The Divine Office - Rev. E. J. Quigley
The subject of the liturgical celebration of the Lord's Day has been a
great study and a problem to modern scholars. It appears that in the
first ages of the Church, Sunday was a day of solemn reunion and of
common prayer. St. Justin, in his second apology, writes that on the
Lord's Day town and country met together at an appointed place for
sacrifice, for the hearing of the word of God, for pious readings and
for common prayer. This common, prayer consisted largely in the
recitation of the Psalms, hymns and prayers, of what are called the
Sunday Office. This office was nearly always the same in psalms, in
hymns and in every part; so that Sunday after Sunday, for many years,
there was very little change in the Sunday united-prayer part of the
liturgy, although the preaching on the incidents of the life of our Lord
(Beckel, _Messe und Pascha_, p, 91), the blessings and the thanksgivings
relieved the service from monotonous sameness.
A nocturn, a round of Psalms, was said on Saturday night by the
vigilants preparing for the Sunday services. Before the eighth century
two other short nocturns were added. This addition, which was copied
from the monastic practice, built up the three nocturn form of office
and became the model and form of the office for saints. "There is good
reason for believing that originally the Divine Office formed part of
the Mass. The _synaxis_, for which the early Christians assembled by
night, consisted of the 'breaking of bread,' preceded by the singing of
psalms and hymns, litanies and collects, readings, homilies, invocations
and canticles. This was the whole official liturgical prayer, apart, of
course, from private prayer" (Dom Cabrol, _Day Hours of the Church_,
Introduction, p. xvi).
One of the chief objects of Pope Pius X. in his reform was the
restoration of the liturgical importance of the Sunday office, the
office of the Lord's Day, and, therefore, in its own right, superior to
the saints' feasts by which it had been displaced from its special
office, psalms and lessons. And this could only be effected by a change
in the rules of occurrence, and in Title IV. (_De Festorum occurentia_,
etc., section 2) we find the new rule for restoring Sunday offices to
their proper liturgical rights.
In Title IV., sect, 1 (see Breviary, Additiones and Variationes) there
is no change in the old rubric. The eight Sundays of the first class
exclude every other feast. And the Sundays of the second class only give
place to a double of the first class and then are commemorated at Lauds,
Vespers and Mass, and have the ninth lesson in Matins.
But section 2 (_Dominicis minoribus_)... goes to the root of the matter
of the new change in the rules for Sunday's liturgical office. The
ordinary Sundays ranked as semi-doubles and hence their Mass and Office
was superseded by the Mass and Office of some occurring feast. The
length of the Sunday office, in the breviaries until lately in use, made
many hearts rejoice over the occurring feast. But the almost total
omission of the ancient and beautiful Sunday Masses was a misfortune
and, in a sense, an unbecoming practice, which broke away from ancient
liturgical rule and tradition. The abbreviation of the Sunday office in
the new breviaries and the rule laid down in Title IV., sect. 2, restore
Sunday's office and Sunday's Mass to their old and proper dignity.
The general rule laid down is that on Sundays throughout the year the
proper office of the Sunday shall always be said. The exceptions are (1)
Feasts of our Lord and their octaves, (2) Doubles of the first class,
(3) Doubles of the second class. On these days the office will be the
office of the feast, with commemoration in Lauds, Vespers and Mass.
Henceforth Sundays are divided into:
(1) Sundays of the first class, which exclude all feasts;
(2) Sundays of the second class, which exclude all feasts save doubles
of the first class;
(3) The ordinary Sundays, which exclude all but doubles of the first or
second class, feasts of our Lord, and their octave days.
The date of Easter is the pivot of Calendar construction. Before Easter
come the Sundays of Lent and Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, Septuagesima
Sundays. Septuagesima cannot fall earlier than the eighteenth day of
January, nor later than the twenty-second day of February. Hence, in
some years there are fewer "Sundays after the Epiphany" than in others,
owing to the dates of Easter and Septuagesima. The smaller the number of
Sundays after Epiphany the greater is the number of Sundays after
Pentecost. If the number of Sundays after Pentecost be twenty-five, the
twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the sixth Sunday after
Epiphany. If there be twenty-six Sundays after Pentecost, the
twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the fifth after Epiphany,
and the twenty-fifth will have that of the fifth Sunday; the
twenty-sixth will be the sixth Sunday's office. It should be remembered
that the Sunday called the twenty-fourth after Pentecost is _always_
celebrated immediately before the first Sunday of Advent, even though it
should not be even the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.
TITLE V.--FERIAL OFFICE.
_Etymology and different signification_ of the word _Feria_. The word is
derived probably from the Latin _feriari_ (to rest). Among the Romans,
the idea of a day of rest and a holy day was intimately united and
received the name of _feria_. But it was amongst the Hebrews that the
day set apart for the worship of God received the most distinctive
character as day of rest (_Heortology_, p. 2). Hence the early
Christians called the days of the week _feriae_.
Why did the Church adopt the word _feriae_? She wished to mark the day
of the week and not to name them by their pagan name (_e.g., dies
lunae_) nor by their Jewish names (_e.g., prima sabbati_), which should
be a sort of recognition of the dead and dying synagogue. Hence she
adopted the word _feria_, to denote the Christian rest in the Lord, the
Christian peace and the abstinence from all sin, and that each and every
day should be consecrated to God. The Christian use of the word is found
in Origen (185-254) and was fully established in the time of Tertullian.
In the time of Amalare (circa 830) the ferial office had taken a
well-defined form, Matins having twelve psalms and six antiphons. In
Lauds of every _feria_ were recited the psalms, _Miserere; Deus, Deus
meus; Deus misereatur nostri_; a canticle drawn from a prophet and
varying each day of the week (_e.g., Confitebor_, Isaias xii., for
Monday's Lauds; _Ego dixi_, Isaias xxxviii., for Tuesday's Lauds,
etc., and the two psalms _Laudate_ (148, 150) and the _Cantate_, psalm
149). In the small hours the Sunday psalms without antiphons were
recited. Vespers had daily, fixed psalms. At each hour the _Kyrie
Eleison_ and ferial _prayers_ were said on bended knees and the hours
terminated--as do the hours of Holy Week still--with _Pater Noster and
Miserere_.
Ferias are divided into three classes, major ferias, privileged ferias
and non-privileged. Ash Wednesday and the three last days of Holy Week
are the major ferias which are privileged and exclude all feasts (_vide_
Tit. II., sec. 2). Non-privileged feriae are the feriae of Lent and
Advent, Quarter Tense or Ember days and Rogation Monday. They take
precedence of simple feasts only.
In the ferial office nine psalms are said, and not twelve, as in the
old order of the Breviary. The psalms found arranged in the new Breviary
for three nocturns are to be said with nine antiphons up to the versicle
of third nocturn--the versicle of the first and second being omitted
(Tit. I., sec. 7). Hence the psalms are to be said straight through
(_sine interuptione_) omitting in the first two nocturns, the versicle
and response, Pater Noster, absolutions and all pertaining to the
lessons. This simplifies things and makes the ferial office shorter than
the office of feasts.
TITLE VI.--THE OFFICE OF VIGILS.
_Etymology, nature and synonyms_. The word _vigil_ is from the Latin
_vigilare, to keep awake, to watch_, because in old times the night
before any great event, religious or worldly, was spent in watching.
Thus, the night prior to ordination to the priesthood, the night prior
to a great battle, was spent in watching before the altar. Hence, the
word vigil came to mean the prayers said during the time of watching or
waking, preparatory to the great event. It signified, too, the fast
accompanying the watching, and lastly it came to mean the liturgical
office of Mass and Breviary fixed for the time of vigilance. In the
Roman Church it was sometimes called the nocturn or night office. The
Greeks call the vigil _profesta_, the time before the feast.
The custom existed among the pagans, almost universally, before the time
of Christ. The Jews practised this ancient night prayer, as the
scripture in several places shows, _"in noctibus extollite manus
vestras in sancta"_ (Psalm 133). Our Saviour sanctified this use by His
example, and the early Christians were, on account of these night
assemblies, the objects of fear and dread, of admiration and of hatred.
Organised vigils lasted till the thirteenth century in some countries,
but owing to abuses and discord they became not a source of edification,
but the occasion and cause of grave scandals, and were forbidden
gradually and universally. The Church now retains for the faithful one
congregational vigil, the vigil of Christmas. Formerly, it was customary
to observe a fast on a day or night of a vigil, but that custom was
suppressed sometimes, or fell into disuse. Vigil fasts are now few.
Almost the only relic of the vigil now remaining is the Mass and Office.
When were vigils held? In the early ages they were held only on Saturday
nights and on nights preceding great solemnities or the festivals of the
Martyrs. The early converts, if they had been pagans, knew few or no
prayer formulae, and very little of the psalms was learned by them even
in their Christian practice. But Jews who became Christians knew psalms
and hymns and prayers. So that in the early Christian vigils, there was
no attempt made at reciting the Divine Office, and the custom of such
recitation was not introduced until about 220 A.D. and was not
obligatory (Duchesne, _Christian Worship_, Chap. VIII.).
It is difficult to speak with certainty about the hour of beginning or
the hour of ending these vigil services. Some think that the first
nocturn was said about 9 p.m. Lauds was said before sunrise and hence
was called _Laudes-matutinae_. But "after the middle of the ninth
century, we gather from contemporary documents, that the office of
vigils was, as a whole, regularly constituted and well known" (Baudot,
p.64). These vigils were held in cenacles or upper rooms of houses.
During the days of persecution these meetings were not infrequent and
were held secretly in crypts, catacombs, private houses and at martyrs'
tombs. In times of peace they were held everywhere, in churches,
monasteries, castles.
Vigils are divided into two classes, major and minor; major vigils are
the vigils of Christmas, Epiphany and Pentecost, and they are called
privileged vigils and are celebrated as semi-doubles. The vigils of
Christmas and Pentecost are privileged vigils of the first class. The
vigil of Epiphany is a privileged vigil of the second class. All others
are minor or non-privileged vigils.
TITLE VII.-OCTAVES.
_Etymology and nature_. The word "octave" is from the Latin _octavus_
(eighth) because, in the early ages of Christianity, the Church
celebrated the eighth day only after the celebration of the feast
itself; not until the twelfth century was the custom of a commemoration
on each of the eight days introduced. We have, probably, an example of
this still in our Breviaries. The feast of St. Agnes is celebrated on
21st January and on 28th it is mentioned at Vespers and Lauds only, and
the name in old Roman service books is _Octavo, S. Agnetis_. The origin
of the octave is Jewish. We read in the Old Testament that God ordered
that the Feasts of Pasch and Pentecost should be celebrated for eight
days. So, too, the Feast of Tabernacles lasted for eight days, the first
and eighth days being days of special celebration and devotion. The
Christian Church adopted the method of showing great honour and glory to
the principal festivals of the Christian year, to the great saints, the
patrons of countries, dioceses, etc. But just as the calendar became
overcrowded with saints' offices, which excluded almost entirely the
Sunday and ferial offices, so, too, the additions of octaves created
confusion and further tended to the exclusion of the old liturgical use
of the Psalter and the supplanting of the Sunday and ferial offices.
Hence, in the _Motu Proprio Abhinc duos annos_, the octaves of the
calendar are divided into three great classes, privileged, common and
simple. Privileged octaves are further divided into three _orders_.
Those of the first order are the octaves of Easter and Pentecost; the
octaves of Epiphany and Corpus Christi belong to the second order, and
the octaves of the Nativity and Ascension belong to the third. The
Christmas octave admits feasts of saints, but the octaves of Epiphany,
Easter and Pentecost do not admit any feasts (Tit. V., sec, 3). A day
within an octave has a right to first Vespers, and the antiphon and
response should be from first Vespers (S.C.R., June, 1905). But the
feast of the day falling within octave has a right to first and second
Vespers. The exceptions are, when at second Vespers of St. Thomas, the
office of the octave of the Nativity to be observed on 30th December has
to be commemorated again, in octaves like octaves of Epiphany when each
day has its proper antiphon at the _Magnificat_, and again on and July
in second Vespers of Visitation the office of St. Peter and Paul is to
be commemorated. In octaves the suffrages of saints and the Athanasian
Creed are not said. When feasts of the Universal Church, which are
celebrated with an octave are perpetually transferred to the next day,
because of a perpetual impediment, according to the rubrics, the octave
day is not therefore perpetually transferred but ought to be kept as in
the Universal Church on its own day.
TITLE VIII.--OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN FOR SATURDAY.
"_In omnibus Sabbatis per annum entra Adventum et Quadragesimam, ac nisi
Quatuor Tempora aut Vigiliae ocurrant_," etc. In all Saturdays
throughout the year, except on the Saturdays of Advent, Lent, Ember Days
or occurring Vigils, or unless a feast of nine lessons has to be said on
the Saturday, then it is laid down in the rubrics that the Office of the
Blessed Virgin should always be said with the rite of a simple office.
The rubrics of the New Psalter (Title I., sec. 6) direct, "_In officio
Sanctae Mariae in Sabbato et in festis simplicibus sic officium
persolvendum est; ad matutinum, Invitatorium et hymnus dicuntur de eodem
officio vel de iisdem Festis; Psalmi cum suis antiphonis et versu de
Feria occurente I. et II. Lectis de Feria cum Responsoriis Propriis vel
de Communi. III. vero lectio de officio vel Festo duabus lectionibus in
unum junctis si quando duae pro Festo habeatur, ad reliquas autem Horas
omnia dicuntur, prouti supra num. 5 in Festis Duplicibus expositum est_."
In the Office of the Blessed Virgin for Saturdays (Decree S.C.R., 26th
January. 1916) the antiphons and Psalms at Matins, Lauds and small Hours
are to be said from the Saturday and from the _capitulum_ onwards all is
to be taken from the office of the Blessed Virgin.
This office is not to be confounded with the _officium parvum Beatae
Mariae._ The office _de Sabbato_ is obligatory throughout the Church.
The _officium parvum_ was only for choir use, an addition to the office
of the day. Saturday, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, is of great
antiquity, as the mention of it in the works of St. Peter Damien, St.
Bernard and Pope Benedict XIII. shows, but as to the time of its origin
or a history of its growth, little seems to be known. At first the cult
consisted in various and voluntary prayers and practices. About the
middle of the fourteenth century an office was composed for recital on
Saturdays as dedicated to the Mother of God. The office in our
Breviaries was composed by St. Pius V, (1566-1572).
TITLE IX,--COMMEMORATIONS.
The rules laid down in the general rubrics of the Breviary for
commemorations were never very simple, and when we read the changes
brought about in _De ratione Divini officii recitandi juxta novum
Psalteri ordinem_, Titles II., III., IV., V., VI., with' the decrees of
the Congregation (January, 1912), and subsequently (_Abhinc duos Annos_)
everyone must fear to tread the maze with certainty and must often fall
back gratefully on the labours of the compilers of the _Ordo_ which he
follows. Or, perhaps, doubts may be dispelled by _The New Psalter_
(Burton and Myers) published in 1912. The chapter on the Calendar in
that book is worth study, but needs now additions and corrections, owing
to the issue of more recent decrees.
In the study of commemorations and translations of feasts there are two
words which have a special meaning and which, being often used in
calendar working, deserve a special note. They are "occurrence" and
"concurrence." _Occurrence_ is the conjunction of two or more offices,
which fall on the same day. It may be accidental when two movable feasts
are concerned or when a movable feast falls on a day which has a fixed
office; or it may be perpetual, when a fixed office falls on a day which
already has a fixed office. The Church does not ask the recitation of a
double or a triple office. She, by her fixed rules, prefers one out of
the two of the "occurring" offices, transfers if possible the others, or
at least commemorates them by an antiphon, versicle and prayer, and
sometimes by a ninth lesson at Matins.
_Concurrence_ is the conjunction of two offices, which succeed one
another, so that a question arises as to which feast the Vespers belong
to; whether to the feast of the day or to the feast of the following
day, or whether the psalms should be of the feast and the remaining part
of the Vespers should be as the _Ordo_ so often notes (_a cap. de
seq._), from the _capitulum_ the office is taken from the following
feast.
The new rubrics contain five titles which make certain modifications in
the rules hitherto observed. We thus obtain a ready made division of the
subject:--
(1) Of the precedence of Feasts (Title II.).
(2) Of the accidental occurrence of feasts and their translation (Title
III.).
(3) Of the perpetual occurrence of feasts and their transfer (Title V.).
(4) Of the occurrence of feasts (Title V.).
(5) Of the commemorations (Title VI.) (Myers and Burton, _op. cit._).
The new rubrics without the aid of any commentator give pretty clear
notions of the laws of precedence, occurrence and commemoration. For
students in college these rules are expounded in detail with additions,
changes, exceptions. But for priests, long past the student stage, it is
difficult to undo the fixed liturgy lore of their student and early
priest life; and the need of such a book as _The New Psalter and its
Uses_ is, for those interested, a necessity. Even since the publication
of that book, changes have been made. For example, doubles, major or
minor and semi-doubles, which were perpetually excluded on their own day
were transferred to some fixed day. This is given in _The New Psalter
and its Uses_. But this has now been changed. In the case of feasts of
the universal Church, no translation is allowed now. But feasts proper
to a nation, diocese, order, institute or particular church may still be
transferred to a fixed day, if perpetually impeded on their own day.
Another example of necessary changes in that excellent book is in the
last paragraph of page 136 (see Decree S.C.R., June, 1912). The works of
compilers and liturgists need constant revision to keep pace with new
decisions and decrees.
In making commemorations, the order of the commemoration as laid down in
the _Ordo_ should be followed. Elements of a commemoration are the
Antiphon of the _Benedictus_ or the _Magnificat_ with versicle and
response. These antiphons are considered most excellent, preceding as
they do the Gospel canticles (St. Luke I.). The antiphon, versicle and
prayer of the commemoration at an hour should never be repetitions of
others said in the same hour. Thus, if in the office of a confessor
pontiff having the prayer _Da quaesumus_, another confessor pontiff's
feast, commemorated in the same hour, should not have the same prayer.
About the prayer, or, as it is called, the collect, the following should
be noted: first, the commemoration is omitted if the prayer of the
office which is being recited and the prayer of the feast to be
commemorated have the same object. Thus, a feast of the Blessed Virgin,
falling within the octave of the Assumption, should not be commemorated.
Second, where a commemoration for a saint or saints of title similar to
that of the saints whose office is being said, is to be made, the
Congregation of Rites (5th May, 1736) arranged that not even the
versicles and response be repeated and that the following order be
observed:--
IN VESPERS--
1st Com. made by Antiphon and Versicle of Lauds.
2nd Com. made by Antiphon of second Vesper and Ver. of II. Nocturn.
3rd Com. made by Antiphon of I. Noct. and Vers. of III. Nocturn.
IN LAUDS--
1st Com. made by Antiphon and Vers. from first Vesp.
2nd Com. made by Antiphon I. Noct., and Ver., III. Noct.
3rd Com. made by Antiphon II. Vesp., Vers., II. Noct.
If it should happen in commemorating a day within an octave that the
versicle from the common had already been taken for the office, then the
rule is "_Sumenda est in laudibus antiphona de secundis Vesperis; et pro
secundis Vesperis antiphona de laudibus in utroque tamen casu cum v. de
primis Vesperis_" (S.C.R., 18th Dec., 1779). In the above given form
of making commemorations it may be noted that the second commemoration
in Lauds is made up from the versicles and response of Matins and not
from second Vespers, so as to avoid repeating in Lauds what was said at
Vespers (Cavalieri).
As regards prayers in the office the reminder that the same formula must
not be repeated in the same hour may be supplemented. Because, prayers
having all words identical, save one single word, are not considered in
liturgy as different prayers (_e.g., Accendamur exemplis; instruamur
exemplis_, Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Feasts of several
martyrs). So, too, prayers which have the same form of petition (e.g.,
the prayers on feast of St. Joseph and on feast of St. Mathew), are not
considered as different and must not be repeated in the same hour. But
where the petition is different, even though all the remainder of the
prayers are similar in wording, they may be repeated in the same hour.
But what is to be done in offices where a commemoration prayer and the
prayer of the office is from the common? What must be done where the
feast is the feast of a Doctor and a commemoration of a Doctor is to be
made? What is to be done when the office of the feast is of a virgin not
a martyr, and a commemoration of a virgin not a martyr is to be made? In
the first case the prayer from the office of a confessor or Pontiff
should be said, adding to it the title of Doctor. In the other case, the
prayer _Indulgentiam_, omitting the word _martyr_, is to be said.
The origin of these commemorations was, that the Popes in removing the
solemn celebrations of certain feasts of Apostles and Martyrs, which
were formerly of precept, provided that their _cultus_ should not be
forgotten, and that their commemoration in the office should remind
priests and the faithful of those servants of God, whom the Church
wishes ever to honour. I have said the order given for commemoration in
the _Ordo_ should be followed; but not to follow this order does not
exceed a venial sin. Even the deliberate omission of a commemoration in
Lauds or Vespers is not a violation of a grave precept.
TITLE X.--THE TRANSLATION OF FEASTS.
When several offices fall on the same day, only one office, the one of
highest rank or most important, is said. The others are transferred or
commemorated. The last section dealt with commemorations, and now we
come to the difficult question of the translation of feasts. Title X. of
the general rubrics must be read in connection with the Apostolic
Constitution, _Divino Afflatu_ (1911) and with the _Abhinc duos
Annos_ (1913).
Translation of a feast may mean the removal of a feast from an impeded
day to a day which is free. Thus a feast of higher rank may fall on a
feast day of a saint whose feast is of lower rank; the latter may then
be transferred. Transference is either perpetual or accidental and
temporary. The former applies to feasts which are always impeded by the
meeting with a feast of higher rite on their fixed days. A feast which
would fall on 6th January would suffer perpetual translation. This
translation bears different names in rubrics, decrees and liturgical
writings--_translatio ad diem, fixam, translatio ad diem assignatam,
mutatio, etc._ Accidental translation means occasional transference, a
transfer in one year and not in another.