OCR Text |
Show Changes In The Roman Office Of Pius- There have appeared in the daily press more or less vague reports of the proposed revisions of the Eoman Breviary by order of Pope Pius X. The proposal did not oriffinato with the present pope. It was really the idea of his predecessor who, durinpr the closing years of his reign, appointed Igr. Duchesne to make a rigorous study of tho lessons of tho Breviary especially those of tho lives of the saints, and more especially still those which contain the acts of the early martyrs. The idea was to eliminate everything which did not rest on a solid historical basis. His work is still far from being- complete, but it is likely to be. very much simplified by the Holy Father. The correspondent correspon-dent of the London Tablet, who is usually accurate in these matters, is informed on excellent authority author-ity that Pius X intends to revolutionize completely the modern Breviary. He has not been able tr ascertain as-certain with absolute certainty the nature of the changes that are to be made, but several competent compe-tent authorities, among them a consultor of the congregation of Eites, informs him that they arc-to arc-to be as follows: "For a great many centuries the offices .of the saints, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, etc.. have been gradually ousting the ordinary or ferial offices of the Breviary. In fact, now that votive offices may be said on nearly all days not already occupied by a saint's office, the ferial and Simday ofiices are recited only a few times a year. The result is that priests are no longer familiar with the entire Psalter (which is contained fully in the ferial offices from Sunday to Sunday), for the saint's offices they are obliged to say from year end to year end -contain only a relatively small "number of the Psalms. According to my information informa-tion the Holy Father intends to abolish almost all saints' offices, and restore the recitation of the Breviary to its ancient form. Several of the office of the great feasts, such as Christmas, the circumcision, circum-cision, etc., will be preserved, and the offices for 4 V Saturday and Sunday will be considerably short- f ened on account of the occupations of missionary I priests on these days. Xot the least sweeping I change would be the fact that it would introduce ! a wonderful unity into the common praver of the Church." |