The Society of St. Margaret welcomes others for Evensong in Lent, at various South Shore locations on these Sundays:  Feb. 26 at 3:30 p.m. at Linden Ponds (203 Linden Ponds Way) in Hingham; March 11 at 4 p.m. at the Society of St. Margaret chapel (Harden Hill Road) in Duxbury; and March 25 at 2:30 p.m. at The Village (290 Kings Town Way) in Duxbury.

All are welcome; visit http://www.ssmbos.com/happenings for more information.

The roots of the Service of Evensong date back to the early church; communal prayer at specified hours of the day has always been a part of the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

In the monastic practices of the Western church, members of religious orders gathered seven or more times daily for the Divine Office, as the Hours of Prayer came to be called. Evensong (or Evening Prayer) is the Book of Common Prayer’s compression of the ancient monastic offices into two daily services, Matins and Evening Prayer, as arranged by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the mid-16th century. The prayer life of the monasteries was simplified and offered to the whole church, now including the laity in addition to the clergy and religious orders.  Choral Evensong, based on the Benedictine pattern of reciting psalms and canticles, and listening to Scripture, is designed to increase our attentiveness.