Q: What are
the "Hours"?
A: Basically
the Hours are a series of short services which corresponds to the four watches
of the day.
The early
Christians continued the ancient Jewish practice of reciting prayers at certain
times of the day or night. In the Psalms we find expressions like "In the
morning I offer thee my prayer"; "At midnight I will rise and thank
thee"; "Evening, morning and at noonday will I praise thee";
"seven times a day I will praise thee"; etc. The Apostles observed
the Jewish custom of praying at the first, third, sixth and ninth hour, as well
as at midnight (Acts 10:2-3, 9; 16:25).
The Hours
themselves are four relatively brief prayer services from the Daily Cycle of
Worship that mark the principal periods of the day.
• First Hour
(6:00 – 9:00 a.m.) commemorates Christ before Pilate
• Third Hour
(9:00 - noon) commemorates Pilate’s judgment of Christ
• Sixth Hour
(noon – 3:00 p.m.) commemorates the Crucifixion
• Ninth Hour
(3:00 – 6:00 p.m.) commemorates the death of Christ upon the Cross
Each of these
services, which are comprised primarily of Psalms, can be found in the Book of
Hours (Horologion in Greek or Chasoslov in Slavonic).
Fr. John
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