The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This is the first ever edition that includes the complete Gregorian Chant for the Little Office – in traditional four stave notation! The music for the Little Office has never before been gathered together in one volume. For many people the Gregorian chant of the Little Office offers an introduction to the beauty of the Church’s traditional liturgical heritage. This volume will help you sing all the Hours of the Little Office.

Our edition includes a commentary on the rubrics and ceremonial by “A Master of Novices” (which was first published in the early twentieth century), and also includes a description of the indulgences with which the recitation of the Little Office has been enriched by Holy Mother Church.

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a shorter form of the Divine Office in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has long been the Church’s daily liturgical prayer to Our Lady, and these hours of praise have been used by Priests, religious and the laity throughout the centuries. Lay people used to flock to the great Cathedrals to publicly recite The Little Office during the Middle Ages, and during the great persecution, when the practice of the Catholic Faith was illegal in Great Britain, Bishop Challoner commended The Little Office to his flock.

Through its psalms, antiphons, readings, responsorials, and prayers the Little Office stresses the role Our Lady played in salvation history, and how through her fiat the divine Word took flesh in her womb and achieved salvation for us all; and how Our Lord granted her the first fruits of the general resurrection in her holy and glorious assumption.

All Catholics are called to a consistent prayer life. For those who do not feel called to recite the Divine Office, but still wish to participate in the liturgical prayer of the Church, or for those who have a particular devotion to the holy Mother of God, there is no finer form of prayer than the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Its features include:

* Based on an edition published just after the Reform Act in 1850 (allowing English Catholics to openly practice the Faith).

* English translation uses traditional language – with scripture taken from Bishop Challoner’s version of the Douay-Rheims Bible.

* Fully updated to comply with the editio typica for the Extraordinary Latin Rite (1961).

* The first ever edition to include all the Gregorian chant for the Little Office.

* Preface by the Very Reverend Fr. Berg, superior of the FSSP.

* Latin- English, red and black text.

* Flexible leather cover with stitched edge, gold gilding, 2 ribbons. The text is set in Aldine721BT font, size 9pt.

“It is timely that this edition has been made available within a few weeks of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio 'Summorum Pontificum', which permits a wider use of the traditional Roman Breviary”. Fr. Berg, Superior of the FSSP (from his preface).