Praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Greetings in Jesus and Mary!

Happy June! This is the month of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! This Thursday is Corpus Christi and I will write on it this Weds. As to not detract from my topic for today, I will proceed to talk about The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This devotion is found in the Traditional Rule of Carmel BEFORE Vatican II. I was in search of the Old Rule while being a member of the Novus Ordo Third Order Carmelites under the Modern Friars. I was motivated to find it after being told I could not encourage people to be enrolled in the small brown scapular (different from the large worn by the First, Second and Third Order of Carmel). The small scapular was highly promoted since the time of St. Simon Stock....again I am digressing from my topic but it is somewhat relevant to our topic which is....The Old Rule of Carmel that includes the praying of The Little Office of the BVM (and promoting the enrollment in the small brown scapular). These two devotions and a few others found in the Old Rule were specifically dedicated to Mary but unfortunately went by the wayside when they modernized the Rule of Carmel.  I was so excited to see so much of Mary in the Old Rule and yet so saddened to think they did away with so much especially knowing that this Order in a particular way belongs to her. VERY TRAGIC!!

The current Third Order Carmelite in the Novus Ordo Church prays Morning and Evening Prayer from the Divine Office which is prayed by the priests. The Old Carmelite Rule asks the Third Order Carmelite to pray the ENTIRE Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary each day.. WOW.  This is heroic but after praying the Morning and Evening Prayer only - I felt this was ALOT to ask for and since our Rule for this Traditional Group was taken from the Old Rule in order to incorporate the prayers of Reparation taught at Fatima- we only require Morning (Matins and Lauds) and Evening (Vespers and Compline) prayers. Of course, anyone is encouraged to pray the entire day but praying this with true attention and an open heart rather than "trying to get it done" was what seemed best.  Also, Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene who we have as a patron of this group started a Secular Institute and wrote his beautiful books, "I Want to See God" and "I am a Daughter of the Church" for this lay group named "Notre Dame de Vie" (Our Lady of Life). Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene's whole life was marked by the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost and Our Lady. He started the Secular Institute, Notre Dame de Vie in 1932. He died on Easter Monday, March 27, 1967, the very day on which he loved to celebrate the Easter joy of Mary, Mother of Life. (I thank God for that singular blessing to him and to us).  I share this because the formation of the "Traditional Lay Carmelites of Fatima" is very similar to a Secular Institute such as Blessed Fr. Marie Eugene started. This means that it is not a full repeat of the Old Rule of Carmel but has been combined with the spirit of Reparation taught at Fatima.

Back to the Little Office; we have just renewed our Consecration to Jesus through Mary and I have made the resolution to not just pray my Office in English but chant it now in Latin. This will be a slow process for me as I am in the process this summer of selling our house in the city and going to live in a house in the woods. I pray that my prayer life will increase there. I have found on YouTube a beautiful woman in Australia who has self helps in chanting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary... (God is good).  I have signed up for her classes on line (link below) and hope to go from reciting the prayers in ENGLISH (which I have been doing) to chanting them in Latin.  Her name is Veronica Brandt and she has frequent posts on YouTube as well. Today, she just posted how to sing "Ave Verum" for Corpus Christi.  I thank God for her love and dedication in helping us! She seems like a gentle loving soul!

Below are the links to help anyone else who may want to do the same. There is so much to write on the Little Office....it would take pages......I will leave that to you to do your homework.  I hope the links below will be helpful. 

Take care and God bless.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel pray for us.
Blessed Fr. Marie- Eugene pray for us.

(I know that I had mentioned in the past about posting summaries of the next book... "I Am a Daughter of the Church". I must admit that at the moment we are in the process of selling our house and one of my daughter's (Theresa) is expecting soon.... This project is on delay at the moment. Thanks for your patience)

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The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary Book by Baronius Press

Info on The Little Office of the BVM

Class on Chanting the Little Office of the BVM