vespers

vespers, evening prayer of thanksgiving and praise in Roman Catholic and certain other Christian liturgies. Vespers and lauds (morning prayer) are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of the hours.

The early evening office of prayer in the church. The term is from the Latin word for “evening.” Lucernarium (lamp or lamp-lighting time) was an early name for vespers.

The structure of Vespers itself never varies: greeting, hymn, psalms and/or canticles, reading, homily, responsory, Magnificat, intercessions, Lord's Prayer, closing collect, dismissal, sign of peace. The whole thing takes thirty minutes, tops. The experience of Vespers, though, is different every time we gather.

Throughout the rest of the week, Christians assembled at the church every day for morning prayer (which became known as lauds) and evening prayer (which became known as vespers), while praying at the other fixed prayer times privately.

On this page you'll find 18 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to vesper, such as: evening, close, dark, decline, dusk, and duskiness.

Vespers is the early evening service of the Catholic church. It is rarely part of modern parish life, though is still part of the cycle of daily prayer in monasteries and cathedrals. The more prominent Anglican Evensong is a synthesis of Vespers and the later evening service of Compline.

Also known as Evening Prayer, Vespers is sung in the evening to offer God thanksgiving and praise. Or click on the sample video to the right. You can also listen to Vespers via podcasts on on iTunes and Spotify. For details on subscribing to our podcasts, plase see our page on How to Listen.

A service of evening prayer in the Divine Office of the Western Christian Church (sometimes said earlier in the day). In modern Roman Catholic use, the services for Sundays and solemn feasts begin on the preceding evening with first vespers and end with second vespers.

The word 'Evensong' was first documented as 'oefen-sang' c. 1000 to describe Vespers, the seventh of the eight daily offices practiced in Roman Catholic monasteries, which traditionally occurs at sunset or around 6pm.

about 45-60 minutes Great Vespers is about 45-60 minutes long. Vespers consists of reading and chanting psalms, chanting hymns about Christ's Resurrection and the saints commemorated on that day, praying for ourselves and the whole world, and a beautiful 2nd century hymn lauding Christ as the Light of the world.

Vespers is the early evening service of the Catholic church. It is rarely part of modern parish life, though is still part of the cycle of daily prayer in monasteries and cathedrals. The more prominent Anglican Evensong is a synthesis of Vespers and the later evening service of Compline.

Vespers is the evening prayer service in the liturgies of the canonical hours. The word comes from the Greek εσπερινός and its Latin equivalent vesper, meaning "evening." In Lutheranism the traditional form has varied widely with time and place.