QUAERITUR: Fulfilling obligation of the Office when visiting a religious community with their own way of doing things.

Posted on 8 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest:

In the GILH, it is clear that a cleric meets his obligation if he
finds himself praying with a community following a different calendar or from a different rite (#242). Would this also include praying the Office with a religious community of the same rite who has a different order of psalms? Or should their provincial be informed of a wayward community doing their own thing?

I am pretty sure it would, for the visiting cleric who is doing as the house does.

However, if that house is not actually saying the Office their larger community has assigned, that could be a problem for them.

As a visitor there, however, I would not want to get involved with their internal politics.

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5 Responses to QUAERITUR: Fulfilling obligation of the Office when visiting a religious community with their own way of doing things.

  1. Speravi says:
    8 December 2011 at 9:37 AM

    But do be mindful that not every Latin rite community is obliged to use the LOH. Benedictine Abbeys (at least since Vatican II), for example, regularly have their own arrangements. In fact the Rule actually gives explicit permission for the abbot to provide a different arrangement than that given in the rule, so long as the 150 psalms and customary canticles are recited each week (though it has strangely become common to dispense with the second half of this).

  2. Supertradmum says:
    8 December 2011 at 12:21 PM

    Benedictine Breviary is much, much older than Vat. II. Years ago, I had one version from the 1930s, and still, all houses are supposed to say all the 150 psalms in one week. The Benedictine Calendar is equally ancient. And, I think the rule that the Benedictines must follow the Benedictine Breviary and not the LOH is still in force. The only time I did not join in with some of the house hours, when I was in a convent on a long retreat in Iowa, was when the nuns used an odd version of the text with inclusive language. Sadly, the Benedictines on the other side of the River had the same modern and heretical version. But, I am under no obligation to say the Breviary. I use the Monastic Diurnal used at Farnborough and Clear Creek, but when visiting English Benedictine nuns on retreats, I obviously switch to the house version. Internal politics can be found out before a lay person or priest goes on a retreat or visit by asking what version of the Hours is said. I now do this after some bad experiences of off-the-wall versions.

  3. Gregory DiPippo says:
    8 December 2011 at 3:12 PM

    “a religious community of the same rite who has a different order of psalms” is not of the same rite.

  4. Banjo pickin girl says:
    9 December 2011 at 10:28 AM

    The term “rite” refers to liturgy, not the office. Benedictine houses are independent in many different circumstances and so often have different ways of performing the Opus Dei.

  5. Seumas says:
    10 December 2011 at 2:04 AM

    @ Banjo pickin girl

    “The term “rite” refers to liturgy, not the office. ”

    The Office IS liturgy. It is an extension of the Masss.

    The modern office is even called the “Liturgy of the Hours.”