Divine Office

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henrikhank

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Pax!
I want to pray the Divine Office. What book(s) should I buy? I found a website with the Divine Office but I had to buy many books? I am not a Priest so I don’t really need the full Office. Now I just go to divinumofficium.com and read the daily readings (but the website doesn’t have all Swedish saints) and some psalms. What do yoy recomend?
 
henrikhank said:
Pax!
I want to pray the Divine Office. What book(s) should I buy? I found a website with the Divine Office but I had to buy many books? I am not a Priest so I don’t really need the full Office. Now I just go to divinumofficium.com and read the daily readings (but the website doesn’t have all Swedish saints) and some psalms. What do yoy recomend?
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The Liturgy of the Hours is a four-volume set, corresponding to different times of the year (two books for Ordinary Time, one for Advent, one for Easter). So if you want to pray it continuously throughout the year, you’d need the whole set. Or you can just use divineoffice.org, which is pretty good, though I’m annoyed by its tendency to peddle their own music and I find the voice recordings just dreadfully hammy.

The Divinum Officium (the pre-conciliar equivalent of the LotH) is produced in a three-volume set by Baronius Press, last I heard. Like the LotH, you need the full set if you want to pray it throughout the year.
 
KP3243 said:
If you have smart phone or computer or tablet you can get an App on iTunes which is easier than flipping through the sections which the laity struggle with but I bet there are some pros on here who could help that.
christianbook.com/liturgy-of-the-hours/9780899424095/pd/424096?dv=t&en=google-pla&event=PLASHOP&kw=ingram-150-200&p=1167941&gclid=CMaA_JbQzb8CFQSoaQodVY0AcA
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I use the iBreviary app. It’s run by a Catholic priest in Italy and has everything you need to pray the Office everyday. Plus, it’s free!
 
sw85 said:
The Liturgy of the Hours is a four-volume set, corresponding to different times of the year (two books for Ordinary Time, one for Advent, one for Easter). So if you want to pray it continuously throughout the year, you’d need the whole set. Or you can just use divineoffice.org, which is pretty good, though I’m annoyed by its tendency to peddle their own music and I find the voice recordings just dreadfully hammy.

The Divinum Officium (the pre-conciliar equivalent of the LotH) is produced in a three-volume set by Baronius Press, last I heard. Like the LotH, you need the full set if you want to pray it throughout the year.
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Talk about overkill…

If you have not done this before, and are not entirely sure how much you want to venture into it, the simplest way (and it is incomplete) is to pick up a current copy of the booklet Magnificat. It has part of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, as well as other meditations and readings of the day.

If you want to get into it a bit more, Shorter Christian Prayer has Morning (Lauds) Prayer and Evening (Vespers) Prayer on a 4 week basis, with Night (Compline) Prayer, and some additional feast days. it is a less expensive, but fairly adequate source (we used it in the mid 1960’s when I was in college seminary). It doesn’t have all the hours, but it would be my suggestion that you work into this, rather than try to jump in whole-hog. Attempting too much, until you have the actual discipline down to do Lauds and Vespers regularly, is a good way to find the book(s) sitting on a shelf in three months to six months, unused because they overwhelmed you.

The next step up is the one volume (I think it is titled "Christian Prayer) and is more complete.

The full set (and expensive relative to the others) is 4 volumes and has all the hours, feasts, and etc.

Those were the steps I went through.

I would suggest Shorter Christian Prayer; there may be times you will not be able to access the internet, or locations where it may not be the most appropriate medium. It is a slim book, handy, and a great starting place. Give it a couple of years before jumping to the one volume set.
 
After taking a 4-session series about the Divine Office presented by my parish, I purchased the one-volume Christian Prayer. In my amateur opinion, it is a good place for a layperson to start. Yes, there’s a bit of fumbling and learning associated with finding the correct readings for the day, but there are guides published each year that assist.
 
I bet the books of LoTH does not even mention St Erik. That would be a problem. We even celebrated his feastday on a Sunday. How should one do in that case?

What exactly is the difference between saying the LoTH in the Ordinary and Extraordinary form?

Another question: if a person visit another country where they have other feastdays. Should the person then celebrate the feastday of that country or. …?
 
henrikhank said:
I bet the books of LoTH does not even mention St Erik. That would be a problem. We even celebrated his feastday on a Sunday. How should one do in that case?
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If you’re looking for a Swedish breviary with the Swedish saints, your best bet (since you are in Sweden) is probably to ask a local Catholic diocesan priest for a recommendation. Being a priest, he is bound to praying the LOTH daily and thus he will own a breviary himself. If the Swedish liturgical calendar includes the feast of St. Erik, the propers should appear in the breviary used in Sweden. My French breviary has nation-specific propers for North Africa, Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The saints cited in each of these sections are significant for those particular countries.
henrikhank said:
What exactly is the difference between saying the LoTH in the Ordinary and Extraordinary form?
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I have never prayed the LOTH in EF and am not sure what that even means, so I will leave this question to others who are more knowledgeable than I. Sorry.
henrikhank said:
Another question: if a person visit another country where they have other feastdays. Should the person then celebrate the feastday of that country or. …?
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In my experience (which is by no means extensive, authoritative or definitive), it depends. I live in France, so at home I pray according to the French calendar. When I visited my parents in January, I continued to pray according to the French calendar even though I was physically in the US because I was only there temporarily and I prayed alone; under these circumstances and in the absence of proper solemnities or feasts, the General Instructions of the LOTH allows this (Chapter IV, Section III, number 243). On retreat earlier this month at a Benedictine abbey in England, however, I prayed using their monastic breviary and calendar because we prayed in community. I couldn’t very well chant in French while everyone else chanted in English or Latin!
 
henrikhank said:
I bet the books of LoTH does not even mention St Erik. That would be a problem. We even celebrated his feastday on a Sunday. How should one do in that case?

What exactly is the difference between saying the LoTH in the Ordinary and Extraordinary form?

Another question: if a person visit another country where they have other feastdays. Should the person then celebrate the feastday of that country or. …?
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If you need to celebrate St. Erik, you need to know what kind of saint he is (Martyr, Priest/Bishop, Religious, or layman). From there, you would say his office taking the necessary texts from the appropriate Common.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I have never prayed the LOTH in EF and am not sure what that even means, so I will leave this question to others who are more knowledgeable than I. Sorry.
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It’s the 1960 pre-Vatican II breviary that was promulgated starting in 1910 by Pius X. The main difference besides the different structure of liturgical year and feasts, is that the psalter is spread out over 1 week instead of 4 in the modern LOTH.

BTW I use the same French breviary as you when I do the 4-week LOTH, and a Monastic breviary at other times.
 
This depends as to what language to wish to read it in:

English:
There are sort of TWO options are there derivatives:
  • The British Version: The 3 Volume Divine Office (Collins Published)
  • The American Version: The 4 Volume Liturgy of the Hours (Catholic Publishing Company)
Latin:
  • There can only be one: The Baronius Press Roman Breviary → The greatest and fullest Roman Breviary you could hope to buy although it is very traditional and contains the old layout (which is still accepted and was actually encouraged by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI): Besides the Latin is an English translation and all the instructions are in English 🙂 baroniuspress.com/category.php?wid=79&cid=13
Swedish:
  • I can’t help you with Swedish, sorry, although ask your local Priest and he will obviously know (although he may use the Latin, he’ll still know the best Swedish version to invest in)
 
OraLabora said:
It’s the 1960 pre-Vatican II breviary that was promulgated starting in 1910 by Pius X. The main difference besides the different structure of liturgical year and feasts, is that the psalter is spread out over 1 week instead of 4 in the modern LOTH.
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Ah.* Je me coucherai moins bête ce soir.
*
I suppose the ICRSS uses this breviary…? The local apostolate has public offices every day (not all of them, just Lauds, Sext, Vespers and Compline), so if I can find the time to get out there I could probably find out for myself.
OraLabora said:
BTW I use the same French breviary as you when I do the 4-week LOTH, and a Monastic breviary at other times.
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There’s more than one French four-week LOTH breviary? I just went to the bookstore where everyone around here goes for religious books—it’s not a religious bookstore per se, but that’s where one goes if one seeks religious articles including books—asked for the four-volume LOTH breviary, and that’s what they sold me. It’s Éditions du Cerf set.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
Ah.* Je me coucherai moins bête ce soir.
*
I suppose the ICRSS uses this breviary…? The local apostolate has public offices every day (not all of them, just Lauds, Sext, Vespers and Compline), so if I can find the time to get out there I could probably find out for myself.

There’s more than one French four-week LOTH breviary? I just went to the bookstore where everyone around here goes for religious books—it’s not a religious bookstore per se, but that’s where one goes if one seeks religious articles including books—asked for the four-volume LOTH breviary, and that’s what they sold me. It’s Éditions du Cerf set.
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I don’t know if there are any others; the one we use is good for Africa, Canada, Europe. My mother tongue is French so I prefer French and Latin for liturgical prayer. I couldn’t recite the Our Father or Hail Mary in English to save my life!
 
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