Dear Patrick:

Thank you for your prayers. My health is not good and seems to be deteriorating. Your prayers are appreciated.

As for your question you are mixing apples and oranges. Mark 2:27 was about how the pharisees were abusing the law. Today, the rule still applies that one is to not work on Sunday, but with an added proviso—unless you have no choice. The Church law is not abusing the precept of the Sabbath.

It is true that many priests disobeyed the rules concerning the Divine Office. It was reported that one priest said all seven hours of the Divine Office at around 11pm. This is gross abuse and rebellion. It is because of those abuses that Vatican II reiterated what was always true, that the hours prayed are to correspond to the time of day the hour was meant for. 

There has never been a time since the creation of the Divine Office that it was okay to say the hours at any time one wishes. This abuse and rebellion is a sin, not because the rules are violated, but because one personally make a choice to sin by obstinately breaking the rules.

Religious in their monasteries usually pray all seven hours. Priests and deacons are required to pray the Divine Office, but this obligation is not a taskmaster, which was the problem with the pharisees to which Jesus corrected in Mark 2:27.

The Congregation for Divine Worship on Nov. 15, 2000, issued a formal response to a doubt   on this topic (Prot No. 2330/00/L) (bold is my emphasis):

"The integral and daily celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours is, for priests and deacons on the way to the priesthood, a substantial part of their ecclesial ministry.

"Only an impoverished vision would look at this responsibility as a mere fulfilling of a canonical obligation, even though it is such, and not keep in mind that the sacramental ordination confers on the deacon and on the priest a special office to lift up to the one and triune God praise for His goodness, for His sovereign beauty, and for his merciful design for our supernatural salvation.

"Along with praise, priests and deacons present before the Divine Majesty a prayer of intercession so as to worthily respond to the spiritual and temporal necessities of the Church and all humanity.

"In effect, even in similar circumstances, these prayers do not constitute a private act but rather form part of the public worship of the Church, in such a way that upon reciting the Hours, the sacred minister fulfills his ecclesial duty: the priest or deacon who in the intimacy of the Church, or of an oratory, or his residence, gives himself over to the celebration of the Divine Office effects, even when there may be no one who is accompanying him, an act which is eminently ecclesial in the name of the Church and in favor of all the Church, and inclusive of all humanity. The Roman Pontifical reads: 'Are you resolved to maintain and deepen a spirit of prayer appropriate to your way of life and, in keeping with what is required of you, to celebrate faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours for the Church and for the whole world?' (Cf. Roman Pontifical, Rite of the Ordination of Deacons).

"Thus, in the same rite of diaconal ordination, the sacred minister asks for and receives from the Church the mandate of the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, which mandate pertains, therefore, to the orbit of ministerial responsibilities of the ordained, and goes beyond that of his personal piety. Sacred ministers, along with the Bishops, find themselves joined in the ministry of intercession for the People of God who have been entrusted to them, as they were to Moses (Ex 17, 8-16), to the Apostles (1 Tim 2, 1-6) and to the same Jesus Christ 'who is at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us' (Rom 8, 34). Similarly, the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, no. 108 states: 'Those who pray the psalms in the liturgy of the hours do so not so much in their own name as in the name of the entire Body of Christ."

"Question #1: What is the mind of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments regarding the extension of the obligation of celebration or reciting daily the Liturgy of the Hours?

"Response: Those who have been ordained are morally bound, in virtue of the same ordination they have received, to the celebration or the entire and daily recitation of the Divine Office such as is canonically established in canon 276, § 2, n. 3 of the CIC, cited previously. This recitation does not have for its part the nature of a private devotion or of a pious exercise realized by the personal will alone of the cleric but rather is an act proper to the sacred ministry and pastoral office.

"Question #2: Is the obligation sub gravi extended to the entire recitation of the Divine Office?

"Response: The following must be kept in mind:

"A serious reason, be it of health, or of pastoral service in ministry, or of an act of charity, or of fatigue, not a simple inconvenience, may excuse the partial recitation and even the entire Divine Office, according to the general principle that establishes that a mere ecclesiastical law does not bind when a serious inconvenience is present;

"The total or partial omission of the Office due to laziness alone or due to the performance of activities of unnecessary diversion, is not licit, and even more so, constitutes an underestimation, according to the gravity of the matter, of the ministerial office and of the positive law of the Church;

"To omit the Hours of Morning Prayer (Lauds) and Evening Prayer (Vespers) requires a greater reason still, given that these Hours are the 'double hinge of the daily Office' (SC 89);

"If a priest must celebrate Mass several times on the same day or hear confessions for several hours or preach several times on the same day, and this causes him fatigue, he may consider, with tranquility of conscience, that he has a legitimate excuse for omitting a proportionate part of the Office;

"The proper Ordinary of the priest or deacon can, for a just or serious reason, according to the case, dispense him totally or partially from the recitation of the Divine Office, or commute it to another act of piety (as, for example, the Holy Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, a biblical or spiritual reading, a time of mental prayer reasonably prolonged, etc.).

"Question: What role does the criterion of 'veritas temporis' (correspondence to time of day) play concerning this question?

"Response: The answer must be given in parts, to clarify the diverse cases.

"The 'Office of Readings' does not have a strict time assigned, and may be celebrated at any hour, and it can be omitted if there exists one of the reasons signalled out in the answer indicated under number 2 above. According to custom, the Office of Readings may be celebrated any time beginning with the evening hours or night time hours of the previous day, after Evening Prayer (Vespers) (Cf. GILH, 59).

"The same holds true for the 'intermediate hours,' which, nevertheless, have no set time for their celebration. For their recitation, the time that intervenes between morning and afternoon should be observed. Outside of choir, of the three hours, Mid-Morning Prayer (Tertia), Mid-Day Prayer (Sexta), and Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Nona), it is fitting to select one of these three, the one that more easily corresponds to the time of day, so that the tradition of praying during the day, in the midst of working, be maintained (Cf. GILH, 77).

"By itself, Morning Prayer (Lauds) should be recited during the morning hours and Evening Prayer (Vespers) during the evening hours, as the names of these parts of the Office indicate.If someone cannot recite Morning Prayer (Lauds) in the morning, he has the obligation of reciting it as soon thereafter as possible. In the same way, if Evening Prayer (Vespers) cannot be recited during the evening hours, it must be recited as soon thereafter as possible (SC 89). In other words, the obstacle, which impedes the observation of the 'true time of the hours', is not by itself a cause that excuses the recitation either of Morning Prayer (Lauds) or of Evening Prayer (Vespers), because it is a question of the 'Principal Hours' (SC, 89) which 'merit the greatest esteem' (GILH, 40).

"Whoever willingly recites the Liturgy of the Hours and endeavors to celebrate the praises of the Creator of the universe with dedication, can at least recite the psalmody of the hour that has been omitted without the hymn and conclude with only a short reading and the prayer."

While priests, deacons, and religious have an obligation to the Divine Office, laity do not. But, when laity do pray the Divine Office, it must be prayed according to the Instructions given by the Church. The Divine Office is a liturgy. Liturgy is regulated by the Holy See, and must not be subject to our personal opinions or preferences.

Lauds and Vespers are to be prayed at the hour to which this hours are meant to be prayed. If one cannot for a good and valid reason pray the Office at the specified time of day, then it may be said "soon thereafter". Saying Morning Prayer at noon is not "soon thereafter." 

Even for those obligated to pray the Divine Office, the Church understands that such may not always be possible and offers her compassion (the pharisees in Mark 2:27 offered no compassion. Also, the real point of the pharisees' question to Jesus was to trap him).

For Laity, no obligation for the Divine Office exists. Thus, laity may pray whichever hours they desire whether that be all seven or just one, but the hours prayed must correspond to the time intended for the Office.

There is no reason to be rebellious on this. If one misses Morning Prayer, no big deal, just pray the particular hour or hours to which one can accomplish. Since the Divine Office contains prayers for approximately every three hours during the day and evening, there is no problem for the laity to pray the hours that are possible for them according to the Offices prescribed for the particular time of day. And, as the document states, if one misses a Hour, one may "recite the psalmody of the hour that has been omitted without the hymn and conclude with only a short reading and the prayer."

The rules for the Divine Office are not a burden. As I always say, "It is just as easy to do the right thing as it is to do the wrong thing." Despite that truth, there are many people who spend huge amounts of time and energy trying to justify themselves in doing things the way they wish, instead of the way God, through his Church, requires.

I have never understood why people fight so hard to "do it their way." Well, I do understand—it is pride and rebellion. What is amazing is that I get attacked with the vitriolic intensity that is nearly equal to that of Satan's for daring to suggest we ought to follow the rules if we are to claim we are praying "with the Church." One cannot be praying with the Church and follow their own rules and preferences at the same time.

I am reminded to two quotes that can apply to those people who resist the rules:

"The more we see failure in obedience, the stronger should be our suspicion of temptation." -- St. Teresa of Avila

Lord, those are your best servants who wish to shape their life on Your answers rather than to shape your answers on their wishes.” —St. Augustine

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary