+In the Name of the FATHER and the SON and the HOLY SPIRIT.
Why another Divine Office website when there are on the web so many great sites? Because I think it has its own specificities that some may find useful or even attractive, and which could be summarized in the following points:
1. Modern and traditional offices:
When I started praying daily the Divine Liturgy with a small pocket book written by a French Brother (Prière des humbles, Fr. Bernard-Marie, Ed. St Paul, in the picture above) that offered some psalms and prayers for the 7 days of the week, I did not imagine at all that this small mustard seed would become one day the work I am presenting here.
Several years later after praying with “the mustard seed” I discovered the one volume :”Christian Prayer” edited by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) which led me to the 5 volumes of the same editor. Praying the Divine Office, especially after my retirement became for me a Iife-line, my only contact with the latin world, given the fact that I had settled in remote areas in the Lebanese mountains, where there was no roman latin church, but only maronite churches where I would nevertheless attend my daily Mass. But I was still in thirst of the latin liturgy to which I was used. During this period, I found on Internet the Breviaries of the Order of Preachers to whom I am very much indebted for starting and building up this work. It was love at first sight when I discovered Daniel 3 with its Antiphon in Tone IV. I was totally fascinated by the beauty and the potency of the psalmody. The problem was that it was entirely in Latin and I wasn’t sure that the community that I wanted to found at that time would feel comfortable with it. So I decided to make my own breviary using both Latin and English: English as the main language and Latin for the hymns (that I present in a bilingual version) as well as in some long responsories
But I I did not limit myself to this single source. I have borrowed material from diverse sources. MORE
This approach led me to include, for solemnities and some major feasts of our LORD JESUS and the Blessed Virgin Mary, along with the Offices of the Liturgy of Hours or Novus Ordo, Offices close in their form to the Vetus Ordo ones. Those offices are presented in parallel to the Novus Ordo ones.
2. Roman and local celebrations:
My “private breviary” is also different because in addition to the offices of the Roman Liturgy, it contains some local celebrations of the maronite Church , as Our Lady of Lebanon and St Charbel for example, as well as the feats of Saints of the oriental Churches to whom I have created their own offices. I am also happy to present Offices for the proper of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem: for biblical persons such as Abraham, Moses, the Prophets as well as Saints mentioned in the Gospels like Simeon and Hanna, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Mary of Cleopas and the other women, Longinus ( the soldier who pierced the Heart of JESUS with his lance and converted later on) and many others.
3. Marian Devotion
I have personal reasons to have a great devotion to the most holy Mother of GOD ( to Whom this website is dedicated) and feel very sad when I see the devotion to Her disappearing progressively everywhere. In reparation, I present here 30 Offices to mark not only Her solemnities and major feasts of course, but also other events such as important moments of Her life, Her apparitions, Her virtues…For the Saturday devotion I have added a Common that can be used on that day.
4. Bilingual hymns
I have used as much as possible traditional latin hymns that I present in a bilingual form, i.e. with a 'singable’ English translation in the same score, a task that was not very easy to accomplish nor presents itself as a perfect musical achievement. Nevertheless it presents the advantage of enabling to choose the langage and to follow the translation when playing the recording of the latin hymn. If played on a low volume the music may serve as an accompaniment when singing in English.
5. Easy approach:
The offices are presented in a linear form which allows the person who prays to focus more on the prayer itself without having to jump from one page or one section to the other to look for the antiphon to use or the prayer of the day. Beginners especially will find it more attractive to start praying the hours since no previous knowledge of the structure of the hours is needed.
6. The annotation:
The accentuation of the psalms is not something new. Nevertheless I have used my own additional signs for the psalmody which has been prepared for being entirely sung. I have included a tutorial to get along with the different signs I use in the psalmody. MORE
P.S. The musical part is in Gregorian notation and the antiphons are handwritten.
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I offer this work not only to all those who would like to share the praise with me but especially to more than 3 billion human beings living in the Asian Continent who still do not know GOD or CHRIST. This is why I place this website under the patronage of St Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Far East to guide them to the LORD.
Thus, this work would have been my humble answer to the psalmist question : “ How could I ever repay GOD for His Goodness to me?”