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So I'm up super late (by a combination of obligation happenstance) and that gave me an excuse to break out the Little Office again and say Matins and Lauds.
(The names should really be run together: Matinsandlauds.)
I like the Little Office because it's so simple.
The Liturgy of the Hours—even in the attenuated form found in Shorter Christian Prayer—sometimes feels like you need a calendar, three different colored ribbons, polyhedral dice, Chance AND Community Chest cards, and a limited-edition liturgical See 'n Say to get it right.
Shorter Christian Prayer (I'm dunking on it in particular because it's also one I own) is doubly annoying because it doesn't print the doxology and antiphon at the end of each psalm, and it uses ellipses in the responsory.
Which sounds trivial until you're praying with someone who's unfamiliar with the LotH and has cognitive impairments and therefore gets confused when you start "reading" things that aren't on the page.
The Little Office (the Baronius Press edition —the only one I'm really acquainted with) has a LOT less of that. A few things do trail off, but they're indicated by "&c." rather than ellipses, which on our experience is clearer.
I wish it came in a large-print version.
I wish it came in a large-print version.
So many considerations go into which prayer book to use:
Do I own it? Can I afford to buy it?
Is it printed in a way that's easy to follow? Is there a large-print version, or at any rate is the type very clear?
Does it make you flip back and forth a lot? Does it come with enough ribbons?
Is it printed in a way that's easy to follow? Is there a large-print version, or at any rate is the type very clear?
Does it make you flip back and forth a lot? Does it come with enough ribbons?
Notably absent from this is any opinion I might have about the text itself.
Why? Because it's the Dodo bird's race. All of them are the same basic stuff—prayers and psalmody—and all of them are fine.
Why? Because it's the Dodo bird's race. All of them are the same basic stuff—prayers and psalmody—and all of them are fine.
For the record, here are the four daily-office type books I own, in the order I encountered them:
Shorter Christian Prayer. My go-to, despite all the carping. My copy was a gift from the parish when I was received; I was scared of it and didn't touch it for 15 years (until after I'd visited a community where they used the 4-volume LotH).
We also have the large-type edition.
We also have the large-type edition.
Benedictine Daily Prayer. We bought two copies at a good price, but never got much use out of them. It has all the hours in one volume and a full calendar, but the trade-off is a lot of page-flipping, elisions, and small type. I'm also not a fan of the inclusive-language psalms.
The Little Office of the BVM (Baronius). I've discussed its virtues already in this thread. There are a few calendar and rubric things to be mindful of, but it's surprisingly easy to use. I do wish for a large-type edition (though the type IS clear). I don't use the Latin at all.
The Book of Common Prayer. My copy was a gift from my father, whose interest in it is literary. I have used it to follow along with an online friend's livestreamed Rite I Daily Office. Structure is foreign enough that I couldn't use it independently. I like the 30-day psalter.
