ABSTRACT
One of the peculiarities of liturgical books is the way in which they differ in their arrangements of the daily offices. The pre-1912 Roman Breviary opened with the title, 'The Psalter disposed for the week with the ordinary of the Office of the Time'. The Roman and Benedictine traditions appear to have had a core of capitulum, Hymn, Versicle and Magnificat with festal incensation. The Armenian morning office also has Benedicite followed by New Testament canticles and psalm 50, and then the praises. The West Syrian Day Hours have lost their psalmody, though soutoro retains psalms 90 and 120, and been reduced to additions to the main Hours of Vespers and Matins. The Roman and other Western daily offices are not so obviously similar to the liturgies of baptism. Daily prayer services need to be recognized as having been conceived and developed as public, ceremonial and participatory acts of the church gathered in prayer.
