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| - Canonical hours are divisions of time, developed by the Christian Church, serving as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers. In the West, canonical hours may also be called offices, since they refer to the official set of prayer of the Roman Catholic Church that is known variously as the Divine Office (from the Latin officium divinum meaning "divine service" or "divine duty"), and the Opus Dei (meaning in Latin, "Work of God"). The current official version of the hours in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church is called the Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia horarum) in North America or Divine Office in the British Isles. In the Anglican tradition, they are often known as the Daily Office or Divine Office, to dis
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| abstract
| - Canonical hours are divisions of time, developed by the Christian Church, serving as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers. In the West, canonical hours may also be called offices, since they refer to the official set of prayer of the Roman Catholic Church that is known variously as the Divine Office (from the Latin officium divinum meaning "divine service" or "divine duty"), and the Opus Dei (meaning in Latin, "Work of God"). The current official version of the hours in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church is called the Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia horarum) in North America or Divine Office in the British Isles. In the Anglican tradition, they are often known as the Daily Office or Divine Office, to distinguish them from the other Offices of the Church. In the Orthodox Church, and among Eastern Catholics, the canonical hours may be referred to as the "Divine Services", and the Book of Hours is called the Horologion (Greek: ῾Ωρολόγιον). There may be numerous small differences in practice according to jurisdiction; but the overall order is the same among eastern Christians who follow the Byzantine style of services (the usage among the Oriental Orthodox Churches will differ from the Byzantine in a number of ways). The practice of daily prayers grew from the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day: for example, in the Book of Acts, Peter and John visit the Temple for the afternoon prayers (Acts 3:1). Psalm 119:164 states: "Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws." This practice is believed to have been passed down through the centuries from the Apostles, with different practices developing in different places. As monasticism spread, the practice of specified hours and liturgical formats began to develop and become standardized. Around the year 484, Saint Sabbas began the process of recording the liturgical practices around Jerusalem. In 525, St. Benedict of Nursia wrote the first official western manual for praying the Hours. With the Cluniac reforms of the 11th century there was a new emphasis on liturgy and the canonical hours in the reformed Benedictine priories with the Abbey of Cluny at their head. The Holy See did not issue an official Roman breviary until the 11th century, as part of the reforms that were designed to bring all the variant usages of Christian churches in the West into conformity. Already well-established by the ninth century, these canonical offices consisted of eight daily prayer events and three (or four) nightly divisions (called "nocturns", "watches," or "vigils"). Building on the recitation of psalms and canticles from scripture, the Church has added (and, at times, subtracted) hymns, hagiographical readings, and other prayers. The practice of observing canonical hours is maintained by many Churches, including the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and the Anglican Communion. The main part of this article is divided into five sections: the Roman Catholic usage, the Eastern Orthodox usage, the Oriental Orthodox usage, the Anglican usage, and the daily office books published by Reformed and Lutheran churches.
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