Divine Office

DIVINE OFFICE (Officium ecclesiasticum; horae; horae canonicae; preces horariae; opus Dei; opus divinum, cursus). - By these terms is designated the divine office (excluding the sacrifice), by which the Church, as minister of public worship, intends to honor God each day at determined hours of the day and night. Public by its nature, this task is entrusted in varying degree to clerics and to Religious: by praying in the name and in the form prescribed by the Church, they fulfill a public Divine Office.

For some time, according to canonical discipline, the Divine Office has consisted of eight canonical hours, named on the basis of the relationship they had according to ancient usage to the principal moments of the day and night. Matins, which used to be recited at night, as is still the custom in certain religious institutes, is now called the night hour; the other hours, diurnal, are: Lauds (to be recited at sunrise), Prime (at 6, the beginning of the daily work), Terce (at 9), Sext (at 12), None (at 15), Vespers (at sunset), Compline (before rest). Matins, Lauds, and Vespers are called the Major Hours, by reason of their fuller development; the others: Minor Hours (v. under the individual entries).

Although public by its nature, the recitation of the canonical hours may be private or choral.

1. Private recitation

It is obligatory for all clerics, even those under censure, in sacris; for any cleric holding a benefice; for all Religious who are not converse brothers and are solemnly professed in male or female institutes in which choral office is obligatory (cann. 135, 1475, 610). Before the CIC, for clerics the obligation arose from custom.

The obligation is grave; the quantity of one minor hour and its corresponding hour is considered grave (Holy Saturday Vespers is excluded); the omission, however, of the entire Office of the day constitutes a single fault, naturally more grave.

The obligation is grave also with regard to certain particulars: 1) in the Western Church the Latin language is obligatory under penalty of nullity; 2) the arrangement must follow the calendar of the day, except in the case of subjective error (officium pro officio valet, and probably also hora pro hora, supposing the quantity to be approximately equal). Whoever knowingly recites one Office for another of approximately equal quantity commits a light fault. If an office has been anticipated by error, at the proper time it is repeated, without erring again, by resuming the omitted office; 3) the recitation must also be vocal, pronouncing the individual syllables, even if the person does not perceive them with the ears. For certain religious institutes the privilege of mental recitation is disputed; 4) the recitation must be a human act, ad valorem; external attention, however, suffices (which excludes only as incompatible external occupations opposed to vocal recitation), while internal attention (absence of distractions), though praiseworthy, is not required, unless the recitation becomes mechanical; distraction, if adverted to, can be a light fault. To foster internal attention during recitation before the Blessed Sacrament, particular indulgences are attached (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, Rome 1952, nos. 731, 736); 5) the recitation must be done within 24 hours, from midnight to midnight (fundus diei), in accordance with can. 33 § 1. Matins with Lauds may be anticipated to the afternoon after 14 (S. Congr. Rituum, 22 May 1905); one who foresees some impediment for the following day is not obliged to anticipate the recitation. For priests the missal orders the recitation of Matins with Lauds before the eventual celebration of Mass; probably it is a directive rubric only, and not preceptive. Praiseworthy is the recitation in the morning of the first four minor hours and of Vespers on ferial days of Lent; in the afternoon the recitation of Vespers and Compline. One who foresees an impediment in the rest of the day must anticipate the recitation. The obligation ceases according to the norms of the common rules (physical impossibility, grave impediment or inconvenience, more urgent occupations of worship, of ministry or of charity, legitimate dispensation).

2. Choral recitation

The obligation is grave for each Chapter (cathedral or collegiate); for all individual clerics invested with a choral benefice; for all male or female religious houses canonically erected with at least 4 free religious (not converse), in institutes in which the obligation of choir is in force (cann. 413 ff.; 1472 ff.; 610). By law of foundation, by apostolic indult, reductions are granted in this regard.

There is a difference between the obligation of canons and beneficiaries and that of religious; in the former the obligation is collegial and personal together, that is, it weighs on the Chapter as such and together on the individual members; in religious institutes it weighs directly on the community.

1) The obligation is real, inasmuch as it imposes effective and complete execution in the manner and form prescribed by the Church. It is local, to be fulfilled in the sacred place (church) in which the moral person has its seat; outside of it, even if gathered together, the members do not fulfill the burden; probably licit is recitation in a place joined to the Church (sacristy, penitentiary). It must be daily; in some Chapters, instead of full service (attendance of all members not legitimately impeded) there is service by turns, by concession of the Holy See; usually the major solemnities are excluded. In the religious community, since the burden does not weigh on individuals, one cannot speak of service by turns; but especially for places of study the Superiors, in accordance with can. 589 § 2, can make arrangements in this regard; 2) the obligation is grave for the Superior (bishop), who must attend to this burden, daily, imposed by canonical law, and for the individual beneficiaries not legitimately exempt, since it is a personal burden. The gravity of choral office is not to be computed as that of private recitation; the sporadic omission of a canonical hour is not held to be grave; for the beneficiary, illegitimate absence of one week is required. In this regard there is the double sanction of cann. 1475 and 3381 (non facit fructus mos, eventual privation of the benefice). For religious, superiors must watch over the execution of the burden, supposing the presence of at least 4 religious not legitimately impeded; they must not, however, notably shift the schedule, since the obligation is divisible; so that, when some canonical hour cannot be recited at its proper time, there is no strict obligation of the same. For individual religious the obligation is in itself light, and becomes grave in case of scandal, of a precept of the superior, of choral recitation made impossible by their absence; 3) insofar as it is vocal, it must be done in the prescribed parts (hymns, psalms, etc.) alternately, and in an intelligible manner, even if some chorister is not heard by the other choir. The recitation for canons should be in chant; this prescription is interpreted in a broad sense as recitation in a loud, distinct and intelligible voice; 4) one must furthermore follow the order marked in the Breviary and calendar (the inversion, without proportionate cause, of some canonical hour is a light fault) and maintain the liturgical time. Matins with Lauds, in itself, is to be said between midnight and midday; by indult, dispensation or custom it may be anticipated after the middle of the afternoon (therefore the time varies according to the months); the minor canonical Hours in the morning, interposing Mass in accordance with the rubrics; Vespers on ferial days of Lent is anticipated before lunch, in the rest of the year it is said in the afternoon; likewise Compline; 5) the causes excusing from choral recitation: for Chapters they are the indult, grave public inconvenience; for Religious there is added the deficiency of number; for individual beneficiaries, the vacations in accordance with can. 418, substitution (can. 419), special assignments for the diocese (can. 420 ff.), jubilation (cann. 422); for individual religious, dispensation, privilege, grave inconvenience.

1896, pp. 309-43; P. Mocchegeiani, Iurisprudentia ecclesiastica, II, Quaracchi-Freiburg im Breisgau 1905, nn. 1-68; III, ibid. 1905, nn. 375-445; C. Callewaert, De breviarii romani liturgia, Bruges 1931; A. Coelho, Corso di liturgia romana, IV, Turin-Rome 1937, nn. 444-46; T. Schaefer, De religiosis, 4th ed., Rome 1947, nn. 1190-1215; H. Leclercq, Breviaire, in DACL, II, coll. 1262-1316; F. Cimitier, Office divin, in DThC, XI, coll. 955-60; J. Brinktrine, Brevier, in LThK, II, coll. 351-57; H. De Mesmecker, De peccato omissionis horarum, in Collectanea Mechinensia, 16 (1946), pp. 276-78; B. Janssens de Bisthoven, De obligatis ad officina tituli ecclesiae, in Collationes Brugenses, 43 (1947), pp. 27-30; S. Brieroa, L'obbligo del coro nelle comunità del Terzi online regolare di S. Francesco, Rome 1949.

Sisinio da Romallo

I. HISTORY OF THE LITURGICAL HOURS

1. The private Hours of the first three centuries

From Sacred Scripture it appears that the Apostles, for their prayer, followed the times already used in the synagogue, namely the third hour (Acts 2:15), the sixth (Acts 10:9) and the ninth (Acts 3:1), which are therefore also called the "apostolic hours." To these are naturally added the prayer of the morning and that of the evening. The Didache (ch. 8) ordains the private recitation of the Pater noster three times a day, without indicating precisely the hour; but since the Didache originated in Syro-Palestinian territory, the Syro-Palestinian usage is also supposed for the recitation, namely the "apostolic hours." St. Clement of Alexandria (Strom., VII, 7), for Alexandria, and Tertullian (De ieiunio, 10; De orat., 25) for Latin Africa, hint at a twofold group of prayers; the first group consisting of the prayer of morning and evening, public at least on the days of the celebration of the Eucharist and the agape; the second group, but of private devotion, consisting of the "apostolic hours." The same is found in St. Cyprian (De dominica oratione, 35-36); he too distinguishes two groups of hours of prayer: the first of the day, the "apostolic hours," associated with the thought of the events mentioned in the Acts and with the idea of the commemoration of Christ's Passion; the second of the prayers of morning, evening and night: Christ is the true light in the resurrection and in the parousia. The hours of the day and of midnight (also mentioned by Tertullian) come from private devotion; those of morning and evening, with readings from Sacred Scripture and with the singing of psalms, belong to a public service which, if not daily, is replaced by private devotion. Hippolytus in the Traditio Apostolica (ch. 35) is the first to hint at the division of the day and at the hours of prayer in a certain temporal order: after rising one washes one's hands in order to recite the morning prayer, one goes to church to take part in the scriptural reading and the singing of psalms (the public morning prayer distinct from the Holy Eucharist); if it is not public, it is done at home; during the day the "apostolic hours" are not to be omitted. Of the evening prayer he speaks briefly; the prayer of the night – also one of private devotion – is twofold: at midnight and at cockcrow (gallicinium; around three o'clock). For the hours of prayer Christians followed the Greek and Roman division of day and night, hours publicly announced, as Tertullian hints (De ieiunio, 10: "quae publice resonant"). The prayers had no fixed or official formularies, except the "Pater"; the prayers and readings were chosen and determined by the one presiding or by private devotion.

2. The formation of the Divine Office of monks and convents

In the 4th century, once the ascetic life was organized in common, the hours of prayer hitherto private also became hours of common prayer. Especially the night prayer came to be preferred and established as a "vigil" with psalms, readings and responsories. The Egyptian monks have in common only Vespers and the night prayer combined with that of dawn. The Palestinian and Syrian monks, on the other hand, also practice common daytime prayer, namely the "apostolic hours." This example was followed also by the Western monks. In the course of the 5th and 6th centuries, to the daytime hours are prefixed Lauds (from Bethlehem, cf. Froger [v. op. cit., in bibl.]) and Prime; to complete the day St. Basil and St. Benedict add Compline, the hour of going to rest. Thus the hours of prayer receive their structure and their number as it still exists. The internal structure too comes from the monks. The preferred prayer was the psalter, first in sequence, one psalm after another. Their number is left free to individuals. The hermits and others recited the whole psalter of 150 psalms in a single day. Finally the psalms are distributed over a weekly or biweekly course; it is the principal part of the Office. To the recitation of the psalms is added from the beginning the scriptural reading; after a certain number of psalms follows one or more readings taken from the two Testaments. Since only a few knew how to read, the public reading was done by one or more readers or singers. The reading was so extensive as sometimes to occupy an entire book. Besides Sacred Scripture, hagiographic writings were also read, the passions of the martyrs, the sermons and homilies of the Fathers, distributed among the three vigils. As an echo of the reading, psalms in responsorial tone were recited between the individual lessons. A third constitutive element was the prayer "sub silentio," that is, after the reading or the singing of the psalms each prayed for himself in silence and kneeling, then standing erect in the attitude of one praying; there followed the prayer improvised and recited by the superior. At the end of the hour the Pater noster was recited, begun by the officiant and continued by the others in silence; the last verses were said aloud in common. St. Benedict introduces into Lauds and Vespers the recitation of the entire Pater aloud, reserved to the abbot or superior. The schema of the hours thus comprises all these parts: psalms, reading and prayers. The psalms were at first in responsorial chant (that is, one cantor read the verses, the others responded always with the same verse), then in antiphonal chant (the verses were sung interspersed with antiphons). The monastic legislators, such as St. Caesarius, St. Aurelian, St. Columban, especially St. Benedict, give the Office a place of pre-eminence. The ordinance of St. Benedict then prevails over all the other rules because of its discretion. A very recent study by Fr. J. M. Hanssens on the origin of liturgical prayer, especially on the nature and genesis of Matins and Lauds, gives the following conclusions: a) Lucernarium and Lauds are the most ancient hours of prayer. At the Lucernarium the psalms proper in the Roman rite are replaced by the psalms of the psalter to the number of 5, just as at Lauds. The Lucernarium thus becomes "Vespers." b) Also at Lauds, the morning Office properly so called, a psalmodic part deriving from the monastic use of the vigil or night prayer is prefixed. The morning Office is thus composed of two subordinate parts, that of the nocturnal or pre-matutinal part, composed of psalms as a preparation for the morning Office, and that properly matutinal and primitive. The first part, the nocturnal psalmody, never existed by itself alone as the pre-existing or autonomous Office, but is only an amplification of the primitive morning Office, to which the monks prefixed the customary recitation of the psalter, as was done in order to pass the night (wholly or in part) awake and in prayer. This first part never concludes like the other hours, but the Office properly matutinal is added to it at once. Both these "parts" are considered as a single morning Office; therefore it begins toward the dawn preceding the aurora.

3. The formation of the U. of the churches. The Roman U

For the history of the U. of the various churches, the sources are not as clear as for the monastic U. St. Jerome (Ad Laetam, ep. 107, 9) alludes to 6 hours of private prayer: at night, at dawn, the three apostolic hours and the evening sacrifice. In the churches there existed, besides the eucharistic service, the euchological one, that is, of prayers, or rather of scriptural readings, followed by the singing of responsories. This euchological service around the middle of the 4th century comprised only the public prayers of morning and evening, that is, Lauds and Vespers or Lucernarium (St. Ambrose, De Abraham, II, 22; St. Augustine, Confess., V, 9; St. Hilary, In ps., 64, 9). In the 4th and 5th centuries the hour of night prayer was added, the ordered Vigil, according to the Liber Pontificalis, already by Pope Damasus (336-84). This Vigil encountered some difficulty among the clergy because it was somewhat burdensome and troublesome, since one had to rise in the night (cf. the oath of the suburban bishops [per singulos dies a primo gallo usque mane], of the 6th century, to celebrate the daily vigil together with their clergy, and the Edict of the emperor Justinian of 528 to the clergy not to be less than so many of the faithful in participating in the vigils). This vigil seems not to have been psalmodic, but rather composed of readings, canticles and responsories; it also includes the morning hour, that is, Lauds, with which the Vigil culminates and ends. The little hours were introduced on the example and with the influence of the monastic oratories of Rome (ad catacumbas, 431-50; St. Peter's, 450; St. Lawrence's, 461-68; at the Lateran, 590, etc.); Gregory II (715-31) ordered, for example, the monks of the monasteries restored near St. Paul's and St. Mary Major, besides the Vigil and Lauds, also the little hours of Terce, Sext and None. Compline was recited not in church, but in the dormitory. From this participation of the secular clergy in the U. was born the custom also for it of the obligation of the private recitation of the canonical hours, just as the monks were obliged to private recitation in their absence from the monastery.

The archaic Roman or secular U. differs from the monastic one, as Amalarius attests for the 9th century; the monastic one is richer and more extensive than the archaic Roman one. The archaic Roman one lacks the «Deus in adiutorium», the invitatory, the hymns, the chapters, etc.; instead of the 12 psalms and 12 lessons of the monastic one, the Roman has only 9 psalms and 9 lessons. From the 9th century Benedictine elements enter the Roman U. (the invitatory, the hymns, etc.). On the other hand, an abbreviation of the readings begins and the «Breviary of the Roman Curia» is born (v. BREVIARIO). The Roman U. was propagated in England in the 7th century by Benedict Biscop, in Gaul by Chrodegang of Metz (8th century after 753) and Remedius of Rouen, especially through the Carolingian liturgical reform; under Gregory VII also in Spain instead of the Mozarabic one (permitted only in one Toledan chapel).

Pietro Siffrin

II. ORIENTAL RITES

The Acoemetae in Byzantium in the 5th century practiced continuous prayer (cf. J. Pargoire, Acémètes, in DACL, I, cols. 307-21): some monks dedicated some Office to each of the twelve hours of the day and night (for the Byzantines, cf. E. Diakovskij, L'U. delle ore notturne [in Russian], in Trudi, 50 [1909], II, pp. 547 ff.; for the Ethiopians cf. S. Salaville, La Prière de toutes les heures dans la littérature éthiopienne, in Studia orientalia liturgico-theologica, Rome 1940, pp. 170-85). The Eastern Churches, although they have very long Offices, did not follow these excesses. All have the hour of Matins and the hour of Vespers, probably the most ancient, and, with some exceptions, also the daytime hours of Terce, Sext and None, as private prayer; all have placed before the morning hour the hour of the night and almost all have added to it the hour of Prime, and to Vespers the hour of sleep or Compline. But still other hours are found in some rite.

1. Enumeration of the hours

Byzantine rite: Vespers, Compline, Midnight (a more recent composition), Matins (comprises the equivalent of the three Nocturns and of Lauds), Prime, Terce, Sext, None. Moreover, in Lent: a "mesoria" of the hours Prime, Terce, Sext and None, and the typica which take the place of the divine liturgy on aliturgical days. - Armenian rite: Vespers, Peaceful Hour, Compline, of the night (equivalent to Nocturn), Matins (equivalent to Lauds, but much expanded), at sunrise, Terce, Sext, None. - West Syrian rite: Vespers, Compline, of the night (comprises the equivalent of the three Nocturns and of Lauds), Matins (partly resumes Lauds and adds other things to it), Terce, Sext, None. - Maronite rite: like the West Syrian rite, but in the hour of the night it does not have Lauds. - Chaldean rite: Vespers, Compline (not always and, when it is said, it is added to Vespers), of the night Matins (equivalent to Lauds); the hours Terce, Sext and None only among the Catholic monks, who took them from the Maronites. - Coptic and Ethiopian rite: Vespers, of sleep, Midnight (comprises the equivalent of three Nocturns, and moreover, in the Ethiopian rite, the hour "ad gallicantum", equivalent to Lauds), Prime, Terce, Sext and None.

2. Content

The most ancient element, the psalms, are found everywhere, whether as the recitation of the cursus of the Psalter distributed over the hours of vespers, of the night and of the morning, or as the recitation of certain psalms chosen for the different hours and therefore intimately connected with each of them. To the psalms are joined the biblical canticles in greater or lesser number. The reading of Sacred Scripture does not always take place, but that of a gospel does in the Sunday Office; among the Copts, however, a gospel is read every day at every hour. Very numerous in all the Oriental rites are poetic compositions of very different kinds (v. INNOGRAFIA). On the other hand, the reading of patristic homilies is found only in the West Syrian rite, but not always; in the Byzantine rite it sometimes fills the time between one hour and another. Furthermore, salutations, acclamations, litanies and prayers are not lacking. Among the liturgical actions the most important is incensation, especially at Vespers; but in certain cases processions are not lacking either, as also the blessing of bread and oil before the hour of the night.

3. Obligation

Among the dissidents the obligation of the divine Office falls on the community, not on the individual as such, and since parish priests are married, work for the family would not leave them time for long prayers. However, even the monk who is traveling or enclosed in his cell, like every pious priest, considers it his duty to recite in private, if he does not participate in the common prayer, a part of the divine Office or other prayers that often imitate the hours of the divine Office. In some communities even the laity have the custom of reciting the divine Office or a substitute for it in church or at home with the family. N. Milasch, however, writes in a different sense (Das Kirchenrecht in der morgenländ. Kirche, Mostar 1905, p. 285).

Among Catholics the legislation is not uniform, nor is the obligation always clear. The recitation of the divine Office requires many books which private individuals rarely possess all of; done entirely, it requires many hours; the norms of authority for abbreviating it are often lacking, or the divine Office is reduced to the mere unchanged and monotonous recitation of the Ordinarum Officii; moreover the recitation of the divine Office, as a strictly individual obligation, is not in the tradition of the East; it is, however, customary as a preparation for the celebration of Holy Mass. Various attempts to abbreviate the Byzantine divine Office were made in the past (cf. C. Korolevskii, La Codification de l'Office byzantin. Les essais dans le passé, in Or. christ. Period., 19 [1953], pp. 25-60).

a) Italo-Greeks: each priest is strongly recommended the daily recitation of Matins, the Hours, Vespers and Compline (cf. Costituzioni del Sinodo intereparchiale [1940], Grottaferrata 1943, p. 21).

b) Ruthenians: Priests are not to omit the recitation of the canonical Hours at random (cf. Acta et decreta Synodi provinc. Ruthenorum Galiciae habitae Leopoli an. 1891, Rome 1896, p. 145). Despite the vagueness of this decree, the Ruthenians of Galicia believe themselves obliged sub gravi to the daily recitation of the divine Office according to the schema drawn up by the same Synod.

c) Melkites: from various synodal decisions and monastic rules there results on the one hand an unclear obligation, on the other a broad faculty of dispensing granted to bishops and superiors; the lack of books, the lack of directive norms for an abbreviation, the practice of good priests further increase the doubt about the existence of a strict obligation of conscience.

d) Romanians: the obligation seems to refer only to the canons of the cathedrals: the synodal decrees and custom impose on all priests the obligation of Matins before the celebration of the Holy Liturgy (cf. A. Moisiu, De officio divino in Ecclesia romana, Rome 1944).

e) Armenians: there is in force an obligation entirely similar to that existing among the Latins, according to a schema of abbreviation drawn up by the Synod (cf. Acta et Decreta Concilii nationalis Armenorum Romae habiti an. 1921, Rome 1913, n. 740).

f) Syrians and Maronites: there exists the obligation, from the diaconate, of reciting in choir or in private every day the divine Office; it is not said explicitly sub gravi (cf. Synodus Sciarfensis... an. 1888, Rome 1896, p. 198; for the Lebanese Synod of 1736, Mansi, XXXVIII, cols. 140 and 157).

g) Malankarese: the bishops have imposed the obligation, not better determined, of reciting the divine Office, indicating the manner of it (cf. Placidus a S. Josepho, De Fontibus iuris eccles. syro-malankarensis [Fonti, 2ª serie, fasc. VIII], Rome 1937, p. 96 and 98).

h) Chaldeans: the norms given under Clement XIII in 1760 (cf. Mansi, XLII, 903) obliged sub gravi to recite the Psalter until the abbreviated divine Office should be published; the Breviary appeared in 1886, but no decree accompanied it.

i) Malabarese: the Synod of Diamper in 1599 introduced an obligation similar to that in force among the Latins (cf. Mansi, t. XXXV, 1280); but at that time printed books were lacking and the Synod has no value; today the obligation is in force on grounds of custom.

l) Copts: the obligation that is in force for the clergy is understood also for the private recitation of the divine Office, but it is not expressly said that it is sub gravi (cf. Synodus Alexandrina Coptorum habita Cairi... an. 1898, Rome 1899, p. 149).

m) Ethiopians: no law is in force; but the reading of the Psalter is very widespread even among the laity.

BIBLI: see in general the Eastern liturgical books. Necessarily partial translations: J. B. Mainewright, The Byzantine Offices, London 1909 (gives the entire Office with the Ordinary for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul); E. Mercenier - F. Paris, La Prière des Églises, de rite byzantin, II, Amay 1937; A. Maltzow, Die Nachtwache, Berlin 1892; Breviarium Armenum, Venice 1908 (the Ordinary in Latin); F. C. Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum, Oxford 1905 (English version of the Ordinary and valuable historical notes); A. J. Maclean, East Syrian Daily Offices, London 1894 (English version of the Ordinary of the festal and ferial Office); J. P. P. Martin, St Pierre et St Paul dans l'Église nestorienne, Paris 1875 (gives the entire Office for the feast of these Saints, in French); John Marquis of Bute, The Coptic Morning service, London 1908 (English version of the Ordinary of all the hours); B. Turkev, Časovou etiopskoi Tserkovi, St. Petersburg 1897 (Russian version of the Ordinary of all the hours, with variants). On the obligation, the general discussion concerning the Romans in Mansi, XLVI, coll. 866-906; P. Hofmeister, Die Breviervorpflichtung der oriental. Geistlichen, in Ostkirchliche Studien, 1 (1952), pp. 249-63.

Alfonso Raes