what is new
O. BEGINNERS FRIENDLY
The Offices are presented here in a continuous flow where no previous knowledge of the articulation of the different parts of the offices is a prerequisite to the prayer. No need to know how to jump from one page to the other to pray the office of the day. The hymns open in another tab to allow the person to see and sing the hymn on one tab and listen to the recording of the hymn from another one.
But for beginners, I have put a link to a tutorial that could be helpful: HERE
1. NEW OFFICES
My Breviary is not strictly a Roman Breviary nor a breviary of a specific monastic order. I have shaped it according to my status of a Roman Catholic living in Lebanon, a country close in spirit to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and where the Maronite Church is predominant and present everywhere. So I created some new offices for days celebrated by my spiritual environment.
A) Common of Prophets and Patriarchs that I used for some major Prophets of the Old Testament (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha) following a local tradition both from the Maronite Church and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in addition to several figures of the Old Testament as Abraham, Moses, David and JESUS' Ancestors.
B) I have also added Offices for transitional figures between the Old and the New Testaments, taken as well from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Liturgy, such as Simeon and Anna, Marie of Cleopas and the other women, Lazarus, Martha (& Mary), Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, Cornelius, Zechariah & Elizabeth. To those latter I created the Offices from the Commons of Holy men in addition to antiphons made from excerpts of the Bible related to them.
C) Proper of the nation /diocese or commonly called Local celebrations:
I have made Offices to the main Saints of Lebanon ( Sts Charbel, Hardini, Rafca) as well as for group of martyrs like for example the 3rd century 500 martyrs of Tyr for which I used maronite hymns borrowed from the site of the Maronite Episcopate in New York who has adapted the Syriac-Arabic hymns to English.
D) Divine Mercy Sunday : instead of the office of the "2nd Sunday after Easter" , I have created an ad hoc office for this feast, using psalms, Canticles and antiphons related to the notions of "Mercy", "Compassion", "Love" and "Trust". Likewise, I have created offices for some special celebrations and feasts of Saints.
E) BLESSED VIRGIN MARY’s OFFICES:
Here is may be the most personal part of my work. I have brought many changes to the Offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I felt the need of creating Offices for her feasts , her celebrations having been downgraded to memorials and sometimes not even mentioned anymore.
I cancelled the Saturday Office and suggest to replace it by the Common since this latter is of no use anymore in my breviary, each feast having its own Office.
I came out with a series of 29 offices for 29 different days or feasts in addition to the Common. These occasions can be classified in the following categories::
-Solemnities, that are commonly celebrated by the Church,
-feasts, which are sometimes mentioned but not celebrated and sometimes not even mentioned),
-memorials of the main apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in thanksgiving to Almighty GOD for bestowing over us so many Graces and means of conversion and sanctification.
-events related to Her Life: Nativity, Presentation to the Temple, Espousals with Joseph, Flight in Egypt.
- Praise of Her attributes, her power and different aspects of Her role in the economy of Salvation: Helper of Christians ( Auxilium Christianorum), Our Lady of Perpetual Help…
-local feasts ( Our Lady of Lebanon)
-Common
2.THE PSALMODY
a) I have followed the distribution of the psalms in the traditional 4 weeks psalter with two alterations:
1. I have used sometimes a longer version of psalms and canticles that the one used in the new breviaries.
2. In the Daytime Offices of some feasts and commons I have not used the "psalms of the weekday" but tried to find ad hoc psalms (mainly from Psalm 119) for the reason that I wanted to avoid the turning of pages and the passing from one page to the other while praying the Hours. (This is the nightmare I wanted to avoid in my Breviary). As Sundays have their own psalmody, Commons and feasts also should have their own set of psalms. It disturbs me a lot to see antiphons not adapted to the content of the psalm that they introduce : you have sometimes a sorrowful antiphon on a joyful occasion or a joyous and glorious psalm on a sad one! Consider, for example, the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary: Breviaries take the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the psalms of the weekday….!?! I found this very irrespective and inappropriate sometimes because of the content of some psalms not matching at all the feast of the day.
b) the regrouping of the verses for more coherence in the content of the psalms:
As I was working on the Offices, I found some solutions, suitable for me at least, for solving the uncomfortable feeling that comes from the discontinuity of the speech often encountered in the psalms: the end of Psalm 118 is may be the best example of this kind of “theatrical” aspect of the psalms which make them so alive.
1. I have altered in some places the traditional ordering of the verse in 4 lines by either breaking it and regrouping the verse differently by letting one group sing the first part of the verse and the second group continuing the second part of the verse.
2. I have paused the psalms with the repetition of the Antiphon ("Ant." ), in three ocasions:
- when the psalm is too long because taken entirely and not divided in two or three sections as it is usually done;
-when there is a very strong change of tone or of addressee;
-when it is a different context.
c ) I have added a new Canticle to the Morning Prayer during Lent that I have put as an "Alternative Canticle" to the Benedictus and not in replacement . It is a sequence taken from Isaiah 52 and 53 known as ‘the Suffering Servant’ which corresponds more to the mood of season than the Benedictus. It consists of the verses 52:13,15; 53:3-5,7-8,10a,11b-12. I introduced this sequence on Friday after Ash Wednesday of the year 2022, on the third day of Lent, because I couldn't pray well the Benedictus which sounded to me more like an Advent and Nativity season Canticle. I felt lots of blessedness when I prayed the Isaiah sequence on that Friday. So I decided to keep it throughout all the lenten season.
d) I have taken from the Antiphonarium of the Order of Preachers the 3 Antiphons for each of the 3 years A,B,and C. for the Canticles of morning and Evening Prayer II.
e) Alternative singing:
1) alternation of group: I have introduced an alternation of group I and group II inside the same verse to justify the break in the discourse and I think that it works very well. (the idea started with psalm 118, the end verses of it).
I have also used it for the very small psalms (with 2 verses) like psalm 117.
The whole purpose of those changes is TO AVOID MONOTONY in the prayer which has been my MAIN CONCERN FROM THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS WORK.
Concerning the singing of the psalms, there are indications on the symbols used to indicate the accents and other things to sing as for the versicles and the responsories in the section “Psalmody Guide”.
As I said it earlier, there will be later audio files to assist with the singing of the psalmody as well as of other parts of the Offices.
3. MORE READINGS
I have added more readings to the Offices, not in the Psalter of the Ordinary Time, but for some feasts and the Offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in the Vetus Orto offices. They have been added as a main or Alternative Reading. For the Saints, especially the Doctors of the Church, I have added a second Reading in the Morning Prayer and a reading in the other hours, excerpts from the writings of the Saint.
For the Offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I have borrowed many excerpts from the works the most famous Marian writers and used them throughout the hours.
Totally new and personal: I have edited a reading of St Peter Canisius in the Lauds of the feast of the Assumption by using the second part of the reading with the intonation of the Exultet that is sung during the Paschal Vigil since it is about the Resurrection and Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
4. MORE DIVERSIFIED COMPLINES:
I have made ad hoc complines for the solemnities and main feasts of the LORD and Blessed Virgin Mary in an attempt to break the monotonic repetition of the seven days complines, taking proper antiphons from the office of the day.
5. INFORMATION AND “PRAYER CARDS”
I have added under the Offices, in the bottom part of the main page of the Offices, Information on the feast of the day with links to sites of interest as well as what I will define as “prayer cards” (similarly to the ones we insert in our breviaries as bookmarks) for Novenas and other prayers.