Another old Divine Office Question

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I know that perhaps a bunch of questions in different forms must have come out in the past but well, here I go.

A priest recently gave me an old copy of a 1965 edition of the Divine Office in the vernacular which he did not want. He knew I was real into the extraordinary form of the Mass and stuff like that. Anyway, it had the exact same psalms, arrangement and feasts as found in 1962 or maybe even older like 1958 or something like that.

Anyway, would it be okay for me to recite this office as a lay person and would I still be partaking in the liturgy (that is the extraordinary form of the breviary) of the Church or would it be mere private devotion like say a novena? Was it customary in the old days for the laity to say offices in the vernacular and still be considered participating in the liturgy? Did religious (i.e. nuns or brothers but not priests) say the office in the vernacular in 1962? I just wanted to ask because I don’t want to pray this if it is just a mere devotion, I want to pray it as a liturgy.

Thanks for you help.
 
I don’t know the answers, but I’ll give you my take on this.

For the laity to say the Breviary is always a private devotion, yet it is also always praying the prayer of the Church. We should, naturally, take care to pray the actual prayer of the Church (thus, per the motu proprio, we can pray the new LotH, or the '62 Breviary, but the older ones might be debatable).

I don’t think there is a problem saying it in English; after all, as long as you are uniting yourself to it, then you having to say it in English doesn’t present a barrier. Of course, it would be nice to pray it in Latin, but for many (myself included) this represents a real barrier to prayer because we don’t know what it says [Baronius, hurry up!!]). I think it would be a problem if a Priest prayed the '62 Breviary in Latin, but that is not what you’re asking.

In short, you will be uniting yourself with the Church, both now and throughout the ages. Fire away! (Oh, and be sure to read matins - lots of spiritual “food” in there!)

By the way, though you say it was a '65 edition, it could easily be the same as the '62. Is it the Collegeville edition?
 
Yes it is the 1965 Collegeville edition of Lauds Vespers and Compline.
 
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