The Divine office, as seen by a therapist

Introduction and Lauds

As a therapist in practice for many years, I have seen some problems that seem almost epidemic. Many people suffer from depression, anxiety, insomnia and a sense of lack of meaning in their lives.

They wake up one day, and the world, hitherto one of routine and comfort once a source of joy and purpose, becomes one of obligations. Friendships wither and social obligations dwindle. The hobbies which were once so thrilling, become forgotten as golf clubs gather dust, fishing gear rusts, and our books lie unopened on our shelves. One thing I have noted is that in order to keep these scourges at bay, it is of paramount importance to have developed an inner life. The remarks that I will share are entirely from my experience not only as a therapist but also as a Roman Catholic who has discovered not only the importance of an inner life of prayer but also the necessity of such.

For Roman Catholics, contemplative prayer is an essential element of our faith. Contemplative, or mental prayer is one step beyond vocal prayer where we recite prayers. Meditative or contemplative prayer means that as we read Sacred Scripture we think on them. We ponder them. We see this for example, in the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. While we can rattle through the prayers at breakneck speed, we are asked to to pause, to pray and to think on the mysteries presented to us. This will deepen our experience. Without mental or meditative prayer, everything is done by routine, which will lead to thoughlessness or boredom.

With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth the heart. (Jer. 12:11)

For many people, prayer is done( if at all) as a routine, or rushed without thought and, sadly, it leads to desolation as it does not involve our heart, and therefore we cannot advance in the spiritual life. The very Reverend Joseph Simler, wrote in his short book "Catechism of Mental Prayer" that mental prayer is essential for anyone to pray well and thus to advance in the spiritual life.

Rev. Simler goes on to say that withoug mental prayer we lose our way and become captive to the spirit of the world. I have often wondered why it is in so many Catholic churches, that I see, many of the faithful have embraced and tolerated confusion. There are many who will act on all church committees and be active, but yet without the discipine and joy of mental prayer they lose the only way to keep themselves in the spirit of faith and can receive grace which comes chiefly from prayer.

Rev. Simler goes on to day on page 5, what the chief advantages are from mental prayer:

1) It keeps us from sin and saves us from Hell

2) Preserves us from lukewarmness, or cures us of it

3) Is the common source of all virtues. It is thus the shortest way of arriving at perfection, and the most efficacious means of persevering in our vocation. (page 6 ibid.)

It is also a great honour for us as we are admitted into the presence of God Himself.

Rev. Simler notes that mental prayer requires a sincere will to apply ourselves, and to constantly beg this grace of God. A healthy practice of mental prayer leads us to a greater understanding of humility.

In my own practice, I have come to learn that many of our difficulties stem from a lack of humility. If we beleive that our opinion has greater value or merit that all other opinion of others, we are destined to be frustrated, depressed or anxious.

It is important before we undertake mental prayer to understand that there are obstacles to it. Rev. Simler notes that there are three common obstacles, namely distractions, aridity and illusions.

Distractions often come from a lack of preparation, when we try to squeeze in prayer. It also comes from our habit of multitasking. We are praying and a message pings us on our phone. Or we may not take out prayer seriously.

In my case, it is essential to pray before I start mental prayer. In the Divine Office, there is a beautiful prayer where we ask God to open our lips. It is the beautiful Aperi Domine prayer:

Aperi, Domine, os meum ad benedicendum nomen sanctum tuum: munda quoque cor meum ab omnibus vanis, perversis, et alienis cogitationibus; intellectum illumina, affectum inflamma, ut digne, attente, ac devote hoc Officium recitare valeam, et exaudiri merear ante conspectum divinae Majestatis tuae. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen

O Lord, in union with that divine intention, wherewith theyself upon earth dist offer praise to God, I offer thee these hours (or this Hour) to thee.

Satan too, places distractions in our way in the form of thoughts. In my case, because I have a collection of fountain pens, I sometimes start to pray and I have an overwhelming desire to search for a specific pen. It is important, Rev. Stimler notes that at these times simply to return to prayer and sometimes begin again. At times, distractions may arise from our emotions where we remember a slight, or an insult and are moved to anger. The reason these happen is that the Devil does not want us to profit from this holy practice.

Posture is also important. If I attempt mental prayer while on the couch or a comfortable chair, I find I get too comfortable and lose my concentration. I find it helpful if I am before a crucifix or an image of our Blessed Mother. I am fortunate enough to have a prie Dieu in my home, which I find of great benefit.

The Divine office

The Divine office, sometimes called the Breviary is the great prayer of the Church. The Divine office has sustained religious, priests and laity for centuries. Here I will speak not of the current liturgy of the hours as the structure lacks the grace and depth of the older forms. Traditionally, there are 8 offices in the day. They are;

1) Matins which is prayed at 3 or 4 am

2) Laudes between 6 to 7 am

3) Prime around 9 (just before work)

4) Tertia 10 am

5) Sexta prayed at noon

6) Nona prayed at 3pm

7) Vespers prayed at around 530 to 7

8) Compline at 8 or 9

I have not yet recommended Matins to my clients, as many of them struggle to find sleep.

As I am a lay person, the Divine Office must be prayed in accordance with my vocation and calling as a therapist. Often I can only manage Lauds, Prime, Vespers and Compline but sometimes if I am lucky, the so called minor office of Sexta. With the fact that the Divine office can be found on line with apps like Brev meum it makes it possible for me to pray without lugging around books

In this article, I will discuss the office of Lauds, and how it pertains to our propensity towards depression and anxiety. I am chosing to use the monastic office of Lauds, mainly because of its use of three beautiful psalms that sing praises to God.

The Monastic office of Lauds

Lauds contains antiphons proper to the day, or the feast. Today Ocrober 28th 2025, is the duplex feast of Saints Simon and Jude (apostles)

The office begins with:

Deus in adiutorium meum intende

R: Domine ad adiuvandum me festina

We immediately start with a plea for help. It is not only a cry for help, but it also asks God to hurry up and help us! Ad adiuvandum me festina.

This opening verse not only establishes that there is a God, but that we cry to God to help us, in haste. This shows our dependence on God. It is like a child who crys out to his mother for help and then adds and hurry up. It speaks of humility and dependence.

This is followed by the Gloria. Here we specify the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.

Our cry is not futile, nor small. We now add substance to our cry for help by invoking the Holy Trinity.

THE PSALMS

Today's office begins with Psalm 92

The antiphon is:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

The one who recites or prays this office knows immediately that God loves them.

Psalm 92 speaks of the majesty and rule of God, 92.2

Thy throne is prepared from old, thou are everlasting.

This is no elected official or earthy king, this is the King of God for whom the floods have lifted up their voice.

He has established the world which shall not be moved.

While the prayer starts with a word from God that He loves us. We now learn in Psalm 92 who he is. This should leave us with a sense of profound gratitude that we can actually pray to and give honour to a God such as this.

The office continues on the theme of love in the next antiphon which is:

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends

This God, loves us and because of his love laid down his life for us.

Psalm 99 follows:

Once more the theme is that not only is He a God of immense power but

a God of immense love towards us.

Know ye that He the Lord He is God, he made us and now we ourselves

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Go ye into his gates with praise into His courts with hymns and give glory to Him

Often depressed people believe they have failed in life. They find it difficult to forget the past and feel unloved. Already in Lauds they are told of His tremendous love and also His majesty,

Laudate nomen ejus:quoniam suavis est Dominus, in aeternum misericordia ejus, et usque in generationem et generationem veritas ejus

His mercy and His truth endure from generation to generation forever

In a world where truth is relative and love conditional, it is of great comfort to recite these words. His mercy and His truth are forever. His love for us extends beyond all boundaries.

Psalm 62 follows

This is one of my favourite psalms in lauds because of the beautiful symbolism and imagery that is so appropriate for our day.

Antiphon

You are my friends, if you do the things I command you, says the Lord.

(Imagine a friendless person who cannot get out of bed reading this, to be called by God His friend!)

Psalm 62

Deus, Deus meus ad te luce vigilo

The psalm begines with an acknowledgment that we seek God at the break of day, in the morning. We seek his light.

For thee my soul hath thirsted, for thee my flesh, O how many ways.

The theme of thirst is found throughout Scripture. Even our Lord on the cross said "I thirst". More than a physical thirst, thirst symbolises a very deep desire or hunger for the presence of God in our lives. Thirst is used

to express a deep desire which cannot be satiated. It is deeper than hunger. We can live for a while without food, but without water for less than a week we die.

In a desert land, where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory.

We live in a desert where there is no way. For many people truth is relative, I have my truth you have yours. There is no way or path and many people get lost. Worse, there is no water. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He referred to Himself as the living water. Apart from our Lord, there is no water. We have the water that surrounds us and yet we are thirsty and we look in a tractless desert for a sanctuary. Many people seek all their lives for a sanctuary and 'find' it with their careers, their family, their friends, or money. All of these are temporary and after we drink of them we are thirsty for the living water. Psalm 66 speaks of the river of God being full. It is this living water that brings us to life.

I work with traumatized refugees most of whom have experienced terrible events that have shaken them. What they thought were sanctuaries were not. They come seeking hope, safety and love. My clients only find that when they return to the One sanctuary, which is the Roman Catholic Mass.

It is there, in the true sanctuary where God is present that they find the water they seek.

For thy mercy is better than lives: thee my lips shall praise.

The psalm goes on with thanks and praise to God and ends with:

And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings: My soul hath stuck close to thee, thy right hand had received me.

The psalm ends with the fate of those who have sought our soul in vain. We live in a spiritual battle, and so those who seek our souls in vain can have several meanings, it could be a reference to the demons, or perhaps also a reference to all the things of world that seek our souls.

Antiphon

You are my friends, if you do the things I comman you, says the Lord

Antiphon

Blessed are the peacemakers, the clean of heart, they shall see God

The office continues with the canticle of the three young men Daniel 3:57-88 and 56

This psalm is best chanted as it notes that everything in creation praises and blesses the Lord. Fire and heat, ice and snow, sun and moon etc.

This is a terrific antidote for the poisonous view that we have regarding creation. It is WE who are the problem, and we must love creation more. Yet the psalm does not speak of such ecological guilt. Rather in this psalm it US in our prayers to God, that command the priests, beasts and cattle, fowls and servants to bless the Lord. The creation is not blessed, the creation like all of us including the saints bless the Lord.

The psalm ends with:

Blessed are thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven, and worty of praise and glorious forever.

Psalm 148 follows

Antiphon:

In your patience you shall possess your souls

Psalm 148 continues with the theme of ALL of creation rendering praise to God. Praise Him his angels, Praise Him stars and light, Let all the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.

( Praise Him the waters above the heavens can be reference to the chaos that God put to order in creation. The ohu bohu in Hebrew refers to chaos. When God separated the waters, He created order. It can also be understood as did Agustine saw the upper waters as that which was angelic or pure in nature. It was a division of heaven and earth)

The psalm (again best chanted) notes that praise the Lord.

For individuals who focus on their own suffering, it is of tremendous comfort to know that their world is, but a small part of the entire creation which praises God. It enables them to see far beyond their own. In the Roman Catholic Church even our suffering can join in theer praise of God. By moving out of ourselves, into the realm of heaven and praising God, we feel uplifted and our problems are not as overwhelming as they once were.

Much of my work as a therapist is with traumatized individuals who have experienced war, torture and fear. I have seen many of them stuck in a pattern of depression and anxiety, but once they return to the faith and begin to pray the rosary and attend Mass, their depression and anxiety lifts. It is not overnight but it is a cosmic shift from self to God. In ourselves, we truly are in a trackless desert where there is no water.

Not all my clients have faith, some practice other religions and even though there is no real water there, they persist and take medications for their anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. It is a tragedy that they cannot see.

Lauds continues with a verse from Ephesians 2:19-20

Brothers: Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone.

We in this prayer are now told that we are citizens in a real with the saints and servants of God. It enables us to understand that we are not of the world.

The hymn follows. This is a glorious hymn that crys out to let the entire earth and heaven to praise the Apostles.

The Canticle Benedictus follows

Antiphon

You who left all and follow me, you will receive hundredfolks, and you will have eternal life.

Many people who are depressed or anxious, cling very tightly to the things of this world. Most (at least initially) do not place God first. They work on Sundays, they do not stheypend time in prayer. It is only after sometime of being faithful do they see the results. The results and principally of peace. Where they were once terrified of their future and their new life, once they embrace the faith and contemplation and recite the breviary, they are filled with peace and joy. This is what I have observed.

The canticle of Zacharias Luke1:68-79 follows.

This is a summary of salvation of God towards us. We are promised salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us.

For a refugee who has been tortured and persecuted, these words from God that promises we will have salvation from our enemies is of tremendous comfort. When we are safe, we can truly thank God and praise Him always.

The office of Lauds for this day, ends with

O Lord, hear my prayer

And let my cry come unto thee

O God, who didst use thine holy Apostles Simon and Judge to make known unto us thy Name, grant unto us so to profit by their doctrine as to do honour to their everlasting glory, and so to honor that glory as to gain profit to ourselves.

This is the great secret of our faith as I explain. When we praise God and honour His name, we are not detracting from ourselves, we are not missing anything rather, rywe gain profit to ourselves.

Conclusion

The office ends with an exortation to God to hear our prayers and to let our come unto Him. We then bless the Lord and ask that the souls of the faithful rest in peace.

The office ends with the Our Father.

The office closes with a beautiful prayer after the divine office. Like the starting prayer, this one is best prayed on your knees,.

To the most holy and undivided Trinity, to the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, to the fruitful virginity of the most blessed and most glorious Mary ever virgin, and to the host of all the Saints be ascribed from every creature everlasting praise, honour, power and glory, and to us be granted the remission of all our sins, for ever and ever.

Blessed be the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the Eternal Father.

And blessed be the breasts which nursed Christ our Lord.

Our Father and Hail Mary

Conclusion

The office is remarkable when recited by anyone, but in particular those who have lost hope and who are depressed on anxious.

First it tells the one who prays that they are loved, not just by anyone but by God Himself. This same God, whose power is demonstrated and who calls us His friend died for us! Moreover it is not only us that praises God but all of creation, the trees, the ice, the snow and even all the saints and angels praise God. We are invited to join this cosmic praise to the God of mercy and love.

A depressed person realizes they are NOT alone, they are never alone, they are in the company or as fellow citizens. We are not animals who seek only food and shelter, we are beloved by God. The office of Lauds as I noted before is a corrective to the current ecological movement. It puts creation in its place, which is to praise God and to serve us and not the other way around.