• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Praying the Divine Office This Lent

Fr. David Friel · February 15, 2015

ENT IS JUST around the corner. During this holy season, the Church invites us to strengthen what should be our year-round regimen of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Personally, I have sometimes made very specific plans, and other times I have set out into Lent with just a few rather general desires. Without question, the more fruitful Lents have been those in which I’ve made specific plans—not necessarily big plans, just specific.

The desire to “pray more,” for example, is unhelpfully general (although I suspect it is among the most common of Lenten resolutions). You could specify this good desire in any number of ways: attend Mass certain extra days of the week, attend weekly Eucharistic adoration, pray the rosary daily, study a particular book of the Bible, etc. Another praiseworthy way to “pray more” would be to join the universal Church in reciting portions of the Divine Office (also called the “breviary” and the “Liturgy of the Hours”). This “official prayer of the Church,” after all, is intended not only for priests & religious (who are bound to pray the Office), but for all Christians.

Do you like the idea of praying Lauds and Vespers in the morning and evening, but you have no idea how to begin? Luckily, in this age of websites & apps, there are plenty of tools to assist you in getting started. I thought this week would be a good opportunity to introduce a few of the resources that are available for your smartphone.

IRST, one of the finest Catholic apps available is Divine Office. This app does have a cost ($24.99), but it offers both text and audio versions of the official breviary texts, packaged in a sleek and trim design. It operates from the US liturgical calendar. The hymns included in the audio version, as well as the voices used for the recited elements in the recordings, are sometimes excellent and sometimes horrid. The audio is still an interesting feature, though, especially for those just trying to learn how to pray the office. (This app has recently released an upgrade, so search for “Divine Office 2.”)

Another very popular app is iBreviary. This app is free, and it also has an attractive layout. Also included is a complete Roman Missal, which can be helpful for following Mass. The content of iBreviary is also available in a host of lanaguages. In the breviary component, iBreviary does not seem to favor the US liturgical calendar.

Universalis is an app that has been around for quite a while and has a cost ($13.33). It includes both the breviary and the Missal, along with a full liturgical calendar and Lectionary. Its prayer texts and Psalms very often do not match what is found in the USA editions of the breviary.

Laudate is another great free app, offering the complete Liturgy of the Hours according to the British version. There are many other features, too, including a tool for praying the Rosary in Latin.

For printing booklets to be used by groups, E-Breviary is the way to go. An annual subscription ($29.95) gets you accept to .pdf downloads for Lauds, Vespers, and Matins. These downloads are especially nice because they follow the same formatting as the print breviary. They have certain prayers available in Spanish, still in beta for now.

The FSSP has developed a fine resource called iMass, offering a variety of traditional Latin breviaries (Tridentine Monastic, Tridentine 1570, Tridentine 1910, Reduced 1955, etc.). It also includes the Roman Missal, and both breviary & Missal are formatted with Latin on the left and English on the right. You can also watch Mass via live stream.

Finally, if you are looking for a free version of the current Divine Office in Latin, check out Liturgia Horarum. This is a website, not an app, so the content can only be viewed, not downloaded.

HIS IS JUST a sampling of what’s available. I personally still prefer to use my actual, printed breviaries to pray. Nevertheless, I understand that many of the lay faithful either do not own a print set of breviaries or fear the ribbons. I hope the above list of apps will help some readers to find the tools they need to start praying the Liturgy of the Hours this Lent.

Let’s not forget, of course, that Lent is not the great Catholic Ironman; it’s not the season for proving what we can do for God. It is, rather, the season for opening ourselves to whatever God should want to do in us.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Evangelization, Latin Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Ambrose and Prudentius took something classical and made it Christian; the revisers and their imitators took something Christian and tried to make it classical. The result may be pedantry, and sometimes perhaps poetry; but it is not piety. “Accessit Latinitas, discessit pietas.”

— Fr. Joseph Connelly (1954)

Recent Posts

  • Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)
  • August 2025 • “Colorado Sacred Music Conference”
  • New “Latin/English Missal” for the Novus Ordo
  • Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up