Traditional Latin Mass, Divine Office & Sacraments

The Divine Office

The most important prayer that the Church offers to Almighty God after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Officium Divinum, or Divine Office, contained in a liturgical book called the Breviarium Romanum, or Roman Breviary. In fact, the Mass is part of the Divine Office, and they are so intertwined in the public liturgy of the Church that one is really incomplete without the other.

This same Office is chanted by monks in monasteries, nuns in convents, members of lay orders, as well as devout Catholic faithful, throughout the world. To give praise and glory to God throughout the hours of the day in the name of the Church, the clergy are placed under the duty of praying it daily. From this fact, it is called the Office, the word in this sense coming from the Latin word officium, meaning duty. Recent popes, like Pope St. Pius X and Pope Pius XII, have encouraged the laity to participate in saying the Office as well and for this reason have bestowed rich indulgences upon those of the faithful who do so.

The Divine Office itself is made up of the 150 psalms of the Old Testament, so divided throughout the seven days of the week that all the psalms are recited in one week. The psalms, the divinely-inspired poetical prayers, principally of King David, have always been the center of the Church's liturgical worship, just as they were at the temple during Old Testament times.

Besides the psalms, there are readings from Sacred Scripture, commentaries on Sacred Scripture from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and short accounts of the lives of the Saints. These readings follow the Church's calendar of liturgical seasons and feasts of the saints. St. Vincent de Paul (1581?-1660) tells us that "the Divine Office is the school of all virtues. The master who teaches us in it is the Holy Ghost, the source of all truth; it is also the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints of God."

The Divine Office is divided into eight Hours, according as God is to be praised continuously throughout the hours of the day. If one observes the ancient times, Matins and Lauds are prayed before sunrise. Prime, Terce, Sext, and None are prayed during the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours of daylight. (For example, Scripture tells us that Our Lord hung on the cross from the sixth to the ninth hour, that is, from noon to 3:00 p.m.) Vespers is said as dusk falls, followed by Compline, which completes the day and the cycle of hours. However, the Hours may be said at any time at one's convenience.

In order that the faithful Mass partake in at least some part of this highly-indulgenced prayer of the Church, TRADITIO is making available in this section extracts that may easily be printed out and prayed. For simplicity the text and rubrics of this online edition are given for only one person reciting the Office, one Hour separately at a time. The text is given for the Sunday and ferial Psalter, and Propers, when required, are taken from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Divine Office given here is that taken from the 1940-1943 version of the Breviarium Romanum. This is the latest version that has not been affected by the introduction of "modernizing" influences in the traditional Divine Office. The following graphic illustrates the devolution of the Divine Office, including the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

The Descent into the Black Hole of the Liturgical "New Order"

These are the main steps that gradually led to the full-blown implementation of the invalid "New Mass" of 1969:

1945 - "New" Latin ("Pius XII") Psalter introduced
1951 - Time of Easter Vigil changed
1954 - Vulgar tongues introduced into Sacraments
1956 - Traditional rubrics of Mass, Divine Office, and Holy Week changed
1960 - Traditional rubrics of Mass and Divine Office changed again
1962 - Sacred Apostolic Roman Canon of Mass changed
1964 - Vulgar tongues introduced into Mass
1967 - Dogmatic form of Mass Consecration changed
1968 - New Order of Ordination for Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons introduced
1969 - New Order Service (formerly "Mass") introduced

The Divine Office, Mass, Sacraments, and Other Rites
In Latin and English

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