Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Can someone explain to me what the difference is between the Divine Office and Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I hear people talk about praying the Divine Office and I have started that myself but recently someone spoke of praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What is the difference? Are they the same, similar or two different prayers? If there is another office to the Blessed Virgin Mary I would like to start that, also. I read that many people flocked to churches in times past during persecutions to pray that office.

Thanks
 
Hi

The little office is available in a small book and is smaller and simpler than the Divine Office.

I am sure if you have a deep devotion to Mary you would enjoy it:getholy:
 
More specifically, the Little Office is simpler and available in a smaller book (my Baronius Press version is 227 pages – and that includes chant notation and appendices; the Office itself only 132 pages) because it only uses a handful of Psalms, and the lessons at Matins are the same every day (except that there is a separate set of readings in Advent).

Conversely, the full Divine Office uses all 150 Psalms on a weekly (pre-Vatican II Breviarium Romanum) or 4-week (post-Vatican II Liturgy of the Hours) cycle, and the lessons at Matins (called the Office of Readings in the LOTH) change every day of the liturgical year. The full Divine Office can be anywhere from a 3-5 volume set of books – one volume Breviaries (pre-conciliar Diurnale; post-conciliar “Christian Prayer”) do not contain Matins/Office of Readings.
 
So, are these two different Offices or is the Little Office of the BVM included in the praying of the Divine Office?

Thanks
 
LilHomemaker said:
So, are these two different Offices or is the Little Office of the BVM included in the praying of the Divine Office?

Thanks
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There is an Office of Our Lady in the Greater Office (the Divine Office) that shares a lot of similarity with the Little Office. Or rather the Little Office is similar to this. Centuries a go clerics were obligated to say the Little Office in addition to the Greater Office. Pope Saint Pius V, of Council of Trent fame, removed this obligation but commanded that the Little Office be printed with the Divine Office for those who wished to say it.

So traditionally the Little Office has always been included in Roman Breviaries, though not in their complete form. Looking at my Roman Breviary only the antiphons, etc., are given with the psalm numbers to be recited. You’d need to flip through the breviary to find the psalms.

However I don’t know is that tradition has been kept in post-Conciliar printings of the 1962 breviary.
 
I have 3 different Little Office of the BVM. One was printed in 1983 and is all in modern english. The second one is from the FSSP and has latin/english, a 1961 printing, I believe.
The third, and my favorite, is printed by Bonaventure Press, 1904, reprint. It has latin/english. The Pslams are from the Douay Rheims Bible.

If you are just getting into these prayers, I would suggest the Little Office, as has been said, it is simpler. The copy I use, Bonaventure Press, varies the Psalms according to the day of the week. It is simple to follow, once you get the “hang” of it. Very little thumbing through pages to find out where you are supposed to be at.

The Divine Office is very beautiful but can be much more complicated. If you opt for the Divine Office, I would suggest a few trips to see a good priest for some lessons in the basics. 🙂
 
The divine office is complicated, but also very beautiful.

You can follow it on line here

divineoffice.org/

It’s a great resource

Enjoy:dancing:
 
One of the things that appeals to me about the LOBVM is that it was traditionally the prayer of the laity while the Divine Office was for religious and clergy. As a lay person, I like customs that preserve these distinctions.
 
floresco said:
One of the things that appeals to me about the LOBVM is that it was traditionally the prayer of the laity while the Divine Office was for religious and clergy. As a lay person, I like customs that preserve these distinctions.
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It’s not so much of a distinction. The Little Office was at one time obligatory for clerics, as noted above. This obligation was at one time attributed to Pope Urban II in 1095, but evidently this attribution is spurious (according to the introduction in the Baronius Press version – the historical essay in the appendix however claims that it was indeed Urban II). Pius V removed the obligation in the wake of the Council of Trent. So, while the Little Office is more appealing and more readily available to the laity because of its simplicity, it does also very much so belong to the clerics and religious.

The Little Office is a beautiful devotion for anyone to practice, regardless of their vocation!
 
IesumPerMariam said:
It’s not so much of a distinction. The Little Office was at one time obligatory for clerics, as noted above. This obligation was at one time attributed to Pope Urban II in 1095, but evidently this attribution is spurious (according to the introduction in the Baronius Press version – the historical essay in the appendix however claims that it was indeed Urban II). Pius V removed the obligation in the wake of the Council of Trent. So, while the Little Office is more appealing and more readily available to the laity because of its simplicity, it does also very much so belong to the clerics and religious.

The Little Office is a beautiful devotion for anyone to practice, regardless of their vocation!
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When the Little Office was said by clerics it was in addition to the Divine Office. Those who said only the Little Office were laity.
 
floresco said:
When the Little Office was said by clerics it was in addition to the Divine Office. Those who said only the Little Office were laity.
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This is interesting.

My understanding was that the “Office of Our Lady” was obligitory for clergy in the West until 1568. I’m not sure that this was in addition to another larger breviary but I never thought it made practical sense to pray both.

An amazing collection of breviary texts and histories of the Breviary, including the Little Office, is at kellerbook.com/. The section on the Little Office is at kellerbook.com/PARVUM~1.HTM.

The site has versions of the Office of Our Lady with complete psalters over two and even over five weeks, with commons for feasts and such features. It is an amazing site.

-Tim-
 
floresco said:
When the Little Office was said by clerics it was in addition to the Divine Office. Those who said only the Little Office were laity.
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Not true. Some religious congregations used the Little Office solely as their liturgical prayer (including Holy Mass of course).
 
Laudate_Dominum said:
Not true. Some religious congregations used the Little Office solely as their liturgical prayer (including Holy Mass of course).
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I am going by the information given in the introduction to the Baronius edition of the LOBVM. They do mention some active orders who used the LO, but this does not seem to be the norm. They portray the Little Office as especially linked to the laity and I find that meaningful as a lay person.
 
Does it have to be so confusing???
This is something I would like to do, but do not want the excellent Baronius press to work from (I own it). I’d like something in the language of today, that is simple to follow.
I’ve tried sourcing the prayers online to make my own digital editions. Trying to make a separate doc for each day, so I can just do it. Then the different sources have different prayers, or a choice of three prayers, or…
the worst case outcome is that i’ll do the morning and evening prayers from divineoffice.org
but i still want a simple english version of the Little Office of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY!
 
MissBeans said:
Does it have to be so confusing???
This is something I would like to do, but do not want the excellent Baronius press to work from (I own it). I’d like something in the language of today, that is simple to follow.
I’ve tried sourcing the prayers online to make my own digital editions. Trying to make a separate doc for each day, so I can just do it. Then the different sources have different prayers, or a choice of three prayers, or…
the worst case outcome is that i’ll do the morning and evening prayers from divineoffice.org
but i still want a simple English version of the Little Office of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY!
Click to expand...
How about this one, which is simple and in English?

amazon.com/Little-Office-B-V-M-John-Rotelle/dp/0899424503
 
Thank you for your kindness. It’s in my Amazon cart as I type…
 
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