If you have Roman Catholic friends, you may have asked them about the Laud prayer, more properly called praying Lauds. While other famous prayers, such as the Sinner’s Prayer, developed over time without a clear origin and are used in many denominations, Lauds has a particular history and origin. Learning that history can provide a great opportunity for understanding liturgical Christianity better, and considering what the point is behind having a set prayer routine.
So, what is the Laud prayer exactly?
What Does the Word Laud Mean?
As Mike Leake discusses in his Christianity.com article, laud is a Latin word for “praise” used in Roman Catholic liturgy as the name for morning prayers. Roman Catholicism has prayers designed to be said at particular times of each day. These times are known as the canonical hours. The schedule of prayers for canonical hours is often called the Divine Office, or the Liturgy of the Hours. Professional clergy are expected to pray the Divine Office as much as they can, and lay people are highly encouraged to pray it as well. If possible, Roman Catholics should pray the Divine Office together, but they can say the prayers privately.
Participants read each prayer for the canonical hour from a book of liturgy, the Roman Rite. Each prayer combines psalms, hymns, and statements from church tradition. Laud prayers are particularly known for reciting three psalms (Psalms 148-150), often called the Laudate psalms.
While Roman Catholic churches traditionally prayed Lauds in Latin, the Second Vatican Council in 1965 relaxed that rule. Depending on which Catholic church people visit, they may hear people praying Lauds in English, Latin, or a mix.
When Do Catholics Say the Laud Prayer?
As of this writing, the Roman Catholic church has seven prayers for seven different canonical hours:
- Lauds prayers are prayed at dawn
- Prime prayers are prayed after the first hour of morning light
- Terce prayers are prayed at mid-morning
- Sext prayers are prayed at mid-day (noon)
- Vespers prayers are prayed at dusk
- Compline prayers are prayed before going to bed
- Matin prayers are prayed before the next day begins (sometime before midnight)
Even in monasteries where people live together and follow a schedule featuring regular worship and prayer time, it is rare for Roman Catholics to be expected to follow all seven canonical hours exactly. That might lead to waking up every three hours. Church leaders do encourage people to pray at Lauds and Vespers (morning and evening) and if possible three other times during the day (mid-day and a couple of the mid-morning or mid-afternoon slots).
The hymns and verses to recite during Lauds may vary depending on the day (what day in the week, whether it is a special feast day in the liturgical calendar, etc.).
If you want to start reading the Lauds prayer, you can find the correct one for each day in the published Liturgy of the Hours or on various apps or websites.
Where Does the Laud Prayer Come From?
The idea of having prayers to say throughout the day may seem odd to believers who do not come from a high church background. However, set prayers have a long history, and not just in Christianity. Many religions recommend praying at regular times throughout the day to encourage practitioners to think about the divine being they worship. Jewish tradition recommends praying three times a day (morning, mid-day, and evening).
King David emphasizes praying to God seven times a day (Psalm 119:164), which probably reflects the recurring biblical idea that seven represents perfection or completeness, a holy number. The early church developed various routines for praying the Psalms, combined with hymns from other parts of the Bible. For example, The Rule of St Benedict written in the sixth century recommends monks to pray seven times a day and once at night. According to Britannica, the canonical hours became a formal system across the Roman Catholic church by the eighth century, and its schedule was published as the book of hours in the thirteenth century.
The medieval origins help to explain why the seven canonical hours prescribe praying at times based on the sun’s location (dawn, dusk, etc.) rather than time slots in a 24-hour clock. Medieval communities based their schedules on when sunlight became available (getting up at dawn to tend crops, etc.). Furthermore, most church leaders in the medieval period lived in closeknit communities (monasteries, etc.) and rarely traveled far outside their home city or village. In a world where the average monk lived most of their life in one location, and that location was a monastery with a carefully designed schedule for prayer, it was possible for everyone to come together multiple times a day to pray.
While monks could not come together to pray all eight times, books like The Rule of Saint Benedict offer recommendations on how monks working at tasks like farming can pray privately as they work. Lauds and the other canonical hour prayers also had a deeper purpose: whether monks prayed at exactly the expected times, the schedule affirmed that God was lord over their time. Every major period of the day, from dawn to darkest night, had a time to pray and remember God’s sovereignty.
Can All Christians Say the Laud Prayer Today?
There is no reason Christians outside Roman Catholicism should worry about saying the Laud prayer. The content has nothing anti-biblical in it. In fact, the routine of praying Lauds is not that different from getting up each morning to read a devotional and to pray: a regular moment to thank God and start the day thinking about him.
It is fair to point out that praying Lauds is a liturgical practice, which means the best way to practice it is not as an additive to Bible study or morning devotionals. It fits within a larger schedule encouraging Christians to do religious activities throughout the day, to meet together regularly and reflect that they are part of a body of believers. So, while there is no blatant reason that Protestants cannot pray Lauds or a variation on Lauds, they should consider its larger meaning. The Lauds prayer is meant to encourage thinking about God and meeting with one’s local Christian community regularly.
For many American Christians, especially ones raised in evangelicalism, the bigger question may be why to pray Lauds in the first place. What is the attraction to saying a liturgical prayer?
Why Would Christians Outside Catholicism Say the Laud Prayer?
On a practical level, praying Lauds can be attractive because it aids spiritual growth. Praying at regular times may sound formal, but routines help people live healthy lives. Health-conscious people who exercise daily are more likely to stay healthy. Recovering alcoholics who follow alcohol-free routines (game night instead of drinks night, etc.) are more likely to stay sober. As James K.A. Smith explores in You Are What You Love, humans are designed to follow routines. Whether it is praying a liturgical prayer or attending a weekly Bible study, regularly doing something that focuses our minds on God helps us consider how God is present in our lives and how to follow him better today.
More broadly, many Christians find practices like Lauds and Vespers interesting because they seek a picture of Christianity that sadly many evangelical churches have forgotten. As books like God’s Forever Family by Larry Eskridge explore, the Jesus Movement in the 1970s motivated many American churches to adopt modern worship styles (more guitars, less organs). It became common, especially for churches started in suburban neighborhoods catering to younger people, to avoid liturgy or creedal statements in order to make services seem approachable. The advantage of a contemporary service is that people who have never attended church feel it is easy to get involved in the proceedings. At its best, it can also encourage thinking about what traditions really matter and what the Bible actually says church should look like.
The flipside of the contemporary evangelical worship approach it rarely provides a sense of history—a view of what the American church was like before the 1970s, much less centuries ago. Many evangelical Christians have become interested in finding out those older traditions. Books like Celebration of Disciple by Richard Foster have encouraged understanding historic practices and applying them in new contexts to increase our spiritual health. Books like Every Moment Holy by Douglas MacKelvey have encouraged Christians to emulate canonical hours by praying regularly for anything from doing laundry to having a meal with friends.
For many evangelical Christians then, praying Lauds offers a way to reconnect with the historic church and a concrete way to thank God each day. Perhaps especially for Christians experiencing deconstruction, which at its best is identifying unhealthy ideas received growing up and replacing misconceptions with truth, practices like praying Lauds can help them explore another idea of what church can look like. Exploring liturgy becomes a way to hold onto faith while letting go of bad experiences.
Praying Lauds, individually or with other Christians, can be an excellent way for Christians to build a daily routine around worshipping God. It can provide opportunities for learning about historic Christian practices or for dialoguing with Roman Catholics about their beliefs. The most important thing for Christians to consider however, is what Lauds is designed for: to be something the church does together. It challenges every person to ask, “What am I doing today to join with my fellow believers to serve and honor God?”
Photo credit: Zbynek Pospisil
