If you stumbled across this site but haven't yet got a copy of the breviary, or you need a lectionary or one of the accompanying volumes I'll outline in a minute, this page will enable you to order the items directly from Amazon with a minimum of hassle. Also on this page are hints and tips which, while not forming part of the office as such, will nonetheless enhance it. All the extras are, of course, just that: extras, and not an essential part of the office.
As this page is quite long, quick navigation links are provided below to move swiftly through the sections:
The old Church of England breviaries, the old and the current Roman breviaries all supplemented the scriptural lections with other devotional matter. The new breviary makes no provision for this, but it's a worthy endeavour and will greatly enhance your daily prayer and spiritual growth if you read other carefully selected lections in addition to those in the lectionary.
Fortunately, there are two excellent volumes you can use together with your breviary: Celebrating the Seasons and Celebrating the Saints, both published by the Canterbury Press. How you arrange to read the extra lections is up to you, but it won't hurt to tell you how I arrange mine.
On ferial days – days with no festival assigned to it in the calendar – I read the Old Testament lection at Lauds from the lectionary, followed by the lection assigned to the day in Celebrating the Seasons. I don't read a New Testament lection at Lauds.
On festival days, I do the same as above and then either read the assigned lection from Celebrating the Saints as a third lection at Lauds, or read it as a second lection at Vespers. This seems to work very well.
On ferial Saturdays on which a commemoration would normally be permitted, the Saturday Office of Our Lady is often said in place of the ferial office or commemoration. The breviary provides a Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary which should be used. Because this is a Saturday office, it has only Lauds and Prayer during the Day; it has no Vespers as First Vespers or Vigil of the Sunday takes precedence. Suitable extra lections for Lauds are found in Celebrating the Saints for feasts and festivals of the Blessed Virgin.
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I hope your appetite is whetted sufficiently for you to try a daily rule of prayer. If so, you'll need the kit. Buying items from Amazon enables this site to exist as the site gets a small commission on sales from this page. It all helps to pay the bills.
The next list is a selection from the Common Worship series and other authorised services, not essential for the daily office, but useful for Anglicans and other interested parties:
If you're taken with the idea of enhancing your daily reading with extracts from the Church Fathers and other spiritual writers, these links will be useful:
If you prefer the Divine Office of the Roman Church, you can buy that here, at substantial discounts on the recommended retail price (currently 30 per cent off the individual volumes):
If you don't have time for the full office, there are three alternatives in the Divine Office family:
Alternatively, you could head straight over to the Religion and Spirituality section at Amazon and have a nose round.
Supporting this site in this way really does help pay for its existence and its development.
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For some, inner contemplation in stillness and quiet is sufficient. Others like to express their devotion with outward signs, to help focus the heart and keep Christ in mind. The most obvious of these outer signs is the sign of the cross. The sign of the cross has always been made at certain words and points in services. In the daily office, it is made at the following points, and in the following way:
It is customary to bow during the mention of the names of the members of the holy Trinity, especially during: 'Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit', and during other mentions of the members, whichever order they are named in and even if the mention occurs during a phrase including other words. For example, the doxologies to many hymns, such as: 'O Father, that we ask be done through Jesus Christ, your only Son; and Holy Spirit...' in the Compline hymn.
It is also customary to bow at the name of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saint or holy man or woman being commemorated that day. It is not necesssary to bow when kneeling.
There are only two positions of prayer: standing is the norm and kneeling is prescribed for certain prayers. Sitting, such as during psalms and readings other than the Gospel and Gospel canticles, is an 'economy' and not a position of prayer.
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Though dropped in this breviary and in the new Roman breviary, older breviaries had a short series of prayers designed to prepare and give thanks before and after the office. I shall give the text of some of those prayers here. Of course, these prayers are not essential to the office; I give them only in case you want to begin and end the day with traditional prayers.
Before the first office of the day, say:
Open, Lord, my mouth to bless your holy Name;
cleanse also my heart from all vain, evil and wandering thoughts;
enlighten my understanding;
enkindle my affections;
that I may say this office worthily, with attention and devotion,
and so be meet to be heard in the presence of your divine Majesty.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen
O Lord, in union with that divine intention whereby you yourself on earth offered your praises to God, I desire to offer this my office of prayer to you.
It was customary to add a Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary and the Apostles' Creed, and then to begin the first office of the day.
After Compline, it was customary to say the Lord's Prayer and then one of the final antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a final blessing. I shall not reproduce these final antiphons here as they are either known or commonly available should you want to say them. After the final antiphon, make the sign of the cross, saying:
May help divine be with us all, for ever abiding. Amen.
Then say Sacrosanctae:
To God Most Holy in his divine Majesty of Trinity in Unity;
to Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, made man and crucified for us;
to blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin, from whose glorious purity he took flesh;
and to the entire company of the saints of God in heaven;
be praise, honour, power, and glory from every creature on earth;
and likewise to us sinners may there be full remission of all our sins;
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
It is customary to complete the prayers after office with the Lord's Prayer and a Hail Mary.
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If you find the new breviary rather unpalatably modern, you could always get yourself a copy of the traditional Anglican Breviary, produced after 40 years of work in the 1950s. It was reprinted recently and is available at the Anglican Breviary website.
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In an effort to reduce the already monumental amount of spam I receive, I shall only give a hint to contacting me by email: put Dave before the 'at' symbol and then put the domain name, breviary.info, after it. I can't guarantee to answer every question – the rubrics are, after all, very loose to encourage people to find their own way of praying the office – but I'll try to help.
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All material © David Goode except where stated otherwise. David Goode is member of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and a parishioner at the church of St Mary the Less. All documents on this site are valid XHTML 1.1 styled with valid CSS2.