divine office

American  

noun

(sometimes initial capital letters)

1. office.

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divine office British  

noun

1. (sometimes capitals) the canonical prayers (in the Roman Catholic Church those of the breviary) recited daily by priests, those in religious orders, etc

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Etymology

Origin of divine office

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

divine office

He has brought divine office down to earth with a revolution in tone.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 10, 2016

"The principal concern of the brethren," he wrote, "will be the celebration of the divine office."

From Time Magazine Archive

First they set to work to find how the divine office should be celebrated.

From Time Magazine Archive

They did not discontinue the two hours’ mental prayer or the choral divine office, at their proper times, and the silence, fastings, and discipline.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55 1624 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century. by James Alexander Robertson

It takes about an hour to say the whole divine office, but it is not intended to be said all at once.

From Baltimore Catechism, No. 4 An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine by Thomas L. Kinkead

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