Are the 1962 books traditional Part II - About that 50s Office

In my last post I pointed to the large areas of continuity between the 1962-3 books, and the long tradition in which they are rooted, most particularly, in the case of the Benedictine Office, the Benedictine Rule itself.

So why is it that some are arguing the 1962/3 books are untraditional?

The answer is that there were a lot of changes made to the rubrics and calendar of the Office in late 1950s and early 1960s.

Against change?

Some, it seems, would reject any changes to the 1954 books at all, claiming that the legislator and/or some of those involved in producing it, were acting from ill-intent, or from a theological perspective they personally do not agree with. 

Liturgical law

As Catholics though, it is not actually our personal judgments that should rule on matters of Church legislation, save in very exceptional circumstances.  And in the case of the 1962 books, it is hard to see how such special circumstances can be claimed to exist given their endorsement by a previous generation of leaders of the traditionalist movement.

More fundamentally though, any piece of law is almost invariably the product of many hands and many steps in a process.  And as for for any law, we should surely look at it on its actual merits, not on the basis of the often baseless claims about its origins or purpose.

Change and the liturgy

Some object to the idea of making lots of changes to the liturgy on general principles, arguing that liturgy should be largely unchanging.

But history is, in my view, not on their side.  The 1911 changes to the Roman Office after all, were very major indeed.  And while the post-Trent books for the Roman Office may have largely reflected late medieval Roman practice, they represented very major changes for many places outside of Rome that were either required (because their earlier rites were suppressed), or were pressured, or chose to adopt them in to show solidarity with Rome in the face of the protestant attack on the Church. 

And if we go back further, we can similarly see major rounds of fundamental changes to the liturgy indeed.  Consider for example the suppression of the rites of the various Roman churches in favour of that of the papal court; the suppression of the Mozarabic, Gallican and Celtic rites; and many more such examples.

Which changes?

Others though, it seems, are prepared to consider at least some changes to the earlier books.  

The 1954 books, after all, contain several core elements - such as the Urban VIII hymns, promulgated in 1631; the 1911 psalm cursus; the 1945 Pian psalter for example - that many rightly in my view regard as seriously problematic.

The issue then, for this sub-group at least, is just how much change, and the merits of the particular changes.

1960 rubrics and calendar

And in this regard, when it comes to the Benedictine Office, it is important to keep in mind, I think, that none of the changes made in the late 1950s or early 1960s are in any way inconsistent with the Rule's provisions.

 Indeed, many were aimed at restoring the priority of the ferial psalm cursus that St Benedict himself set out in the Rule, but that had more often then not displaced by feasts, octaves and other later additions to the Office, and at restoring the priority of the Scriptural reading cycle that St Benedict envisaged.

Others aimed at removing some of the accretions that had crept into the Office; and at reducing the level of complexity that had built up in the rubrics.

Now those who have been regular readers of my blogs will know that I am certainly not a fan of all of the changes made.  

Nonetheless, I actually do agree with the basic objectives of many of the reforms.

Some of the changes clearly went too far, or were done in a very clumsy, arbitrary or outright misguided way.  In other cases, the choice of mechanism to achieve the objective was perhaps not the best possible option.

The key question though, is how we deal with these issues now.

1962+?

The course we had been on prior to Traditionis Custodes was to obtain permissions to modify those elements of the 1962 books that are problematic on an optional basis.

It is frustrating of course to have to wait for sanity to return, and processes to be worked through before further changes can be proposed, but should we not be making the most of the existing permissions already given, while praying and working for a return to this path rather than rejecting it altogether?  

Yet some seem to regard with suspicion, for example, the provisions of Cum Sanctissima because it was promulgated under Pope Francis despite the fact that it actually permits the celebration of feasts removed from the 1960 calendar, one of their chief complaints about the 1962 books. 

Another key plank of the Restore the 54 agenda relates to the pre 1955 version of Holy Week.  But widespread indults have already been granted for this. 

And other changes, such as the restoration of some octaves had similarly been flagged as possible future steps.

There is obviously more that can be done in this direction, and doing the work now ready for a day when action might be possible seems to me the more constructive approach than simply rejecting papal authority altogether, or attempting to subvert it.

Assessing the merits of reforms

So how do we assess the merits or otherwise of these and other previous changes that arguably require reconsideration?

In recent debates, several different criteria have either explicitly or implicitly been suggested to assess the legitimacy and/or extent to which something conforms to tradition, let me list out what I think are the main ones: 

(1)    Who made the changes – anything promulgated by Pope X/claimed as theirs by y should be rejected regardless of content.

(2)    Length and complexity – a more arduous form of the Office cannot be supplanted by a shorter/simpler version.

(3)    Volume of changes – lots of changes made at once can never be justified as liturgy essentially does not inherently change much.

(4)    Antiquity – if something is an ancient feast or feature of the Office and has continued to be used, it cannot be removed from the calendar or abolished.

(5)    Consistency with middle/late medieval practice – if it was codified in a late medieval missal/breviary, or otherwise documented for that period, then it is a legitimate addition to the post Trent books and must be kept.

(6)    Organic development – if it can be seen as unfolding naturally from earlier practice, bottom up’ changes, then it is a legitimate change.

(7)    The merits of the changes and their impact of changes on the fervour or otherwise of the faithful – do they make ‘the garden’ flourish or not?

(8)    Ressourcement, respect for the unfolding patrimony – liturgy needs to be renewed by going back to both the original and subsequent sources for it, as well as adapted where necessary to reflect the needs of the times.

 None of these, in my view, generate clear an unequivocal answers in and of themselves. 

I'm not going to go through all of these, but I do want to focus on a few that have been advocated for recently.

Antiquity and length: the case of the Octave of All Saints

One recent suggestion, for example, has been that we should privilege longer forms of the Office over shorter ones, and older things over newer.

But do these two tests stand up to scrutiny?

Take the case of a Benedictine monk in a post over at New Liturgical Movement for example, reproduced in a recent book, who uses the example of saying the Octave of All Saints (presumably from the 1953 Monastic Breviary) to make his case, appealing to the greater length of the older Offices, and the antiquity of the Octave.

He starts by making the comparison in the number of psalms said between the 1963 Office and earlier and the Novus Ordo, which is fair enough.  

But when it comes to justifying use of the 1953 books over the 1963,  the All Saints Octave, as far as I can see, is a spectacularly bad example to choose.

Antiquity

First, while some point to antiquity as a possible justification for saying older feasts, this particular octave is not an especially ancient octave at all relatively speaking - while the feast of  All Saints dates back to at least the eighth century, the Octave itself was added to the universal calendar by Pope Sixtus IV only in the 1480s.

Secondly, in the Benedictine version of the hour, the Octave altogether displaces the far more ancient Scriptural cycle of readings that would otherwise have been said.

Length

Moreover, the Benedictine version of the Octave day as it was said before 1963 is not, as far as I can see, actually longer than the ferial day in the 1963 books at all. 

The table below uses the example of the Matins as it would have been said on November 5 last year to illustrate the point - it is indicative only, and there is obviously some variation in the length of the patristic and Scriptural readings each day, but the differences are minor.

I've focused on Matins as it is the hour most affected by the Octave day in the Benedictine Office (as for feasts generally, since at the other hours mostly substitute one text for another, whereas at Matins, some additional texts can be added). 

In the 1953 (and earlier versions of the monastic breviary including pre 1911), the Octave is not actually a three Nocturn Office.  Instead it just has two Nocturns with the ferial psalms.  The main change for the Octave is the use of three patristic readings said instead of the ferial Scriptural readings of the day.

The table shows the number of verses of psalms said at the hour (as arranged liturgically, and including doxologies), as well as the number of sentences in the readings. 

The number of psalm verses said was unchanged between 1962 and earlier breviaries; the difference rests in the readings, which are actually generally slightly shorter for the Octave day compared to the ferial Scriptural readings.

Matins on November 5, 2025

	Benedictine 1901, 1930, 1953 (within Octave of All Saints)	Benedictine 1962 (ferial)
Nocturn I verses	102	102
Nocturn II verses	135	135
TOTAL	237	237
Readings Verses/sentences [words]	8 (205)	13 (232)

Now there is of course a pragmatic reason for the Benedictine reading pattern in this case - in the Benedictine Office, Matins with three Nocturns, even if shorter festal psalms are used, is generally significantly longer than the ferial Office (particularly if sung) since it has twelve psalms, readings and responsories (not the Roman nine or the normal weekday three); an extra Nocturn of canticles; the Te Deum; a Gospel; and Te decet laus.

In the Benedictine context then, a key issue that lies behind the abolition of most octaves is about the relative priority of the ancient Scriptural reading cycle over Patristic readings, an issue I want to come back to in due course.

The Roman Office

But even if one assumes that our Benedictine monk is, for some reason, saying the Roman Office from the 1954 breviary, he would have been using a structure of the Octave day had been in place less than 45 years when it was abolished.

The table below illustrates the impact of the Octave day in the Roman Office.

It illustrates, firstly one of the reasons why feasts and octave days were so popular with priests before the 1911 reform of the Roman psalter: the octave day is almost half the length of the ferial psalmody it replaced.

It also, perhaps, goes to one of the reasons for the abolition of octave days: the 1953 version of the Octave day was actually longer than the pre-1911 version by dint of as it using the ferial psalter of the day, rather than (as was the case before 1911) the psalms of the feast, during the Octave. 

By way of comparison, the pre-1911 octave day and the 1962 ferial offices are actually more or less the same length, but the Octave day is longer.

Matins for 5 November 2025

	1910 ferial Wednesday	1910 Roman (of the octave) – verses as for liturgical use including doxologies	1953	1962 Roman (ferial)
Nocturn I	217	32	39	136
Nocturn II		37	40	-
Nocturn III		49	57	-
TOTAL PSALMODY	217	118	136	136
Readings (verse equivs)	13	35	35	13
TOTAL	230	153	171	149

So when it comes to length at least, there is nothing particularly ‘anti-traditional’ about the reduction in length between the 1953 and 1962 versions of the Roman Office: the 1962 version is arguably more of a restoration!

Length as a criterion for what can and can't be changed in the Office

Now it may of course be that there are better examples our monk could have picked that actually do make his case.

But the fact that one form of the Office or particular day or feast is longer or shorter does not, in and of itself, seem to me to be a sufficient criterion given several precedents to the contrary.

The Cluniacs, for example, were strongly criticised in their day (and even unto the present time) for their extremely long Offices.

But equally, at the other extreme, back in the seventh century Pope Honorius I (625-638), according to the Liber Pontificalis, ordered 'the monks' to stop saying their normal Office of twelve psalms during the Easter and Pentecost Octaves, and instead say the Roman three psalm version during the octave, as the people were displeased at its length.  

Moreover, while length is relative, those praying the Benedictine Office at least should also be mindful of St Benedict's injunctions to pray frequently and fervently rather than at great length (RB 4, 20). 

Is there a way forward?

So how can we assess both the objectives of the changes made in the 1962/3 books and their execution, and develop a list of priorities for further restorations or revisions to the books?

More on that, with a look at some of the particular contested changes, in the next post in the series.

Are the 1963 Office books 'traditional'? Part I

 Over the next few weeks I want to share some important new insights from recent research, as well as some of my own work that I think throws new light on some contested issues around the history of the Office.  

In this, I want to particularly draw on the evidence of the oldest antiphoner for the Benedictine Office, which dates from the ninth century, and which has only very recently become accessible to researchers.

Are the 1962 books 'traditional?!

Before I do that though, prompted by what seems like round 500 of an ongoing debate in other places, I've decided to put out now some material I've been pondering for a while over, that perhaps serves to help translate some findings that have thus far largely been discussed in a purely academic context, into debates on the current practices of the Divine Office.

In what follows, I'm going to focus primarily on the Benedictine Office, but I'll try and draw out the implications for the Roman books as well.

Before we move back a millennia and more though, I want to take brief look at the increasingly loud campaign that claims that the 1962/3 Office books and Mass are not actually traditional, and are irredeemably bad news.

Instead, the 'restore the 54' crowd would have us ditch the currently approved Office books, such as the 1963 Benedictine breviary, altogether, in favour of those for the 1950s, or depending on which particular sub-group you subscribe to, some earlier date.

Some of the claims made around this topic seem to be causing considerable confusion amongst many well-intentioned people, and so I think, are worth scrutinising.

Shadow-boxing

Some of the recent agitation, I think, has been incited by Traditiones Custodes, and the  understandable fear that its supporters will ultimately win the day altogether, and succeed in officially banning the older forms of the liturgy altogether.  Unsurprisingly then, many are looking for ways to legitimately narrow the scope of papal authority in this area, and using the 1962 books as a test platform for this.

In other cases the overreach involved in the arguments made in support of the reforms made after Vatican II seem to have provoked an overreaction in the opposite direction: instead of everything in the liturgy being 'adapted to the times', as some spirit of Vatican IIists would like, some are now arguing that nothing at all can ever be changed, for example.

In some cases, I suspect, what we are seeing is just human nature playing out. Some, for example, seem to suffer from 'complexity bias', the belief that the more complex you make something, the better it is.

Others seem to have fallen victim to that syndrome whereby when a resistance or reform group's patience is tried sorely for long enough, the temptation is to forget about the real war, and turn on each other instead, claiming that only the pure can bring about victory.  

Legitimate debate vs liturgical abuse

Regardless of the root causes of this push though, I think it is important to note that the Church has long made distinctions between legitimate debate, which is what I hope we can have here; legitimate resistance to institutional overreach (a good example of which is the longstanding push to force Benedictine monasteries abandon the provisions of the Rule relating to the Office); special, usually emergency situations that sometimes justify disobedience; and outright rejection of the Church's law and authority.

The Code of Canon Law makes it clear for example that it is perfectly legitimate for laypeople to debate questions such as whether there are flaws in the 1962 books, and whether they should therefore be amended, or even replaced by something else altogether; or to debate questions of what the limits of papal authority in relation to the liturgy might be. provided one has sufficient expertise to do so.

And though anyone who says the Office may be able to follow many of these debates, contributing to some of them often requires some degree of genuine expertise and training, as they involve complex questions of canon law, theology, history, musicology and/or liturgy. 

I'm not a great believer in credentialism as such (never forget those liturgists who disparaged Pope Benedict XVIs credentials in this area!), preferring to judge things on their merits.  But at least one recent book in my view, seems to me to fail even the most basic requirements in this regard.

The book, (whose name I will withhold for the moment), is written by an anonymous married layperson who claims no theological or canon law qualifications whatsoever; presents a set of convoluted arguments he has dreamed up that are directly at odds with the clear consensus of canonists who are prepared to go on record as well as by dubia responses; and on the basis of this, urges individual priests to set about implementing what amounts to outright liturgical abuse. 

I do plan on coming back to some of the arguments included in the book by various author as well as the main text itself, but in the meantime I would direct those advocating for it to the following posts by actual canonists:

• When does a custom have the force of law?
• What does it mean to abrogate or derogate from a law?
• Does a priest have obligation to say the Office under pain of mortal sin (1)?
• Does a priest have an obligation to say the Office under pain of mortal sin (2)

I would also recommend the clear treatment of the requirement to use the currently approved books in Beale's standard commentary on the Code. 

Obedience is a virtue

More fundamentally, what is not within the scope of legitimate debate, in my view, is to then act unilaterally to implement our personal theories.

It needs to be kept in mind, I think, that liturgy is ultimately something we receive, not decide on for ourselves: there is surely something to the old adage of 'say the black do the red' for example.

It is one thing, for example, to select an option from those officially approved; quite another to reject the officially approved books altogether without very strong reasons indeed. 

Priests and religious have more serious obligations in this regard, but even for laypeople who can arguably do whatever provided they choose to stick to purely devotional prayer, the Catholic, and particularly the Benedictine mindset, I think, should surely be to strive for obedience wherever possible, not look for ways to avoid it.

There are, of course, times when resistance or outright rejection of laws and particular liturgies is indeed warranted.

And there are also nuances in what constitutes legitimate variation, and who has the authority to authorise particular things.

But if an older book has been outright suppressed, as all of the Office books prior to the 1963 breviary have been; and if the traditional institutes and monasteries have long used the 1962 books, it is hard for me at least to see how refusing to accept them can be justified as an 'emergency'.  

Nor is it an argument in my view that 'everyone else is doing it' when it comes to liturgical 'innovation': we are all called, after all, to be saints, not join the throng going the other way!

Yet every day, it seems, a new book or blog post drops claiming that the forms of the Mass and Office accepted after due consideration by the original leaders of the traditionalist movement and their successors, and used now for many years should be rejected, or that this or that particular element of the Office and Mass cannot be changed by mere papal legislation (despite a very long history indeed of Popes doing just that).

Singing the Office in 525 and 2025…

Let me conclude this opening post by seeking to put the debate over the 1962 books in a longer perspective.

Part of the problem, I think, is that the debate has largely focused on the Roman books, whose place in tradition is rather harder to pin down than the Benedictine.

In these weeks after the Epiphany, for example, using the 1963 breviary (or the other books used for it, such as the Antiphonale of 1934, and the Monastic Diurnal) we are saying the same hours, with the same components that make up them, in the same order, as St Benedict laid out in his Rule dating from circa 510-30 AD. 

The contents of the Roman Office, it is true, were not documented until much later, and are ordered somewhat differently.  Some, such as hymns were added even later still. But it is clear the core elements of the Roman office too have ancient roots.

In the 1963 Office we are also saying exactly the same psalms and ferial canticles that St Benedict specified should be said at each hour of each day.  

When it comes to the psalms, it should be noted, the 1962 Roman Office, which has always had a somewhat different psalm ordering to the Benedictine, is in a slightly different situation - its ancient psalm cursus, which almost certainly dates back to at least the late sixth century, was suppressed in 1911.  Even so, it still follows the same basic principle of saying all of the psalms each week.

In the Benedictine Office too, we are singing ancient hymns that mostly date from the fourth to seventh centuries in their original form, with later additions for some feasts and saints.  And we have been spared the neo-classicised versions imposed on the Roman Office by Pope Urban VIII in 1632 that left barely a single line of these ancient gems intact. 

At Matins, we are reading the same books of the Bible that are laid out in an early to mid-eighth century reform of the ferial Matins reading cycle, with many of the same responsories that are recorded as being in use some 1100 years or more ago. 

So how can all this be ‘untraditional’? 

There seem to be two main camps (with some overlap between them) in this argument.

The first camp defends its position largely on the basis of changes to the 1962 books that unwind some high to late medieval practices, drawing primarily (and somewhat ironically in my view), on the liturgical scholarship of the twentieth century.  That scholarship, just as for the Mass, sought to find the elusive holy grail of the original, pure Roman Office, and claimed to find it in a set of manuscripts that mostly date from the twelfth century onwards. Recent scholarship though, has severely challenged or outright overturned many of those conclusions.

The second camp is rather more focused on recent history, and aimed at 'restoring the 54' in particular because, it seems, inter alia, they reject the views of the assorted popes (and/or those associated with them) who promulgated assorted liturgical 'reforms' from the late 1950s onwards.  But we should judge reforms on their merits in my view, and not on such arbitrary criteria.

But more on all this anon.

Books the Benedictine Office Part 1 - For new starters

I undertook, some time back, to update the lists of books for the Benedictine Office that I have previously listed on this and related blogs, and so here is the start of a short series.

This first post is on 'starter books' for laypeople who want to say some or all of the day hours of the Benedictine Office.

Part II will look at resources for chanting the day hours of the Office.

Part III will look at the full breviary and books for Matins.

The Benedictine vs the Roman Office

I should start by saying that the books and resources I'm looking at here are those specifically for the form of the Office used by the Order of St Benedict and thus originally approved for use by the Benedictine Confederation.

Although there are many common texts and elements, the Benedictine Office differs significantly from the various versions of the Roman Office (and current Liturgy of the Hours).

In general, the Benedictine Office has a much longer Night office (particularly on feasts and Sundays) than the 1962 (and later) Roman version, and quite a few psalms are repeated each day at the day hours giving a distinctive flavour to those hours.  By contrast, the Roman Office (since 1911) includes very few repeated psalms.

The basic structure and content of the Benedictine Office is set out in St Benedict's Rule (written circa 520 AD), and that structure has been preserved in the 1963 Monastic Breviary, which remains the only officially approved version of the Benedictine Office currently in force. 

It is worth noting also that there are a number of other religious orders - such as the Carthusians and Cistercians - who use forms of the Office based on St Benedict's Rule, but often in conjunction with different calendars, rubrics, and texts employed (antiphons, responsories, readings etc). I haven't included them in this listing.

Modern versions of the Office used by Benedictines and other orders

After Vatican II broad permissions were given for monasteries to design their own forms of the Office (within certain parameters), and some of those versions have been published.  I will generally only note them here where they use the Rule's psalter distribution. 

GETTING STARTED

How to learn the Benedictine Office

In an ideal world, you would learn the Office by immersion - by living in a Benedictine monastery and hearing and experiencing the Office as it is sung each day.

St Benedict, after all, envisaged that his Office would be sung in choir each day, not said privately.

But while some laypeople or clerical oblates may be able to go on retreat at a traditional monastery for a week here and there, that probably won't be enough to really learn it.  And most people simply don't have easy access to a monastery that actually says the Traditional Benedictine Office.

So the next option is to start from a book or online version of the hour.

Challenges in using the books

Learning the Latin

Keep in mind that the official version of the 1963 (and earlier) Office is the Latin - the translations provided in the various books are there as aids to understanding, they are not officially approved for liturgical use.

Accordingly, you may find my notes on the psalms in the context of the Benedictine Office of use since they include both short overviews, and in many cases word by word translations together with a selection of translations for comparison purposes.

Using Office books

In addition, most Office books, such as the Monastic Diurnal, assume a fair amount of knowledge of how the Office works (the rubrics), and employ a lot of shortcuts and abbreviations.

I'd suggest taking a look at my How to say the Benedictine Office series (and make sure you start with how to find you way around your Office book if you have already bought a diurnal or other Office book).

My other suggestion is: start gradually and build up.

Latin-English Office books and online resources

1. Learn the ferial Office  - individual hour books

In order to learn both the structure of the hour and the Latin, my suggestion is that you start by just learning the normal 'ferial' Office, that is, the default Office when it is not affected (much) by feasts or seasons.

If you start by just focusing on one or two individual hours, you can both learn how the various components of the hour work, and start gradually learning the psalms said at those hours.

A useful starting point for this is the set of books put out by Clear Creek Monastery that give you just the ferial Office with the Latin and English for each hour on each day of the week.

The best hours to start with are Prime (before starting work each day) and Compline (before bed), as the collects do not change each day, and they change the least with feasts and seasons.  

Th book gives all the texts you need to say Compline throughout the year; for Prime it lacks the antiphons used for feasts and particular seasons, but gives you everything else you need for most days of the year.

The books for the other hours are also useful for learning the structure and content of those hours.

Note that these are paperbacks that were essentially intended as leaflets to allow guests to the monastery to follow the Office rather than beautifully produced books - but they do the job.

They are also available in Latin-Italian from the monastery of Norcia, and Latin-French from Le Barroux.

2. Divinum Officium

If you don't want to buy a book though, another option for getting started is the wonderful Divinum Officium website (and there is a Breviarium Meum ap that pulls it into mobile from the site).

It is a step up from the individual hour books in that it automatically sets up the hour taking into account feasts and seasons.

Be warned though: it doesn't always strictly follow the 1963 rubrics, and there are occasionally mistakes!

3. Office online

The Benedictine Office is meant to be sung, not said silently!

I'll come back to books and resources for the chants in due course, but I'd strongly recommending starting early by using these books and resources to follow along with the Office as it is sung by various monasteries online, such as Le Barroux.

You could also consider investing in the Neumz ap.  Although it still mostly follows the modern calendar and a version of the psalter that omits the hour of Prime, it does include chants and translations of both the Mass (both Novus and Vetus Ordo) and selected hours/part of the Office (its particularly useful for Lauds, Vespers and Compline) each day sung by the nuns of Jouques and monks of Le Barroux.  I'll come back to this in the next part, in the context of singing the Office.

4. The Monastic Diurnal

If you are serious about saying the Office as the official public prayer of the Church though, or to fulfill you oblate obligations, you will need a book that provides the full texts of the Office with the extra sections that allow you to add in things like local feasts.

And the best book for this purpose is easily the Latin-English Monastic Diurnal published by St Michael's Abbey Farnborough (and widely available elsewhere) in editions from 2005 onwards.

It remains a fantastic resource and excellent value for money.

In essence, the Diurnal gives you everything you need to say the 1963 Office from Lauds to Compline (the day hours) for every day of the year.  

The English is from a 1920s Collegeville translation, and is quite poetic (though personally I prefer the more literal Douay-Rheims updated version employed in the Clear Creek books!).

The only thing missing is the (long) Night Office, Matins, and I will come to that in a later post.

There is also a Latin-French version of the Diurnal available, put out by Le Barroux.

5.  The Ordo

If you are buying the Diurnal though, do consider buying my Ordo to go with it (available in paperback, PDF or E-PUB formats)!

It essentially tells you exactly which pages of the Diurnal you can find the texts for the seasons or saints that impact on the Office each day, and how to use them.

6. Monastic Companion 

You may also find A Companion to the Monastic Breviary of use: it contains a translation of the rubrics for the 1963 breviary as well as some introductory material on the hours.

Other 'Benedictine' Office books

And I want to conclude today's part of this update with a brief note on books I think you might come across.

1. Monastic Diurnal (Lancelot Andrewes Press) and Monastic Diurnal Noted

These are English only translations of earlier versions of the Monastic Diurnal originally published by assorted Anglican groups and later adapted for Western Rite Orthodox use.

They are not officially approved versions of the Benedictine Office.

2.  Benedictine Daily Prayer.

This is a strictly devotional, rather than liturgical, office published by Collegeville.

The book has its fans, but personally I think its claims to be 'Benedictine' are pretty tenuous.

More to come

I'll take a look at singing the Office in the next post in this series, but in the meantime, do let me know if you think I've missed a useful book or resource!