Re: Anticipating QUESTION from Fr. Smith on October 22, 2002 Just to follow-up on your answer which was excellent.
Anticipating became common among contemplative/active communities who were bound to the entire office and to a full time ministry (such as teaching). Rising at 3:00 AM for the extend office of Matins and Lauds proved to be almost impossible so many communities would celebrate Matins/Lauds at the time for Compline for the previous day, which then pushed Prime up to sunrise, Terce up to Prime, None up to Terce, Sext up to Terce, Vespers up to Sext, and Compline up to Vespers.
Among diocesan clergy the obligation outweighed the devotion at times so that as long as the whole office was celebrated within the 24 hour period the obligation was satisfied. The most grevious example of this is the legendary Cardinal Richelau (sp.?) who would pray one day's office from 11:00 PM to Midnight and the next day's from Midnight to 1 AM so that he really only had to say the Office every other day.
One of the necessary reforms of the Liturgy from Vatican II was the insistence that the Hours are to be celebrated at their proper times during the day.
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on October 25, 2002 Dear Father:
Thanks for the followup.
There is an excellent book published in Dublin in 1920 by Father E.J. Quigley called: The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman Breviary that I want to re-publish (when I get the time). It gives a brief history of the Divine Office and an excellent discussion of the the moral and ascetic theology behind the Office as well as detailed descriptions of the contents and instructions on how to do the Office back then.
I hope to re-publish the book and also update it to the current legislation. I think it will be a great asset for people to read this book to glean the historical context of the Divine Office and to compare the practices of those ancient days and those of today.
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