www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Eastern Little Office? Anyone? and old books...

I was playing with the Wikipedia and I found an intriguing reference to an Eastern form of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Does anyone know of this kind of thing? I'd be very interested to know more about this. Is something like this still in use today? Or is that something that fell out of use.
I have a great interest in medieval books of hours.

I don't know if any of you troll ebay the way I do, but someone is auctioning several 17th century books in Slavonic --

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7370547270&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7371214366&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7371214574&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Bit beyond my budget at this time, but lovely to look at. I am still looking for a copy of Joseph Raya's Byzantine Daily Worship at a reasonable price.

One would seriously hope that if such a thing as a 'Little Office' would have died out long ago. It's very existance would have to have been during the colonial era when everything from the west was superior, not matter how trivial. It would also have been in contravention to a century of Papal exhorations for the Eastern Rites of the Church to value thir own heritage and the specific instructions of Vatican II.

Pavel,

With all due respect, it's good to show devotion to the Theotokos. And, Catholics in this era are free to experiment with forms of devotion. After all, for example, I'm a Latin Rite Catholic who is deeply moved by the Eastern Catholics, and I use Eastern forms of prayer in my own praxis. If someone wants to use an easternized form of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary to honor her and to ask for her prayers, I see nothing bad in that.

Besides, I'm curious just what an easternized form of that devotion would look like. Is just like the Roman form but with copies of icons inside the book? Is it the Akathist plus some western style prayers? If anyone finds out, please post here.

-- John

I didn't check Wikipedia but it sounds like they were referring to the Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God, various translations of which should be readily available online.

BTW, if anyone has a few thousand dollars to spare, the Byzantine Catholic Seminary Library would LOVE to own those old and rare books being peddled on E-Bay! (It's so close to St Nicholas Day, it seemed worth a shot. . .)

Fr. Jack Custer

Paul,

I though that the origin of the Little Office was St. John of Damascus?

I believe that this was discussed 6 months or so ago...Father Jack, do you have any insight into its origins?

Gordo

Little Offices that I believe were referred to were originaly intended for lay brother or lay sisters who said these little offices in their own separate chapels while the ones they frequently served and supported said the Office of the Church in full and in Latin in another chapel. As literacy standards rose the little offices replaced the rosary as the standard among the lay brothers and sisters. With the admission to these ranks to full membership of their respective orders at the time of Vatican II and the Office of the Church being in the venacular the Little Offices had no further role.

Now we Byzantines can have the offices of our church in our many languages so why would we want something that was introduced from a time when we were made to be ashamed of our rich cultural and spiritual heratage. Why would we want something that is a bitza (bit of this and bit of that). When we have spiritual steak in a 100% Byzantine Rite Office.

Dear Friends,

This issue bears closer study and I'm all gung-ho!

In fact, the 15 prayers of St Brigitte of Sweden have been translated into Slavonic and were popular among Eastern European Orthodox during the hey-day of the Kievan Baroque period.

I've seen pictures from this period as well done by Orthodox that show Western rosaries, the Little Office of the Virgin Mary (also translated into Slavonic and published at Venice in the 18th century) et al. These were used as private prayers even by Orthodox saints such as St Dmitri of Rostov (who also used the Marian Psalter of St Bonaventure!) There is today an Orthodox "Psalter of the Most Holy Theotokos" that I found on a Serbian Orthodox site and have downloaded for myself.

What often happened was that these Western prayers were "made Orthodox" by giving them the "nachalo obychne" or Eastern Trisagion prayers and then the Eastern ending via the Rule of St Pachomius - and that was that.

St Dmitri's "Tale of Five Prayers" is actually a redone version of the Parisian devotion to (what once was) Five Sorrows of the Mother of God (today there are seven in the Servite rosary. There are Seven Joys in the Franciscan rosary - but there once were 15 joys etc.).

Let us also remember that even St Nicodemus the Hagiorite LOVED to translate into Greek Western spiritual works INCLUDING, the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. He didn't give the name of the original author of these exercises and when this was found out, he was openly criticized in his time.

However, this doesn't prevent his translation of this Jesuit book from being used by novices on . . . Mount Athos to this day.

At a time when Western RC theologs were arguing over the devotion to the Sacred Heart, St Nicholas Cabasilas, St Nicodemus the Hagiorite and St Dmitri of Rostov all wrote movingly about the worshiop of the "Heart of Christ."

In St Vladimir's Seminary press edition of Cabasilas' work on the Divine Liturgy, the preface simply HAS to comment on this and then make the distinction between the Western "devotion to the heart of Jesus" as contrasted to the solid veneration for the "Heart of Christ" in Cabasilas and the Orthodox liturgy.

Could someone here please explain to me the difference between the "Heart of Jesus" and the "Heart of Christ?"

Anyone?

Cheers,

Alex

The refernce to St. John Damascene must refer to his Canons to the Mother of God, as the idea of a Little Office is much later than St. John. The closest thing the Byzantine Church has are the Paraklis and Akathist. The Paraklis being a modifed Orthros, the Akathist being added to Compline during Lenten Fridays.

Several forms of the Latin Little Office exist:

http://www.franciscan-sfo.org/ap/litlofc.htm

http://crclinks.tripod.com/carmel/id3.html

http://www.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/LittleOfficeBVM.htm

It is still one of the options among the required prayer rules in many Third Orders.

"Article 8 of the Secular Franciscan Rule, states: "As Jesus was the true worshipper of the Father, so let prayer and contemplation be the soul of all they are and do. Let them participate in the sacramental life of the Church, above all the Eucharist. Let them join in liturgical prayer in one of the forms proposed by the Church, reliving the mysteries of the life of Christ."

"Following the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Holy Mass, we take up the requirement to pray with and for the Church in one of the forms proposed which may be fulfilled in one of the following ways:
1. Praying Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) privately or with others. (This is the preferred prayer at fraternity meetings.)
2. Praying a shortened form of the Liturgy of the Hours in one of the various styles available today.
3. Praying the "Little Office of the Blessed Virgin." ( Unfortunately, this form is not available in the revised format which corresponds to the Divine Office.)
4. Praying the "Office of the Passion" authored by Saint Francis of Assisi, and found in the various collections of the writings of Saint Francis.
5. Praying the "Office of the Twelve Our Fathers," which is considered the "traditional" Office of the Secular Franciscans. Many forms of this Office are available which have been adapted to follow the form of the Liturgy of the Hours, and to which have been added short scriptural readings and meditations. This form is and has been widely used because of its adaptability to daily life.
6. One's spiritual director or the fraternity's spiritual assistant may approve another liturgical prayer form for individual use provided that it contains psalms, biblical readings and prayers.
7. Other prayer forms that correspond to the various liturgical seasons may be substituted from time to time but not on a regular basis, provided that it follows to some extent the form of the liturgical Hours"
From: Secular Franciscan Companion, Rev. Ed. 1976, Franciscan Press, Quincy, IL, USA

The current official version can be purcahsed at Catholic Book Publishing:

http://catholicbkpub.com/ONLINE_CAT/DETAIL/b_detail.asp?IM_ISBN=0899424503&MC_ID=CN

Dear Fr. Deacon Lance,

IF you are referring also to the various substitutionary offices, then the Eastern Church has a number of those as well, as you know.

One may pray set numbers of the Jesus Prayer, Psalter Kathismata, 12-Psalm groupings, Canons and Akathists and even prostrations instead of the Daily Office.

Alex

Pardon me while I drool...

For a moment I was quite excited as I thought I recognised the Psalter as being the same as the one I have. (OK, I confess, mine is a reprint from the Old Ritualists). Upon closer examination I note that, though printed by the same people (Preobrazhensky community of Moscow, Pomortsy concord), mine is a different edition and appears to contain more supplementary materials.

Oυτις ημιν φιλει ου φροντιδα | Nemo Nos Diliget Non Curamus

I knew I would get a lot of good information and opinions if I posted by question here!

My interest in the Little Office is rooted in my interest in Books of Hours from the Middle Ages. A friend of mine and I started discussing putting together a Book of Hours as an example for medieval reenactment (which is one of my hobbies...) so I began to do research to see what is in most extant BoH's, and most of them contain the Little Office in latin and other prayers. I haven't found any good sources yet, but people seem to be in agreement that the Little Office started being used around the 10th century.

It makes sense to me that someone may have translated and arranged the Little Office for use in the East. It does seem like that was done with many Western practices. I wonder if an example of such does exist.

I will probably end up using the latin form of the Little Office if we do go ahead with this project -- but because that's a commonly accepted element in extant BoH's -- not reflecting any personal preferences.

In any case, I agree that devotion to the Mother of God is never a bad thing.

On a personal note, last year before we began attending Divine Liturgy, I got a copy of Shorter Christian Prayer, and I really tried to pray the Divine Office. I even got a few helper books, and subscribed to some helper lists, but I just never could do it. I've been lossking for Byzantine Hours, but I haven't been able to find anything yet. Just the morning and evening prayers from the little prayerbook we got at church.

P,

Let Us Pray to the Lord Volume 1 The Daily Office

https://ssl.webvalence.com/ecommerce/kiosk.lasso?merchant=ecpubs&kiosk=books&class=4

Fr. Deacon Lance

I personally have no issue with a "Easternized" LOBVM, so long as its spirit is thoroughly Eastern. When my wife and i were first married, we would pray this Little Office together every night as a way of entrusting our marriage to the Mother of God. It is easy and flexible to use, especially in the context of family life. PLUS, I love the prayers of the Psalms, and appreciated the smaller cycle of Psalms that could be done weekly.

Perhaps such a Byzantine Little Office of the Theotokos, filled with the prayers and writings of Byzantine patristics and our liturgical texts could be created for home use?

...hmmm....

Gordo

Thank you Fr Deacon that is a wondeful site of sound liturical books and I am looking for the credit card as we speak.

Just to clarify I was not having a go at people praying. The Office is part of the official and public worship of the church and as such is regulated by the Church. Laity can and frequently do use these same books as part of their sharing in worship. This is not new it is traditional, it is the norm in may places for a minor Hour to be celebrated before the Liturgy and this involves participation of the laity while the priest is doing the incencing of the church and preparing the bread and wine. Catholics are rediscovering what the Orthodox have had all along and judging by the number so laity buying the type of books recommended by Fr Deacon Lance they are enjoying this rediscovery of their spiritual heritage.