Abbe Bacquez

The Divine Office: Considered from a Devotional Point of View Abbe Bacquez

Publisher Marketing: The Editor, in presenting this work of the learned Abbe Bacquez to the Catholic Public, ventures to hope that it will supply a want long felt among the Clergy and others who have to use the Breviary for a book treating practically of the Divine Office. He has to express his acknowledgments and grateful thanks to Thomas Taunton, Esq., of Hern's Nest, Rugeley, his father, who prepared with great care the first translation. The Editor has advisedly entitled the book " From the French," as he does not profess to give, in all cases, a literal translation, but has adapted the Author's work to English readers. Henry Edward Cardinal Manning says of this book: "Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, when asked by a priest to give him a rule of life, said: "Say your Mass and your Office well." We are all apt to turn from the substance in our hands to the shadows that allure us. To say the Holy Mass, even in the midst of our infirmities, as the Holy Mass ought to be said, would lift us in ascending towards God to a nearness which we can hardly conceive; for the Holy Mass is a daily renewal of our union with our Divine Master. To say the Divine Office as it ought to be said would fill us with inexhaustible matter of mental prayer, for it is the work of the Holy Ghost and of the Saints. The seven hours are seven visits day by day to the heavenly court; our voice is united to the Eternal adoration; and our daily Office ascends in the Golden Censer with the prayers of the Saints. The translation, therefore, of this most edifying work from the walls of S. Sulpice, the source of so much sacerdotal perfection, comes to us most opportunely, and we heartily commend it to the use of the Clergy and of the Faithful." This work begins: "The first condition for performing any work in a proper manner is to feel its importance. We generally neglect that of which we think little; and the pains we take and the efforts we make arc in proportion to the greatness of the end we have in view, and to the desire we have to attain it. Let us then begin by trying to understand the Divine Office: let us try to appreciate its nature, its sense, and its principal characteristics." We pray this will help all who recite the Divine Office from the Roman Breviary to do so well.