Little Office of the Virgin Mary - when to pray?

[MJMeehan1975]

Hello,

I am new to this forum. I want to begin praying the Little Office of the Virgin Mary.

I have read through some of the old postings and am confused.

For an individual who work from 7:00 AM to 4PM, how do I pray the hours. Namely, what office should be said at one time? I work throughout the day and have very little free time. I am in healthcare. I can take breaks to do the daytime prayer and the evening prayers are no problem I am just confused about Matins, Lauds and Prime. Can these be said all at once in the morning? I can’t really get up at 12AM to do Matins. Lauds I can do when I get up. I was thinking of combining Matins and Lauds. Is this OK. Also, where does one fit in Prime?

I am using the Baronius edition.

Any thoughts would be most welcome

Michael Meehan

 

[pianistclare]

@OraLabora

 

[LoyalViews]

I know a nurse who is allowed to leave her station and pray her hours in the hospital chapel because she also took vows. This might not be possible for you.

One thing I know is you can sometimes combine Vespers and Compline. I’d also see no problem with combining Matins and Lauds. You say them the same day, it is still the liturgical prayer of the Church.

 

[OraLabora]

You don’t need to pray Prime. It was abolished after the Council.

Why not just use the Liturgy of the Hours? It can be prayed in Latin if desired and it offers so much flexibility. You can find used Latin versions on-line, or on iBreviary. Matins has become the “Office of Readings” that can be prayed at any time, but it can still be used as Matins, or prayed the evening before as Vigils, by anticipation, as is done in many abbeys.

With the LOTH your schedule can look like this:

6 am or when you rise in the morning “Matins”. (Office of Readings combined with Lauds, and yes the LOTH allows for this in the rubrics; in fact the Divine Office was originally this way in the 6th century in the time of St. Benedict)
Terce: mid-morning coffee break
Sext: lunch break
None: mid-afternoon coffee break
Vespers: when arriving home, before dinner
Compline: before bed.

Alternately you could do the OOR just before Compline. Also if you’re really busy on a particular day, you need only pray one daytime hour.

Really, the Church has made it really easy for laity now, to pray the same office as everyone else in the Church prays. It is a gift from God.

 

[RedDuke]

I think it’s fine to say Matins, Lauds, & Prime all at once. The red rubrics at the end of Matins say that it’s usual to say Lauds immediately after Matins anyway. I also use the Baronius Little Office and most of the time I can’t say the offices at the appropriate time so I’ll just pray them together later in the day.

 

[OraLabora]

The red rubrics at the end of Matins say that it’s usual to say Lauds immediately after Matins anyway.

That was indeed the case in the Divine Office in early monastic times. I believe the Carthusians still do it this way.

I also use the Baronius Little Office and most of the time I can’t say the offices at the appropriate time so I’ll just pray them together later in the day.

I’m not familiar with the rubrics of the Little Office, but in the current LOTH this is one thing that is not allowed. One is supposed to respect the verity of the hour, so that praying say Lauds in the afternoon combined with other hours would not be allowed. On the other hand the LOTH does not set a fixed time for any Office, so Lauds could reasonably be prayed anytime from sunrise to say 9 am or so. The LOTH does allow combining the Office of Readings with other hours.

 

[RedDuke]

I’m not familiar with the rubrics of the Little Office, but in the current LOTH this is one thing that is not allowed. One is supposed to respect the verity of the hour, so that praying say Lauds in the afternoon combined with other hours would not be allowed. On the other hand the LOTH does not set a fixed time for any Office, so Lauds could reasonably be prayed anytime from sunrise to say 9 am or so. The LOTH does allow combining the Office of Readings with other hours.

That’s interesting. The rubrics section in the back of the Little Office book I have doesn’t say one cannot pray the hours together, and it tells you when to say the anthem of the Blessed Virgin if multiple hours are said together so I assume it’s allowed.

 

[OraLabora]

Here’s what the rubrics of the LOTH say:

1. The purpose of the liturgy of the hours is to sanctify the day and the whole range of human activity. Therefore its structure has been revised in such a way as to make each hour once more correspond as nearly as possible to natural time and to take account of the circumstances of life today.

Hence, “that the day may be truly sanctified and the hours themselves recited with spiritual advantage, it is best that each of them be prayed at a time most closely corresponding to the true time of each canonical hour.”

You can licitly combine the Office of Readings with other hours (but not the Mass except Christmas Eve and in exceptional circumstances), and you can combine other hours with the Mass.

1. If the office of readings comes immediately before another hour of the office, then the appropriate hymn for that hour may be sung at the beginning of the office of readings. At the end of the office of readings the prayer and conclusion are omitted and in the hour following the introductory verse with the Glory to the Father is omitted.

 

[Kepha.eh.Meht]

Hi RedDuke, I’ve recorded an audio version of the Little Office. This helps me do he Office while on my commute to and from work.

Goto the “Podbean” site and search for “miCast” then search for a red icon of St. Maximilian Kolbe!

 

[Kepha.eh.Meht]

Try using the Audio Version of the Little Office of the BVM, unfortunately you have to sign up with PodBean, but it’s free!

First Goto the “PodBean” Site and sign up

Then search for “miCast or type in Militia Immaculatae in the search bar, you’ll see a red icon of St. Maximilian Kolbe

I’m a newbie so I can post a link