What is the difference between the monastic brevary and the LOTH?

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No, it’s the other way around. The two principal monastic schemas go through the entire psalter in one week. The LOTH takes 4 weeks, so the individual Hours are much longer in the monastic. The original monastic schema as defined by St Benedict is 250 psalms per week, that is the entire psalter plus about 100 psalms that are repeated. What this means in terms of the principal Hours:

Vigils (equivalent to LOTH Office of readings), 12 psalms vs three short psalms or long psalms divided into sections.

Lauds: 7 psalms one OT canticle vs 2 psalms and OT canticle

Minor day hours: 3 mandatory hours vs 1 mandatory hour

Vespers: 4 psalms vs 2 psalms and NT canticle.

Monastic schema B is shorter as there are no repititions. Vigils is 6 psalms, Lauds 4 psalms and OT canticle and Vespers is 4 psalms.

Th Divine Office, the “Work of God”, is the principle task of monastics, 7 times a day, to which they are bound. Everything revolves around the breviary for monks.
 
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I’d like to start doing the breviary, and looking at Amazon, can’t tell what version Ineed…
 
There’s Christian Prayer, a one volume version with morning and evening prayer, night prayer, and excerpts from the Office of Readings. There’s Shorter Christian Prayer, a shortened version that’s good for getting started. Then that’s the 4 volume version that is complete. Unless you know that you’ll be doing the Office of Readings it’s probably easier and cheaper to start with the one volume versions.

That’s also iBreviary, a free app for your smartphone that I like a lot. No flipping pages or keeping track of feast days and liturgical seasons.
 
That’s the liturgy of the hours that has 4 volume version and 1 book version called Christian prayer. That’s not the breviary. I already have the liturgy of the hours (4 volume complete version).

Breviary is something different.
 
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Anyone know where I can get the matins version? Can only find day version…
 
I understand the terms to be interchangeable. 🤔

I pray the LOTH. My four-volume set is called a breviary. My priest has the same four-volume set. He calls both the books and the prayers (hours, or offices) “the Breviary.”

Can you please provide a link to what you refer to as “the breviary”? Thanks in advance 🙂
 
BenjaminJ said:
Breviary is something different.
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Well, no it isn’t something different. Although the Church uses different nomenclature now, the LOTH is, in fact, a “breviary”. The word “breviary” is from the Latin “brevis” which means “brief”. A breviary is nothing other than a concise compilation of the Divine Office made for portability to facilitate the recitation of the Office outside of choir. That is precisely what the Liturgy of the Hours is; you simply carry one book containing all you need to recite the Office with you. To chant the Office in choir, an antiphonary is needed, usually accompanied by a hymnal, and a lectionary, not something you can easily carry in your briefcase. You will hear even clerics and monks refer to the LOTH as “the Breviary”.
 
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BenjaminJ said:
Anyone know where I can get the matins version? Can only find day version…
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It depends which Office you’re trying to recite. If you are planning to use the 1962 Breviary Romanum, I believe you can find a copy to purchase on-line. Be aware: this is not the Monastic Breviary. The Roman Breviary was completely reformed in 1910 under Pius X. Prior to that the Roman Breviary (that of Pius V) was still substantially different from the Monastic, but was much closer to it as it was heavily inspired by the Monastic, especially in the numbers of recited psalms in a week (about 250). The 1910 reforms are such that the Roman Breviary no longer resembled the Monastic Breviary at all other than in general structure and the placement of some psalms at their traditional hours. Many traditions of 1500 years were ruptured in 1910.

That said, for the Monastic breviary, you can only really find something easily if you want to pray the post-Vatican II version of it (which will have the same psalm order if you retain Prime , which is allowable in the Monastic Office, as the pre-Vatican II version).

Your choice would be the Psalterium Monasticum, in Latin, using the neo-Vulgate psalms, or the Latin-French “Psautier Monastique”. Both are available from the Solesmes online bookstore (www.solesmes.com, follow the links to the store).

You will also need something for the readings. For that you can use the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours for the Matins readings on a 1-year cycle, or a monastic lectionary for the 2-year cycle; both are permissible in the post-VII Monastic Office. I’m not aware of an English one, there may be one published out there, but for Latin-French (or French-only) you can find that on the Solesmes site as well. The Psalterium will also have the antiphons noted for chant, but the reality is that most monasteries sing Matins recto-tono (monotone) including the antiphon. It also has the references for the other monastic schemas as well so you could, say, use it to chant schema B (hint: buy lots of ribbons…)

For the pre-Vatican II Monastic Office, you would need the Breviarum Monasticum, long out of print, but a quick google turned up an e-book version, and a used one on e-bay. I have a copy given to me by a monk of the abbey, and they also put some of their old copies up for sale on the second-hand bookshelf of the abbey store but I think they’re all gone now. It is NOT easy to use. You won’t find an equivalent of the Diurnal for the night Office as the Diurnal was all that was needed for monks who were away from the monastery. If they had to be away overnight either their abbot would give them a dispensation from Matins, or they would attend the night office of wherever they were staying at another religious house.

If you want to chant the Monastic Breviary, then you need an antiphonary. For pre-Vatican II, you need the 1934 Antiphonale Monasticum available from Solesmes, or the 2005-2006-2007 Antiphonale Monasticum volumes I, III and II respectively (in the order published), Also available from Solesmes. These contain only the day hours.
 
(cont’d)

I myself use the 4-week LOTH most of the time, and monastic Schema B at other times (because that’s what the abbey I’m associated with uses, and I have the breviary specific for that Office). I chant the Office in Latin Gregorian chant daily and for that the LOTH is brilliant. Doing the Monastic simply wouldn’t be compatible with family/professional life. I use Les Heures Grégoriennes, an excellent antiphonary for the LOTH put out by the Communauté Saint-Martin in France, a young Benedictine-inspired seminary that trains priests who are “traditionalist” in the application of the Ordinary Form Mass and modern Liturgy of the Hours (in other words: in Gregorian chant). A dynamic young community bursting at the seams with vocations BTW.

If you pay close attention to the LOTH, you can see many, many monastic influences in where some psalms are placed, and certain traditions like the Gradual psalms for the minor hours (other than the main mid-day one), the ability to repeat psalms 4, 90 and 133 daily at Compline (a licit option in the General Instructions), the fact that the vast majority of the cursus of psalms for the Office of Readings are chosen from monastic Matins, the longer readings at the OOR, the cursus of psalms for most of week 3 and all of week 4 are from the Monastic breviary, and of course the general structure of the Office. That’s why, as a Benedictine oblate, I use it unhesitatingly.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you again, OraLabora. You are truly a blessing to these forums.
 
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