753. Its nature. The divine office is the public prayer of the Church. Public prayer of the Church can happen in two ways: either because the Church prays through itself, or because it prays through determinate persons. It prays through itself when the members of the Church, coming together in such number and condition that they represent the Church, pray; it prays through determinate persons when ministers deputed by the Church for this pray in its name. In this case the formula of prayer is prescribed by the Church itself.

In the first times the Church poured forth public prayer through itself: for the faithful were accustomed to come together to perform prayer in common (to sing psalms and hymns and read sacred Scriptures). But afterwards, when, because the number of the faithful had increased, this was impossible, she deputed her ministers, namely ecclesiastical persons, who would pour forth prayers in the name of the whole body of the Church; but the divine office is the formula of praying prescribed by the Church for this end.¹

¹ Cf. Bouquillon, Institutiones theologiae moralis specialis (Bruges: Beyaert, 1880), I, n. 226 ss.; Suarez, De virtute religionis, tract. 4, l. 4, c. 1, n. 11; S. Baumer, Geschichte des Breviers (Freiburg: Herder, 1895).

754. Its fruit. 1. From recitation of the divine office a twofold fruit comes forth: one from the work of the minister operating, or of the person reciting; the other from the work of the Church operating, for which the minister performs an embassy before God and in whose name he prays.

2. This fruit is impetratory, propitiatory, and satisfactory, and as regards substance it is the same whether the office is recited by a holy minister or a wicked one: for the malice of the minister does not obstruct the efficacy of the prayer of the Church itself.

3. Four kinds of persons receive the fruit arising from the work of the Church operating: a. the one reciting himself; b. those for whom the reciter especially intends to pray; c. the faithful who have founded benefices with the burden of reciting the office; d. all the faithful, for whom the Church intends to pray.¹

¹ Cf. Bonacina, Operum, tom. 1, tract. De horis canonicis, disp. 1, q. 4, punct. 2, n. 1 ss.

755. Its parts. The divine office is called by this name because it was instituted by the Church for praising God. It is also called the canonical hours, because through the sacred canons it was prescribed for certain hours of the day. The canonical hours are numbered as seven: Matins with Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Of these, Matins with Lauds and Vespers are called the greater hours; the rest, the little hours. Moreover the night office is distinguished, which consists of Matins with Lauds, and the day office, which consists of the little hours, Vespers, and Compline.

Article Second. On the Obligation of Reciting the Divine Office

The obligation of reciting the divine office arises from a threefold title: a. from sacred order; b. from religious profession in an order bound to choir; c. from an ecclesiastical benefice. Only the first must be spoken of in this place.

756. On the obligation itself. All clerics constituted in major orders, from the precept of the Church, are held daily to recite the divine office, either publicly or privately.

1. All clerics constituted in sacred orders are held, even the suspended, excommunicated, interdicted, etc.: for the reason of the obligation, namely sacred order, always remains in them. But those constituted in minor orders are not held to the divine office unless they have obtained an ecclesiastical benefice, because they are bound to this by no law or custom.

Clerics constituted in major orders who by dispensation of the supreme pontiff return to the lay state are exempted from the obligation of reciting the office. Although the excommunicated, etc., cannot pray in the name of the Church, nevertheless they are held to the recitation of the office, lest they gain advantage from their malice and because they do not lose the clerical state.¹

2. There indeed exists a written law which binds priests (at least if they are pastors) to reciting the divine office;² but the obligation which extends to all clerics constituted in sacred orders is taken from ancient and universal custom, which has obtained the force of law.³

3. The obligation begins on the day on which the subdiaconate is received, and indeed from that part of the office which (morally) corresponds to the time at which the order is received: for as soon as sacred order is received, the reason of the obligation is present and therefore the obligation itself.

a. Therefore he who is ordained in the morning before the ninth hour must begin from Prime; he who is ordained after the ninth hour or around midday is held to recite the office of that day from Sext.

b. He who recites the hours before ordination, which he is held to recite only after ordination, satisfies his obligation and is not held to recite them again. For although in general the principle is true: a precept cannot be satisfied at a time at which it does not yet urge, nevertheless there are some precepts which can be fulfilled a little before they urge, namely those which are of such a kind that the prescribed work can be placed before the precept urges.⁴

¹ Tamburini, Explicatio decalogi, l. 2, c. 5, section 1, n. 4; D'Annibale, Summula th. mor., 5th ed., III, n. 153.

² C. Presbyter 1 and C. Dolentes 9, De celebr. miss. (III, 41); cf. can. Presbyter 2, dist. 91.

³ Const. Quod a nobis of Pius V (July 9, 1568); Lessius, De iust. et iure, l. 2, c. 37, n. 45.

⁴ Cf. Lugo, De eucharistia, disp. 16, sect. 2, n. 39 s.; Tamburini, Explicatio decal., l. 2, c. 5, section 5, n. 9.

757. How great and of what kind it is. 1. The obligation of reciting the divine office is from its kind grave, because its end, namely divine worship, is grave, and the thing prescribed conduces greatly to the intended end. Therefore he who omits the entire office of one day or a notable part of it without an excusing cause sins gravely.

2. An entire little hour or a quantity of office equivalent to it is judged a notable part; a light part is judged one which is less than a little hour. For the recitation of an entire hour, by the judgment of prudent persons, is judged to conduce notably to the end intended by the Church. Moreover the Church intends that the whole time of the day be dedicated to the divine majesty by the fact that at determinate hours of the day a peculiar worship is shown to God; but by the omission of an entire hour this end piously intended by the Church is gravely injured.

a. Entire, and this must be taken strictly, so that therefore he does not sin gravely who does not omit the hour entirely. Yet he who recites only a very small part of the hour, for example only Deus in adiutorium, etc., or only the prayer, or only the hymn, is judged to have omitted it entirely: for a little is reckoned as nothing.

b. Therefore it is grave: a. to omit an entire nocturn with its lessons; b. after omitting the rest, to recite only a very small part of one little hour; c. to omit nine lessons with their responsories, but not, as it seems, to omit three lessons with their responsories; d. to omit from several hours so much that the omitted parts equal a little hour, provided the omitted parts are from the principal parts of the office, because the omitted parts of one daily office coalesce into one. Hence to omit the Pater, Ave, and Credo in the course of the office, as often as they would have to be recited, does not seem to be grave; but to omit the third part of a psalm in any hour is grave.

c. To omit the Vespers of Holy Saturday is not mortal, because this matter is light both in itself and with respect to the whole office.

3. The entire office of one day is enjoined by the Church by one precept; therefore he who decides to omit the entire office commits one sin by this act of the will and by the subsequent omission.

4. The obligation of reciting the office is affixed to the day and expires with the day, so that afterwards it neither must nor can be supplied.

758. Obligation of restoring fruits because of neglected recitation. But if beneficed persons, after six months have passed from obtaining the benefice, culpably omit to recite the divine office, they must restore the fruits of the benefice according to the proportion of the omitted part.

a. The obligation of restoring does not arise from justice, but from the precept of the Church imposing a penalty for neglected recitation. The law establishing this penalty, issued by the Fifth Lateran Council under Leo X,¹ is more accurately declared by Pius V, the great reformer of the divine office.²

b. It obliges beneficed persons after six months from obtaining the benefice; therefore he who in the first six months omits recitation of the office indeed sins against the law of the Church, but is not bound to restore the fruits.

c. It obliges before the sentence of a judge: for without recitation "he does not make the fruits his own." Nor therefore is he bound to restore by the law of nature, but only by positive law, which by these words impedes the beneficed person from making the fruits his own; therefore by the law of nature he must restore this as another's property.³

d. Restitution must be made to pious causes; but if the beneficed person himself is truly poor, he can apply to himself the fruits to be restored.

Whether restitution can be supplied through alms which the beneficed person makes from the fruits of the benefice. It cannot be supplied through alms which he had made before; but it can be supplied through alms which he made after the omission, even if he was forgetful or unaware of the obligation.

e. If the omitted part does not reach grave matter, there is no obligation of restoring except under light obligation, even if the fruits corresponding to the omitted part constitute grave matter: for since the obligation of restoring has the nature of penalty, a grave obligation is not contracted except because of theological fault, and that grave (n. 434).

f. A simple beneficed person who has no other obligation besides recitation of the office must restore all the fruits; but a beneficed person with cure, or one who has besides another obligation and fulfills it, for example celebration of Mass or service of the church, must restore the part which corresponds to the obligation of the divine office.

Because in benefices with cure the greater part of revenues is received in compensation of other offices, not for recitation of the breviary, a bishop or pastor who fulfills his pastoral offices will scarcely have to restore a tenth part of revenues because of neglected recitation of the breviary.

g. The obligation of restoring urges for individual days, indeed for individual hours omitted. Therefore he who on one day omits the whole office is bound to restore the fruits corresponding to that day; he who omits Matins and Lauds only, half the fruits of one day; he who omits the remaining hours, the other half; but he who omits one of these hours must restore the sixth part of this half, or a twelfth part of the fruits of one day.⁴

Therefore the opinion of certain doctors cannot be admitted, which establishes that he who within a year omits the office for eight or ten days is not bound to restitution, because these are light matters which God, since he is a most liberal lord, does not attend to.

¹ Constitution Supernae, May 5, 1514.

² Constitution Ex proximo, Sept. 20, 1571.

³ Proposition 20 condemned by Alexander VII: Restitution imposed by Pius V on beneficed persons not reciting is not owed in conscience before a declaratory sentence of a judge, because it is a penalty. Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri IV, n. 344.

⁴ Cf. constitution Ex proximo of Pius V, Sept. 20, 1571; Mazzotta I, tr. 2, disp. 1, q. 2, c. 1.