The Second Vatican Council's constitution on the liturgy calls the Divine Office the prayer of Christ with his Body to the Father: when the Church prays the psalms, it is Christ himself who continues his priestly work through her, and the hours of the day are consecrated by the praise of God. Saint Paul VI promulgated the revised Liturgy of the Hours in 1970 in the apostolic constitution Laudis canticum, which distributed the one hundred fifty psalms over a four-week cycle and restored a rich selection of biblical and patristic readings. The office has five hours. The Office of Readings may be prayed at any time and offers a longer passage of Scripture with a reading from the Fathers, the saints, or a Church document. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns, the Council says, and they are the hours most suited to celebration with a parish congregation. Daytime Prayer may be prayed once or, in monastic use, three times as Midmorning, Midday, and Midafternoon Prayer. Night Prayer closes the day before sleep. The hours share a common shape: an introductory versicle, a hymn, psalmody, a reading with a responsory, and a concluding prayer. Morning and Evening Prayer add a Gospel canticle with its antiphon — the Benedictus of Zechariah in the morning and the Magnificat of Mary in the evening — followed by intercessions and the Lord's Prayer. Night Prayer includes an examination of conscience, the canticle of Simeon, and one of the Marian antiphons, such as the Salve Regina or, in Eastertide, the Regina Caeli. The texts change with the seasons and with the celebrations of the calendar; on solemnities there is a first Evening Prayer on the preceding day. Bishops, priests, and deacons preparing for priesthood are bound to pray the whole office daily; permanent deacons are bound to the portion determined by their conference of bishops, and religious according to their own constitutions. The Council warmly encouraged the laity to pray the Hours, alone, in families, or with a parish community, and the availability of the office in print and in electronic form has made this far easier. Praying Morning and Evening Prayer in a parish, especially on Sundays and in Advent and Lent, is one of the simplest ways to recover the Church's own daily prayer.

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