Here’s the final annotated calendar:

Hopefully it’s clear enough to point you in the right direction. Most proper copies of the Little Office will have a section on Rubrics or Instructions which should explain the same information.

Here are my source PDFs:

* 2025

* 2026

* 2027

I made 2027 so far ahead of time in order to include it in my Planner for next year. You can get a printed copy at Lulu or browse a PDF version on Gitlab. I probably should have spruiked it in the video. Well, if anyone buys a copy I’ll know you read through to the end of the article! Or you can leave a cryptic comment somewhere.

This puzzle jumped out at me a while ago. I started listening and assembled a few examples, but it wasn’t until this tripped up one of my choir members that it seemed worthwhile to put an explainer together. Today we’ll briefly look at why mastering this word will help you, what the different endings mean and why Spiritus is so odd in Latin. In the recording I will include clips from Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Burke.

First, a warning, don’t be a fusspot. It is very common and normal for people speaking Latin to mix things up. Most of the time it’s not worth correcting someone’s pronunciation. As long as you’re generally intelligible, then we can live with funny quirks.

Except if you’re singing a psalm in a tone with a final of two accents, then you will need to know the accent in Spiritui falls on the RI and not the TU. This occurs in Mode 5 and Mode 7.

As choir leader, I care that people sing the right note on the right syllable, so although I do my best to remember that pronunciation can vary, I am in a wonderful position where I have the final say on how things are sung in my choir. That said, you probably go with what your choirmaster says, but I’ll plough ahead because I think I’m right and because it’s one of those details which is interesting in a small way.

Now, the word Spiritus is an interesting case. It ends with “US” which makes you think it’s a normal 2nd declension noun, but turns out it’s a member of a much smaller group, the 4th declension nouns. However, it is frequently paired with the adjective “SANCTUS” which follows the 2nd declension noun endings. Most of the time, in Latin, your adjectives and nouns share endings, so you can be tempted to say Spiritus Sanctus, Spirito Sancto, Spiriti Sancti, but in this case that doesn’t always work.

When the Holy Spirit is the Subject of the sentence, as in “May Almighty God bless, you, Father, Son and Holy Ghost” then you do have Spíritus Sanctus. However, when making the sign of the Cross, the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are in the Genitive Case, “Of the Father, Of the Son, Of the Holy Ghost” and we use “Spíritus Sancti”. Lastly, the case under the microscope today, in the Gloria Patri, we use the Dative Case, “Glory Be To the Father, To the Son, To the Holy Ghost” and here we have “Spirítui Sancto”.

In Latin the last syllable is never accented. The accent falls on either the second last (penultimate) or third last (antepenultimate) syllable. In Classical Latin we talk about the quantity of different syllables, whether it’s long or short. If the penultimate syllable is long, it gets the accent. If the penultimate syllable is short, then the accent goes on the antepenultimate syllable. In Spiritui, the first and last syllables are long, so both middle syllables are short, so the accent falls on the antepenultimate, which is the RI.

So that gives you too much information on why we say SpiRItui in the Gloria Patri.

Hearing people pray the Gloria Patri in Latin is wonderful, regardless of accuracy. A long time ago I made a quick video saying that pronouncing Latin is easy, and I guess there is still some truth in that, but as you can see here, there is usually more out there to learn. I hope this discussion helps you pronounce the Gloria Patri with confidence and accuracy so that if you ever join a choir and sing a Gloria Patri in mode five or seven, then you will easily hit the right notes on the right syllables.

God bless you.

I finished with the optional collect to make this a standalone hour. Sorry, I didn’t check the other spoken recordings for consistency. Follow up with Lauds if you like:

Matins is a bit of a tough one. The invitatory stays the same, so you get the hang of that. The responsories have a bit of variation and in Lent where the Te Deum is not said and instead there’s a third responsory, “Felix namquam”. I’m singing the one from the Baronius Press book, which comes from Hartker’s Nocturnale.

But here is Matins for Wednesdays and Saturdays from Septuagesima Sunday through to Holy Wednesday or Holy Saturday if you’re praying in private.

I’ve included the optional ending in case you don’t go straight into Lauds. Feel free to skip this if you have Lauds queued up ready to roll. Hopefully your podcast app allows you to do this.

Booklets in PDF available: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

Matins is a bit of a tough one. The invitatory stays the same, so you get the hang of that. The responsories have a bit of variation and in Lent where the Te Deum is not said and instead there’s a third responsory, “Felix namquam”. I’m singing the one from the Baronius Press book, which comes from Hartker’s Nocturnale.

But here is Matins for Tuesday and Friday from Septuagesima Sunday through to Holy Wednesday or Holy Saturday if you’re praying in private.

I’ve included the optional ending in case you don’t go straight into Lauds. Feel free to skip this if you have Lauds queued up ready to roll. Hopefully your podcast app allows you to do this.

Booklets in PDF available: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

But here is Matins for Sunday, Monday and Thursday from Septuagesima Sunday through to Holy Wednesday or Holy Saturday if you’re praying in private.

I’ve included the optional ending in case you don’t go straight into Lauds. Feel free to skip this if you have Lauds queued up ready to roll. Hopefully your podcast app allows you to do this.

Booklets in PDF available: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

I sort of munged the different versions as the budgerigars were starting to wake up as I reached the end, plus I didn’t have the words for the Commemoration of the Saints handy, so the recording includes the Kyrie from the 1915 version, but ends like the 1962 version.

Booklets in PDF available:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

This one was surprisingly easy to put together as I didn’t make so many mistakes. Once upon a time I did have this memorised, but that was a while ago.

Booklets in PDF available:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

The Divine Office proper to the Sacred Triduum is pretty amazing though and well worth looking into. divinumofficium.com is a good place to start. Tenebrae is the most musical hour (Matins+Lauds) with many fine recordings available on Youtube. The rest are very pared back with minimal singing, but very beautiful in an austere way.

This recording is back in the house at night with some noise removal and filter curve equalising courtesy of Audacity.

Booklets in PDF available:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

Booklets in PDF available:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

Support this channel, either via Substack or Buy Me a Coffee

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

The sheet music is mostly from the Prime booklet at littleoffice.brandt.id.au. The Kyrie is from my Medieval Lauds booklet there - I’ve become accustomed to sing from the 1915 Benziger Bros book as I like the extra Kyrie. You’ll have to imagine the silent Ave Maria at the beginning.

You’ll see it’s pretty much the same as Office 1: Post Pentecost, except for substituting “Laus tibi Domine, Rex Aeterne Gloriae” for the Alleluia.

God bless you!

A keen reader found a very old typo in my Little Office Compline PDFs - somehow, long ago, I had typed up “Lumen et revelationem gentium” instead of “Lumen ad revelationem gentium”. That has been fixed in the files at littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets Refreshing the files at Gumroad and Udemy will take a little longer.

Looking back at last month’s update, I did manage to accomplish one of the three goals, that of running through the explanation of rubrics in the Benziger Brothers 1914 Little Office book. It took two videos. Unfortunately they are recorded in fairly low resolution as my usual video device was being used elsewhere, so I used an old iPad which I had previously set to low resolution video, as sometimes a small person fills up the hard drive… anyway here they are:

And the second installment looking more into the ceremonial aspects:

The other two goals were a bit more ambitious - to explain how to sing psalms and make a course on singing Roman Compline.

The real answer to the question “how does one psing psalms?” is that one can psing them in any way one desires. Of course, coming from a background in singing psalms in the western chant tradition in Latin, that’s going to be the way I will gravitate towards, but there are many different ways to sing. I’ve been singing with many different people with many different styles and realising that singing in itself is a valuable skill to cultivate. Our culture seems to push people away from singing into being passive consumers of mass produced noise. Any sort of singing is better than nothing.

The photo above captures my current list of ideas for Youtube videos. I’m always open to suggestions. Someone asked me how I would recite the Chaplet of the Holy Face in English and I started drawing diagrams describing my interpretation of the description in the 1789 Holy Face Manual, but co-ordinating all the elements of making videos seems to be more difficult than I remember.

Also, this particular substack is devoted to the Little Office of Our Lady and sometimes I go outside that area. I have another podcast called the Latin Mass Homeschool Family, which is hosted with Spotify. Unfortunately Spotify has a policy of only hosting podcast episodes which are predominantly spoken. They recently deleted 32 episodes from my Latin Mass Family podcast without warning. I tried contacting them about getting back up copies, but turned out their system was not set up to cater for that service. The episodes were all from the 100 days of Chant challenge which I set myself a few years ago. Fortunately they are all still on Youtube. The recordings I was most concerned about were the family recordings of singing Compline, which would have been very difficult to recreate, and are all linked into a little blog at compline.brandt.id.au. Fortunately all those recordings passed Spotify’s test for being mostly spoken.

That gives me yet another goal, to migrate the Latin Mass Homeschool Podcast to a more music-friendly host. I’ll put that job alongside updating the wowchemy themes on my webpages to hugo blocks.

But all this pales in comparison with what seem to be our Holy Father the Pope’s last days on earth. Let us pray for the Pope.

Ave María. Grátia plena. Dóminus tecum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta María Mater Dei. Ora pro nobis peccatóribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Lenten Hymns are my main preoccupation at the moment. I have a special bunch of Masses around the feast of the Annunciation this year.

Turns out there are quite a few arrangements of Audi Benigne Conditor on CPDL.org, some of them for 3 parts and designed to alternate with the chant. I love this hymn. It’s one I didn’t know back when I assembled A New Book of Old Hymns.

Back to the Little Office, January is still Christmas time or Office 3. The feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now known as the Presentation of Jesus, 2nd February is the last day for Office 3. The beginning of the changeover to Office 1 comes at the end of Compline. Instead of finishing with the Christmas antiphon Alma Redemptoris, you change to the next antiphon, Ave Regina Caelorum. Then the next hour, Matins, is Office 1.

I often describe Ave Regina Caelorum as the Lenten antiphon, though that isn’t strictly accurate. Purification to Sacred Triduum is a better description, but it’s a bit more wordy. So this change doesn’t catapult us into Lent or even Septuagesima. Septuagesima Sunday falls on 16 February this year, so your last Alleluias happen at None of Saturday 15 February. From Vespers Saturday 15 February, use the “Laus tibi Domine” options.

With regard to my own Little Office PDFs and reprints, a keen reader found that I had left out the third collect for Compline, so that has been remedied. The up to date PDFs are always at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Someone else noticed that a shop description of my truncated Benziger Brothers Little Office had a misleading description. It is a bit confusing. I have four variations of the Benziger 1915 Little Office:

* The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 257 pages, paperback - lulu or shop.jubil.us

* Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Office of the Dead - 433 pages, paperback - lulu or shop.jubil.us

* Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1915 - 257 pages, hardcover - lulu or shop.jubil.us

* The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1915, blue hardback - 257 pages, hardcover - lulu or shop.jubil.us

So only one of the four gives you the complete book with the extra commemorations and the Office of the Dead. The other three have been shortened to just the Little Office and they share a listing on Shop Jubilus - there’s a drop down menu there to select which one you’re after.

As the school year resumes here in Australia, I have a new list of projects to work on:

* a course on singing Roman Compline according to the 1962 rubrics

* a video (or two) going through the rubrics section of the Benziger 1915 Little Office book

* an explanation of how to sing Psalms

These are responses to queries from kind readers like you. I live in a lovely bubble where I can go to the Latin Mass on Sundays and sometimes even on weekdays. My family sings Compline together most evenings. I’ve learned so much about chant over the past two decades, often volunteering for things way over my head - you don’t know what you don’t know. When you ask questions, it helps me reflect on my assumptions and track down the reasons for how I sing.

It’s still frustrating that a conventional Catholic education completely overlooks these aspects of the treasures of Catholic music. But again, you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s by learning and passing on this information that one day maybe a good majority of Catholics will be able to sing together confidently, transcending boundaries of age and language with timeless repertoire. It will take a while for our Catholic education systems to catch on.

So, I hope this message finds you well. Let’s pray for each other that we may accomplish our goals in 2025!

God bless.

(This coupon starts 12/21/2024 3:23 PM PST (GMT -8) and expires 01/21/2025 3:23 PM PST (GMT -8) or until 100 people have signed up, whichever comes first)

For anyone interested in improving their writing, the Institute for Excellence in Writing is preparing for their Twelve Days of Christmas Giving which you can read about over on my family webpage. While I was editing the video, I realised that I had ignored all the Public Speaking advice in the IEW materials and that my phone camera faithfully focussed on my microphone, leaving the rest of the scene slightly blurry. More learning experiences.

The photo is our Christmas Bush, an Australian native shrub which has been struggling for twenty years and finally gave a good show of flowers this year. The bush had been choked by surrounding trees, but after we took some down and cut back the wisteria vines, it sent out a new shoot which started looking healthy and leafy last year and now has this big show of red flowers just in time for Christmas.

Christmas is a crazy time - both in secular circles and religious circles here. The weather is warm. The shops are full. Kids are keen for Christmas. I would love to include a jolly carol sung by our family, but if I wait for the opportunity to put that together it will be too late to send out, so I’ll include a Christmas carol from another family - listen out for the introit for Christmas Day! (it’s just after the 6 minute mark in case you’re pressed for time)

It’s in my Medieval Lauds booklet : https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Here’s the antiphon from Gregobase:

Behold the Lord comes, and all his saints with him: and it will be in that day a great light, alleluia.

This comes in at the end of Lauds and Vespers in the older editions of the Little Office.

The history of this little piece is worth reading. When the Little Offices emerged, there were three main ones:

* All Saints

* The Faithful Departed

* Our Lady

Saying all of them as well as the Divine Office proved too much, so different orders generally went with either Our Lady or the Dead. The Little Office of the Saints survived in this little Commemoration in the Little Office of Our Lady. Then in 1962 the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary was pared down a little bit more and the commemoration was removed, along with the little “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison”.

Seven tracks for the Day Hours of Advent!

PDF Booklets are available here: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

The CD is getting closer all the time! Only Compline left to knock into shape!

Then we’ll need a Christmas album…

As always, you can find the booklets at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Or “Hora Nona”.

As always, you can find the booklets at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Funnily enough, the English word Noon comes from the next hour, None, referring to the Ninth Hour. This was the hour at which monks would break fast, but over time it was felt to be too onerous to wait that long, so they started breaking fast at the Sixth hour, but the name None carried across and now we have Noon being the middle of the day.

As always, you can find the booklets at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

As always, you can find the booklets at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Again, for the keen ears, you might notice how similar the hymn is between the Prime and Terce recordings. I clean forgot to sing Memento when recording Prime, so I cut and paste from Terce. This also made me realise that there were other parts I could reuse, so you may notice some other similar bits and pieces. Also, they will probably all sound fairly similar as the recording was done in one sitting. There was a whole lot of cicada noise outside, which fortunately doesn’t seem to have been picked up - although now I come to think of it, I’m editing the tracks with cicada noise outside, so I might be blissfully unaware of its presence in the audio.

This is the hour of Prime - the hour which didn’t get carried across from the Divine Office into the Liturgy of the Hours. Prime means “First”, but it isn’t listed first in any books I’ve come across. At daybreak this hour is sung. In the full Office it finishes with a recitation of the Martyrology for the following day - a good practice even if the Little Office doesn’t require it.

As always, you can find the booklets at https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/#booklets

Keen ears might hear how I mistakenly used the incipit tune beginning for the last Gloria Patri in the Psalms in the recording. I hope you forgive the mistake made in some sort of surge of gladness to be nearing the end of the track. These recordings aren’t perfect, but I hope they help.

Many of you went ahead, against my warnings, and ordered copies of the prototype CD of the day hours of Office 1. The third track on the CD was a bit patchy, so that was re-recorded, this time making sure to record a “Laus tibi Domine” so that I could make a version ready for Septuagesima. I’ve uploaded the two versions of Terce to the podcast here. This seems to be the only Septuagesima recording on the podcast so far. If you see a track listing on the back of your CD sleeve you should have the updated Terce.

Advent is zooming closer and closer and I have made a recording that I should be able to edit in time - maybe even make an Advent CD available with enough lead time for people to receive their copy!

Lauds for Advent is ready. Again, I recorded the “Laus tibi Domine” for the very occasional event when Office 2 is sung for the feast of the Annunciation during Septuagesima. This will happen in 2025. The Annunciation is only one day of the year, so I’m not sure if it warrants a dedicated CD. Still, it would be good to have on the podcast.

This photo helps illustrate some of the craziness of this month, which might go some way to explaining why this October update is coming out in November. Back in June we bought four one week old chicks from a farming family who drives an hour to come to our local Latin Mass. The cute little chicks grew into four handsome roosters and this became a bit of a problem. We learned a whole lot about roosters and how to work with their instincts to rule their terrain, but everything culminated in “inviting them to dinner”. This was a very moving experience. The family kindly gave us three young hens, which we are hoping will start laying soon.

That explains the rooster in the shot, on to the thing in my son’s hands. The lizard is a Blue Tongue Lizard which is fairly common in Australia. They’re slow-moving and like eating snails, so they’re generally a Good Thing to have in the garden, but it still makes me jump when I almost step on one in the living room. We had a few hot days where one such reptile must have thought the cat door looked like the entrance to a nice cool cave. Between discouraging the cats from pestering it and guiding it back to the great outdoors, this brought some extra excitement to our Spring. It seems to have moved on to a less populated backyard somewhere else now.

So I guess that’s it from me. Back to editing the remaining tracks for the Advent album!

God bless,

Veronica

Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Booklets in PDF are available if you would like to follow along.

Septuagesima Sunday is an old preparation for Lent. The name means “70th” and it is roughly 70 days before Easter. 64 days by my count. The reforms of the Roman Calendar last century thought they could dispense with this antiquated idea. Modern people are much more organised now and can launch boldly into the rigours of Lenten penance without the customary few weeks our forefathers took for easing into the extra prayer, fasting and almsgiving. There’s nothing forbidding a little extra penance in the lead up to Lent, so for any listeners out there who find Lent surprisingly sudden, you might like to mark Septuagesima Sunday on your calendar and see if it helps you prepare for Lent.

Since the Little Office of Our Lady missed out on these reforms, it still includes provisions for Septuagesima. The main difference is avoiding all alleluias. The opening verses swap Alleluia with Laus tibi Domine, Rex aeterne gloriae. And for most of the hours, that is it!

Theoretically, I could take this adjusted beginning and tack it on to all the existing recordings. But on the other hand, it would be satisfying to re-record each hour, with all the subtle differences of each rendition. It will probably come down to how much time I have to complete the project.

This is a solo recording. To fit on the CD I needed to keep it short, but I didn’t want to rush it. Were I singing with another person we could shrink the gap between each verse. I’ve tried to imitate that by myself while keeping a bit of a break at the middle of each verse (marked by an asterisk).

And if you would like a copy of the CD, even though it is still much of a work in progress, here is the link.

* from my Shop Jubilus

* direct from the printer, Lulu.com

Or download the PDF from the github repository.

I did write to my bishop for permission to print and received a positive answer, so I think that’s all good with regard to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Canon 826 §3.

Here’s an earlier article with more about the booklet:

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

You can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

I’m copying across these recordings from the Youtube playlist.

Anyway, substack does seem to do a good job of being both a blog and a podcast.

And you can pick up a printed book of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception either printed here at Shop Jubilus or as a PDF in the Gitlab repo.

Now to figure out whether to stagger the uploads over the next few days - maybe to leave time to figure out whether to re-record Compline to incorporate the restored closing Antiphon chant.

However, my PDF files describing how to sing the Little Office do change on a more erratic basis. A monthly newsletter could be an opportunity for encouraging the further refinement and development of these files.

I have just this minute added links to a Terce booklet I assembled for a family gathering around this time last year - Office 1 with Salve Regina. Also a Medieval Lauds booklet, which includes the extra psalms which Pope St Pius X took out in 1910, plus the tune for the Commemoration of Saints which was part of the Little Office back then.

A few weeks ago someone contacted me about funny variations on the price on my Udemy course. I forthwith set up a coupon to make the course free for the first 100 subscribers. So far 10 people have taken up the offer, which expires 08/19/2024 10:48 PM PDT (GMT -7). This button should apply the code ASSUMPTION24 for you:

Yes, the Feast of the Assumption is coming up on Thursday 15th August. This is one of the very few Holy Days of Obligation still in force in Australia. (The only other one that hasn’t been transferred to a Sunday is Christmas Day). Check your local diocese for your local obligations.

This might be a good time to mention my attempt at a 2024 Planner for the Little Office:

The little numbers in circles give some indication of which Office is prayed when, if you use the Office 1, 2 and 3 naming system. Basically, Office 1 is most of the year, Office 2 is Advent and the feast of the Annunciation and Office 3 is for Christmas through to the feast of the Purification of Our Lady on 2nd February.

So, that’s more information than I expected for this first stab at a monthly update. I hope you found it helpful and I look forward to another effort in September!

Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Substack is a very helpful platform. I have uploaded the video and it seems to have already made an audio file for the podcast. I hope it appears nicely in your podcast player.

The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception shares some similarities and differences. Like the Divine Office, it is arranged by hours and employs similar versicles and collects. On the whole it has a rather different feel, being based around a hymn instead of the Psalms. If you can pick a hymn tune then the hours are pretty much ready to sing. That is, until you get to the last part.

Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The last hour of the day is Completorium or Compline. While the large part of the hour follows the same pattern as the other hours, it ends with a new section called The Commendation or Commendatio. This consists of a hymn followed by the response, Deo gratias, then an Antiphon, Versicle and Response closing with a Collect or Prayer.

The first version I recorded only had the hymn of the Commendation, so it was only recently that I began to puzzle over the Antiphon. The other parts can be sung easily with common tunes. Antiphons are little snippets each with their own melody. There are hundreds of them in the Liber Usualis and the Antiphonale Monasticum, but not this particular one.

Haec est virga in qua nec nodus originalis, nec cortex actualis culpae fuit.

This is the rod wherein was neither the knot of original sin, nor the bark of actual sin.

Some research revealed that this particular antiphon can be found in Vespers for the medieval Franciscan feast of the Immaculate Conception, long before the universal feast was established after Our Lady gave her title to St Bernadette at Lourdes. The two manuscripts containing the antiphon date from the 17th and 18th centuries.

A beautifully photographed manuscript clearly gave all the antiphons for this feast. The neumes are intelligible even after hundreds of years. I transcribed this piece into “modern” square notes and added it to Gregobase.

And here is how it sounds:

Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

For now, this should be listenable. I missed a flat sign in the Antiphon “Rubum quem viderat” and I must have been getting tired going by the mistakes, but this remix is a bit better than it was.

Booklets are at littleoffice.brandt.id.au.

I’m using the Monastic Tonus in Directum. I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker.

The booklets are still at littleoffice.brandt.id.au.

The mistake comes from mentally transposing to make the solfege easier but forgetting to add in a ti-flat (or te). This also crops up in the hymn for Roman Compline for Ferias.

The booklets are at littleoffice.brandt.id.au

℣ Beáta víscera Maríæ Vírginis, quæ portavérunt ætérni Pátris Fílium.

℟ Et beáta úbera, quæ lactavérunt Christum Dóminum.

Which can be translated as:

To the most holy and undivided Trinity, to the manhood of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ, to the fruitful virginity of the most blessed and glorious Mary, ever a virgin, to the entire assembly of the saints, be ascribed everlasting praise, honor, power, and glory, by every creature; and to us be granted the remission of all our sins, world without end. ℟ Amen.

℣ Blessed is the Virgin Mary's womb, which bore the Son of the everlasting Father.

℟ And blessed are the breasts which nourished Christ our Lord.

This prayer is usually followed by

* Pater noster (Our Father)

* Ave Maria (Hail Mary)

* Credo in Deum (Apostles’ Creed)

The Benziger Brothers edition of the Little Office in 1915 omits the Apostles’ Creed and adds this note:

To those who shall on their knees recite with devotion the above prayer, Pope Leo X granted indulgence in respect to those shortcomings and faults which they may have committed through human frailty, while saying the Office.

This recording comes from a Livestream from 2021. There I also recorded the prayers before and after the Office. These would be good to have on the podcast in separate episodes so you can add them to your queue as need be.

You could even pray it by itself.

Here are the words:

Alma Redemptóris Mater, quæ pérvia cæliPorta manes, et stella maris, succúrre cadénti,Súrgere qui curat pópulo: tu quæ genuísti,Natúra miránte, tuum sanctum GenitóremVirgo prius ac postérius, Gabriélis ab oreSumens illud Ave, peccatórum miserére.

Kind mother of the Redeemer, who remain the open gate of heaven and the star of the sea: help your falling people who want to rise, you who bore your holy Parent, while nature marveled:a Virgin before and after, receiving that ‘Ave’ from Gabriel’s mouth, have mercy on [us] sinners.

You will notice there are two different collects for this Antiphon - one for Advent and one for Christmas. I have sung the one for Christmas here.

In the livestream I finished with the Solemn Marian Antiphon, but I thought I would upload that separately - it’s an optional ending for most of the hours. It’s mandatory for Compline.

This recording comes from a Livestream from 2021. I’ve edited it down a bit, run the noise reduction and amplify over it so it should be easier to listen to. There’s a bit of bird noise in the background - quite a few magpie calls. This is the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen). Also our pet budgerigars and wild sulphur crested cockatoos.

There is a little bit of coughing. Happily, I’ve reduced it a little and trimmed it a bit.

God bless you!

I have trimmed it a little and applied a noise removal and amplification. The beginning starts with chirps from my pet budgerigars, but they soon settle down.

littleoffice.brandt.id.au

In making this recording I did find one note wrong in the old booklets - in the flex for the Little Chapter, so you might like to update your copy.

This part of Matins is good for all Advent, except feasts of Our Lady, which would be the Immaculate Conception (8th December) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (12th December) which is celebrated in the Americas as I understand it. On those feasts, the 2nd Responsory ends with a Gloria Patri and the Te Deum is sung instead of the 3rd Responsory. I have the recording for this, but still need to edit it. Stay tuned!

It seems expedient to divide up the Matins recordings into 3 parts. It makes it easier for me to upload just the parts that need updating for each season.

Also, when listening to the recordings, I can sing the first part while getting ready, then start with the second part when I head off in the car.

I could stitch them together to make all the combinations for the year if the three part thing is too tricky to navigate.

For now, this is the third nocturn with the change in antiphon for Advent.

There are also variations with regard to different versions of the office. Before 1915 there were a few more psalms in Lauds. Before 1962 there were more Kyrie Eleisons and a commemoration of All Saints at Lauds and Vespers.

I made this recording in an hotel room - a very unusual setting for me, but beautifully quiet. Helps reinforce the idea that a quiet space away from pet parrots is a very worthwhile goal!

As always, the PDF booklets are at littleoffice.brandt.id.au

I hope to complete a new set of recordings in time for Advent. I’m a bit sidetracked by some very cute tiny copies of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception that I’d love to make available.

It has been a while since I posted a video, so I added a poll on Youtube. The results strongly suggested it was time to rerecord the Little Office for Advent. One comment specifically requested Prime. So here it is.

Here are the issues with this recording:

* background bird noise

* background traffic noise

* mistakes in pronunciation - adjuva instead of adjuvat and a “a” instead of “ae” at the end of another word

* changing key for the closing antiphon - we actually launched into “Maria Virgo Assumpta Est”, the regular antiphon for Terce which is also Mode 8, then sang the correct “Missus Est” but we went up a tone in the process. I tried autotuning it, but it sounded autotuned, so left it as is. Raising the pitch for the closing antiphon happens to be something we often do for Compline as a family, so there you go.

* We’re singing too fast.

* We start a bit high - first thing in the morning most voices appreciate a lower pitch. For Mass we usually aim for A as a reciting note and here I did concede to a G, but it could have been a bit lower. The psalms are lower.

You may find other issues and that’s fine.

The thing with the bird noises is that when editing the audio the bird noises are still going on around me. The budgies respond to the bird calls in the recording, making even more bird noise. There was an idea to use the garage, which is partially underground. Maybe next time.

The prime booklet at littleoffice.brandt.id.au has also been updated.

I didn’t have any reason to go into the details. I just went from the blue Baronius Press books and guessed the rest, resulting in a few habits that subsequent study has proved questionable.

So, now, as far as I know, this is my first recording of Compline where I follow the music as written in the Roman Antiphonale.

I went with the Solemn Salve. We usually sing Roman Compline from the Divine Office each night as a family with the Simple Salve, so I like to sing the Solemn Salve when singing the Little Office afterwards by myself. In hindsight, I should have sung both and made two podcasts. Anyway, this is what I have for now!

God bless!

This is probably my most overlooked hour of the Little Office. 3pm is a busy time for me. I have a job tutoring schoolkids after school a few days a week, so I’m often driving to the tutoring centre at this time. It is a really nice time to take a break though. Taking the time to slow down and listen to God really helps. Sometimes it’s part way through the prayers that I really start to pray - if that makes sense. In a perfect world you would prepare to pray first.

With these recordings, back on my first podcast platform I added on a little intro recording. It comes in handy for adjusting the volume. Some podcasts use music. I’m thinking maybe I should make something like that, maybe using the prayers before the Office, or just an Ave Maria.

I’ve included the commemoration of All Saints as in the 1915 Benziger Brothers edition. I think I should have shortened the end of the collect before that, but the extra prayers are probably still good. Just letting you know that I’m aware of it.

Booklets and more information available at:

littleoffice.brandt.id.au

* 1st third: Invitatory and Hymn

* 2nd third: three Psalms

* 3rd third: Lessons and Responsories

I’m posting Matins in parts so that I can line up the matching three parts each day to listen to on a walk or drive. You’ll need three thirds for the full Matins.

* 1st third: Invitatory and Hymn

* 2nd third: three Psalms

* 3rd third: Lessons and Responsories

I’m posting Matins in parts so that I can line up the matching three parts each day to listen to on a walk or drive. You’ll need three thirds for the full Matins.

* 1st third: Invitatory and Hymn

* 2nd third: three Psalms

* 3rd third: Lessons and Responsories

I’ve made another recording trimming off the closing collect, and I will publish that soon!

I’m posting Matins in parts so that I can line up the matching three parts each day to listen to on a walk or drive. You’ll need three thirds for the full Matins.

* 1st third: Invitatory and Hymn

* 2nd third: three Psalms

* 3rd third: Lessons and Responsories

I use Antennapod to listen to podcasts and these recordings.

God bless you!

I have a little bit of commuting each week, so it’s handy to have clear recordings, and my trips are short, so the pace will be a bit on the quick side.

I’ve divided Matins into three parts:

* Domine, labia mea aperies… Invitatory and Hymn

* The Psalms or Nocturn

* The lessons and responsories and Te Deum

Right now I’ve just recorded the parts for most of the year. The first part doesn’t vary much - I just need to change the Alleluia to a Laus tibi Domine and it will cover the whole year!

The Nocturns are pretty standard. Only the third Nocturn has a variation for Advent and the Annunciation.

The last part changes for Septuagesima/Lent and Advent, and that will take a bit more practice, as they have elaborate responsories and I will need to practise them some more!

This is my first time uploading a podcast via Substack, so please bear with me while I figure out the ropes. Hopefully I will also make Youtube versions - maybe premixed. My podcast app (Antennapod) makes it easy to line up a playlist. Youtube might not be quite so easy - though it does have a playlist feature.

Let me know what you think!

And may God bless you!

Here's the booklet I sang from:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/2023/04/10/easter-booklet/

For general information on the Little Office see:

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

I'm incorporating 1915 features.

More info here: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/2022/03/04/dominican-little-office/

More info here: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/2022/03/04/dominican-little-office/

Read more here: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/2022/03/04/dominican-little-office/

As always, get your booklets here: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au

Happy Advent!

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au/

https://www.lobvm.com/hours/roman/1962/office-1/la-en/matins/

More on the Little Office at:

littleoffice.brandt.id.au

If you're on a mobile phone, click "Settings" to pick Latin if you like.  

The Little Office is designed to be sung. Speaking through the words first helps you get the hang of the pronunciation. It's like learning to walk before you run. I have more videos on singing the Little Office.  

See: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au for more details.

If you're on a mobile phone, click "Settings" to pick Latin if you like.

The Little Office is designed to be sung. Speaking through the words first helps you get the hang of the pronunciation. It's like learning to walk before you run. I have more videos on singing the Little Office.

See: https://littleoffice.brandt.id.au for more details.

More info, as always, see littleoffice.brandt.id.au

More info, as always, see littleoffice.brandt.id.au

I've started using these recordings myself, so now I have more incentive to get them all polished up and completed.

More info, as always, see littleoffice.brandt.id.au

God bless,

Veronica

The video is on YouTube and Rumble.

More information: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

In English this is known as Hail Holy Queen.

Some say the Solemn Tone is for feast days and Sundays. I've also heard the Solemn Tone is the proper one and the Simple Tone is a concession for those who need to take it easy. Go with what your superior says and if you're not under a superior, then it's your call which one you sing.

More information: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

I use the simpler version of the Ave Maris Stella for this one and the solemn tone for the Magnificat.

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More info at littleoffice.brandt.id.au

More information: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

More information: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

In English this is known as Hail Holy Queen.

More information: littleoffice.brandt.id.au

I'm working on a system of coded titles to cover all the different variations in the Office.

More info : littleoffice.brandt.id.au

littleoffice.brandt.id.au