A Guide to the
Divine Office

The basics

What exactly is the Divine Office?

If you’ve opened a breviary and wondered where you’re supposed to start, you’re not alone. There are different Hours, different feasts, prayers that change with the season, and directions that seem to send you all over the book. There is a reason for all of it. It just needs to be explained.

The Divine Office is the Church’s daily prayer. You stop at different points in the day to pray the psalms, hear Scripture, praise God, and pray for others. Morning, the middle of the day, evening, and bedtime each have their place. That is what the Hours are for: bringing the day back to God. ^[1]

A breviary is the book containing those prayers. “Divine Office” is the traditional name for the whole daily round. “Liturgy of the Hours,” or LOTH, usually refers to the form revised after Vatican II. People sometimes use the names loosely, but the books and rules are different.

Both forms center on the psalms, Scripture, praise, and prayer with the Church. The differences go well beyond whether you say the prayers in Latin or English. We’ll get into those below.

Getting started

You can start with one Hour

You don’t have to understand every calendar rule before you begin. If you’re taking this up as a lay devotion, pick one Hour and get used to it. Compline is a good place to start because it belongs at the end of the day. Lauds or Vespers also works well.

1. Start on the breviary page. Choose the date and the Hour you want to pray. This site follows the 1954 Roman arrangement explained in this guide.
2. Check the date and the day’s heading. You may be praying a Sunday, a saint’s feast, or a weekday Office. Don’t assume the saint printed beside the date automatically supplies all the prayers.
3. Open the Hour you want. Read through its directions before starting, especially anything marked silent, omitted, or conditional.
4. Pray it slowly enough to follow it. You don’t need to rush through a psalm just to reach the next page. Let the punctuation and the break in each verse give you room to breathe.
5. Keep coming back. The repeated parts become familiar. Once you’re comfortable, you can add another Hour.

A sensible starting routine is Lauds in the morning, Vespers in the evening, and Compline before bed. You can work toward that gradually. This is advice for someone praying voluntarily; anyone bound to the Office follows the obligations and approved books that apply to them.

Prayer through the day

The canonical Hours

The traditional Roman Office has eight named Hours. Older descriptions sometimes speak of seven by counting Matins and Lauds together. An “Hour” is an appointed prayer service; it does not mean sixty minutes.

The clock times are approximate associations, not universal deadlines. For the traditional sequence and its differences from later forms, see Divinum Officium’s version documentation and rubrical sources. [3, 4]

How we got here

The older breviary didn’t appear all at once

It’s easy to think of this as “the old Office” on one side and “the new Office” on the other. There were several stages in between. Knowing that helps explain why two traditional breviaries can disagree even though both are older than modern LOTH.

The reason to keep these dates straight is practical: a rule that is right for one edition may be wrong for another. Pick the form you intend to pray and follow its books and calendar together.

Older Office and modern LOTH

What changed, and what stayed?

If you’ve prayed modern Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer, you already know some of the older Office’s foundations. You’ll recognize psalms with antiphons, hymns, readings, responses, the Benedictus at Lauds, and the Magnificat at Vespers. Both follow the Church’s year and remember Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints. Both are meant to bring the whole day into prayer. [1, 5]

But moving from one to the other takes more than changing the language setting. Here are the differences you’ll actually run into.

Some of the psalm texts differ too

The change was more than spreading the same material over four weeks. The modern psalter omits three psalms and portions of others because of their imprecatory language—passages calling for judgment against enemies. The older Roman psalter retains these passages. That is a real difference in what is prayed, as well as how often. [7, §131]

The calendar feels different

The 1954 calendar has Septuagesima before Lent, a more extensive system of octaves and vigils, and Sundays counted after Epiphany and after Pentecost. The modern calendar has Ordinary Time, no Septuagesima season, and the octaves of Christmas and Easter. Saints may also have different dates or ranks. A modern calendar beside an older breviary will therefore lead to mismatches. [3, 8, 10]

The prayers around the psalms changed

The modern Morning and Evening Prayer include regular intercessions and the Our Father near the conclusion. The older Office has its own arrangement of preparatory prayers, preces, suffrages, and commemorations, with rules about when to include them. These aren’t pieces you can swap back and forth without changing the form of the Office.

You can appreciate the continuity and still be clear about the changes. Both are forms of the Church’s daily prayer. Their structure, calendar, and amount of psalmody give them a noticeably different rhythm. This site is here to help you understand and follow the older one.

Compare the older rubrics [4, 11] with the General Instruction [7, §§37–92, 126–131, 179–193] and the reform documents [2, 5].

Recognizing the pattern

What are all these parts?

The Hours don’t all follow the same order. Before worrying about every detail, get to know the pieces you’ll be seeing:

Psalms and antiphons

An antiphon is the short passage attached to a psalm or group of psalms. It often brings out the feast or season. Follow the displayed repetition: in the older Roman Office, the manner of repeating antiphons depends on the office’s rank. Do not assume every day follows the same pattern.

Readings, chapters, and responses

Matins has longer lessons and responsories. Other Hours generally include a short chapter of Scripture. Versicles and responses make brief exchanges of praise or petition.

The Gospel canticles

The Benedictus is the canticle of Zacharias at Lauds; the Magnificat is Our Lady’s canticle at Vespers; the Nunc dimittis is Simeon’s canticle at Compline. Each has its appointed antiphon.

The collect and conclusion

The collect is the short prayer near the end of the Hour, often the prayer assigned to that day. Additional commemorations, suffrages, or prayers may follow when the rubrics require them. Follow the actual conclusion for the day rather than adding a familiar ending from memory.

Consult the selected Hour and the applicable older Roman rubrics for the exact order. [4]

Why the prayers change

How the calendar actually works

Say you open the calendar and see a saint listed for today. Does that mean you pray that saint’s whole Office? Sometimes. But a Sunday, an important weekday, a vigil, or an octave may also fall on that date. The calendar rules decide which Office is prayed and what happens to the others.

Two cycles meet every day

The temporal cycle follows the seasons and Sundays: Advent, Christmas, the time after Epiphany, Septuagesima, Lent and Passiontide, Easter, and the time after Pentecost. Easter moves each year, taking much of that cycle with it.

The sanctoral cycle gives the saints’ feasts their places in the year, usually on fixed dates. Each day’s Office comes from bringing this cycle together with the seasonal cycle. Fixed dates aren’t all sanctoral: Christmas belongs to the temporal cycle even though it always falls on December 25.

The liturgical year starts with Advent, not January 1. As the year unfolds, the season supplies a setting for the prayer: waiting for Our Lord, celebrating His birth, preparing for Easter, and keeping His Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost in view. A saint’s feast is celebrated within that year, not on a separate calendar that ignores it.

Rank helps decide what takes precedence

Every day has a place in the rubrical order. A higher-ranking celebration may take precedence over another, but this is not just a list of saints arranged from most important to least important. Sundays, privileged weekdays, vigils, and octaves have protections of their own. Local feasts can matter too.

For example: under the Divino Afflatu rules, an ordinary Double feast of a saint does not automatically replace an ordinary Sunday. The Sunday has protection. Certain higher feasts or feasts of Our Lord can take precedence, subject to the specific rules. So “Double beats Semidouble” is not enough to calculate the day. [12]

Four words that explain most calendar surprises

Occurrence

Two observances fall on the same date. The rules decide which supplies the main Office.

Commemoration

An observance is remembered within another Office rather than receiving its whole Office. At Lauds or Vespers, this normally uses its canticle antiphon, versicle and response, and collect. Exactly where a commemoration is allowed depends on the day. [13]

Transfer

An impeded feast is moved to another permitted day when the rules allow it. Not every displaced feast gets moved: some are commemorated or omitted. [12]

Concurrence

At Vespers, the ending day meets an observance entitled to First Vespers on the following day. The rules settle whose Vespers are prayed and whether the other observance is commemorated. [14]

Why tomorrow can appear this evening

First Vespers belong to the coming observance and are prayed the evening before it. Second Vespers belong to the observance on its own evening. In the older calendar, many more feasts have First Vespers than in modern LOTH, so there are more decisions at this meeting point. Don’t assume the Office switches simply because the clock passes midnight.

Octaves and vigils

An octave extends a feast’s observance across an eight-day span, counting the feast itself as day one. In the older rules, octaves have different kinds and privileges. Not every octave means eight identical daily Offices; a simple octave, for example, is marked on the octave day without an observance on all the intervening days. [15]

A vigil is a preparatory observance before a feast. In this calendar it can mean a distinct liturgical day, not merely an evening service. Which vigils are kept, and what happens when they meet another observance, belongs to the calendar’s rules.

The calendar for your place matters

A diocese, religious order, or particular church may have its own patronal feast, dedication anniversary, or other proper observances. Two people using the same year of rubrics can therefore have different Offices on the same date. The universal calendar is the starting point; it does not contain every local observance. [16]

An ordo is the daily guide that gives those decisions. The calendar tells you which Office is being kept; the Ordinary, Psalter, Proper, and Common then supply the actual words.

Double, Semidouble, Simple

What do “Duplex” and the other ranks mean?

You’ll see the Latin word Duplex on older calendars. It means “Double.” It does not mean saying the whole Office twice. It describes the rite of the Office and, together with its grade and other privileges, helps determine how the day is kept.

For feasts, these are the main labels you’ll encounter, from higher to lower within this set. This is a guide to the names, not the complete table of precedence.

What is actually “doubled”?

One clear difference is the antiphons. In a Double Office, at Matins, Lauds, and Vespers, they are said in full before the psalms or canticles and repeated in full afterward. In a non-Double Office, they are ordinarily only begun before the psalm or canticle and said in full afterward. At the other Hours, the older rules do not use the Double form even on a Double feast. Follow the displayed text where an antiphon shares its opening with a psalm. [11]

Semidouble does not mean “skip half”

A Semidouble Office still has a complete set of Hours. Its rite affects the antiphons and other details. Matins for a Semidouble feast normally has three nocturns and nine lessons, much like a Double feast, though special days have their own arrangements. A Simple Office normally has one nocturn and three lessons. [17, 18]

A Sunday can be Semidouble and still outrank a feast

This is where the terminology trips people up. The rite of the Office and its protection in the calendar are related, but they are not the same thing. A Sunday’s privileges can give it precedence over a feast whose label sounds higher. You have to read the rank together with the rules for that kind of day. [12]

These aren’t the modern ranks under different names

Don’t simply replace “Double” with “solemnity” or “Semidouble” with “memorial.” Those categories belong to different systems. The feast’s date, its privileges, and the prayers assigned to it may all have changed. A modern calendar can help you see the differences, but it cannot tell you how to arrange a 1954 Office.

Older rubrical sources: Double Office [19], Semidouble [17], Simple [18], antiphons [11], and the Divino Afflatu additions on precedence [12, 16]. Read the older general rubrics with their later additions.

Reading the directions

How to follow the rubrics

Rubrics are the directions, traditionally printed in red. They tell you what to say, leave out, repeat, or say silently. You follow those directions; you don’t read them aloud as part of the prayer.

• ℣ and ℟: versicle and response. When praying alone, say both parts.
• An asterisk in a psalm verse: marks its principal division. Make a natural pause there; it is especially significant in chanting.
• Secreto: silently. Some prayers are entirely silent; others become audible at a specified point. Follow the direction attached to that prayer.
• Omit or continue: a direction may apply only when one Hour immediately follows another. Do not recite both alternative endings.
• Gestures and posture: follow the rubrics of your book or the directions of the community when praying together. Instructions for choir are not automatically a complete guide to private recitation.

For the calendar decisions behind these changes, see how the calendar works and the explanation of ranks.

This is an introductory reading guide, not a complete code of rubrics. For detailed decisions, consult the applicable sources collected by Divinum Officium. Its supplied common rubric file explicitly distinguishes silent and audible portions and instructions for consecutive Hours. [4]

Finding your place

Using a book or an online reader

In a printed breviary, today’s prayers usually aren’t all on one page. You may need several sections of the book. An online reader brings them together for you, but it helps to know where they came from.

1. Ordinary: the recurring framework and general instructions.
2. Psalter: the arrangement of psalms through the week.
3. Proper of the Season: texts for the liturgical seasons, Sundays, and related days.
4. Proper of Saints: texts assigned to particular saints and feasts.
5. Common of Saints: shared texts for categories such as apostles, martyrs, or confessors.

Begin with the day’s directions, then place ribbons in the necessary sections. When using a reader, first check its version and date. If comparing two readers, confirm that they use the same rubrics, calendar, and psalm numbering before treating a difference as a mistake.

Latin and English together

Use the English to help you understand the Latin. The sentences won’t always follow the same word order. An older translation may use “thou,” “thee,” and “thy.” Psalm numbering can differ between the traditional Vulgate and many modern Bibles. Compare the opening words as well as the number.

A small glossary

What the unfamiliar words mean

Antiphon

A short text associated with a psalm or canticle.

Canticle

A biblical song outside the Book of Psalms.

Chapter

A short Scripture reading; also called a capitulum.

Collect

A concluding prayer, often proper to the day.

Commemoration

Additional prescribed texts recalling another observance.

Feria

A weekday; the calendar determines the kind of ferial Office.

Nocturn

A division of Matins containing psalms and readings.

Ordo

A calendar guide giving directions for the Office and Mass.

Proper

Texts assigned specifically to a season, day, or saint.

Responsory

A response following a reading, with a prescribed pattern of repetition.

First Vespers

Vespers celebrated on the evening before an observance when its rubrics provide for them.

Second Vespers

Vespers celebrated on the evening of the observance itself.

Common questions

Questions you might have

Read further

Sources & further reading

The sources below let you check the history and rules for yourself. The suggestions about getting started are practical advice. For the exact order of an Office, use the books and rubrics belonging to that form.

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1174–1178 — the nature of the Hours and participation in them.
2. Paul VI, Laudis canticum (1970) — historical overview and the revised Office; English text hosted by the Liturgy Office of England and Wales.
3. Divinum Officium: Versions (mirror) — distinctions among historical arrangements.
4. Divinum Officium: Rubrics of the Roman Breviary — source collection. Practical examples also checked against the supplied repository file English/Psalterium/Common/Rubricae.txt.
5. Sacrosanctum Concilium, §§83–100, especially §89 — the Office and the principles of its reform.
6. St Pius X, Divino afflatu (1911) — the reform of the Roman psalter.
7. General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours — especially §§37–92, 126–131, and 179–193.
8. Cum nostra hac aetate (1955) — decree and effective date; suppression of Semidouble and reduction of octaves and vigils.
9. Rubricarum instructum (1960) — promulgation of the later Code of Rubrics.
10. Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar — the modern calendar and its seasons.
11. Older general rubrics XXI: Antiphons — full repetition and intonation.
12. Divino Afflatu additions IV: Occurrence and transfers — Sunday privileges and impeded feasts.
13. Divino Afflatu additions VII: Commemorations — when and how observances are commemorated.
14. Divino Afflatu additions VI: Concurrence — decisions at Vespers.
15. Divino Afflatu additions III: Octaves — privileged, common, and simple octaves.
16. Divino Afflatu additions II: Precedence — rank, privileges, and local observances.
17. Older general rubrics II: Semidouble Office — read with the Divino Afflatu additions.
18. Older general rubrics III: Simple Office — read with the Divino Afflatu additions; the old psalm counts are modified by the 1911 reform.
19. Older general rubrics I: Double Office — antiphons, nocturns, and special exceptions.