The 1909 Breviarium Juxta Ritum Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum

Thanks to the gracious generosity of Jose Dominguez, a tertiary from Chicago and a long-time reader of this blog and a lover of the Dominican Rite breviary, I am please to offer a page dedicated to the 1909 Breviarium Juxta Ritum Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum.  On this page, you will find four (4) downloadable files that contain the entire text of both volumes of this magnificent edition of the breviary of the Order.

This edition was the fruit of the labors of one of the finest liturgists in the history of the Order.  Fr. Vincent Laporte, O.P. was a member of the Province of Toulouse and a renowned musician.  In his book "The History of the Dominican Liturgy", Fr. William Bonniwell, O.P. said this of the 1909 Breviarium S.O.P. "For accuracy of text, clarity of rubrics, and convenience of arrangement, it was the finest edition of the Dominican breviary ever published.  The Order was indeed fortunate to receive from this painstaking scholar the fruits of nearly forty years of research."

A link to the page containing the links is now under the blog banner above.  Thank you Jose!

The Elusive Dominican Cuff-Link

For quite some time now, I have been searching for cuff links that use the shield or crest of the Order.  So far, I have come up empty. And I find this quite frustrating because this seems like a no-brainer to me.  The shield, after all, is ideally shaped to be a cuff link.  And I refuse to believe that I am the first person in the past few hundred years, to have had this inspiration.

After all, you can find the Jerusalem Cross (symbol of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem) on cuff links, as well as the Maltese Cross, which is the symbol of the Knights of St. John.  You can also find Benedictine cuff-links.  So why not the Dominican shield?

I have the lapel pin, which I purchased from this online store.  But I have searched in vain for a set of cuff links.  I would be most grateful to any reader, particularly outside the United States (since I believe I have scoured the US via the internet unsuccessfully) if you could forward me a weblink to a store that sells this elusive element of sartorial esoterica.

August 30: St. Rose of Lima, V, O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Rose of Lima.  The feast is III Class, so the Ordinary office is prayed according to the rubrics.  This is another one of those III Class feasts which retained many of the propers from the days when the feast was totum duplex or duplex.  At Lauds, the Psalms of Sunday are prayed.  

From the Martyrology:

At Lima in Peru, St. Rose, virgin, of the Third Order of our holy Father St. Dominic. The Roman Pontiff Clement IX called her "the first flower from the Western World." At the age of five she took the vow of virginity; later she was received by Christ in a miraculous way as His spouse. She added the most severe penances to a life of purest innocence and her fame spread because of her many miracles. She died on August 24.

Travelers' Prayers from the Dominican Breviary

Recently, my children went with their mother to a family resort for a few days of vacation.  This is the first trip they have been on in years, and I was concerned for their safety.  Before I dropped them off with her, the kids and I prayed a few of the antiphons from the Travelers' Prayers in the Appendix of the Dominican Breviary.

There is nothing unique to the Dominicans about the concept of these prayers.  A similar version can be found in the monastic breviary.  However, our version is tailored to our Order by including some of the wonderful antiphons, versicles/responses, and Collect prayers that invoke St. Dominic, the saints of our Order, and our Lady as our patroness.   You can download the English translation here.

August 28: St. Augustine, B., C., D., II Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Augustine, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor, and Father of the Church.  Since today is also the VX Sunday after Pentecost which holds the rank of II Class, and since his feast in the Dominican Rite calendar is also II Class, we pray the Sunday office and make a commemoration of his feast at Lauds and Vespers.    Also, at Pretiosa, the obit is read of Albert de Chiavari of Genoa, 10th Master General of the Order. 

The Order’s has always given high honor to the Doctor of Grace, in part because our founder St. Dominic adopted the Rule of St. Augustine as the Rule for his Order in 1216. 

August 17: St. Hyacinth, C., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Hyacinth.  The feast is III Class so the Ordinary office is prayed according to the rubrics.  Like many III Class feasts of Dominican saints on the calendar, the office for St. Hyacinth contains a full set of propers, as if the office were II Class.  So there are antiphons and responsories at all of the hours, and the Sunday Psalms are prayed at Lauds, rather than the Psalms of the ferial office.

The feast was announced yesterday, at the reading of the Martyrology:

At Cracow in Poland, St. Hyacinth, confessor, of the Order of Preachers. Having received the religious habit from the hands of our Father St. Dominic, he excelled in learning and in a life of admirable innocence. He was celebrated for the glory of his miracles, especially for walking dryshod across wide rivers. Thought deserving of sweet converse with the holy Mother of God, distinguished for his spotless life, and filled with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, he died at an advanced age. He was called to his eternal reward on the very feastday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was canonized by Pope Clement VIII.

August 15: Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I Class

Last year, while reading "Christ the Savior" by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. on the Assumption of the B.V.M., I came across the following passage:

Therefore the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Mother of the Savior and the new Eve, is also most closely associated with Christ's perfect victory over death, so that "she could not be held down or detained by the bonds of death, " as the liturgy says[19]; otherwise she would have been vanquished by death and would not have been the vanquisher, and her parallelism with Christ's resurrection and ascension, before the general resurrection of the dead, would be destroyed.  Moreover, the exceptional benediction, "blessed art thou among women," excludes the malediction "into dust thou shalt return." (emphasis mine)