Taken from:
Ritual for Public Functions Franciscan Third Order

 

Our TOF Ritual book advises us to be watchful not to fall into a monotony and routine when reciting the Offices.  The Ritual provides us with a “Prayer before Reciting the Hours” as an aid in praying the Office with fervor.

“The Office (that is, duty or charge) entrusted to us by Mother Church makes us ambassadors whose role it is in the name of mankind to glorify God, to render thanks for His continuous blessings, to ask His pardon, and in fine to secure for the world the graces of which it stands in need.  That is saying enough to make us realize how serious and earnest we ought to be in discharging the duty, while at the same time it intimates that our Office should have the priority over any private devotion.”

 

Prayer before Reciting the Hours

With the right thumb make the sign of the Cross on the lips while beginning the following prayer:

O Lord, open my mouth to bless your Holy Name; cleanse my heart, too, from all vain, perverse, and distracting thoughts; enlighten my understanding, inflame my affections: that I may recite this Office with worthy attention and devotion, and may deserve to be heard in the sight of your Divine majesty.  Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Lord, I offer you these Hours in union with that Divine intention wherewith You offered praise to God while You were on earth.