Introduction

As a Tertiary of the Order of the Brethren of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, I am bound to the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. By permission, I recite the 'unreformed' Office. This Office is readily available in the Roman Rite, but not as readily in the Carmelite Rite. The Carmelite Office was last issued in English in 1953, which is the edition available on Amazon. This edition contains a Latin-English edition of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, together with the Office of the Dead, according to the Pre-Conciliar Carmelite Rite of the Catholic Church, in accordance with Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae of Benedict XVI.


However, if one cannot afford this edition, the Office is available at the Internet Archive in various formats, including pdf, full text, mobi and Kindle, also in Latin and English, in the edition in use in 1851.


The problem is that, like many scanned books on the Internet Archive, the quality leaves a great deal to be desired. The full text version is not formatted in columns which makes it virtually impossible to read. The pdf is missing letters and the other formats have problems as well.


Since I have mislaid my hard copy of the 1953 edition, I wanted to use the 1851 edition, but because of the problems, I have reconstructed it on this blog.


Rubrically, it is identical to the 1851 edition, but, for ease of copying and pasting, and because I wanted the translation of the Little Office to conform to that of the Divine Office I use, I have not necessarily used the same translations as in the original. They are all, however, taken from good Catholic sources.


I hope that my labours will be appreciated by anyone dedicated to our Carmelite Family, to Our Lady, or to older forms of the Western Rite.


And, of your charity, please pray for me, a poor sinner.


Jovan-Marya of the Immaculate Conception, T.O.Carm.


The Feast of St Romuald, 2018