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THE DIVINE OFFICE
A STUDY OF THE ROMAN BREVIARY
BY REV. E.J. QUIGLEY 1920
PREFACE
In
the studies preliminary to ordination, the greatest time and attention
must be given to the study of Dogmatic and Moral Theology. Certain
subjects, such as liturgy, are always in danger of being shortened or
of occupying a very small space in a college course. After ordination,
priests find that these subjects are things of daily and hourly
interest and importance. Who is it that does not know that the study of
the Mass and the Missal, of the Breviary, its history and its contents
are studies useful in his daily offering of sacrifice and praise?
I hope that this book may serve as an introductory manual to the study
of the Breviary. It may be useful to junior students in colleges, in
giving them some knowledge of the Church's Hours, which they assist at
in their college choirs. It may assist them to know and love the
official prayers of the Church, and may help to form devout habits of
recitation, so that, when the obligation of the daily office is imposed
on them, they may recite it digne, attente et devote. The
"texts and intentions" may be an aid to them, and to students in Holy
Orders, in the great and glorious work of pious prayer.
Perhaps, this book may be a help to priests. It is an attempt to bring
into one handy volume many matters found in several volumes of history,
liturgy, theology, and ascetic literature. Much of it they have met
before, but some of it may be new and may enable some to pray more
fervently and to aid them in the difficult work of saying each Hour and
each part of an Hour with attention and devotion. Some of the pages may
be to them instructive, and may give them new ideas on such points as
the structure of the Hours, the Collects, the Te Deum, the Anthems of
the Blessed Virgin, etc. No book is faultless. Of this one, I can say
with the Psalmist, "I studied that I might know this thing, it is a
labour in my sight" (Psalm 72). And I can say it with St. Columban, Totum, dicere volui in breve, totem non potui. In the book I quote Cardinal Bona. In his wonderful Rerum Liturgicarum (II., xx., 6) he wrote what I add as a finish, to this preface:–
"Saepe
enim volenti et conanti vel ingenii vires vel rerum antiquarum notitia
vel alia subsidia defuerunt; nec fieri potuit quin per loca salebrosa
in tenebris ambulans interdum offenderim, Cum aliquid incautius et
neglentius a me scriptum offenderit, ignoscat primum lector, deinde
amica manu corrigat et emendat et quae omisi suppleat." E.J.Q.
ROCKCORRY, CO. MONAGHAN.
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SECTION: Table of Contents 
Index
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