An encouraging sign among students at Boston College (and I hope elsewhere) is their discovery of the Liturgy of the Hours. Here is how Gregory Collins, OSB, in his Meeting Christ in His Mysteries speaks of this celebration:

What then are we doing when we pray the Liturgy of the Hours at regular intervals throughout the day? ... The ultimate goal of this form of prayer is the continuous awareness that one's life is rooted and grounded in Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit. It aims to make the whole of life, with all its ups and downs, highs and lows, and ordinary quotidian rhythms, into a continuous song of praise, a thanksgiving to and glorification of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the wonderful gift of creation -- and the still more wonderful gift of recreation through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord. It is an opening of the heart so that God can impress on it the rhythm of the paschal mystery.

Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is a longtime Commonweal contributor.

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