GUIDELINES, INSTRUCTIONS AND TIPS
HORARIUM, MORNING OFFERING, LITURGY OF THE HOURS
You have your own style of praying, of being attentive to God. Don’t lose that if it works well for you.
HORARIUM (Daily Schedule)
Create your own daily schedule – what you usually do each day – then add some prayer-times, for instance, soon-after-arising, midday, before-dinner and at bedtime. Add time for spiritual reading. (Set start times for each Horarium item. The monks responded to a toll of a bell as a call to begin most of their daily routines.)
Morning Prayer
Morning Routine Breakfast, etc.
Work/Play/Community
Noon Mass or personal time being centered in God
Work/Play/Community
Pre-Dinner Spiritual Reading; Vespers
Dinner
Evening Routine TV; conversations with family and friends.
Night Prayer (personal); Review of the Day
About the Horarium
- Each day. Try to use it routinely as a habit. Your faithfulness to this or to a similar discipline is an indication of how much time and attention you give to God.
- Each day. Pray as you can. Some days life schedules may not allow this, but if that happens too often to make this be a daily routine, adjust the horarium to be balanced and doable for you.
- Each day. Seek a balance between your prayer life and your “work”. Really, your whole day is a prayer, but these times of prayer are times when you stop being attentive to other people and activities and turn your attention to God alone.
- Each day. Try to increase your capacity for being aware of God’s presence and your comfortableness being with God or Jesus.
MONTHLY RETREAT DAY
Add to your routine an extra personal prayer time to pray (talk) with God about your past month: Has your time being aware of God’s presence grown to be more meaningful to you? If so, what helped, what hindered this, what needs to be changed? And have you changed? How? Ask God to guide your analysis and help you know what will help. Rejoice in your progress.
ANNUAL RETREAT WEEK
Similar to the Monthly Retreat Day, and, perhaps with more outside input.
BEGIN WITH THE STYLE OF PRAYING YOU HAVE NOW
You have your own style of praying, of being attentive to God. Don’t lose that if it works well for you. Each person’s relationship with God is personal. God and you are developing it. If these tried-and-true practices work well, add them or adapt them. If they do not work, that is ok. Perhaps try them for a week or so and then decide.
DAILY MORNING OFFERING
We draw closer to the world’s suffering as we are united with Jesus. The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, previously called the Apostleship of Prayer, began in the mid-19th century as a daily prayer, a self-offering. Through this prayer we ask the Father to make us available to the mission of his Son, offering him what we are and possess.
This offering can be done in your own words or following a written prayer. We ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to the needs and challenges that confront humanity and the mission of the Church, and pray for them following the Pope’s intentions for the month.
Daily Offering of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network
Father, here I am. I know you are always with me. I place my heart in the Heart of your Son Jesus, who gives himself to us in the Eucharist each day. May your Holy Spirit strengthen me to live the Gospel in everything I do and say. For my part I give you this day–all my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings–all I am and possess. With Mary, mother of the Church, I pray for the mission of the Church, for all Apostles of Prayer, and for the intentions of the Pope this month. Amen
Alternative Daily Offering
God, our Father, I offer You my day. I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys and sufferings in union with Your Son Jesus’ Heart, who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the world. May the Holy Spirit, Who guided Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may witness to Your love. With Mary, the mother of our Lord and of the Church, I pray especially for this month’s intentions as proposed by the Holy Father.
Traditional Daily Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.