Prayer before praying the Breviary

Open, Lord, my mouth to blessing your holy name, cleanse my heart from every vain, perverse, and strange thinking; illuminate my intellect, inflame my affection, that worthily, attentively and devoutly I may recite this Office, and merit to be heard before your the countenance of your divine Majesty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Aperi, Dómine, os meum ad benedicéndum nomen sanctum tuum: munda quoque cor meum ab ómnibus vanis, pervérsis et aliénis cogitatiónibus; intelléctum illúmina, afféctum inflámma, ut digne, atténte ac devóte hoc Offícium recitáre váleam, et exaudíri mérear ante conspéctum divínæ Majestátis tuæ. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.  Amen.

Lord, in union with that divine intention with which You on earth rendered praises to God, this Hour I render to You..

Dómine, in unióne illíus divínæ intentiónis, qua ipse in terris laudes Deo persolvísti, has tibi Horas (vel hanc tibi Horam) persólvo.

Our Father...

Hail Mary...

Pater noster

Ave Maria

 

Prayer to conclude every recitation of the Divine Office

 

To the most holy and indivisible Trinity,

the crucified humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the fertile integrity of the most beatific and most glorious ever Virgin Mary,

and community of all the Saints,

be eternal praise, honor, virtue and glory from every creature,

to us the remission of all sins,

for infinite ages of ages.  R. Amen

Sacrosanctae et individuae Trinitati,

crucifixi Domini nostri Jesu Christi humanitati,

beatissimae et gloriosissimae semperque Virginis Mariae fecundae integritati,

et omnium Sanctorum universitati

sit sempiterna laus, honor, virtus et gloria ab omni creatura,

nobisque remissio omnium peccatorum,

per infinita saecula saeculorum. R. Amen.

V. Beatific the body of Mary the Virgin, which carried the Son of the eternal Father.

R. And the breasts, that nursed Christ the Lord.

V. Beata viscera Mariae Virginis, quae portaverunt aeterni Patris Filium. 

R. Et beata ubera, quae lactaverunt Christum Dominum.

Our Father...

Hail Mary...

Pater noster

Ave Maria

 

 

 

These prayers were a standard part of every recitation of the Breviary until they were left off in 1955.

It is still a blessing to pray them even if notmandatory.