The not so brief Breviary

 

 

 The image of (quite possibly the prettiest modern version) the Roman Breviary, in particular the Invitatory for the Liturgical Hour of the Matins is a great example of what the Breviary looks like; today anyways. The Breviary is set around the Liturgical day, meaning that there are several hours in the day in which it is prayed. There are different prayers assigned to each hour and different scriptural and/or Saintly writings for each hour of the day. Today this is called the Divine Office, and it is actually the official and required form of prayer (private or public) for every person of the Clergy and the Religious orders. After the Second Vatican Council the Church began to actively promote this practice to the Laity as well. 

Well the origins of the Divine Office is rooted back to the Temple Judaism of ancient Israel. The Divine Office is based on the 150 Psalms of the Old Testament. We can see the Jews praying the Psalms in the OT, and they prayed them regularly at specific hours of the day. Even Jesus Christ knew and prayed the Psalms, including at the time of His death on the Cross. He Prayed the first verse of Psalm 23 (22 in other translations)"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Psalm 23 (22) is a verse of deep anguish and suffering but ends with confidence in God, and that He will see us safely through the trials that we are in. Not only did that make it apparent that Christ prayed the Psalms (as we should too), but in the Acts of the Apostles, we see the Apostles going to the synagogue to pray at the appointed hour. In this case it was the ninth hour to pray, as we see below that could be the Terce hour.

Liturgical Hours, Traditional Form:

1. Matins (early morning)
2. Lauds (early morning, said every morning even if Matins is anticipated)
3. Prime (morning prayer)
4. Terce (9 a.m.)
5. Sext (noon)
6. None (3 p.m.)
7. Vespers (6 p.m.)
8. Compline (night prayer)
1. Anticipated Matins
1. Matins of the next day said the night prior as Matins occurs very early; before the sun comes up.
9. Office of the Dead (has specific prayers for the dead, at the listed hours)

Liturgical Hours, Modern Form:

1. Invitatory (said before the first hour that is prayed)
2. Morning Prayer
3. Daytime Prayer
1. Midmorning Prayer
2. Midday Prayer
3. Midafternoon Prayer
4. Evening Prayer
5. Night Prayer
6. Office of Readings (Occurs at different points of the day)
7. Office of the Dead (has specific prayers for the dead, at the listed hours)

But what does the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Breviary have to do with the Rosary? Well, as you will see in the next article, it has a lot to do with the literate clergy and illiterate lay people. The illiterate lay people could not read the Latin, or any vernacular language, but had various prayers memorized. Prayers such as the Our Father (Pater Noster) or the Hail Mary (Ave Maria). When the clergy would pray the 150 Psalms the people had 150 beads on some string where they prayed the Pater Noster or the Ave Maria along with the Clergy. These came to be called Pater Noster Beads, or more directly to the Rosary the Marian Psalter. We will see more of how this turned into the Rosary, and how Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic Guzman, Founder of the Dominicans, and how this became the Rosary we all recognize.