§ III. On the Obligation of the Precept

I. The obligation of the divine office is grave of its own kind; hence an omission is grave or light according as there is question of grave or light matter. Now:

1. The omission of one hour, even a little hour, seems to be grave; both because there is question of worship to be offered in the name of the Church, and therefore of a matter of greater moment, so that in this case a smaller quantity than in other cases seems to suffice for gravity; and because the deformity of the act seems notable if, in the prayer which the Church wished to be distributed into parts, one whole part among seven is omitted. Likewise he sins gravely who would recite only too little of a little hour, because morally speaking he omits it. Nevertheless the contrary must be said concerning one who would omit the Vespers of Holy Saturday, because the quantity seems too small (St. Alphonsus IV, 147). Moreover, separated parts coalesce.

2. Where a whole hour is not omitted, a greater quantity from different hours seems to be required, because the deformity does not appear so great.

3. Those who mutilate the office, by syncopating, truncating words, or swallowing syllables, also sin according to the quantity of the matter; but in these things, unless the excess is enormous, there is not a grave sin.

Corollary I. One who omits the whole office commits only one sin, because the whole office of one day falls under one precept, or the precept regards one office, which consists of seven hours. "But if, however, someone were to omit several hours from morally interrupted intentions, then he would commit several sins" (St. Alphonsus IV, 148; n. 254).

Corollary II. One who takes up the purpose of omitting the office for several days perpetrates as many sins as there are days on which he omits the breviary. Likewise one who by one act, for example by throwing the breviary into the sea, renders himself unable to recite, commits as many sins as there are omissions which he foresees, unless he repents of the first sin (St. Alphonsus IV, 149; n. 255).

II. The obligation of the determined office is sufficiently drawn from these things:

1. He sins gravely who recites an office either notably different from his own office,¹ or notably less than his own office;² likewise one who rather often, for example five times or more in a year, recites an office different from the office of the day. The reason is that "although any variation taken separately is venial by reason of smallness of matter, nevertheless all within the year coalesce, and gravely disturb the order of the breviary precept for the Offices of the whole year, which taken together make one complex whole" (St. Alphonsus IV, 161, question 3). Outside the enumerated cases it is quite probable that one sins only lightly, and if a just cause is present, not at all. A just cause is, for example, that you recite with a companion; if the possibility of reciting the office is lacking and by reciting later you will be too much wearied or impeded from another useful labor (St. Alphonsus, loc. cit.). But "the office of the breviary is not to be abandoned for an office of devotion."³

2. "One who through inadvertence says one office for another is bound to repeat nothing.... The reason is that the Church is not presumed to wish someone to be obliged twice in one day to so great a burden...; but if the office said was notably shorter... compensation must be made" from the omitted office (St. Alphonsus IV, 161, question 3). But the omitted office should rather be entirely omitted than recited on another day, lest you err twice.⁴ (St. Alphonsus IV, 161, question 5.) "If you notice that you have erred after you have advanced much in the undue Office, for example if you have said Matins, then you can either continue, or recite the remainder from the due Office; ... but I think ... it is better to recite from the proper one, lest you continue the error.... But if you have forgotten some part of an Hour, it is enough to recite that part without repeating anything else" (St. Alphonsus IV, 161).

III. In doubt whether the office or part of it has been recited, the scrupulous, either on account of the very harms arising from an obligation of repeating, are excused from repetition; indeed they must be forbidden to repeat anything (St. Alphonsus IV, 175). With regard to others it must be said thus: one who, all things considered, strictly doubts, whether the doubt is positive or negative, is bound to repeat (n. 229). But by the aid of the principle of presumption, anyone in doubt commonly and rightly thinks that he has recited that about which he doubts. Hence "you are well excused if you do not remember having said something, and have a just conjecture for believing that you said it, for instance ... if you remember that you began a psalm, reading, or Hour, and afterwards, not distracted deliberately or not interrupted, you find yourself at the end of the Hour, reading or reciting from memory those things in which ordinarily you are not accustomed to err. And this has place ... even if you have a probable reason for omission, because the presumption that you are accustomed to complete what you began brings it about that you are bound to repeat nothing, unless you are morally certain that you did not say it" (St. Alphonsus, Elenchus II, reformed questions, question 1; IV, 150, with Gaude's note on this number compared).

¹ Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, 27 January 1899, n. 4011.

² Proposition 34 was condemned by Alexander VII: "One reciting the Easter Office on Palm Sunday satisfies the precept."

³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 13 February 1666, n. 1334.

⁴ Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, 17 June 1673, n. 1474.