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June, 2006 This website was begun in 1998, as an introduction to a larger work that would eventually become a source book for those who have an interest in the breviary and its prayer. The research includes the help of many wonderful people, many of whom lived through several decades of this story, and for those who are interested in its final product, I can tell you that there is "light at the end of the tunnel". These pages are really only a sort of general introduction, a background, to forms of prayer texts which have several names: "short" breviaries, little offices, breviaria parva and lay breviaries, among others. "Breviary" seems to be the name that has survived the ages, and it is with it that we'll continue here. Simply, all these are structured variations of the common liturgical prayer known as The Divine Office (though its current title is The Liturgy of the Hours) used in the Roman Catholic and several other churches. Sections of the Divine Office are prayed at specific moments ("hours") during a day, and these sections, in turn, have their own names (officially renamed by the Roman Catholic Church after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council). This website, and the book, take a serious look at the background and history of each of the short breviaries (and its relationship to the "official" text of the Divine Office), its compiler(s) and perhaps translator(s), ant and certainly the context and environment in which it saw publication.ndts impact on Catholics a I have been intrigued by these texts for most of my life, and even more intrigued by the people who produced them, who use(d) them, and by how the texts were (or are) used. This website, even though it includes many, many pages of data, is only an internet introduction is necessarily incomplete. I welcome your questions, suggestions, thoughts and other comments. And if anything in these pages confuses you, please don't hesitate to ask for clarification. GOT QUESTIONS... [Please include your e-mail address if you'd like me to respond directly to you.] Please use this address : sistock@ca.rr.com
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