I have also heard it said that the Roman Breviary itself, as a concept, all the prayers of the whole liturgy of the hours in one book, was a Franciscan invention, to aid the itinerant friars, who couldn’t have the many prayer books the Benedictine monks had at their disposal. I am not sure the source for it, but it would explan why the Roman church has a single breviary while the Eastern churches generally dont, and why the Franciscans never had their own liturgical rite like the Dominicans, Carthusians and other orders of a similar age had. In a way, you can’t get more Franciscan than praying the ordinary prayer of the Church.
Actually, we have always had our own missals, lectionaries and breviary. In fact, what is today the TLM was originally the Franciscan’s mass. Innocent III gave Francis an old missal and lectionary, because the brothers did not have one. The friars began to use it. It evolved and become very popular, because the friars were itinerant preachers it spread through Europe like wild-fire. At Trent the Church realized that this form of the mass was the most commonly used of the many forms being used. Between Trent and Pius V (40 years later, give or take) it was polished up by the pope and made the official form of the mass of the Roman Church.
But we always kept the Roman-Missal and the Roman-Breviary with the additional offices and masses for the Franciscan saints. We also kept our own liturgical calendar. To this day, we have never followed the Roman liturgical calendar fully. We use it on those days when there are no Franciscan staints. Otherwise, we use the mass and office of the day on the Franciscan calendar.
Our breviary is four volumes. It was three, until the liturgical reform after Vatican II. When the Office of Readings was reorganized and the number of Franciscan saints increased, the number of volumes to the breviary increased as well.
What we never did was use Gregorian chant for the Liturgy of the Hours or the mass. That was a moanstic custom that spread throughout the Church, except to the Franciscans. We used a form of chant known as plain chant during the mass, for those parts that had to be chanted. We used no music at all for the Liturgy of the Hours. Francis forbade it and Pope Honorius approved it in perpetuity. It remained that way until 1978. Pope Paul VI lifted the prohibition just before he died. But music became optional at the Divine Office, never mandatory and Gregorian Chant was one of the options that Paul VI allowed us to use. But we could use other forms of music, as long as we prayed the liturgy of the day.
In addition, we have always had choral recitation of the office. In the rule, St. Francis wrote that there must always be at least two brothers to recite the office together. A brotrher may not recite the office alone. This is for the purpose of preserving the brotherhood. Brotherhood has always taken the primacy in our life of prayer and ministry. Everything flows from our relationship with each other. It’s a rather strange concept, because other religious orders do not have the primacy emphasis on brotherhood. Community enriches the prayer life of the other religious orders. In the case of the Francisans, community is the source of prayer. No community = no prayer. The only exception to that rule is when traveling alone. That’s why we never live alone. You can’t pray. In the Franciscan tradition, all prayer rises out of the family, as a family, for the family and flows from the family for the benefit of the universal Church.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
