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Glite Dictionary
Divine Office

Divine Office

1 9.9
A set of prayers that priests and some laypeople say at set times each day
  • noun
  • Formal
translation icon : Oficio Divino
  • The daily schedule of Holy Mass, the Divine Office, meditation, etc., assumes something prior: that the seminarian has the necessary self-discipline and maturity to recognize these moments as good for him, and then conform his life to them.

Examples

  • I woke and sat in silence for an hour or two: praying the Divine Office, listening.

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  • I submit, it was these sung responses, as well as the sung Divine Office.

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  • Pray the Divine Office.

    Blog text (29)

  • The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, among themselves, or even individually.

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  • Indeed, the divine office is one of the true jewels of Roman Catholic patrimony that has fallen into disuse in far too many parishes.

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  • Clergy and laypeople recite the Divine Office at fixed hours throughout the day.

  • To foster a deeper spiritual life, many Catholics engage in the Divine Office each morning.

  • The Divine Office includes a series of prayers that are traditionally sung or recited daily.

Synonyms

office
vsDivine Office
  • Specialized
31 9.0

A church service that follows set words and actions

is a specific set of daily prayers recited at fixed hours by clergy

Surface Forms

Divine Office singular
Divine Offices plural

Morphology

Divine + office

The constituents 'divine' (relating to God) and 'office' (a formal duty or service) give a clear cue that the phrase refers to a religious service, so learners could infer it denotes a God-related ceremonial duty. However, the specific technical sense — a set of prescribed daily prayers recited at fixed hours (the Liturgy of the Hours) — is specialized ecclesiastical vocabulary that a B1 learner who merely knows the common senses of the words is unlikely to predict fully, although many languages have similar terms which increases partial recognizability.

Etymology

Divine Office comes from an old use of the words Divine and Office, where Office once meant a regular 'duty' or 'task'. Long ago, monks and priests rang bells and stopped work to say set 'prayers' at certain hours, so this regular duty of prayer became known as the Divine Office, meaning the fixed daily prayers.