759. Form of the office. The divine office must be recited according to the form prescribed by the Church (n. 753).

The form of reciting the divine office is either substantial or accidental. Substantial form refers either to the very substance of the thing or to substantial quality. If substantial form is injured, grave sin is committed; if accidental form is injured, light sin, because in this second case the precept of the Church is observed as to substance, but in the first the precept is not even observed as to substance. Substantial form is injured: a. if the office is recited according to another breviary than the Roman; b. if it is recited in the vernacular language;¹ c. if the office recited is notably diverse either as to quality or as to quantity.

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, June 1904, where it is declared that he does not satisfy the obligation who does not recite the office or litanies of the saints in the Latin language.

760. On the breviary to be used. The divine office must be recited according to the Roman breviary, so that he who uses another breviary does not satisfy his obligation.

a. By the constitution of Pius V, Quod a nobis (July 9, 1568), the Roman breviary is prescribed for the whole Latin Church, all others being abolished, with only those breviaries excepted which either from their first institution approved by the Church or from custom introduced had already been in use for two hundred years. Benedictines, Premonstratensians, Dominicans, the Milanese, Trier, Liege churches, etc., have proper breviaries of this kind. Already in this constitution the supreme pontiff declares "that no one can satisfy except by this form alone." He declares the same in another constitution, Ex proximo (Sept. 20, 1571), establishing concerning beneficed persons that those who use another breviary than the Roman do not make the fruits their own. Therefore a secular priest who does not have the Roman breviary, but only a proper breviary, for example a Benedictine one, is not bound to recite the office from it, because by this recitation he cannot satisfy his obligation.¹

b. But to those to whom it is lawful to use a proper breviary, the supreme pontiff gives the option either of retaining their breviaries or of accepting the Roman one; once the Roman has been accepted, they cannot return to the proper breviary without the license of the same pontiff, because by the very acceptance they are judged to have renounced the pontifical concession. The supreme pontiffs have openly shown at all times that this acceptance of the Roman breviary would be pleasing to them.

c. Priests and religious who in choir must use their own breviary, not the Roman, can privately recite the office according to the Roman breviary. Thus a Milanese priest or Benedictine monk who for the sake of studies is staying outside the diocese or monastery can use the Roman breviary. Nevertheless their superiors can prohibit the use of the Roman breviary even in private recitation.

¹ St. Alphonsus, l. 4, n. 158, calls the contrary opinion more probable.

761. Accessory parts of the office. 1. Today there exists no obligation either publicly or privately of reciting the office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the office of the dead, the penitential psalms, and the gradual psalms on those days on which they are assigned in the breviary, unless somewhere there is a custom in force, which nevertheless does not oblige to private recitation outside choir.

For for those who use the Roman breviary, by the cited pontifical constitutions the obligation was removed of reciting each month on days designated by the rubrics these accidental parts of the office.

2. There is an obligation for all who are held to the office of reciting the office of the dead on the day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed, and of reciting the greater litanies on the feast day of St. Mark and in the three days of Rogations. Matins with Lauds of the office of the dead can be anticipated after Matins with Lauds of the office of the day; but the greater litanies cannot be anticipated.

That the office of the dead must be recited under grave obligation is not doubtful; but concerning the greater litanies, although the obligation of reciting them must be granted, several nevertheless judge not improbably that it is not grave, not because the matter is not grave, but because the law itself does not oblige under grave obligation.¹

¹ Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri IV, n. 382.

762. What office must be recited. Daily the office must be recited which is assigned in the calendar or directory for that day.

The offices assigned in the calendar are either offices common to the whole diocese or proper offices of some church. The following are bound to recite proper offices: a. canons and beneficed persons attached to the choir of that church; b. clerics who have a benefice in that church; c. clerics enrolled in that church.

a. The proper offices of that church can be these: the office of the titular of the church, the office of the dedication of the church, the office of an outstanding relic, an office granted to that church by special indult.

b. Only those are called enrolled in that church who by the authority of the bishop exercise there from office the care of souls: pastors and their coadjutors, but by no means priests who celebrate Mass in it, receive confessions, or exercise another sacred ministry.¹ These neither must nor can licitly recite the proper offices.

c. Teachers and pupils of the seminary living in it are judged enrolled in the church of the seminary, although they celebrate Mass elsewhere; therefore they are bound to recite the proper offices of the church of the seminary.²

Therefore there is a twofold precept of the Church concerning the divine office: a. of reciting the office daily; b. of reciting it according to the order of the directory. The former is primary, the latter secondary: the former is always grave, the latter at one time grave, at another even light, as will appear from what must be said.

1. He who lacks the office prescribed on that day, for example, of the saint, must recite another which he has, for example, of the feria or of the Blessed Virgin, provided it is in the Roman breviary: for he who cannot observe the precept of reciting the particular office of the day must at least observe the general precept of reciting the office daily. In the same way he who does not have the proper lessons of the occurring office must read the common lessons.

2. Non-beneficed clerics who stay in another diocese can conform themselves to the office of the place where they stay, but they are not bound to this unless they intend to remain there so long that they acquire quasi-domicile. Outside clerics having quasi-domicile in a diocese are subjects of the diocese, and therefore are bound to conform themselves to its calendar.³ But beneficed persons are always bound to the office of their own church.⁴

3. Regulars dwelling outside the house or monastery are bound to follow the calendar of their province. If the same are staying in another house of their order and are attached to choir, they are bound to recite the office in choir with the rest. But if they pay the office privately, they must follow the calendar of their own house where they are outside it only for some days; but they must follow the calendar of the house in which they stay where they remain in it for a long time (at least for a month, for example, in the time of Lent); those constituted on a journey must recite the office of the house from which they departed.

4. Those who are obligated to recite the office according to the calendar of the diocese are bound also to recite the propers of the diocese and votive offices, according as they are assigned in the calendar: for although the concession of these offices is a privilege given to the community, which is not bound to use the privilege, nevertheless individuals are bound to use it where the community uses it, because they must conform themselves to the community.

The office must be recited as it is indicated in the calendar, even if someone more probably judges that the calendar errs;⁵ yet if it is evidently established that the calendar errs, the error must be corrected.

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, Dec. 7, 1844, n. 2872.

² Sacred Congregation of Rites, Sept. 7, 1850, n. 2980.

³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, May 14, 1672, n. 1445.

⁴ Sacred Congregation of Rites, Nov. 12, 1831, ad 46, n. 2682.

⁵ Sacred Congregation of Rites, June 13, 1899, n. 4031.

763. He who deliberately exchanges the office of one day with the office of another day:

a. Sins gravely if he changes it into an office notably diverse either by reason of quality or by reason of quantity, because he does not preserve the substantial form obliging under grave obligation.

This proposition (34) was condemned by Alexander VII: On Palm Sunday, one reciting the Easter office satisfies the precept. According to Viva, there is a twofold reason why he sins gravely who in place of the office of Palm Sunday recites the Easter office: both because the object of this office (joy of the resurrection) is wholly diverse from that which the Church proposes to be recalled on Palm Sunday (the memory of the Passion), and because one is notably shorter than the other; in other words, because the diversity of either office is notable both by reason of quality and by reason of quantity.

b. He sins lightly if he changes it without reasonable cause into an equal or almost equal office, as the office of a confessor into the office of a martyr, because there is only an accidental injury of the prescribed form.

Whether the change of a ferial office into the office of some saint is substantial or accidental, authors dispute on either side, but only probably.¹

c. He does not sin at all if from a reasonable cause he changes it into an equal or almost equal office, or when a grave cause exists, even into a shorter one.

It is not a sufficient cause of changing the office that it can be recited with a companion or with a choir which has another office;² but it can licitly be changed if the office of the day cannot be had without inconvenience, provided the other office is not notably shorter.

¹ Cf. Castropalao, tr. 7, disp. 2, n. 18.

² Sacred Congregation of Rites, Jan. 27, 1899, n. 4011.

764. What he must do who from error changed the office.

a. If he notices the error when the office is already finished, he is not bound to recite another, because the Church does not oblige one to recite the office twice on the same day. Therefore the axiom has prevailed: office for office.

If the office recited is much shorter than the prescribed office, for example the office of a saint for the office of Sunday, compensation can be made by reciting the nine psalms from the first nocturn of Sunday; but it does not seem to be a precept, because the obligation as to substance already seems to have been fulfilled and the error had been involuntary.

b. If he notices the error when the office is not yet finished, at pleasure he can either finish the office begun, lest discordant parts be joined into one office, or he can recite the rest from the prescribed office, in order to preserve the form prescribed by the Church on that day. This latter is more approved by St. Alphonsus (n. 161) according to the axiom: an error is corrected where it is detected.

c. He who, for example, in place of None recited Sext twice, is bound to recite None; for the saying office for office indeed holds if, quantity and form being preserved, only the quality of the office is changed, as if in place of the office of one saint the office of another is recited; but it does not hold if the form of the office is not preserved because one hour is substituted for another. Nor can one hour be supplied by another: for defect of quantity can be supplied only if as to form the whole office was recited. Thus where in place of the office of Sunday the office of a saint was recited, the defect can be supplied by reciting the twelve psalms of the first nocturn; but defect as to form cannot be supplied by the fact that, for example, another nocturn is recited twice for the omitted nocturn.

d. He who from error recited an office not yet occurring can, when this very office afterwards occurs, at his own choice either recite the office prescribed on that day, so that he conforms himself to the common rite of the Church,¹ or he can recite the omitted office, lest some office be passed over in that year. Another reason besides commends this resolution: for from a reasonable cause it is lawful to change the office prescribed on that day; but this is a reasonable cause of changing the office, lest the same office be recited twice and another be altogether omitted.²

Article Fourth. On the Mode of Reciting the Divine Office

For fully satisfying the precept of the Church, the divine office must be recited: a. by mouth; b. with due intention; c. with due attention; d. integrally; e. continuously; f. in order; g. in the due place and posture; h. at the prescribed time.

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, June 17, 1673, n. 1474.

² St. Alphonsus, n. 161; Ballerini-Palmieri IV, n. 383; Lehmkuhl II, 626.

765. By mouth, or vocally, because the office by its nature is not purely mental prayer, but oral or vocal. Therefore the words must be formed by mouth, that is, lips and tongue; but it is not required that they be heard by others, nor is it required that the one reciting hear himself, nor that he could hear himself if no external impediment stood in the way: for to the essence of oral prayer it is not required that the one reciting be able to hear himself, because words can be brought forth by mouth without a sound being given by which the one reciting can hear himself. Ordinarily, however, it will happen that some whisper can be heard.

Therefore it does not suffice to read the office mentally or to run through it with the eyes alone; but it must be recited by distinctly forming the voice. The privilege which had been granted to regulars by Leo X of reciting the divine office in choir, as regards the parts which are said secretly, mentally without pronunciation of the words, was again revoked by Gregory XV through the Bull Romanus pontifex (July 2, 1622).¹

¹ Cf. Ferraris, Bibliotheca, s.v. Officium divinum, n. 100.

The object of the precept is constituted both by the matter to be recited and by the time and manner of reciting. Hence:

Cf. On the Sixth Precept of the Church, N. 489.

Two opinions are found on this matter. The negative is followed by Vasquez, opuscul. on benefices, chapter 4, § 1, dub. 2, number 60; Reginaldus, Tom. 2, book 18, chapter 16, number 172; Suarez, de Relig. Tom. 2, book 4, question 23, number 12; Fernandez in exam. Theol. part 3, chapter 13, § 3; Fabius, on the sacrament of order, dist. 24, question 1, dispute 1, n. 146; Homobon., de exam. Ecclesiae, part 1, tract 4, chapter 5, question 41; Gavantus, Tract. 2, on the rubric, sect. 1, chapter 5, title 2; Onuphr., opuscul. on the change of office; Navar., on prayer, chapter 10, number 211; Graff., decis. part 1, book 2, chapter 51; Philiarc., tract. 1, part 1, book 1, conclusion 6; Rodriquez, Tom. 1, question 42, article 6; Bellarm., Tom. 3, book 1, controversy 9, chapter 18; Tolet., book 2, chapter 23; Ledesma, part 2, tract 9, chapter 4, conclusion 12; Ragavuius, on the canonical office in choir, question 13; Squillante, on the obligation of clerics, part 1, dub. 26; Tabiena, on the word hora, question 10; Molphesius, Tom. 1, tract 5, chapter 2, number 50; Naldus, on the word Divinum officium; Bonac., question 3, point 1; Filliucius, Tom. 2, tract 23, chapter 8, number 186; summa Corona, 1, chapter 1, number 10. On whether it is mortal, Tannerus wavers, dispute 5, question 1, number 150, with Sylvester, on the word hora, question 12. Cajetan, there, chapter 2, says it is at least venial. Bassaeus judges it probable, V. Hora, number 4.

Reginaldus, Suarez, and others limit that opinion: when the change of office would not be made out of contempt, and would be equivalent in quantity, or nearly so; and it would not be done with the intention of doing so often. But they will that some compensation be required, if a lengthy office, e.g. that of Sunday, is exchanged for the office of some Saint, according to the doctrine of Raphael della Torre, 1. 2, tract. 1, on the Canonical Hours, controversy 9, number 6.

Diana, however, rejects these limitations, pt. 2, tract. 12, resol. 3, with Vega, pt. 2, chapter 128, case 17, because he is bound to say such an office each day under such a form: therefore it profits little if it be violated but once, and only equality in quantity be observed.

The SECOND opinion, therefore, teaches that a change of office, even deliberate, is not deadly, as if in place of the office of a Feria the office of some Saint were said. Cajetan, V. Hora, chapter 2; Layman, book 4, tract. 1, chapter 5; Zetola in Praxis of Bishops, part 1, v. Hora can.; Lessius, on justice, chapter 37, dub. 12, number 77; Valencia, Tom. 3, dispute 6, question 3, point 10; Vega, in sum., at the place cited; Binsfeld., in the Enchiridion of Theology, part 4, chapter 9, conclusion 7; Sylvester, at the place cited; Sotus, book 10, question 5; Medina, book 1, chapter 14, § 11; Medina, on prayer, question 10, difficulty 10; Armilla, V. Horae Can.; Azor, part 1, book 10, c. 10, question 2; Rodriquez, summa Tom. 1, chapter 195; Diana, at the place cited. And Filliucius, Tom. 2, tract 29, chapter 7, number 227, and Bassaeus, at the place cited, judge it probable.

The REASON is, because the substance of the precept is to recite the Divine office, so that the seven Canonical hours be paid.

Yet the FIRST opinion rests on the precept of Pius V, who prescribes such a form of reciting the Office, of which more was said at large, tom. 4, dispute 17, question 10, according to the Decree of Alex. VII.