On finding your way around the 1963 breviary

In my last post on the forthcoming reprint of the 1963 Monastic Breviary, I said I'd provide a few notes on using the breviary and Matins, so here's the first part of that.

I'm basing this on the older edition of the 1963 breviary, so my comments here don't cover where the supplementary material the new edition includes sits.  I'm assuming the organisation of the reprint is otherwise unchanged, but I'll provide an update once my copy arrives!

But for now a few brief comments on finding your way around the book.

Two volumes

The 1963 breviary comes in two volumes, each of which are self-contained in that they contain all of the texts you need for the Office (psalter, temporale, sanctorale etc) for the relevant period of the year that they cover.  

The first (labelled Tomus Prior in the original Marietti edition) covers Advent to the end of the Octave of Pentecost. 

Volume two (Tomus Alter) covers Trinity Sunday to the end of November, so it is the volume you need to focus on right now.  Tomus alter also contains the rubrics, so is an important reference point. 

By contrast the Diurnal is just one volume, while the previous edition of the Monastic Breviary, which came out in 1953 (and didn't include any of the first round of wreckovations to the Roman Office), was four volumes.

Order of the sections

The good news for Diurnal users is that the order of the sections in the 1963 breviary pretty much mirrors the Diurnal.  

There are a few extra sections upfront, containing the capitular Office, and a summary of the absolutions and blessings used at Matins, but after that it goes straight to the Proper of the Season (labelled Tempus per annum in the breviary).

Like the Diurnal, each section has its own unique numbering system, though the designations differ a little - the Temporale (of time) section, for example, just uses ordinary arabic numbers rather than adding an asterix.

So it goes temporale (Sundays and seasons, pgs 1 - 272 in volume 2); psalter (pages (1) - (254); sanctorale (propers of saints); Commons; extra offices and prayers (Saturday of Our Lady; Little Office of Our Lady; Office of the Dead etc).

Finding Matins

The main change from the Diurnal is that the texts for Matins are added in.  The extra texts needed for each Sunday are grouped with the texts for Lauds and Vespers in the temporale.  

In the psalter, Matins is placed before Lauds each day - so Sunday Matins appears immediately after Saturday Prime.

And indeed, with the breviary you can finally (more or less) see the logic of the order of the psalter, since Prime comes first, and covers Psalms 1 - 19 (less a few), while Sunday Matins starts at Psalm 20.

Ribbons and cards

The final point to note is that compared to the Diurnal, the breviary is actually a rather more user friendly book.

It writes out the start and end of each hour each day in full or at least abbreviated form, instead of leaving out the opening sections of Prime after Monday, for example, and sets out the Benedictus and Magnificat at the relevant hours in full as well.

The only text you really need to reference back to each day is for, is Matins, where the Psalm 94 is not written out in full each day.  As the invitatory antiphon is given in each day's entry, you can either use a card for it, or just keep a ribbon on Feria II (Monday) which includes a list of all the ferial antiphons for the week.

Everyone needs to work out their own system for ribbons - it depends which hours you are going to say using it, and how familiar you become with the book I think.

But I would suggest the essential places are:

• in the temporale, the current week of the month.  Up until November, this is mostly only needed for Sundays, but its worth watching out for things like the upcoming September Ember Days.  As at today, we are in the Fourth Week of August, to be found on page 123 in volume 2;
• in the temporale, the Sunday (currently the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, page 236 (for the collect and Sunday texts);
• one placed in the psalter section for the next hour you plan to say;
• in the sanctorale, for the date.  The next feast as I write is St Augustine, on 28 August, so page [147].

That gives you a couple of spares to use as needed, for example for the relevant Common, Office of Our Lady on Saturday, or maybe to leave on Monday matins for the invitatory antiphons.