Point I. On the Matter to Be Recited

Each day the canonical hours must be recited according to proper and approved liturgical books. Besides, the Litanies are to be recited on the feast of St. Mark and on the three days of Rogations. It is said:

I. The canonical hours must be recited according to proper and approved liturgical books. Namely:

1. Of itself there is an obligation of reciting the canonical hours according to the form and rite of the Roman Breviary, issued by St. Pius V, revised by Clement VIII, Urban VIII, and Leo XIII, and reformed by Pius X in the Constitution Divino afflatu, 1 November 1911. But those who do not use this order of the Psalter "should know that they are not going to satisfy so grave an office."²

I said of itself, for Churches and Religions which in the year 1568 used another breviary, approved by a custom of at least two hundred years, could retain it.³ Nevertheless, with due observances preserved, it is lawful to assume the Roman Breviary;⁴ but once assumed it can no longer be abandoned.⁵ I said with due observances preserved, namely:

a) If a Church or Religion retained a legitimate breviary of another form, the public office of choir must be made from that particular breviary, unless the Bishop with the consent of the whole chapter, or the Prelate with the consent of the community, has assumed the Roman Breviary.⁶

b) Individual clerics who are not bound to choir can of their own accord, after renouncing the particular breviary, assume the Roman; but offices "proper to the diocese or order," although conceded by indult, must be recited by individuals when they have been accepted by the diocese or order.⁷

c) If a particular breviary legitimately prescribed is changed or altered, the breviary so changed becomes illegitimate, and, the prior privilege having been taken away, the Roman Breviary must be assumed.⁸

2. Besides these things, the proper calendar of the diocese or Religion obliges, if it has been approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites; likewise particular offices permitted to a particular Church or Religion and once received by use oblige.⁹ Therefore:

a) A Bishop, both secular and regular, is bound to recite the office of the Church over which he presides. One who governs several dioceses can recite the office either of the diocese in which he habitually dwells, or of that in which he is actually staying.¹⁰

b) Priests must recite the office of the Church to which they are assigned.¹¹

c) Those staying outside their own domicile are bound thus:

a) Bishops and "beneficiaries are always bound to the office of their own Church; but simple priests can conform themselves to the Office of the place where they are staying."¹²

b) Religious bound by canon law to choir are bound, if they recite in choir, to stand by the calendar of the monastery in which they are guests. Reciting privately, they ought to follow the calendar of their own house if they are staying for a few days in another house; if for a longer time, they can at will follow the calendar of their own or of the other house.¹³ On a journey, they should follow the calendar of their own house.¹⁴ If nevertheless they are staying outside monasteries for a longer time, for example during Lent, they ought to conform themselves to the calendar of the Province, extended without any diversity for all in each year.¹⁵ Finally, religious not bound by canonical title to choir, if for a few days they are staying outside their own house, whether in another house or elsewhere, should recite the office of their own house; if they are staying outside their own house for a longer time, let them at will follow the calendar of their own house or of the other house, when in another house, but the calendar of their own house or of the province, if they are staying elsewhere, for example on a journey or in a hospital.

Corollary I. The obligation of following a determined calendar carries with it the obligation of obtaining for oneself new approved offices, and likewise readings notably changed.

Corollary II. If in useful time you lack the proper office of some Saint, you ought to recite the common office of Saints of the same class; and if you also lack that, another office from the breviary of the same rite, not of a different rite, must be recited.

II. Besides, the Litanies are to be recited on the feast of St. Mark and on the three days of Rogations. "Those," so the rubric says,¹⁶ "who are not present at the Procession of the Litanies should say them privately after Matins with their prayers and collects." Moreover, that there is an obligation, the Sacred Congregation of Rites has declared several times;¹⁷ that a grave obligation is present is deduced from the fact that there is question of grave matter (St. Alphonsus IV, 161, question 1).¹⁸

¹ As regards the history of the canonical hours and the legislation concerning it, compare S. Baümer, O.S.B., Geschichte des Breviers; Batiffol, Histoire du Bréviaire Romain; Baudot, Le Bréviaire Romain.

² Constitution of Pius V Quod a nobis, 9 July 1568.

³ Constitution cited.

⁴ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 10 May 1608, n. 249.

⁵ Constitution Quod a nobis.

⁶ Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, 6 September 1738, n. 2338; 24 November 1883, n. 3597, ad 1.

⁷ Response of the Holy See to the Archbishop of Besançon, 28 August 1856.

⁸ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 6 September 1738, n. 2338; 24 November 1883, n. 3597, ad 1.

⁹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 6 September 1738, n. 2338; 24 November 1883, n. 3597, ad 1.

¹⁰ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 11 June 1605, n. 181; 17 January 1880, n. 3508; 28 May 1898, n. 3993, ad 1.

¹¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 4 February 1898, n. 3979, ad 7.

¹² Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 November 1831, n. 2682, ad 46.

¹³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 27 June 1896, n. 3919, ad 13.

¹⁴ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 31 August 1839, n. 2801, ad 1.

¹⁵ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 31 August 1839, n. 2801, ad 2.

¹⁶ Breviary, after the second Sunday after Easter.

¹⁷ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 12 March 1836, n. 2740, ad 8; 4 August 1877, n. 3428.

¹⁸ The precept of adding the Office of the Dead on the day of the Commemoration of All Saints to the office of the octave of All Saints was removed by the Bull of Pius X Divino afflatu, letter 8, n. 2. The Office of the Dead is already proper to the said day.