Byzantine Rite - Daily Office

Daily Office

The daily chanting of the Canonical Hours has developed over the centuries into an intricate pattern of worship drawing on influences from the Temple in Jerusalem, classical poetry, Byzantine hymnography, monastic spirituality, and imperial court ritual. Numerous cycles combine and make use of a vast array of liturgical texts making the Byzantine Rite one of the richest liturgical traditions in Christianity (for more detail, see Canonical Hours: Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic usage).

The daily cycle of services consists of the following:

• Vespers (chanted at sunset, which is when the liturgical day begins, following the ancient Jewish tradition)
• Compline (the last prayer before sleep)
• Midnight Office (a monastic office which is chanted in the middle of the night, or early in the morning)
• Matins (the morning office—and the longest of the day—which traditionally ends as the sun is rising)
• First Hour (chanted at the rising of the sun)
• Third Hour (chanted at the third hour of the day—approximately 9:00 am)
• Sixth Hour (chanted at noon)
• Ninth Hour (chanted at the ninth hour of the day—approximately 3:00 pm)

The Divine Liturgy is not ennumerated among these services of the daily cycle because the Liturgy is considered to exist outside of time.

On the Great Feasts of the liturgical year as well as on certain feast days (and in the Slavic tradition, on every Saturday night) there is a particularly solemn service called the All-Night Vigil which combines Vespers, Matins and First Hour with special additions into a single long service.

All of these services are considered communal prayer, and there are in addition Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers, as well as numerous devotional services, such as Akathists, Canons, Molebens, Panikhidas, etc. which are either prayed by the individual privately or are served on behalf of an individual or group rather than the entire local church. The most important of the private prayers is the Jesus Prayer (Prayer of the Heart) and the entire Hesychastic tradition that has grown up around it.