DIVINE DUTY

Every Three Hours

During my undergraduate years I took Latin, classical not liturgical. However, if Julius Caesar were to walk into the room now I couldn't get much past "Veni, Vidi, Vinci." What has actually lasted over the years is the appreciation I have maintained for the enormous amount of Latin words which we still use in everyday English, some say over half our vocabulary is straight derivatives from the Romans.
In our readings from The Life of Meaning, Phylis Tickle remarks her practice of prayer every three hours during her waking day. The Divine Hours or Office it is referred to. The word "office" is one of those direct Latin terms, Offici, Officium: literally meaning 'Duty.' This appears the best description of Tickle's approach to her day as well as her relationship to her God. Tickle also refers to the word 'discipline.' Another expression from Latin into Old English meaning "branch of instruction or education." A muscle being disciplined as compared to her spiritual discipline of practiced praise is a well expressed analogy.
Just as much of our vocabulary has been inherited from older beginnings, so to Tickle places the practice of timed prayer by Christians as a result of their Jewish heritage where such duty and discipline was required of the faith.

Do you see value in this type of practice?

There is no individuality in the divine office, expresses Tickle? It's also a way, I think, of remembering who it is I am not and how very little I matter. What does this mean and do you agree?

As spiritual entities what is our "duty" and for what purpose do we express it?

Walter Morton for Terra Incognita