Divine Office

I'm a new convert, still in RCIA, young man in 20s, and this book has been everything I could possibly have asked for. It's been worth every penny of the steep price. It has changed my life to pray the office three times a day. I've memorized many of the prayers after a few months, even in Latin. It helps that I took Latin in college, but I think that anyone could arrive at the same benefits who used it on a daily basis.I have an interest in the traditional Latin prayers of the Church, and I suspect I'm not alone as far new converts go. For any lay individuals interested in looking deeper into the traditions of the Church, you will not not be disappointed.

I really liked it it was easy to figure out right away what you need to do with it

This publication of the Divine Office, traditionally known as the Breviary until Pope Paul VI renamed it, is designed to serve the layman and laywoman. It contains the full 5 times of prayer to be prayed by priests for Sunday: Lauds, Prime, Sext, Vespers, and Compline; but for the rest of the week it supplies only what is essential for us non-religious: Prime (Morning prayers), Sext (Afternoon prayers), and Compline (Evening prayers). In the Sunday offices there is Gregorian Chant in the offices but intonations for the prayers of the rest of the week. The Psalms for each hour each have a brief note of intention to help guide your reflection on the psalm. And the book comes with an introduction that is concise and very helpful in helping one to enter into the spirit of prayer of each Hours as well as its whole practice of devotion. Also notably for each of the days hours there are the special supplement prayers for the holy seasons.The book is a hardback of leathery but tough outer cover, with pages that are supple but durable with larger than average print and word’s well-spaced to make reading comfortable. It is sure to endure a lifetime of careful handling. I like the feature of the black and red ribbon book markers fixed into the very nicely composed book binding. Overall the book is 8 ¼ “ long by 6 ¼” wide and ½” thick with rounded edges at it top and bottom outer edge and near the binding there is a creased groove that marks the press of the back’s outside binding of all good books. The good people of St. Pius X also included a small but not too small, thoughtfully dimension, 6 1/2” by 4” laminated card of instruction on the Latin Pronunciations of Roman Liturgical Latin letters. I am learning a bit of the Latin as I go thanks to the English translation being placed accurately beside the English Latin so they are exactly parallel paragraph for paragraph . Some bi-language translations don’t run parallel but often has the English running a bit ahead of the Latin instead of being spaced exactly evenly. Also the English translation is beautiful.I like the fact that while the Sunday’s office is fully represented only the essential Hours of the Church for the weekdays are given. This makes great sense because this is how we Catholic’s can and will likely best approach the wonder’s of the gift of Sunday Mass Our Sweet Lord bequeathed to Catholics, Our incarnate union with Him through the Eucharist. We can do our best to pray in union with the Church Monday thru Saturday Una Voce, then on Sunday go the whole life of prayer with all the saints in that grand celebratory day that the rest of the days ought to be a preparation for and which is exactly what praying the Divine Office prepares for us--to be always one in prayer with Our Lord..

Great prayers to start and end the day.

This book is a good introduction to praying and singing the Divine Office. Some of the instructions are confusing for a beginner and it only includes three of the hours for each day except Sunday. Otherwise it is great.To really pray the Divine Office though, I would recommend getting the 3-volume text that's going to be released by Baronius Press.

The reason I chose to purchase this book was for my love of history. It seems like after the Second Vatican Council, some wanted to discard the way the church worshipped upto the time of Vatican II. This book to me is still relevant today as it was prior to the council.

i have been looking for a book dealing with holy hour and this is it. holy hour is 3pm the hour that christ died. an hour almost forgotten. the book is newand comes post haste. open the book and see in other books i have been insulted they say i cant understand latin i beg to differ anyone can. TRY

It was not sealed as stated and not from the year stated. It was the Laity version, which I did not want. Other then this, I received it quickly.