Little Hours - Reform

Reform

After the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Prime was suppressed, and only one of the three remaining prayers need be normally said, unless bound by a rule that states otherwise. The three hours are now referred to collectively as Daytime Prayer (Latin, Hora Media) and may be celebrated as a single hour. These prayers, like the rest of the Liturgy of the Hours, may now be sung or said in the vernacular; in the current English translation they are called Midmorning (Terce), Midday (Sext), and Midafternoon (None) prayer. The reformed structure of the Little Hours includes an introductory prayer, a hymn, three psalms with antiphons, which vary by day of week, a reading, a versicle, and a closing prayer. If more than one of these Hours is said, a complementary set of invariant psalms may be chosen instead of repeating the daily psalms at all three hours. These prayers do not change with the feast. These prayers are intended to be short enough to be memorized, to avoid interruption of work during the day.

The recent growth of Traditional Catholicism has led to greater use of the older forms of prayer in the Divine Office, which are typically longer and said in Latin.