The Orthodox Church sanctifies time. Each day, each week and each year has its own cycle of prayer, and the daily cycle is the foundation of the others. It follows the ancient practice of God’s people, who prayed “evening and morning and at noon” (Ps 54 [55]:17), and “seven times a day” (Ps 118 [119]:164).1 The hours of prayer are not reserved to monasteries: they belong to the whole Church, and every Christian can take part in them, in church or at home, in a full or a shortened form.
Following the biblical reckoning (“there was evening and there was morning, the first day,” Gen 1:5), the liturgical day begins at sunset. The ancient hours of the day were counted from sunrise, so that the “third hour” falls about nine in the morning, the “sixth hour” about noon, and the “ninth hour” about three in the afternoon.
Vespers
“Let my prayer arise in your sight as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” (Ps 140 [141]:2)
The day begins at sunset with Vespers. In the ancient world, the lighting of the lamps marked a real transition, which our electric world has largely forgotten. Vespers opens with the psalm of creation (Ps 103 [104]), and at its heart the Church sings Psalm 140 [141], whose words recall the evening offering of incense in the temple.2 At the lighting of the lamps, the ancient hymn “O Gladsome Light” praises Christ as the true light that does not set. Vespers is a service of thanksgiving for the day that has passed.
Compline
“In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” (Ps 4:8)
Compline, the prayer “after supper,” is the prayer before sleep. It is a time to examine the day, to ask forgiveness for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, and to commend ourselves to God for the night. Small Compline is the form most often used, in church and at home; Great Compline is served on the eves of the Nativity and of Theophany and on the weekdays of Great Lent.
The Midnight Office
“At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous judgments.” (Ps 118 [119]:62)
In monasteries, the brethren rise in the night to pray, recalling the parable of the bridegroom who comes at midnight (Mat 25:6) and the example of Paul and Silas, who “were praying and singing hymns to God” at midnight in prison (Act 16:25). In parishes, the Midnight Office is often read before Matins on great feasts, and above all on the night of Pascha.
Matins (Orthros)
“O God, my God, I rise early to seek you.” (Ps 62 [63]:1)
Matins greets the coming of the day. It begins with the Six Psalms (Ps 3, 37, 62, 87, 102 and 142 LXX), read in silence and attention, and continues with the praise of God through the Psalter, the canon of odes based on the biblical canticles, and the Great Doxology, “Glory to God in the highest.” In the morning, we give thanks for the gift of a new day and ask God’s blessing on our work.
The First Hour
“In the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you.” (Ps 5:3)
The First Hour, at the beginning of the working day, is usually joined to Matins. Its psalms (Ps 5, 89 and 100 LXX) ask God to guide our steps, and its final prayer addresses Christ as “the true light which enlightens everyone” coming into the world (Joh 1:9). It recalls the morning on which the Lord was brought before Pilate.
The Third Hour
“Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Ps 50 [51]:11)
The Third Hour, about nine in the morning, recalls the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost: “these [people] are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only the third hour of the day!” (Act 2:15). It also recalls the condemnation and crucifixion of the Lord (Mrk 15:25). Its psalms (Ps 16, 24 and 50 LXX) ask God for a clean heart and for the renewal of the Spirit within us.
The Sixth Hour
“It was about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land.” (Luk 23:44)
The Sixth Hour, at noon, recalls the crucifixion of the Lord, “who stretched out his hands on the cross” to gather all the nations to himself. It was also the hour at which Peter went up on the housetop to pray and received the vision that opened the Church to the nations (Act 10:9–16). Its psalms (Ps 53, 54 and 90 LXX) ask for God’s protection in the middle of the day’s labor.
The Ninth Hour
“Jesus cried out with a loud voice and gave up the spirit.” (Mrk 15:37)
The Ninth Hour, about three in the afternoon, recalls the death of the Lord on the cross and his promise of Paradise to the repentant thief (Luk 23:43). It was “the hour of prayer” at which Peter and John would “go up into the temple” (Act 3:1), and the hour at which the centurion Cornelius was praying when the angel appeared to him (Act 10:3, 30). Its psalms (Ps 83, 84 and 85 LXX) express the longing for the house of God: “How lovely are your dwellings, O Lord of hosts!” The Ninth Hour is usually read just before Vespers, and so the cycle begins again.
The hours in daily life
For most Christians who do not live in a monastery, keeping the whole cycle is not practical. It is practical, however, to pause at these times, even for a minute, to say the troparion of the hour, the Lord’s Prayer or the Jesus Prayer. The Catechism recommends a rule that is “modest and steady rather than ambitious and irregular,” so that the remembrance of God accompanies every action of the day.3 The article Establishing a Rule of Prayer explains how such a rule may be built.
Several books provide the hours in a form suitable for use at home, without a priest, among them A Manual of the Hours of the Orthodox Church, compiled by Archimandrite Cherubim (Monastery of the Paraclete, Attica, Greece; translated and published by the Community of the Holy Myrrhbearers, 1993), and The Hours of Prayer published by the Orthodox Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary.
Notes
- Laurent Cleenewerck de Kiev, The Catechism of the Orthodox Christian Faith: A Revised and Expanded Catechism of the Orthodox Faith, pre-release ed. (2026), Q395.
- Laurent Cleenewerck de Kiev, The Dwelling Place of God: Temple Theology in the Bible and in Eastern Orthodox Worship (Washington, DC: Euclid University Press, 2026).
- Cleenewerck de Kiev, Catechism, Q395.
