PRAYERCAzT: Matins and Lauds (BrevRom)

No frills Matins and Lauds from the Breviarium Romanum.

If you lay people don’t get what is involved in clergy reading the office every day, this might give you an idea of what the older, traditional form of the office was like in Latin.

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10 Comments

  1. Henry Edwards says:

    Father Z: Adding in some time for Prime and Sext, which I don’t believe you’ve recorded yet, it appears that you probably take about 1 hr 20 min to say the older form (Breviarium Romanum) of the whole daily office in Latin.

    It generally takes me somewhat longer–at least an hour and a half daily–to say the newer form (Liturgia Horarum) of the whole office in Latin, despite that it no longer includes Prime and only one of the daytime hours (Terce, Sext, None) is said.

    Of course, in Latin as quick and ready as yours, or in English, it would take less time.

  2. moconnor says:

    Father, I’m not quite sure if I understand the tone of your message. Personally I agree that parish priests should have a shorter office that better accomplishes the goal of daily spiritual reading and prayer, but the damage done to the Roman Office in the LotH is substantial and IMO real evidence of the hermeneutic of rupture. Even the 1962 Office was a beginning of this by not retaining the fixed psalms of the day hours. We laity do understand the time needed for this activity and some of us even shed a tear at the loss of the great treasure of the true Roman Office.

  3. asperges says:

    Just back from a week’s training for priests in the Extr Form at Ushaw Seminary in Durham (UK) by the Latin Mass Society. We sang Lauds every morning: a great privilege, though some of the hymns were remarkably difficult(!) and the office is not in the Liber Usualis like most other offices.

    Pictures at http://latinmassmiddlesbrough.blogspot.com/ for those interested. No recordings yet though.

  4. moconnor: I posted a recording of the office from the morning in Latin. Pure and simple. Read whatever office you prefer, … or not. You are not obliged.

  5. asperges: Were the hymns difficult because you have the music notation for only the first verse?

  6. Geoffrey says:

    “…but the damage done to the Roman Office in the LotH is substantial and IMO real evidence of the hermeneutic of rupture.”

    Many consider the Liturgy of the Hours a real improvement, and something Vatican II was very specific about (abolishing the hour of Prime was an act of the Council, not a commission, etc.).

    That always led me to wonder… since Prime was specifically abolished by the Council, do priests who say the Divine Office in the Extraordinary Form required to say Prime, or could they drop it if they so wished?

  7. Henry Edwards says:

    asperges: We sang Lauds every morning: a great privilege, though some of the hymns were remarkably difficult

    Actually, I believe the Latin hymns prescribed for Lauds and Vespers in the Easter season are the same in both old (Breviarium Romanum) and new (Liturgiam Horarum) forms of the divine office.

    Of course, the classical hymns prescribed for each office in LH were omitted in the English translations of the new office. In my opinion, this omission of the hymns was a more glaring defect in the translation of the divine office than the better known defects in the translation of the Mass.

  8. Henry Edwards: Absolutely.
    We have to have two to three books in order to sing the Liturgy of the Hours here…that English version of the LOH is dreadful.
    We use the “Mundelein Psalter” for the hymn; an English rendition of the Gregorian chant by Fr. Chrysogonus by the Dominican Nuns in Farmington, Michigan for all of the antiphons and psalm tones, and our LOH breviary for the psalms/readings/prayers.
    What a a mess!
    We have the 1962 Breviary on occasion, but because of the whole Latin thing we struggle, and so have the English version for most of our Office.
    I pray this will be eventually resolved (but I’ll probably be dead by then!).

  9. asperges says:

    Lauds Fr Z et al: The most difficult was St Hermenegild Lauds (13th Apr) “Nullis Te Genitor”. Yes, first verse only annotated too,which doesn’t help, but most unusual tune and the Urban VIII(?) classical “corrections” seemed to get in the way.

    One really misses Solesmes annotations, which were absent in our copy.

    We did it correctly though in the end! All part of the learning experience. Deo Gratias.

  10. asperges says:

    Addendum: Lauds for St Justin Martyr, Hymn “Invicte Martyr” much more like a Vesper hymn and easier!

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