I imagine most people reading this have already prayed the Liturgy of the Hours (a.k.a. Divine Office, a.k.a. the Breviary) on an electronic device. It is so convenient with no page flipping, no ribbons, and no chance of praying the wrong contents on special days.

You can also pray outside in the early morning or late evening when there is not enough sunlight to read a book.

And as you get older, the ability to increase the font size is a very welcome feature.

I admit that I have always preferred physical books and have invested a bit of money in various breviaries and four-volume sets, but these digital advantages have been wearing down my resistance.

Then I discovered the split screen feature on both Android tablets and iPads, and that was the tipping point.

The reason is that now I can have a reference open next to my digital breviary such as a sheet of notation for chanting the Psalms.

For more information on the Saint Meinrad Psalm Tones and related resources see my article, Some resources for singing the St. Meinrad Psalm Tones with the Liturgy of the Hours.

For those who prefer Gregorian Chant, see my article called How to chant the Liturgy of the Hours with Gregorian Chant on iBreviary.

Here is a PDF of the Saint Meinrad Psalm Tones as it looks next to iBreviary on my iPad:

These days I only use my iPad, but I am sure this will work on an Android tablet as well.

Here is a PDF chart which assigns a Psalm Tone to each Psalm:

And here is a PDF chart that shows which Psalms are used with each of the Hours in the Liturgy of the Hours:

These screenshots show the iBreviary app rather than the iBreviary website, but the website also works well with split screen.

Both iBreviary and the Divine Office can be prayed via apps or from their websites, but as of this time, the Divine Office app does not support the split screen feature, while the Divine Office website does.

Here is how it all looks with the Divine Office website:

However, those outside the U.S. will be blocked from using the Divine Office website. So for those people the only option for using these charts in a second window is iBreviary.

Chant or recite the non-Psalms?

While the Psalms were written as songs to be sung, many other parts of the Liturgy of the Hours are a bit awkward to sing, including some canticles, because they were not originally written as songs.

This especially goes for the New Testament canticles in Evening Prayer which were written to communicate crucial truths, but not necessarily intended to be sung (and some are even difficult to sing).

I sometimes choose to recite the non-Psalm canticles rather than sing them because the meaning comes through more clearly if I don't break up the sentences midway to force them into a tune.

What about the hymn?

It might seem odd to chant the Psalms, but merely say the hymn because you don't know the tune.

If you are praying the Liturgy of the Hours with iBreviary then you are in luck because on most days they have a hymn that is written in Long Meter. If you scroll to the end of a hymn you will see the tune's name followed by the letters LM or the numbers 8 8 8 8.

An example of Long Meter is the Doxology or Old 100th (Praise God from whom all blessings flow...).

I have two personal favorite Long Meter tunes which I use for practically every hymn in iBreviary. One is Tallis' Canon and the other is Winchester New. Both of these are is simple, dignified, and easy to remember. In case you don't know them, I have made simple mp3 piano demos of both:

• Tallis' Canon
• Winchester New

Sometimes a hymn will appear in Common Meter which is followed by the letters CM or the numbers 8 6 8 6.

Common Meter is perhaps more common than you realize. Here are some familiar tunes in Common Meter:

One of my favorite Common Meter tunes is St. Flavian which is very similar to Tallis' Canon.

Here is a piano demo: St. Flavian

An exellent web site which has samples many other tunes written in various meters is Seedbed Index of Meters & Tunes

Conclusion

Granted, all prayer including the Liturgy of the Hours is serious work, and one should not be so concerned with the consolations or positive feelings that might or might come during prayer time. But we already know that music adds so much to the prayer experience, and the Psalms exhort us over and over to sing to God. So why not make it all a little more gratifying in the process?

I've written more about the Liturgy of the Hours and Singing the Psalms in other articles. The best way to find them is to just go to my home page (assuming you came to this article directly through a web search) and scroll down to the Faith section.

May God bless your efforts to bring music into your prayer life!