Rubrics during Lent
- The Te Deum is omitted during Lent except on feasts of Our Lady.
- During Lent the Laus Tibi, Dómine, etc. is said in place of the Allelúia.
- During Passiontide the Gloria Patri, etc., is said as usual. During the last three days of Holy Week the Little Office is not recited publicly.
- [Matins only] On Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday and on the feasts of Holy Week (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday), the Glória patri is omitted and the invitatory Ave María, grátia plena; * Dóminus tecum is repeated.
Symbols:
☩ – Large sign of the cross (Sign of the cross from the forehead to the breast and from the left shoulder to the right)
✠ – Sign of the cross over the lips
☨ – Sign of the cross over the heart
Prayers before the Office
Matins
The Invitatory
Psalm 94
OMIT on Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday & the feasts of Holy Week
(Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday)
Hymn
Colunt, adórant, prædicant,
Trinam regéntem máchinam,
Claustrum Maríæ bájulat.
Adore, and laud, and magnify,
Who o’er their threefold fabric reigns,
The Virgin’s spotless womb contains.
Desérviunt per témpora,
Perfúsa cæli grátia,
Gestant puéllæ víscera.
And all things in due course is done,
Is borne upon a maiden’s breast,
By fullest heavenly grace possest.
Cujus supérnus ártifex
Mundum pugíllo cóntinens,
Ventris sub arca clausus est.
The great artificer divine,
Whose hand contains the earth and sky,
Vouchsafed, as in his ark, to lie.
Fœcúnda sancto Spíritu,
Desiderátus géntibus,
Cujus per alvum fusus est.
Blest, by the work the Spirit wrought;
From whom the great desire of earth
Took human flesh and human birth.
Qui natus es de Vírgine,
Cum Patre, et almo Spíritu
In sempitérna sæcula.
Amen.
O Jesu, Virgin-born to thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete.
Amen.
First Nocturn
(For Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays)
Psalm 8
Amen.
Psalm 18
Psalm 23
The Lessons
First Lesson – Cant. 3:6; 4:7,12
Second Lesson – Ecclesiasticus 24:22-25
Third Lesson – Ecclesiasticus 24:26-28, 30-31
Only on feasts of Our Lady or the patron saint of the place is the Te Deum said during this season; hence the following is usually added.
The Antiphon of Our Lady
The Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin should be recited at the end of Matins if Matins is separated from Lauds.
The Antiphon of Our Lady
Prayer After the Office
To those who, after the Divine Office, shall on their knees recite with devotion the following prayer, Pope Leo X granted indulgence in respect of those shortcomings and faults which they may have committed through human frailty while saying Office.
Then is said secretly an ‘Our Father’ and a ‘Hail Mary’.