Help w/ Little Office of BVM

[codefro]

I just got the Baronius Press publication. I’m not really sure how to pray the hours. Also, what are the rules of postures when praying the offices. With regards to the church calendar are we in Office 1 or 3?

 

[asia53]

This website will answer your questions: BVM

 

[corsair]

The Little Office of the BVM should not be confused with the Divine Office. It is much simpler. I use an edition written in 1904 and published by St. Bonaventure Press. It has latin and english. The Psalms are from the Douay Rheims Bible.

They are divided up into “during Advent”, “Christmas till Candlemas”, “Candlemas till Advent” and “During Eastertide”. There are also, prayers for Special Commemorations
as well as prayers for before the Office and after the Office.

It takes a bit a study and trial and error but it is well worth it.There is also a great book titled “Living the Little Office” by Sister Marianna Gildea, R.S.M. Its available from Angelus Press. Great book that really helps to comprehend the Little Office.

 

[Laudate_Dominum]

First things first. The Baronius Press edition (that I use) is notorious for errors in the early printing. Check the first couple of pages for a date. If it’s around 2010-2011 it should be fine. But to double check look at Lauds in Office 3. The Little Chapter and Hymn should be the same as Office 1. My printing has the Ave Maris Stella which is wrong. The first verse for Compline’s hymn is wrong in the Latin. It should be Memento Rerum, not O Gloriosa. It’s only the first verse though and the English is fine. Office 2 and 3 None is a wreck. The Antiphon’s are right but the Little Chapter and Versicle and Response is mixed up. You need to read Office 2 None for the Little Chapter and Versicle and Response for Office 3. The Antiphons for Office 2 and 3 Lauds are mixed up as well. But that’s only my edition. Yours might be corrected.

Now all that out there. Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. These are the Hours. Matins at Midnight, Lauds at 3am-Dawn. Prime at 6am. Terce at 9am. Sext at 12pm. None at 3pm. Vespers at 6pm-Evening. Compline at 9pm-before bed. I suggest just sticking with Lauds (when you wake up), Vespers (after supper) and Compline (your bed-time prayer) as a beginner.

I’m sure you’re aware of the general make up of the Hours. At least three Psalms, a hymn, a Little Chapter, etc. The three major Hours I suggested above also have Canticles (such as Our Lady’s Mangificat). These are marked with a red cross at the beginning where you make the sign of the cross (though the Nunc Dimitis at Compline doesn’t have this printed, do it anyway!).

Basically, you just go right through it. Take your time. You don’t have to announce Psalm numbers or the Little Chapter readings. You just reading through it (and recite it!). The Office is actually intended to be sung, and if you can chant, good! I can’t so I just speak the Hours ! There are ceremonies for reciting the Office in choir. Kneeling at certain places, etc. Private recitation isn’t as stict. I only observe bowing during the Gloria Patri and the signs of the cross. Otherwise kneel, stand and sit as you feel comfortable.

There are also Collects at the end. Collects have endings (through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord, etc.) at the end of the collect. They’re very rarely given in full. And sometimes the words are jumbled at the end, given a different arrangement, etc.

We’re in Office 3 right now, and the collects are the same for every Office. The ending is “qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate spiritus sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.” Occasionally the “filium tuum” is dropped after the Jesum Christum in some of the collects, it should’t be though.

So, Office 3. Lauds and Vespers are given in full. Compline you start with Compline in Office 1. When you come to the Little Chapter, you switch to Office 3 (which also contains the antiphon for the Nunc Dimittis in Christmastide). Then do the Office 3 collect and conclude by turning back to Office 1 to finish Compline.

Two notes. First at the Aperi, before the Office. You make the cross on your lips and heart (like at the gospel) though without the forehead. Same with the heart at the Coverte nos at Compline. Secondly, after a Versicle and Response with the Little Chapter, before the Collect, there’s another Versicle and Response. “Domine, exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.”. This isn’t printed in the Office 2 and 3 propers. But always say them before the Collect.

 

[JimmytheButcher]

I just got the Baronius Press publication. I’m not really sure how to pray the hours. Also, what are the rules of postures when praying the offices. With regards to the church calendar are we in Office 1 or 3?

Office 1 is the typical everyday office.
Office 2 are the newish stuff added for Advent.
Office 3 is for Christmastide.

I could be mistaken but the only part of the Little Office that is organic to the same is Office 1. Again, I could be mistaken. I believe that this what I read in the notes contained therein.

In regards to how to pray the Little Office:

1. Praying it or your knees is laudable of course, but reclined in a seat is fine. As you get more into the Little Office you begin to find that praying it on your knees brings a lot to it.
2. Sometimes it is helpful to recite an hour in front of the Tabernacle, but realise that the Little Office is something that will grow into it. Sometimes, I take the book to work and say an hour or two during the day. I try to mix it up.
3. It is good to internalise the Little Office by not biting off more than you can chew. The grievance with most of the other Offices is that they are too large. The Little Office contains nearly everything you ever need to know in the spiritual life so take it slow. It is a great book among great books.
4. The Latin-English facing text is wonderful. I have little problem reciting Latin, a skill most folks probably don’t possess. Learn the English, but know that because it is the prayer of the Church, you do not have to have a firm-solid absolute memorized understanding of what the Latin is saying. You only need to keep the intention of what the Church is trying to pray with each versicle, psalm, and canticle.
5. Don’t forget to pray the Rosary. I have a tendency to do one or the other because I don’t have the spiritual strength to do both most days. I am consoled in a story I read in a book not too long ago where Pope Benedict XVI was said to be overwhelmed by the Rosary and it is taxing to muster more than a decade while some other popes famously recited every mystery under the sun. I can’t run marathons but if I intended to I wouldn’t try to just get out there and go for 26.2. I’d train over the longhaul.

You might notice in the appendix is the Litany of Loretto, and also a common for St. Joseph. Those are nice devotions which square well with the Little Office.

 

[corsair]

You got it right Asia53. That is the Little Office. I think that what some of the others are describing is the “Christian Prayer” book. I have that one also but don’t use it.

I believe the book of Christian Prayer is a short, modern form of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Could be wrong but think not.