THE HOURS OR LITTLE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, IN ENGLISH, CHIEFLY AFTER THE USE OF PARIS "Thou art the exaltation of Jerusalem, thou art the great glory of Israel, LONDON: G. J PALMER, 32, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, 1869. 1389 399. TO THE GREATER GLORY OF Jesus Christ, VERY GOD AND VERY MAN, OUR ONLY SAVIOUR, AND OUR SOLE HOPE; AND IN HONOUR OF Mary, MOTHER OF THE SAME OUR LORD GOD, THE MOST IMMACULATE AND BLESSED VIRGIN. PREFACE. THE Devotion in honour of the Incarnation, known as the "Office,' 66 Service," or "Hours" of the Blessed Virgin, has for so many centuries been used and valued by Western Christians, that it seemed to the translator of the present work to be matter of regret that no edition of the Office in question had been, except in a somewhat incomplete form, set forth for the use of Anglicans among the numberless devotional works now almost daily issuing from the press. While seeking for an Office to reproduce, the translator naturally turned (1) to the ancient Sarum Use, (2) to the "Little Office" at present authorised by the Latin Church. The Office of the Blessed Virgin, as given in the first of these, is disfigured by the worst corruptions common to medieval Offices. It is very complex, and ecclesiastical compositions have been made to usurp the place of Scripture almost wholly-except that, of course, the Psalms are retained. The present Use of the Latin Church, though free from the worst of these defects, was yet found to contain so many expressions which would prove unacceptable to the majority of English Catholics, that to have "adapted" it would have been almost to put out a new Office. Recourse was therefore had to the Paris Breviary. The well-known principle of this Breviary-i.e., that of ex |
