Register Summary

More than 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square for Pope John Paul II's general audience Oct. 8. His teaching centered on the importance of evening prayer in the life of the Church and seemed to signal a new cycle of teachings on evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. The Holy Father recently completed a long series of teachings on the psalms and canticles that are recited at morning prayer.

“Evening is an appropriate time to prayerfully consider before God the day that has gone by,” Pope John Paul noted. “It is also the time to ask forgiveness for the evil we have done, pleading for God's mercy so that Christ will shine again in our hearts.”

The rising and setting of the sun are special moments in the day, with unmistakable features,” he said. “The joyful beauty of the dawn and the triumphant splendor of the sunset mark a rhythm in the universe in which the man's life is deeply involved.” He pointed out that both morning and evening prayer contain common elements that refer to the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

“Nevertheless,” the Pope added, “as evening approaches, we also recall the mystery of night. Darkness is regarded as an occasion for frequent temptations, which are particularly debilitating, and for yielding to the incursions of the Evil One.” Evening prayer, he said, reminds us that even the darkness of the night is illuminated by God's presence and love.

Pope John Paul emphasized that morning and evening are always excellent times to turn to the Lord in prayer. “Since they are connected with important moments in our daily life and work, morning prayer and evening prayer… are, therefore, an effective means to orient our daily walk toward Christ, ‘the light of the world.’”

Since “every day of our pilgrimage on earth is always a new gift” of God's love (Preface of Sundays, VI), the Church has always felt the need to dedicate the days and hours of our human life to God's praise. Therefore, daybreak and sunset, which were typically spiritual moments for every nation and which were already sanctified in biblical tradition by offering a holocaust (see Exodus 29:38-39) and incense (see Exodus 30:6-8) in the morning and in the evening, have been two special times of prayer for Christians ever since the first centuries.

The rising and setting of the sun are not ordinary moments in the day. They have some unmistakable features: the joyful beauty of the dawn and the triumphant splendor of the sunset mark a rhythm in the universe in which the man's life is deeply involved. Moreover, some moments in the mystery of salvation, which continues to unfold in history, are linked to these different phases in time. For this reason, as the Church began to celebrate Lauds at the beginning of the day, it also began to celebrate Vespers as evening fell. Both of these liturgical hours have an express purpose, which is to recall two essential aspects of the paschal mystery: “In the evening the Lord is on the Cross, in the morning he rises…. In the evening I speak about the suffering that he endured in death; in the morning I proclaim the life that comes from him” (St. Augustine, Esposizioni sui Salmi, XXVI, Rome, 1971, page 109).

Precisely because they are connected with the memory of Christ's death and resurrection, these two hours, morning prayer and evening prayer, constitute “by the venerable tradition of the universal Church … the two hinges on which the daily office turns” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 89).

Christ Our Light

In ancient times, the lighting of an oil lamp at sundown introduced a note of joy and communion into the home. The Christian community also lit a lamp as evening fell, and, with a grateful spirit, asked for the gift of spiritual light. This was the so-called ritual lighting of the lamp, whose flame is a symbol of Christ, the “Sun that never sets.”

As darkness approaches, Christians know, in fact, that God illuminates even the darkness of the night with the splendor of his presence and with the light of his teachings. In this regard, it is worth recalling the very ancient hymn of light, Fôs hilarón, which is found in the Armenian and Ethiopian Byzantine liturgy: “Joyful light of the holy glory of the immortal, celestial, holy, blessed Father, O Jesus Christ! Having reached the setting of the sun and seeing the evening light, we sing hymns to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is fitting to sing to you at all times with our voices in harmony, O Son of God, who gives us life: because of this, the universe proclaims your glory.” The West has also composed many hymns to celebrate Christ the light.

Evening prayer was inspired by this symbolism of light and developed as an evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the gift of physical and spiritual light and for the other gifts of creation and redemption. St. Cyprian wrote: “As the sun sets and the day draws to an end, we need to pray again. In fact, since Christ is the true sun, at the setting of the sun and the end of the day in this world, we pray and ask that light be shed on us again and we remember the coming of Christ, who will bring us the blessing of eternal light” (De oratione domini-ca, 35: PL 4,560).

Thanksgiving and Repentance

Evening is an appropriate time to prayerfully consider before God the day that has gone by. It is the time “to give thanks for what has been given to us and for what we did in righteousness” (St. Basil, Regulae fusius tractatae, Resp. 37, 3: PG 3, 1015). It is also the time to ask forgiveness for the evil we have done, pleading for God's mercy so that Christ will shine again in our hearts.

Nevertheless, as evening approaches, we also recall the mystery of night. Darkness is regarded as an occasion for frequent temptations, which are particularly debilitating, and for yielding to the incursions of the Evil One. With its enticements, night becomes a symbol of all the evil from which Christ came to free us. Moreover, every time night falls, prayer makes us participants in the paschal mystery in which “the night shines like the day” (Exsultet). Thus, hope flourishes in prayer as we make the transition from a day that is fleeting to the dies perennis — the eternal day, from the feeble light of the lamp to the lux perpetua — the perpetual light, from the watch at night that waits for the dawn and for our encounter with the King of eternal glory.

For ancient man — even more than for us — the succession of night and day regulated his life and was an occasion for him to reflect on the great problems of life. Modern progress has altered to a degree the relationship between human life and cosmic time. But the intense rhythm of human activities has not removed the people of today from the rhythms of the sun's cycle.

Therefore, these two pivotal points in daily prayer are still valuable, since they are linked to phenomena that are unchanging and symbols that we readily recognize. Morning and evening are always opportune moments to dedicate to prayer, either in community or alone. Since they are connected with important moments in our daily life and work, morning prayer and evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours are, therefore, an effective means to orient our daily walk toward Christ, “the light of the world” (John 8:12).

(Register translation)