F.A.Q.

Q. When we pray the Office of the Dead for a deceased member, do we pray it in place of the Office of the day or in addition to it? [Sharon Schulte of St Louis]

A. Dear Sharon, Thanks for your question. It’s a good question and one easily answered. We pray the monthly Office for our Deceased in place of the Office of the day. The way you have been doing this is the correct way to pray our monthly Office of the Dead. You choose a day of the month that is liturgically free: either a ferial day with no saint to be commemorated or at least an optional memorial. If the day is an obligatory Memorial, then the office of that saint must be said. And of course the same applies to all feasts and solemnities whose proper offices must be prayed on that day.

I want to also note that Advent, Lent and Easter are privileged seasons: the proper office of the day should be said during these times, even if it means not saying the Office for the Deceased that month. I’m sure you must have noticed in our Carmelite monasteries that our traditonal Saturday Mass & Office of Our Lady, is not said during these privileged seasons either.

The only time I can think of when you might pray the Office of the Dead in addition to the office of the day, would be if you wanted to pray that office for some friend or family member on their anniversary which falls each year on a feast or obligatory Memorial.

--Fr. John Michael Payne OCD, prov. delg.