|1.||an evening prayer, service, or hymn|
|2.||an archaic word for evening|
|3.||(modifier) of or relating to vespers|
|[C14: from Latin: evening, the evening star; compare Greek hesperos evening; see |
|1.||chiefly RC Church the sixth of the seven canonical hours of the divine office, originally fixed for the early evening and now often made a public service on Sundays and major feast days|
|2.||another word for evensong|
evening prayer of thanksgiving and praise in Roman Catholic and certain other Christian liturgy. Vespers and lauds (morning prayer) are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of the hours. Many scholars believe vespers is based on Judaic forms of prayer and point to a daily evening celebration observed among Jews in the first century before Christ.
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