Seven times in the day," says the Prophet, "I have rendered praise to You" (Ps. 118:164). Now that sacred number of seven will be fulfilled by us if we perform the Offices of our service at the time of the Morning Office, of Prime, of Terce, of Sext, of None, of Vespers and of Compline, since it was of these day Hours that he said, "Seven times in the day I have rendered praise to You." For as to the Night Office the same Prophet says, "In the middle of the night I arose to glorify You" (Ps. 118:62). Let us therefore bring our tribute of praise to our Creator "for the judgments of His justice" (Ps. 118:164) at these times: the Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline; and in the night let us arise to glorify Him.

In the Graeco-Roman world the day was divided into four parts of three very rough solar hours. The first part, Prime, began with sunrise considered 6AM. Three hours after dawn (tertia is the Latin for three) was Terce, followed three hours laters by Sext (sex is the Latin for six), followed three hours later by None (novum is the Latin for nine).

Vespers, from the Latin for evening, was the twelfth hour of the day, for most of the year this is when the lamps were lit. Roughly three hours later was Compline. This is derived from the Latin Completorium or completion.

Every third waking hour the community would pause for praise and thanksgiving. It was a gathering of the whole community in prayer and worship. I wonder how our lives might be transformed if using the same schedule we merely paused for a mindful moment of personal prayer.