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"Canonical Hours", "Breviary", "Diurnal and Nocturnal Office", "Ecclesiastical Office", "Cursus ecclesiasticus", or simply "cursus" are synonyms of "Divine Office". "Cursus" is the form used by Gregory writing: "exsurgente abbate cum monachis ad celebrandum cursum" (De glor. martyr., xv). "Agenda", "agenda mortuorum", "agenda missarum", "solemnitas", "missa" were also used. The Greeks employ "synaxis" and "canon" in this sense. The expression "officium divinum" is used in the same sense by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (800), the IV Lateran (1215), and Vienne (1311); but it is also used to signify any office of the Church. Thus Walafrid Strabo, Pseudo-Alcuin, Rupert de Tuy entitle their works on liturgical ceremonies "De officiis divinis". Hittorp, in the sixteenth century, entitled his collection of medieval liturgical works "De Catholic Ecclesi divinis officiis ac ministeriis" (Cologne, 1568). The usage in France of the expression "saint-office" as synonymous with "office divin" is not correct. "Saint-office" signifies a Roman congregation, the functions of which are well known, and the words should not be used to replace the name "Divine Office", which is much more suitable and has been used from ancient times.

The development of the Divine Office was probably in the following manner: The celebration of the Eucharist was preceded by the recital of the psalms and the reading of the Old and New Testaments. This was called the Mass of the Catechumens, which has been preserved almost in its original form. Probably this part of the Mass was the first form of the Divine Office, and, in the beginning, the vigils and the Eucharistic Synaxis were one. When the Eucharistic service was not celebrated, the prayer was limited to the recital or chanting of the psalms and the reading of the Scriptures. The vigils thus separated from the Mass became an independent office. During the first period the only office celebrated in public was the Eucharistic Synaxis with vigils preceding it, but forming with it one whole. In this hypothesis the Mass of the Catechumens would be the original kernel of the whole Divine Office. The Eucharistic Synaxis beginning at eventide did not terminate till dawn. The vigils, independently of the Eucharistic service, were divided naturally into three parts; the beginning of the vigils, or the evening Office; the vigils properly so called; and the end of the vigils or the matutinal Office. For when the vigils were as yet the only Office and were celebrated but rarely, they were continued during the greater part of the night. Thus the Office which we have called the Office of evening or Vespers, that of midnight, and that of the morning, called Matins first and then Lauds, were originally but one Office. If this hypothesis be rejected, it must be admitted that at first there was only one public office, Vigils. The service of eventide, Vespers, and that of the morning, Matins or Lauds, were gradually separated from it. During the day, Terce, Sext, and None, customary hours of private prayers both with the Jews and the early Christians, became later ecclesiastical Hours, just like Vespers or Lauds. Complin appears as a repetition of Vespers, first in the fourth century (see COMPLIN). Prime is the only hour the precise origin and date of which are known--at the end of the fourth century (see PRIME).

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This development of the Divine Office, as far as concerns the Roman liturgy, was completed at the close of the sixth century. Later changes are not in essential points but rather concern additions, as the antiphons to Our Lady at the end of certain offices, matters of the calendar, and optional offices, like those of Saturday (see LITTLE OFFICE OF OUR LADY), or of the dead (see OFFICE OF THE DEAD), and the celebration of new feasts etc. The influence of St. Gregory the Great on the formation and fixation of the Roman Antiphonary, an influence that has been questioned, now appears certain (see "Dict. d'archol. et de liturgie", s.v. "Antiphonaire").

While allowing a certain liberty as to the exterior form of the office (e.g. the liberty enjoyed by the monks of Egypt and later by St. Benedict in the constitution of the Benedictine Office), the Church insisted from ancient times on its right to supervise the orthodoxy of the liturgical formul. The Council of Milevis (416) forbade any liturgical formula not approved by a council or by a competent authority (cf. Labbe, II, 1540). The Councils of Vannes (461), Agde (506), Epaon (517), Braga (563), Toledo (especially the fourth council) promulgated similar decrees for Gaul and Spain. In the fifth and sixth centuries several facts (see CANON OF THE MASS) made known to us the rights claimed by the popes in liturgical matters. The same fact is established by the correspondence of St. Gregory I. Under his successors the Roman liturgy tends gradually to replace the others, and this is additional proof of the right of the Church to control the liturgy (a thesis well established by Dom Guranger in his "Institutions Liturgiques", Paris, 1883, and in his letter to the Archbishop of Reims on liturgical law, op. cit., III, 453 sq.). From the eleventh century, under St. Gregory VII and his successors, this influence gradually increases (Bumer-Biron, "Hist. du Brviaire", especially II, 8, 22 sqq.). From the Council of Trent the reformation of the liturgical books enters a new phase. Rome becomes, under Popes Pius IV, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Gregory XIV, Urban VII and his successors, Benedict XIV, the scene of a laborious undertaking--the reformation and correction of the Divine Office, resulting in the modern custom, with all the rubrics and rules for the recitation of the Divine Office and its obligation, and with the reformation of the liturgical books, corrected in accordance with the decisions of the Council of Trent and solemnly approved by the popes (Bumer-Biron, "Hist. du Brviaire").

"The office of readings seeks to provide God's people, and in particular those consecrated to God in a special way, with a wider selection of passages from sacred Scripture for meditation, together with the finest excerpts from spiritual writers. Even though the cycle of scriptural readings at daily Mass is now richer, the treasures of revelation and tradition to be found in the office of readings will also contribute greatly to the spiritual life" (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours [GILH], no. 55).

Is anyone familiar with the Divine Office as said by the monks at Clear Creek abbey? I am looking into becoming an oblate and so have been trying to follow their office as much as possible but they do a strange blend of extraordinary form office with the ordinary form calendar. Does anyone know how they mix the two in the office itself? For instance, for today's feast, Saints Basil and Gregory, there's no corresponding feast in the extraordinary form since the two saints were merged; would I just do the commons of a confessor Bishop with the collect as given in the ordinary form or is there more nuance to it?

I think I am more successful in the summertime, when I can walk outside and listen to the prayers of the office on my phone at the same time. I had a lot of success during vacation too, when I could sit by myself while every one else was either sleeping or gone doing other things.

I'm not an expert on the Divine office by any means, and for the longest time I kept my self limited to the morning prayer and night time prayer. However, a couple of times, instead of doing Morning Prayer, I have let myself wander over to the Office of Readings and I wonder if maybe that might be a better choice for me in starting my day.

What is fascinating is that the Liturgy of the Hours is being prayed by priests and religious throughout the world. When we pray the divine office, we unite our prayers with the whole Church and speak in one voice to God. Or as the Church describes it:

-An 11-page Introduction explaining the Divine Office and how to pray it, including guidelines on how to interpret the psalms in a Catholic manner

-Table of Contents

-The prayers to be said before and after reciting the Divine Office

-Melodies in Gregorian notation for those who chant the office in common.

-In timeless Latin with parallel English translations.

-Beautiful edition with sewn binding

-Leatherette cover

-Rounded edges

-Black text with rubrics in red

-Two ribbons

Vigils, or watching in the night, is prayer to be celebrated in the middle of the night during which we meditate on salvation history as it unfolded down through the ages. The office of Vigils consists of a hymn, psalms, readings, scriptural and patristic, and canticles suitable to the spirit of the midnight hour when one awaits the arrival of the Bridegroom (Mt 25:6; Mk 13:35). In monastic communities the concentration on vigilance begun with this office continues until lauds. Monastics spend this time enveloped in and supported by darkness and silence in lectio divina,prayer and meditation.

Monastic communities gather in their chapel at certain times throughout the day, while secular clergy tend to pray the office individually, fitting it at their own convenience into their other pastoral responsibilities.

84. By tradition going back to early Christian times, the divine office is devised so that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praises of God. Therefore, when this wonderful song of praise is rightly performed by priests and others who are deputed for this purpose by the Church's ordinance, or by the faithful praying together with the priest in the approved form, then it is truly the voice of the bride addressed to her bridegroom; It is the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His body, addresses to the Father.

90. The divine office, because it is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer. And therefore priests and all others who take part in the divine office are earnestly exhorted in the Lord to attune their minds to their voices when praying it. The better to achieve this, let them take steps to improve their understanding of the liturgy and of the bible, especially of the psalms. e24fc04721