Latin Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours

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It is very expensive, but as a lay Dominican who will be saying the Office for the rest of my life after final promises, I justified it to myself as being my last breviary set (unless of course something unforeseeable happens).
 
catholic03 said:
Do you have the OF set as well?
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A set? No, but I do have the red Christian Prayer book from before I started praying the EF Office.
catholic03 said:
Also, does the Dominican Order have its own Divine Office?
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We do, yes. It is pretty close to the OF LOTH, only it uses the Dominican calendar and Compline ends with a hymn to St. Dominic. When praying the Office in choir, it is traditional for one side to be standing and the other to be sitting, and to switch for each Psalms. This is a nod to the contemplative and active nature of the Order.
 
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From what I understand, and through my research, it seems the only Latin/English breviary you can get is the Baronius Press one.
 
Fauken said:
We do, yes. It is pretty close to the OF LOTH, only it uses the Dominican calendar and Compline ends with a hymn to St. Dominic. When praying the Office in choir, it is traditional for one side to be standing and the other to be sitting, and to switch for each Psalms. This is a nod to the contemplative and active nature of the Order.
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Out of interest, why not pray the Dominican Liturgy of the Hours (purely my curious mind at work!)?
 
catholic03 said:
Out of interest, why not pray the Dominican Liturgy of the Hours (purely my curious mind at work!)?
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I’d love to, but I don’t have a Dominican calendar to use. Plus there’s the hairy matter of mixing the current Dominican calendar with the calendar of the 1962 Office. If I’m praying the “normal” 1962 Office, then I need to follow the rubrics for it. There are some allowances for the Saints of the Order (when it’s St. Dominic’s feast day, for example, I would pray it as a first class feast instead of a third), but I am supposed to be sticking to the rubrics as it is a liturgical prayer. I would love to get my hands on a set of 1962 Dominican breviaries, but Dominican liturgical books from before Vatican II are very hard to find and are normally quite expensive.
 
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Fauken said:
I’d love to, but I don’t have a Dominican calendar to use. Plus there’s the hairy matter of mixing the current Dominican calendar with the calendar of the 1962 Office. If I’m praying the “normal” 1962 Office, then I need to follow the rubrics for it. There are some allowances for the Saints of the Order (when it’s St. Dominic’s feast day, for example, I would pray it as a first class feast instead of a third), but I am supposed to be sticking to the rubrics as it is a liturgical prayer. I would love to get my hands on a set of 1962 Dominican breviaries, but Dominican liturgical books from before Vatican II are very hard to find and are normally quite expensive.
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Interesting, I am sure that it will be most spiritually fulfilling to pray the 1962 Office.

I don’t get to pray all of the Ordinary Form Liturgy of the Hours due to my schoolwork etc, but when I do it is very fulfilling and I hope to pray it everyday when I am older. What a spiritual blessing that would be!
 
catholic03 said:
Interesting, I am sure that it will be most spiritually fulfilling to pray the 1962 Office.

I don’t get to pray all of the Ordinary Form Liturgy of the Hours due to my schoolwork etc, but when I do it is very fulfilling and I hope to pray it everyday when I am older. What a spiritual blessing that would be!
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That is my hope as well! I hope to some day add Compline to my routine, but I’m still trying to pray Vespers in the afternoon instead of before I go to sleep. 😅 I would definitely like to start praying Matins when I retire, but maybe one Lent I’ll decide to take up the lovely prayer/penance of praying Matins at its traditional time: midnight! 🤣
 
I know a priest who prays the OF LOTH in Latin, but he uses an app on his phone. Not sure which one.
 
Possibly iBreviary.

As someone who has been praying the Divine Office for nearly 20 years, I think it is important to not overdo it. Find a balance that works well with your life’s realities. It is documented that prior to the council many secular priests in France had simply abandoned the Office as it was too long and incompatible with their workload.

I myself have tried the Office of the abbey I’m Oblate of. It’s all 150 psalms in a week. As I like to chant the Office that’s simply too much for me, even retired. I spent a month in January living and working at the abbey, and even for the monks it was a heavy load. I worked in the library, as porter and doing some translation work for them, and I was always racing between two bells. Not to mention my room was in the bell tower on the fifth floor. To try and stay fit, I never used the elevator. Up and down 7x per day, total of 35-40 stories of climbing daily. I dropped 10 lbs!

Anyway the 4-week LOTH chanted in Latin with silent pause to meditate each psalm in French, my mother tongue, works great for me. Office of Readings either chanted at 5:30 am, or just read in bed the previous evening after Compline if I’m too tired.

I am after all a layman and not a Religious! My experience is that overdoing it leads to mental fatigue, discouragement and eventually, abandonment. When that happens, Satan scores a win.
 
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