What Is Vespers in the Bible?
Feast
The Church’s evening prayer, at the hour when the lamps are lit. The Magnificat is prayed in it.
It can mean
- Its canticle: Mary’s canticle, the “Magnificat.”
- In the Bible: a psalm asks that our prayer rise like incense, like the evening sacrifice.
Where it appears in the Bible
Luke 1:46; Psalms 141:2
What the Bible says
Luke 1:46
And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord.
Psalms 141:2
Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catechism 1174-1178; RAE, “vísperas”; USCCB, “Liturgy of the Hours”