Practicing Catholics may be familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office or the Breviary). The Liturgy of the Hours is the Church’s daily recitation of the Psalms which priests, religious, and lay people use to sanctify the day. While most Catholics may understand the Mass and the daily liturgy, it is not as often known that the Mass and the Office are intrinsically connected in the cycle of the day.
The day starts with Matins (now known as the Office of Readings) which consists of Psalms, but different from the other hours of the day, also includes various readings from Sacred Scripture and writings of the Church Fathers. These readings relate to the Mass of the day. The Matins readings may tell the story of a particular saint, a sermon from a Church Father on a particular mystery of the faith or Our Lord, or readings from Scripture that expound on the Mass of the day. These readings may also seem unconnected at first but in the wider context make sense. One case of this is that traditionally in the three weeks leading up to Lent, each day there are three readings from the book of Genesis describing the story of Noah, the genealogy of Adam, and the calling of Abraham which have the impression of setting the stage for the upcoming meditations of Lent which have a greater emphasis on the Old Testament.
At all the other hours of the day the Antiphons that precede the Psalms reflect the feast or mystery of the day and the same is the case for the hymn at Lauds and Vespers (morning and evening prayer). These changing parts of the Office not only give illumination to the Psalms but also to the daily meditation that the Church undertakes.
The most significant way in which the Divine Office and the Mass interact is the time at which Mass is celebrated. While nowadays Mass can be celebrated at any point of the day at the discretion of the Priest, for much of the Church’s history, the celebration of the Eucharist, especially in Monasteries, was done following a specific hour of the day. On all feast days of saints and of Our Lord, and on all Sundays, the principal Mass of the day in any given community was celebrated following the office of Terce (known as mid-morning prayer, approximately 9 AM). On all days without a feast, also known as ferias, Mass was celebrated following Sext (mid-day prayer, approximately 12 PM), and on all penitential days (ie. the weekdays of Advent, Lent, all vigils of the year, and other various penitential days of the church), Mass followed the office of None (mid-afternoon prayer, approximately 3 PM).
This is portrayed in the Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas who says “Christ wished to give this sacrament last of all, in order that it might make a deeper impression on the hearts of the disciples; and therefore it was after supper, at the close of day, that He consecrated this sacrament and gave it to His disciples. But we celebrate at the hour when our Lord suffered, i.e. either, as on feast days, at the hour of Terce, when He was crucified by the tongues of the Jews (Mark 15:25), and when the Holy Ghost descended upon the disciples (Acts 2:15); or, as when no feast is kept, at the hour of Sext, when He was crucified at the hands of the soldiers (John 19:14), or, as on fasting days, at None, when crying out with a loud voice He gave up the ghost.” (Third Part of the Summa Theologiae: Question 83, Reply to Objection 3).
This may seem superfluous at first but it makes sense when we remember that the fast to receive the Eucharist was originally set where anyone who wanted to receive had to fast from midnight until they received ensuring that the faithful had a proper disposition before receiving the Sacrament and that the Eucharist was the first thing ever eaten in the day. Because of this, on feast days when Mass was at 9 am, breaking the fast would not be that difficult, but on penitential days when the Eucharist wasn’t celebrated until 3 in the afternoon fasting became an integral part of the day. This was known as semi-jejunia which means “half fast” in which the first half of the day was spent fasting.
This had the effect of giving the faithful a very clear impression of the day. Every aspect of each day in the liturgy was connected in how many readings were read at Matins, to the content of those readings, the time in which Mass was said and thereby when the fast was broken, to the content of the Mass in the readings and whether or not it was penitential. This holistic view of the day gave a sense of sacred time which not only perpetuated the monastic life but gave it a daily meaning and rhythm.
Born and Raised to Jewish parents in New York City, Kai Breskin is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. A member of the Boston College class of 2026, he is studying Political Science, Philosophy, and History. His intellectual passions include Christian theology, history, and liturgical study. His hobbies include sailing, playing the piano, and singing, with a specific focus in Gregorian Chant.
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