Liturgy of the hours

Last year, my Bible study group made a special study of Luke chapters 1 and 2. We started with the angel announcing the birth of John the Baptist and went all the way to the story of 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple; it took us several months. One rather special feature of these chapters is that they contain hymns, also called canticles, of which the Magnificat is the first. That is mostly why I proposed to do it: I hoped to find out more about these hymns that are so dear to me.

It became a very rewarding study, but sometimes difficult for me to prepare. The stories are almost too familiar to read with new eyes and an open mind. Moreover, the canticles are stuck in my head in 16th-century English in infinite musical variations, which can be a bit distracting. I have sung the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis – the song of Simeon, the old man awaiting the Messiah in the Temple – so many times. I love these texts, but I know them far less well than I thought I did.

What I did know is where these hymns belong in the liturgy. Magnificat is said or sung daily at Vespers (evening prayer), Nunc Dimittis at Compline (the close of day), and Benedictus – that’s Zacharias’s – at Lauds or morning prayer. These are part of the liturgy of the hours, set devotions inspired by monastic tradition that the Catholic Church requires of its clergy. I have tried and failed to keep that rhythm several times. I guess I am still looking for a new and better form, one grounded in reality and in open human communication. I hope to get there one day. And something tells me the canticles should be in it.

Queen of Heaven

Daily prayer together is not as common as it should be, and it can be hard to find a structure that works well over a long time. The Catholic church tried to reform the liturgy of the hours in the mid-1960s to invite more people in, but it failed to do so. I find the Anglican liturgy of Choral Evensong – this is where I learned all those canticle settings – more in keeping with Catholic tradition and just generally better. The only difficulty is that it’s typically sung by a dedicated choir and most effective in a church. Without beautiful music or architecture to support it, it is too stiff and formal to work well. (If people are not familiar with Evensong, I recommend the Youtube channel of my old choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford. I miss that place.)

My own prayer life is not much better than it was last year, but I have come to appreciate hearing Mary’s voice in the Magnificat even more than before. It is just lovely to hear this female voice coming from God in the midst of so much male-dominated bluster and pretense. She properly belongs there, and even offers something like a lifeline to heaven when our worship is clouded by formalism, egos or carelessness. To me she is a gentle, unobtrusive presence, not drawing attention to herself but rather pointing believers to Jesus. As Queen of Heaven, simple servant girl (as with Luther), caring mother, or even a revolutionary threatening the powerful, she never stands between us and God – but came closer to God than anyone has ever been.