My New, Smaller Office

After five years of praying the Divine Office, this week I began praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The former was meant, not exclusively, for clergy and other religious, and the latter, not exclusively, for laity.


Both versions I have are post-conciliar, but the latter is a bit less Novus Ordo Missaeish. When I bought my Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, I asked a priest how to use it and he looked back with astonishment and almost horror and said, "You know about that?" I cannot remember what advice, if any, he gave me, but I have used the book for years, even though there are some things I still haven't figured out.

The Little Office is far easier to use, based as it is around a weekly Psalter rather than a four-week one. Also, I am attracted not only to its incessant Marian devotions but also to the interspersed Latin, which is just at my elementary level of comprehension. I expect that I will stick exclusively to the Little Office of Our Lady for a while, but from time to time go back to the Liturgy of the Hours.