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Originally posted by Hilda of Whitby:
About me--ECUSA, wanting to deepen my prayer life by praying the daily office. I have read this whole thread with great interest, but gosh, there is so much out there, it is all rather confusing to me about what sort of daily office or breviary to choose. Right now I use the 1979 BCP and my RSV, and do MP and EP or Compline. I shan't be chanting or singing anything during my private devotions (though I do have those lovely CDs from the Society of St. John).

I'd like something in one volume; I have a big tote bag I take with me each day to work so the book doesn't have to be tiny, if I want to take it with me.

So ... would that 2 volume "Daily Office" be the thing for me? (I think I would only need to carry 1 of them with me, since they cover Year 1 and year 2). I've started attending a liberal AC church here in Washington and it is soooo lovely to hear Rite I language again!! (Which is why I don't know if the 1 volume "Contemporary Office" is what I really want.) I was rather chagrined to read that the "Daily Office" set has typos.

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I have the two volume ECUSA daily office book. I don't fret about reading two lessons in the AM and two in the PM, as I usually just read all the lessons for the day through before I do Compline. It is bigger than pocket-sized but small enough to tuck nicely into a lot of bags. You also have your choice between the Old and True and New and True language for the offices, unlike the "contemporary" book (although the psalter and the lections are either RSV or NSRV). As noted up thread, if you get one, check the psalter in Year One; there seems to have been a run of printing errors. I had to return the first copy that I got. Otherwise I really love it, although four ribbons isn't enough .

You can download the office for handheld from the good folks at Mission St. Clare.

I also have some of the CDs from SSJE; when I don't feel like reading Compline, or want the music, I punch it up on the CD player. When I finally get an iPod, it will probably be one of the first things I burn on it.

Charlotte

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WTFWED? "Remember to always be yourself, unless you suck" - the Gator
Memory Eternal! Sheep 3, Phil the Wise Guy, and Jesus' Evil Twin in the SoF Nativity Play

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Originally posted by Hilda of Whitby:
You have 'enabled' me! I'll get the 2 volume ECUSA Daily Office. I also got the Benedictine daily office that several folks recommended. Perhaps I'll end up taking the plunge and getting the Anglican Breviary too, at some point.

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Originally posted by Spiffy da Wonder Sheep:
Oh, you're well on your way to breviary addiction, Hilda. Soon you'll be scouring the shelves with the rest of us, in search of the elusive seven-ribboned Shorter Christian Prayer.

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Originally posted by Amazing Grace:
Seven ribbons?! Mine's only got the one!

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Originally posted by Spiffy da Wonder Sheep:
GK, most of them only have one, that's why the seven-ribboned one is so elusive!

(I am actually using Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours (Daughters of St. Paul, 1976), which has only six and two well-placed Holy Cards. And the hymn words in each office. I got it at Powell's on a whim and rather like it.)

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Originally posted by Amazing Grace:
<snip> I usually just read all the lessons for the day through before I do Compline...

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But you must change into your jammies before you do Compline. It's liturgically correct.

[messed up code]

[ 18. March 2006, 16:47: Message edited by: Mamacita ]

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

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Originally posted by Clavus:
I suspect that, for most of us, Morning Prayer is the first office of the day - in which case the Invitatory Psalm and its antiphon may be omitted, and the problem does not arise!

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Originally posted by ACOL-ite:
Since I've been using LOTH, I've been saying Ps 95 as my Invitatory. I'm aware that Pss 100, 67 and 24 are substitutable for this. Are there customs about how to rotate these? Seasonally? Other a week? Four-week Psalter? What do others do?

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Originally posted by DitzySpike:
Now I'm itching for Pfatteicher's 'Daily Prayer of the Church' and will then start a Breviary Anonymous chapter. How portable is Ptatteicher's book? Is his selection of antiphons excitingly catholic with motherofgod everywhere or safe like Common Worship?

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Originally posted by J.S. Bach:
I've been using Pfatteicher's excellent book regularly since the beginning of 2006, except when on travel because of its size and weight. This hardcover book measures 5.75 x 7.75 x 2.25 inches and uses "standard" paper as opposed to "Bible" paper. The antiphons mostly come from Galley's Prayer Book Office and the RC Liturgy of the Hours. Using your word, I would consider them "safe."

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Originally posted by Craigmaddie:
I'm currently using the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer and had a question: when does one say the Lenten antiphon? Before the invitatory psalm? Is this antiphon repeated at any point during morning or evening prayer?

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Originally posted by DitzySpike:
Curious. Does the OUP Monastic Diurnal print the Psalms alloted for Matins in an appendix?

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Originally posted by Craigmaddie:
I'm currently using the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer and had a question: when does one say the Lenten antiphon? Before the invitatory psalm? Is this antiphon repeated at any point during morning or evening prayer?

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I saw something called "Daily Office for Dodos" but the tone of it seemed really jarring--kind of jokey--and that *isn't* what I am looking for.

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Originally posted by Hilda of Whitby:
I am pretty sure I have it sort of figured out--it took a great deal of flipping around--but is there a "guide to the use of the Daily Office" that anyone could recommend? The intro pages in the book are rather useless, although I did go to the sections they mentioned and was able to halfway figure out what I was supposed to be doing, so perhaps the intro wasn't all THAT bad ... but I think I need something more. The intro pre-supposes that you know what you are doing.

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Especially in this era of the Internet, I think it's criminal for anyone to publish something like Benedictine Daily Prayer without putting up a Web site of helpful information. Such a site for BDP could have a complete Ordo, giving page numbers and other guidance for each day, or at least a set of examples to show how solemnities, feasts, and ferias work, for example, or how to incorporate the second week of Vigils and Lauds materials.

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Originally posted by Scott Knitter:

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Originally posted by Craigmaddie:
I'm currently using the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer and had a question: when does one say the Lenten antiphon? Before the invitatory psalm? Is this antiphon repeated at any point during morning or evening prayer?

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Yes, it's said before (and optionally after) the Invitatory psalm, assuming you mean the Lenten antiphon toward the bottom of p. 2. Once you've completed the Invitatory psalm, that antiphon isn't used again.

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Originally posted by Craigmaddie:
Thanks, Scott. I notice that the Invitatory psalm has an instruction to repeat the antiphon after every 'verse' - would this also apply to the Lenten antiphon as well?

Plus, sorry for being thick, folks, but after you have said "O Lord make haste to help us/O God come to our aid" do you say a "Glory Be"?

Does anyone incorporate posture and/or gesture into their reading of the Daily Office? I read in a brief introduction to the subject that you should bow at the "Glory Be" and cross yourself at the beginning of the Magnifact, Benedictus, and Nunc Dimittis and also at the name of Christ. Does anyone follow this practice?

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Originally posted by Scott Knitter:
Especially in this era of the Internet, I think it's criminal for anyone to publish something like Benedictine Daily Prayer without putting up a Web site of helpful information. Such a site for BDP could have a complete Ordo, giving page numbers and other guidance for each day, or at least a set of examples to show how solemnities, feasts, and ferias work, for example, or how to incorporate the second week of Vigils and Lauds materials.

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Originally posted by David Goode:

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Originally posted by Scott Knitter:
Especially in this era of the Internet, I think it's criminal for anyone to publish something like Benedictine Daily Prayer without putting up a Web site of helpful information. Such a site for BDP could have a complete Ordo, giving page numbers and other guidance for each day, or at least a set of examples to show how solemnities, feasts, and ferias work, for example, or how to incorporate the second week of Vigils and Lauds materials.

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I seem to recall rather rashly saying I would do this a while ago, didn't I?

I'll set to it over the Easter Vac. I can't promise a full daily ordo, but I can certainly produce something that will help out beginners.

Watch this space...

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Originally posted by Divine Office:
Just seen from the Lancelot Andrewes Press website that the reprint of The Monastic Diurnal is now ready for shipping.

It looks like a handsome book. I can't wait to receive mine!

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I am pretty sure I have it sort of figured out--it took a great deal of flipping around--but is there a "guide to the use of the Daily Office" that anyone could recommend? The intro pages in the book are rather useless <snip> The intro pre-supposes that you know what you are doing.

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Scott--thanks for your outrage on my behalf!

David--whenever you have time, that web guide to BDP would be a Godsend!

Don't get me wrong--BDP IS do-able, but it takes the divvil's own flipping of pages and lotsa head-scratching. A guide to the perplexed would be terrific, and I agree with Scott--the publishers should provide it. Isn't there an annual guide to the LOTH? (Is "ordo" the technical term?)

I also just got my 2 volume ECUSA Daily Office, and I just loooooove it; now I can read the offices without constantly flipping from the order of service in the BCP, to the lectionary in the back of the BCP, and then to my RSV ... wonderful!

Thanks to everyone for suggestions and help!

Hilda

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"Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad."

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Originally posted by Divine Office:
Just seen from the Lancelot Andrewes Press website that the reprint of The Monastic Diurnal is now ready for shipping.

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For people who use the MD, what do you do for Matins/Office of Readings/Whatever you call it?

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I have a (borrowed) copy of Douglas's "Order of Matins" for the Sisters of Saint Mary (NY) from 1916, which is very doable.

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This book is generally linked to the BCP readings for the old calendar.

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Originally posted by Magic Wand:
As would anything printed before 1969, I'd assume.

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Originally posted by Magic Wand:

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I have a (borrowed) copy of Douglas's "Order of Matins" for the Sisters of Saint Mary (NY) from 1916, which is very doable.

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That's an interesting book, and while it retains the psalter, none of the patristic or hagiographical readings are included.

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Originally posted by Scott Knitter:
Is the 1916 book the one with three psalms appointed at Matins and the psalms spread out over a month? If so, that's influenced by the historic Quinones Breviary, both in the psalm arrangement and the focus on everything being from scripture, so no patristics, pious unscriptural antiphons, etc. I have a copy of the CSM Matins, but from the 1930s or 40s.

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Originally posted by Choirboy:
So matins in this scheme is essentially a single nocturn (If I'm doing it correctly): opening preces, psalm 3, venite, office hymn, 3 psalms, Lord's prayer, absolution, blessing, and lesson. On Sundays, next comes the Te Deum, gospel and another hymn (Te decet hymnus?). Ferias have a short chapter instead. Both conclude with collect of the day, dismissal, Lord's prayer (silently).

The scriptural antiphon texts are fine, although this book contains no music, and I'd really prefer to sing them. And nonetheless, I do enjoy the patristic readings.

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I think you've got it. It took me a long time to figure it out; wherever my copy is, it has a sheet in it on which I outlined the order of things so I wouldn't have to wonder anymore.

One thing that's always of interest to me when I look at how monastic communities pray the office is how they do Matins (or Vigils). I'd say probably more than half do not sing that office but say it. One seemingly traditional way of saying the psalms at Matins is to have the members take turns reciting whole psalms while the others listen. Quite a different experience from antiphonal chanting. St Gregory's Abbey in Michigan has individual psalm recitation; the one reading a psalm turns on his reading lamp in his stall and recites the psalm (some do it slowly and contemplatively; others rather swiftly and matter-of-factly), then turns off the lamp when done.

At Saint Meinrad Archabbey, there is a bit of singing during Vigils (responsories at least), but the psalms are said; some are said alternating between leader and all; others alternate from side to side. What indicates which method is to be used is the location of the leader (hebdomadarian): if he's at the ambo, it's leader versus all; if at his place in choir; it's antiphonal from side to side.