Friday, August 2, 2013

Accomplishing the Hours of the Extraordinary Form (1962 Breviary)


Here is my horarium for the daily Breviary which I have been saying faithfully, at the regular intervals of the day, as a parish priest, for approximately three years now. It's deep and very fulfilling for a middle aged priest. I have to say that after spending three weeks this Summer chanting the Liturgy of the Hours with the monks at Mariawald (where Matins alone is over an hour), I now very much understand the brevior aspect of the Breviary. The major time difference I notice between the extraordinary and the ordinary forms of the Breviary is the rhythm of the minor hours and the three nocturnes for feast days. The minor hours (5-10 minutes each) are very helpful for the heart of the day to sanctify it with a regulated "turning to the Lord" in the Ecclesial  and priestly praise and worship of the centuries.

5 AM  Lauds
6 AM  (or as preparation for morning Mass) Prime
9 AM  (or as thanksgiving after morning Mass) Terce
12 Noon  (or prayer before lunch) Sext
3 PM  (or prayer after lunch) None
4 PM  Vespers and Matins of the following day anticipated
9:30 PM  Compline

N.B. Matins may, for a just cause, be anticipated the day before, after 2 PM, according to the 1962 rubrics: #144 Matutinum, ex justa cause, horis postmeridianis diei praecendentis anticipare licet, non tamen ante horam quartamdecimam.  My just cause is efficiency, that I am a busy parish priest and should like to be strictly faithful to fulfilling all of the office every twenty four hours and, preferably, at the proper times. On the rare occasion that I miss Matins at my habitual anticipated hour I have a full day to catch up! It works! I have never missed any of the hours so far. A major key to this schedule is spread it out, leaving nothing for the evenings, which are usually very busy.

Note also that I usually do each "hour" with the prescribed time as the deadline. For example, I always begin Lauds sharply at rising (5 AM), Prime by Mass time (or right after breakfast), Terce by 9 AM, Sext by Noon (just before lunch), None by 2 PM (just after lunch) so as to be able to do Vespers and the anticipated Matins at 2 PM (after the midday nap). So that my habitual window for doing the hours is thus:

5 AM Lauds
5:15 - 7:00 AM  Prime
7:00 - 9:00 AM  Terce
9:00 - Noon  Sext
Noon - 2:00 PM  None
2:00 - 4:30 Vespers and Anticipated Matins
8:30 - 9:30 PM  Compline

Seven times a day I have given praise to thee, for the judgments of thy justice. Psalm 118:164