The Divine Office - An Invitation to Worship

The Invitatory is a psalm that is said at the beginning of the day. Depending on which prayer is said first, whether Office of Readings or Morning Prayer, the Invitatory will always precede the first prayer. Psalm 95 is customarily the one said for the Invitatory, but there are three other options that can be substituted.

                           Invitatory Psalms

Psalm 95

Psalm 100

Psalm 67

Psalm 24

Just as a reminder, there are differences between the Catholic Bible and Protestant Bible. There are seven more books in the Catholic Bible and the numbering of the Psalms is different from the Protestant Bible. For example Psalm 95 in the Catholic Bible is Psalm 94 in the Protestant Bible. 

How We Begin Our Prayers
The Invitatory begins with an introduction.

                   

   Lord, open my lips.

       -- And my mouth will proclaim your praise. (CP, 686).        

An antiphon is prayed prior to the psalm. An antiphon is s short prayer that is an introduction to each Psalm or Canticle (Boissinot, 120). The antiphon for the Invitatory is found before the Morning Prayer for the day. The psalm is said or sung. The antiphon is said after each stanza. This repeats the theme of the mystery reflected upon for the days prayer (Boissinot, 50). Christian Prayer states that for individual recitation, the antiphon may be said only at the beginning and not repeated (CP, 686). Either way is fine. The psalm is concluded with -

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, in now, and will be for ever. Amen. (CP, 689)

As you may have noticed, this is similar to the "Glory be" that we say in the Rosary. Boissinot states that Tradition recommends reciting this after each psalm.

It brings to the prayers from the Old Testament "a quality of praise linked to a christological and trinitarian interpretation." (42)

What is the Invitatory?
The Invitatory is like it sounds. It invites us all to prayer and worship. Be sure to check the Universalis website to get an idea of how the Invitatory flows from beginning to end. The Christian Prayer book, as reviewed in my previous blog post, has a leaflet that contains all the Invitatory Psalms printed out. This saves flipping back and forth in the book.

I learn something new every day in the Divine Office. The Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours is a means in which we internalize Sacred Scripture. This prayer also sanctifies time. Each part of the day, especially morning and evening have a prayer attached to them. What a great way to start and end each day!

When combined with the Office of Readings, and the daily and weekly Mass readings, we read a majority of the Bible in one year. There are a lot of Bible reading plans available but none compares to what Sacred Tradition has given to us in the Divine Office.

Hope this has been helpful. Next time I will discuss Morning Prayer. 

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Praying!

Ave Maria!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Resources

Boissinot, Georges-Albert, Companion Prayer Book to the Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing, NJ., 2010.

Christian Prayer (The Liturgy of the Hours), Morning Prayer, Daytime Prayer (selections), Evening Prayer, Night Prayer, Office of Readings (selections). Catholic Book Publishing Corp., NY. 1976.