Divine Office

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Marian

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I’m new to this, so excuse me if I make a mistake! What I’m after is info relating to the Divine Office. I’m hoping to join the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites and one of the requirements involves certain prayers from the Office. The only problem is, I don’t know which week I should be using - the edition of the Office that I’m using only covers 1976-1999 and I can’t figure it out!

If you can help, or have any experience of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, I’d love to hear from you.
 
two things:

1- you can purchase the divine office guide for year 2004, or

2- go to www.salvationhistory.com , Scott Hahn’s web site and there is a link there with each day’s readings and psalms.
 
👍 Thanks - I followed the link and it was very useful. I’ve saved it and will print it off for future reference.
 
Dear Marian,

Perhaps you are simply wondering where to start in the book. If that is the case, today, Thursday, May 27, you would say the Office of:

Thursday, Week III
Seventh Week of Easter
or
St. Augustine of Canterbury

If you are in England, chances are that today is a feast day for you. If so, you’d take everything from St. Augustine. Otherwise, you’d say the psalms from week III and everything from the reading to the concluding prayer would be from Thursday of the VII week of Easter.

Hope that helps but you’ll just have to struggle with it for a few months, like everyone else!

Sincerely yours in our Lord,
Br. Dan (OCD :))
 
You can also get the Divine office readings online at Universalis.com . It does not cost anything and it is much easier to use than finding the right way to flip through the pages of the written books. You can also download the prayers onto a PDA. I find this very convenient. By the way, you can also get the daily mass readings on a PDA through the avantgo site Mobile Gabriel
 
I’d love to hear more on the Order you’re joining. Is this the Carmelite Third Order? Is it for lay people? What are the obligations? etc. Thanks!
 
Are you sure it’s the Divine Office? Because I thought Carmelites did the Little Office of the BVM.

Scott
 
I suppose they could but the promise they make (at least now–I don’t know about the past) is to try to say portions of the Divine Office.
 
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DBT:
I’d love to hear more on the Order you’re joining. Is this the Carmelite Third Order? Is it for lay people? What are the obligations? etc. Thanks!
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🙂 Thanks for your interest. Here’s some info, taken from the leaflet that first got me interested:

“Secular Carmelites are lay people (and sometimes diocesan priests) who are called to live the Carmelite life of contemplative prayer and apostolic action. Living fully their secular lives, they are also fully members of the Carmelite family, living by the same Rule, sharing its vocation and its spirituality… The Carmelite Rule is the Rule of St Albert… Discalced Carmelites follow especially the spiritual teachings of the great reformers of Carmel, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross… Our daily life as Secular Carmelites involves then, prayerful Bible reading, at least half an hour of silent prayer and the recitation of Morning, Evening and Night Prayer from the Divine Office. Mass should be at the centre of our day, as far as this is possible. Becoming a Secular Carmelite takes 6 years. In the first year, an enquirer gets to know a group and begins to discern his or her vocation. Two years of formation then lead to the First Promise to live in the Spirit of the Evangelical Counsels and the Beatitudes. Three years later, a Final Promise is made, for life.”

If you use a good search engine you should be able to find some more information. Living in England I like to use www.carmelite.org.uk Perhaps you could start there.
 
Scott Waddell:
Are you sure it’s the Divine Office? Because I thought Carmelites did the Little Office of the BVM.
Scott
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Yes, I do mean the Divine Office! I quote from one of their leaflets:

“Our daily life as Secular Carmelites involves then, prayerful Bible reading … and the recitation of Morning, Evening and Night Prayer from the Divine Office.”

I hope this clarifies things for you.
Cheers.
 
Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would resurrect this one…

I am considering oblation to a Benedictine Abbey in Mount Angel, OR ( www.mtangel.edu ), and I would like to start praying the Divine Office. I won’t be able to make a retreat there soon due to finances, so I’m hoping some of you will know the answers to the following:
  1. When is the “Office of Readings” done? Anytime?
  2. How do you pray the various prayers by yourself? Do you skip the hymns, or read them? I might sing them if I knew the tunes, but I don’t 🙂 . Do you read aloud or to yourself? Does it matter?
Any other tips/suggestions are appreciated.

Note: I am using the downloads of the USA four-volume Breviary from www.liturgyhours.org . I was using the universalis site, but I’ve been told that the readings are different (by someone at liturgyhours). I plan on praying them as close to the time of the Abbey as I can, except Vigils - I can never seem to find those readings and will probably pray Lauds at that time and attend Mass at 6:30A, so I can make it to work on time.

God Bless and Thanks in Advance!

Robert.
 
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rlg94086:
Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would resurrect this one…

I am considering oblation to a Benedictine Abbey in Mount Angel, OR ( www.mtangel.edu ), and I would like to start praying the Divine Office. I won’t be able to make a retreat there soon due to finances, so I’m hoping some of you will know the answers to the following:
  1. When is the “Office of Readings” done? Anytime?
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Yes. The Office of Readings may be said anytime.
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rlg94086:
  1. How do you pray the various prayers by yourself? Do you skip the hymns, or read them? I might sing them if I knew the tunes, but I don’t 🙂 . Do you read aloud or to yourself? Does it matter?
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Since the general instructions to the hours refers to “reciting” the Office, I always move my lips while praying the Office. I recite the hymns in the same manner as reciting a poem.

Remember that the Divine Office is liturgy, not a personal devotion, so you shouldn’t skip/customize parts of the Office to extensively without good reason. 🙂
 
Our Oblates try to put in a little extra when we sign up for our annual retreat for “scholarships” for oblates who can’t afford the amount, you might quietly ask your oblate director about this possibility.

I could not lick the problem of being distracted during LOTH until I started praying the psalms out loud, as intended. Now I no longer go through 3 psalms without remembering what I read. Rather than sing the hymns when I am alone, I put on a CD of instrumental hymns on low volume to accompany my prayer. but if its a hymn I like, I just sing out loud for the joy of it (when I am alone in the house). I often have trouble sleeping, so I say the Office of Readings in the middle of the night, as vigils, its natural place. but it can be said any time, great matter for your spiritual reading or lectio.
 
Wow! That was quick and easy! I love this forum!

Thank you mike0219116 and puzzleannie. I’ve been whispering the readings…it also helps me keep focussed. I didn’t know the Office of Readings was traditionally done at Vigils. That may work for me, as well.

I’ve only been skipping the hymn, because the Universalis site just says “*A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point”**. *Now that I’m using the Breviary, I’ll read it as poetry.

If I can take a 1/2 hour during lunchtime to spend in adoration, is it okay to pray the Daytime Prayer and the Office of Readings during this time?

Thanks,

Robert.
**
 
I was wondering if any one has discovered a cd that has some or most or (ideally) all of the hymns that are used for the divine office.
Many Thanks!
 
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rlg94086:
Wow! That was quick and easy! I love this forum!

I’ve only been skipping the hymn, because the Universalis site just says “*A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point”**. *Now that I’m using the Breviary, I’ll read it as poetry.
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This is one reason why I recommend AGAINST the Universalis site. It’s woefully inadequate, and it does not use the approved translation.
If I can take a 1/2 hour during lunchtime to spend in adoration, is it okay to pray the Daytime Prayer and the Office of Readings during this time?
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Yes you may. The General Instruction provides for this. You pray the Office of Readings first. You may sing the hymn designated for Daytime Prayer during the Office of Readings. When you’re done, you omit the concluding prayer for the Office of Readings, and proceed directly to the first antiphon and the psalmody for Daytime Prayer, omitting the introduction “God come to my assistance…” and the “Glory to the Father…”. You conclude with the prayer designated at the Daytime Prayer.
 
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serendipity:
I was wondering if any one has discovered a cd that has some or most or (ideally) all of the hymns that are used for the divine office.
Many Thanks!
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I don’t know of a CD, but a significant number of the tunes can be found at cyberhymnal.org. Even though the exact hymn may not be present, the melody might be.

You will always find the melody, indicated such as “Old 100th LM” or “St. Anne CM” or “Picardy 87.87”. The first words are the tune name (e.g. “St. Anne”) and the last is the meter (CM, LM, 87.87, CMD, 11.11.11.10, etc.).

The cyberhymnal contains sections marked “Tunes by Meter” and “Tunes by Name”. So you can search by meter or name and listen to a MIDI rendition of the tune. I learned many of the hymns this way. If you really can’t find your tune, it is permissible to sing the hymn to another tune used in the breviary with the same meter.

If you have the one-volume Christian Prayer by Catholic Book Publishing, it contains sheet music for the hymns. If you can’t read music, I think there is some software out there that can help. I personally use my Nokia mobile phone’s ring tone composer.
 
My question is:
Are we limited rubrically to the hymns given in the English translation? Can we use the Latin hymns in the typical Latin version? Is there any place we can find them short of buying the Latin edition?
I don’t care for the idea that “Morning Has Broken” has somehow become “canonized” as the official hymn for certain weekdays in the 4 week Psalter.
 
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