This ancient form of prayer, formerly the Divine Office, consists of
Psalms, scripture readings, antiphons, hymns, intercessions, and Marian
prayers. An obligation to members of ordained religious communities, it
is a form of liturgy the Church also exhorts the faithful to pray.
Available on the Web and in mobile format, Catholics can participate in
this prayer wherever they are.
The Liturgy of the Hours is prayed five times during the day and corresponds to the former seven canonical hours:
Office of Readings (Matins)
Morning Prayer (Lauds)
Daytime Prayer (Middle Hour)
Evening Prayer (Vespers)
Night Prayer
The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents the Liturgy of the Hours as a
prayer of the entire church, and it encourages the common celebration
of the principal hours, such as matins and vespers.
At Universalis, the Liturgy of the hours is available in mobile
phone format as well as iPhone.
I'd like to hear whether you have ever prayed this way and how you use your
cell phone—if at all—to pray. Please feel free to comment.
Catholicvote.com Video: Catholic Voters and American History
Before you cast your Catholic vote this November, watch this video. Whether or not you support its message, it will prompt you to examine who you are and to respond to your faith in relation to citizenship.
catholicvote.com
Where have we come from and where are we going? Does this video accurately portray the the role and potential that American Catholic voters have in shaping our nation? Are we being true to the moral teachings of our faith by voting for one candidate over another?
catholicvote.com
Where have we come from and where are we going? Does this video accurately portray the the role and potential that American Catholic voters have in shaping our nation? Are we being true to the moral teachings of our faith by voting for one candidate over another?
Daily News for Catholics At New, Improved Website
NORTH HAVEN, CONN., (Oct 1, 2008) — The National Catholic Register is already known for the depth, quality and Catholicity of its print journalism. Now it can add “online indispensability” to its calling card.
That’s thanks to a thorough retooling of its website, www.NCRegister.com.
With full access to all the weekly newspaper’s news, features and commentary — along with a searchable archive of virtually everything the paper has published in the 2000s, plus a growing collection of faith-formative resources — the website now offers Register subscribers arguably the richest library of news-oriented Catholic content on the Internet.
Non-subscribers will continue to enjoy free access to select stories and features.
One of the site’s most dynamic additions is a daily weblog providing incisive, up-to-the-minute analysis of breaking news as it happens.
“The world is moving too fast not to dedicate resources to follow daily developments as they happen,” says the Register’s executive editor, Tom Hoopes. “Our readers have told us they want help viewing events in the world through the eyes of the Church. That’s the need our Daily Blog — and, in fact, all our content — hopes to meet.”
Along with exclusive coverage of national, world and Vatican news, each issue of the National Catholic Register provides commentary from leading Catholic thinkers. Feature beats include higher education, the arts, travel and books. A family-friendly section, “Culture of Life,” promotes marriage, family life and pro-life organizations.
All this content is updated on NCRegister.com when the paper goes to press.
The website’s “Resources” page offers a guide to Catholic colleges, a calendar of upcoming Catholic conferences and other events, a series of devotional guides, and many other useful reading materials.
“We believe our media apostolate is incisive when it comes to providing news and views with journalistic accuracy, doctrinal soundness and confident fidelity to the Gospel and the Church’s teaching,” says the Register’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Father Owen Kearns, LC. “Our readers are some of the most demanding, discerning and ‘tuned in’ Catholics in the country. They’re confident in their grasp of the facts when they go out and engage the secular culture.”
Register readers will now be equipped with greater timeliness and more immediate relevance, thanks to the revamped NCRegister.com and its Daily Blog.
To arrange an interview with Father Kearns or Tom Hoopes about the new NCRegister.com, call Debra Denhart at (800) 356-9916 ext. 3808 or e-mail her at DDenhart@CircleMedia.com.
That’s thanks to a thorough retooling of its website, www.NCRegister.com.
With full access to all the weekly newspaper’s news, features and commentary — along with a searchable archive of virtually everything the paper has published in the 2000s, plus a growing collection of faith-formative resources — the website now offers Register subscribers arguably the richest library of news-oriented Catholic content on the Internet.
Non-subscribers will continue to enjoy free access to select stories and features.
One of the site’s most dynamic additions is a daily weblog providing incisive, up-to-the-minute analysis of breaking news as it happens.
“The world is moving too fast not to dedicate resources to follow daily developments as they happen,” says the Register’s executive editor, Tom Hoopes. “Our readers have told us they want help viewing events in the world through the eyes of the Church. That’s the need our Daily Blog — and, in fact, all our content — hopes to meet.”
Along with exclusive coverage of national, world and Vatican news, each issue of the National Catholic Register provides commentary from leading Catholic thinkers. Feature beats include higher education, the arts, travel and books. A family-friendly section, “Culture of Life,” promotes marriage, family life and pro-life organizations.
All this content is updated on NCRegister.com when the paper goes to press.
The website’s “Resources” page offers a guide to Catholic colleges, a calendar of upcoming Catholic conferences and other events, a series of devotional guides, and many other useful reading materials.
“We believe our media apostolate is incisive when it comes to providing news and views with journalistic accuracy, doctrinal soundness and confident fidelity to the Gospel and the Church’s teaching,” says the Register’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Father Owen Kearns, LC. “Our readers are some of the most demanding, discerning and ‘tuned in’ Catholics in the country. They’re confident in their grasp of the facts when they go out and engage the secular culture.”
Register readers will now be equipped with greater timeliness and more immediate relevance, thanks to the revamped NCRegister.com and its Daily Blog.
To arrange an interview with Father Kearns or Tom Hoopes about the new NCRegister.com, call Debra Denhart at (800) 356-9916 ext. 3808 or e-mail her at DDenhart@CircleMedia.com.
Voting by Conscience
By Father Brian Bransfield
The only difference between the voting booth and the conscience is we usually have to wait in line to get into one of them. Apart from that, the same thing is supposed to happen in each place as that small cubicle reveals me to myself.
You and I can only vote once in the election this fall. But before we do, hopefully we have repeatedly visited our own conscience. My conscience is what separates the voting machine from a slot machine, and only the human conscience can ensure that the ballot lever is not pulled on a gamble.
The U.S. bishops emphasize the role of conscience in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a guide for Catholics as they prepare for the 2008 elections.
What does conscience look like? It is that part of me that is bigger than me. Many issues volley for attention: immigration; affordable education; war; neighborhood violence; health care; abortion; the hungry and homeless; the environment; human embryonic stem cell research; the dignity of marriage between one man and one woman as the most commonly recognized institution in history; economic inequality; gas prices; and the beat goes on.
The common misunderstanding is that conscience amounts to “what I think” on an issue. Conscience is not just “what I think,” but it is me “thinking about what is just” and true. It is not a partial appraisal based on the words of a preacher, politician or passions. The inner moral sense is not built on a sum total of what I think, but is a manifestation linked with truth itself regardless of my preferences.
Conscience does not allow a citizen to forget he is first a person. It tells me I am a person, and, as such, I must look at a quandary according to a certain order: How does this act here and now, in and of itself, fit with being human, and not simply lower prices? Conscience insists that human dilemmas are moral concerns long before they are political points of view. Conscience tells me that to be free I must admit the truth that some acts are inescapably evil and no manner of circumstances or intentions can make them somehow good. Conscience bursts all other bubbles: It tells me the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, based not on the truth of circumstances or best intentions, but first and foremost on the truth of things in themselves.
Conscience must be formed, and, as such, it looks in three directions at once: It looks at me, looks at the moral dilemma at hand, and it sees the truth of both without favor. So often the voter makes appeal to only to the first two categories, me and the dilemma. Mere opinion then substitutes for conscience. To make a decision in conscience is to consult the truth of the nature of things in themselves. Conscience begins “outside-in.” The objective reality summons accountability from me and forms the central coordinate of conscience. Conscience must begin with the true good. This starting point ensures that freedom and truth are not enemies.
There is a faculty deep within that I do not create. It is not programmed. This region is more than super ego or social convention. It is however, formed. The moral sense of conscience must be molded, not developed simply by feelings, opinions, circumstance, intentions or movements, but by the deep moral sense in which we participate by being human and capable of reason. Conscience does not simply decide for happy or sad, but for good or evil. Conscience lines up the quandaries in size order and sees the resemblance. Marriage, racism, the environment, hunger, and abortion are not competing events. They are cousins, if not siblings. Conscience refuses to let one of these become an “issue.”
Conscience winces when it hears a candidate claim that he can fix health care, but still agree that a child in the womb can be killed. Conscience knows that if a candidate favors human embryonic stem cell research, which always includes the killing of a human person, then our neighborhoods can never be free of violence – because we just voted for violence. The moral sense knows that if you treat the environment any way you like, sooner or later you will need treatment because of the environment. Conscience realizes that if you support torture you have just paid the deposit for a war twenty years from now.
Conscience sees broadly. It breaks the bubble, brushes back the curtain, pries down the lever, and by the leverage of honest truth can not simply change, but can transform, the world.
from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org)
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Father Brian Bransfield is in the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis of the United Sates Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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