faith. Since 2015, the Martinses have been members of the Family Missions Company, along with their seven children. They currently serve the immigrant and refugee community and worship at St. Thomas More Church.  

Evan Martins, left, and his father Gerry Martins flip through the Liturgy of the Hours books on the couch in the family’s Decatur home. Gerry and Melody Martin and their seven children pray these prayers morning and night as a family. Photo by Julianna Leopold

Even though he grew up in a Catholic family and attended a Catholic college, Gerald Martins, 46, said he was saddened this form of prayer was absent from his upbringing.  

Learning the Liturgy of the Hours during missionary training program took time.  

“Flipping through so many different pages and you’re making sure you got the right page,” he said about the early difficulties. Still, the practice is part of family life, as they try to pray together in the morning or at night. Busy household schedules can sometimes interfere. When the family cannot join in, Gerald and Melody still spend time together in prayer.  

He encourages other Catholics to try the Liturgy of the Hours. For him, it helps connect him with the global church. Just as Mass is celebrated the same around the world, the Liturgy of the Hours mirrors the worldwide faith, he said.  

“There needs to be more awareness about this wonderful blessing that we have,” he said.  

Martins likes the prayer’s flexibility, adding “people can dive in depending on whichever time of the day they’re free, especially if you’re a busy layperson.” 

One of the prayer strengths for Martins is how the Psalms “mirror” every emotion a person experiences, from joy to sorrow. “The Lord accompanies us.”  

The day and night made holy 

Kimi Nettuno teaches others about the Liturgy of the Hours, after discovering the ancient Psalms. A spiritual director at the Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center, she brings a view shaped by Jesuit spirituality, paying attention to the movement of the heart.  

Nettuno teaches deacon candidates in the Archdiocese of Atlanta courses on the Psalms and the Liturgy of the Hours, work she’s undertaken for years.  

In Hebrew, the book of Psalms is called a book of “praises.” Nettuno teaches how even psalms of lament and anger qualify as praise, allowing the spectrum of our emotions to be received by God, she said.  

It mirrors the vision stated in “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” which states the Liturgy of the Hours is “devised so that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praises of God.”   

One of her goals is helping candidates develop an emotional connection with the Psalms, to understand them as prayer for discernment, not simply tasks to complete each day. “Stay where God keeps you. You don’t have to tick the boxes.” 

Nettuno is a morning person, so the first prayer of the day is a favorite. It roots people in creation with God’s fingerprint on each of us, she said.  

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Allaine Dela Cruz gathered with a dozen others nightly over Zoom. “I know no matter what is going on in my day, in my life, I can always tune into this Zoom channel and pray with others.” 

Five years later, Dela Cruz, a 34-year-old software product manager, has continued the practice. His goal is to pray three of the hours a day, lauds (morning), vespers (evening) and compline (night). While he prefers to pray with a lit candle in his Woodstock home, sometimes he finds himself in his car in a parking lot.  

For him, a strength is its connection to the universal church. Dela Cruz, who recently started to worship at St. Michael the Archangel Church, Woodstock, said with every prayer he recites, he’s praying the same words “alongside a religious community or a priest or a deacon” somewhere in the world. 

That shared practice is at the foundation of the prayer. 

A prayer for all believers 

Father Mike Witczak, a liturgical scholar at The Catholic University of America, has studied the changing form of the prayer over the centuries and its growing availability. An abundance of digital apps has made the Liturgy of the Hours prayer more accessible and affordable than ever. 

Mary Mead sits by her window and prays the Liturgy of the Hours using her phone. She keeps her flute by her chair so she can practice before playing at Mass on Sundays. Mead says the daily prayer practice “makes me have a constant awareness of the fact that Jesus is right here beside me every day, every minute, all the hours.” Photo by Julianna Leopold.

Over the centuries, the Liturgy of the Hours became more complex, until the Vatican Council reformed it to make it available, he said. While clergy are mandated to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, he said, the prayers belong to all believers. Regular practice links the believer to the liturgical calendar, and people may see their prayers echo the language of the Psalms.  

For people just beginning the practice, Father Witczak offered encouragement. Be patient. He said if people discover a week has gone by and they have not prayed, they shouldn’t feel guilty but just pick it up again and start over, he said.  

For Mary Mead, who has prayed the Liturgy of the Hours for decades, the experience offers comfort. 

After her husband of 57 years, Deacon Stuart Mead, died in 2020, the Liturgy of the Hours took on a new meaning. The two had long offered morning and evening prayer together, a practice they started before he was a deacon serving at St. Pius X Church in Conyers. 

The prayers helped her navigate grief and loneliness. After his death, it serves as a connecting link to keep the spiritual bond alive, she said. The prayers offered her steady comfort after his death.  

Of all the hours, night prayer has always been meaningful.  

“I find night prayer to be the touching one for me,” she said. “That’s a time in which we’re going to lie down, take our rest for the day. We have the reassurance that we are committing ourselves to the Lord’s care.”