None (liturgy)

Nones (/ˈnoʊnz/), also known as None (Latin: Nona, "Ninth"), the Ninth Hour, or the Midafternoon Prayer, is a fixed time of prayer of the Divine Office of almost all the traditional Christian liturgies. It consists mainly of psalms and is said around 3 pm, about the ninth hour after dawn. Following Vatican II, the hour is optional in the Catholic Church: it may be said whenever convenient during the day or omitted entirely. However, bishops and priests are still expected to recite the full sequence of hours, as closely as possible to the traditional time of day.

According to an Ancient Greek and Roman custom, the day was, like the night, divided into four parts, each consisting of three hours. Among the ancients the hour of Nones was regarded as the close of the day's business and the time for the baths and supper. This division of the day was in vogue also among the Jews, from whom the Church borrowed it. In addition to Morning and Evening Prayer to accompany the sacrifices, there was prayer at the Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours of the day.

The Apostles continued to frequent the Temple at the customary hours of prayer (Acts 3:1) "Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer".

At an early date mystical reasons for the division of the day were sought. St. Cyprian sees in the hours of Terce, Sext and Nones, which come after a lapse of three hours, an allusion to the Trinity. He adds that these hours already consecrated to prayer under the Old Dispensation have been sanctified in the New Testament by great mysteries—Terce by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles; Sext by the prayers of St. Peter, the reception of the Gentiles into the Church, or yet again by the crucifixion of Christ; Nones by the death of Christ.St. Basil merely recalls that it was at the ninth hour that the Apostles Peter and John were wont to go to the Temple to pray. St. John Cassian, who adopts the Cyprian interpretation for Terce and Sext, sees in the Hour of Nones the descent of Christ into hell. But, as a rule, it is the death of Christ that is commemorated at the Hour of Nones.

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