Ebook The Divine Office

Some of the pages may be to them instructive, and may give them new ideas on such points as the structure of the Hours, the Collects, the Te Deum, the Anthems of the Blessed Virgin, etc.

No book is faultless. Of this one, I can say with the Psalmist, "I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight" (Psalm 72). And I can say it with St. Columban, Totum, dicere volui in breve, totum non potui. In the book I quote Cardinal Bona. In his wonderful Rerum Liturgicarum II., xx., 6) he wrote what I add as a finish to this preface: —

"Saepe enim volenti et conanti vel ingenii vires vel rerum antiquarum notitia vel alia subsidia de-fuerunt; nec fieri potuit quin per loca salebrosa in tenebris ambulans interdum olTenderim, Cum ali-quid incautius et neglentius a me scriptum offen-derit, ignoscat primum lector, deinde arnica manu corrigat et emendat et quae omisi suppleat."