In fact we can go further

In fact we can go further. First, the texts which are usually used to defend the exclusively private nature of the prayer of hours and times very plainly show that this prayer could and actually did have an ecclesiological character, was offered in the assemblies of the community. Thus, in the Apostolic Tradition, immediately following the prescriptions to pray each morning, it is said: ‘but if there is instruction by the word (catechizatio) let every one prefer to attend that, since when he has said prayer in the assembly, he will be able to avoid the evil of the day. We do not know whether these assemblies with ‘instruction by the word’ and prayer were daily occurrences. But if we take into account the whole spirit and ‘ethos’ of the early Church, this prayer will have to be defined as ‘ecclesio-centric,’ having its basis in the experience of the assembly or communion of the ecclesia and at the same time being directed to this end. ‘Strive to be together as often as possible,’ writes St. Ignatius of Antioch; and St. Cyprian of Carthage echoes his words : ‘The Lord of unity did not command that prayer be offered to Him individually and in private.’ Origen, Tertullian, and others insist on the value of being ‘together as often as possible,’ in the assembly of common prayer and fellowship. We repeat that it is impossible to rnake categorical assertions about a regular daily worship on the basis of these texts alone. But they do point, first of all, to a firm tradition of times of prayer in the early Church, and second, to the existence of assemblies (although perhaps not in all places) devoted to prayer and sermons. Finally, they point to the acceptance of this prayer of the Church as something necessary, and indeed superior to private prayer. They point therefore to the inclusion of this form of worship in the lex orandi of the Church.