Summer Holidays! 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. Get full access to Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary at littleoffice.substack.com/subscribe
