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Brookline Carmel Bulletin                        

June 5, 1960

 

J M J T

 

Cogitatio Sancta

(Holy Meditation)

 

The Little Office

(continued)

 

(In our last bulletin, we wrongly attributed the book Our Lady’s Hours to Mary Perkins Ryan.  This book is actually by Mary Ryan, M.A.  Cf. bibliography below.)

 

“Our Divine Master Himself has given us the form upon which all public prayer must be based.  The Pater Noster is the simplest and most perfect expression of the relations between a creature and the Maker.  ‘Thus shall ye pray,’ said He in answer to the disciples’ petition, ‘Lord teach us how to pray.’  The Divine Wisdom having designed to show us what manner of petition becomes us and is pleasing in His sight, it follows that every other prayer, to be profitable, must be laid on the lines of the Lord’s Prayer; for, as St. Augustine says: ‘If we pray rightly and fittingly, then, whatever words we may use, we offer no petition but those that are found in this prayer of our Lord’s.  The office, then, is only the Pater Noster carried out into detail, expanded and commented on.”  (Little Office of Our Lady, by Ethelred Taunton, Pustet, London, 1903.)

 

It is interesting to note, in this regard, that those who are not able to recite the Little Office as Tertiaries may, for a good reason, substitute the Pater Noster and Ave Maria twenty-five times.  It is preferable, of course, that they recite the Little Office, which is nothing more than the Pater Noster in an “expanded” form.  Our Lord prescribed the Pater Noster as the perfect, concise expression of the sentiments we should have toward our Creator.  Through His Church, Our Lord prescribes that Tertiaries and certain other persons recite the Little Office of Our Lady as an added obligation.  It is Our Lord Who prescribes that they recite the office, and Our Lord Who speaks through them in the Office.

 

In addition to the parts of the Little Office taken directly from the Scriptures (the Psalms and the Lessons), we find hymns, antiphons, versicles, and prayers added by the Church.  The hymns are metrical, or at least rhythmical, songs with a religious theme.  Hymns were in use at the time of the Apostles, as we see from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians (3:16):  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly:  in all wisdom teach and admonish one another by psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing in your hearts to God by his grace.”  They serve to “rouse the soul by their cheerfulness and jubilation.”  The hymns of the Little Office are largely in praise of Mary – “in singing the praises of God’s sweet Mother, we are praising Him Who hath done such mighty things to her and has made her all she is.”  The Invitatory is, as the name implies, an invitation to prayer, and serves to focus our attention on Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.  The Responsories help us to meditate upon the important truths expressed in the Lessons.  The Versicles and Responses bind together the various parts of the Office and help us to recollect ourselves.  The Prayers (collects) gather together our aspirations and petitions and offer them to God.  Thus the Little Office comprises an excellent form of prayer which we offer to Our Lord through Mary.

 

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Bibliography

 

Our Lady’s Daily Hours, Dominic J. Unger, O.F.M. Cap. St. Anthony Guild Press, Paterson, New Jersey, 1954.  (An excellent commentary on the entire Little Office, with text.)

Our Lady’s Hours, Mary Ryan, M.A. Newman Bookshop, 1946.

The Psalms, Fides translation with introduction and notes by Mary Perkins Ryan, Chicago, 1955.

Key to the Psalms, Mary Perkins Ryan, Fides, Chicago, 1957.

Towards Loving the Psalms, C. C. Martindale, S.J., Sheed and Ward, New York, 1940.

The Praise of Glory, E. I. Watkin, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1942.

Little Office of Our Lady, Ethelred Taunton, Pustet, London, 1903 (out of print).

 

 

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