Post intelligent and civil comments. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the NLM
And it makes a great Christmas gift.
Along with a Breviary.
Please listen to Chaucer (Part I) and Chaucer (Part II) online on December 23 & 24. The playlist includes hymns in England's glorious Sarum chant. Not to be missed!
What Mr. Duffy shows us is that the office, far from being a clerical preserve, was in fact the marrow of
ordinary lay piety in the medieval ages. Who is to say that this form of piety cannot be revived for our own age? (I hasten to add that a "mass and office" piety for our time should propose the divine office as the ideal even for laypeople, and not just some "little office" that neglects the magnificent spirituality of
ferial days and the liturgical year.)
I think that, even as we who are working for the "new liturgical renewal" in favor of traditional liturgical forms should continue to discuss the finer (and theologically rich) points of chant, rubrics, rite and vesture, we should also begin discussing the work of restoring the liturgical mentality that produced the rites of apostolic Christendom. This mentality is, I believe, bound up with the rediscovery of what has
been called "Mass and Office Christianity". (Of course, the reintroduction of this kind of piety
cannot but step on the toes of those powerful movements which propose that orthodox Catholic piety
should continue to revolve around the rosary and late baroque forms of Marian devotion. Surely these
devotions are good and holy, and I myself use them, but they should be put in their proper -- meaning,
secondary -- place.)
I haven't had the chance to read through the book yet (saving it for Christmas vacation), but what the review doesn't say is that this latest book by Professor Duffy is beautiful. There are dozens of color plates of the primers and they are really lovely. When I think of the line drawings in my breviary, I wonder why our own, modern prayerbooks are so bland; clearly our medieval forebears loved beauty and saw the connection between beauty and holiness.
I second the recommendation of this book as a gift and for one's own library.
Great idea for Christmas!
Readers here might also like a similar study of lay prayer texts and practices for 13th century Italy that was done in chapter 10 of Augustine Thompson's *Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes*. Amy Welborn reviewed it here:
http://amywelborn.typepad.com/
op...ies_of_god.html
Half the book is on lay people's role in the liturgical life of the medieval Italian church.
I agree with Carlos. I think the Mass and Office model of Christianity is the model, though even in many traditional Catholic parishes I see signs indicating that the Rosary is second to the Mass. (I don't denigrate the Rosary with this comment.)
I am, compared to most of the people on this blog, a liturgical novice--and I know how much scorn some here heap on the current liturgy of the hours, but since I have tried to start praying them (Morning and Evening and Night prayer last year, now I'm adding the Office of Readings and Daytime Prayer) I've begun to notice how much improved my spiritual senses are and how much better I understand the Mass and can enter into it. I'm glad there has been much discussion on this site on the Hours and I'm looking forward to reading Duffy's new book--reading THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS several years ago really provoked me to read more about the Mass and penitential observances.
As one who prays as much of the current Liturgy of the Hours as I can--although it varies with seasons, and schedules of my life, that by doing so, one's mind becomes more oriented to the flow of the liturgical life of the Church. Even using the shortened one vol. version entitled 'Christian Prayer', does add a foundation--and richness to daily prayer, orienting the mind to a particular liturgical theme, which can even enhance other prayers--including the Rosary.
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