Office of Compassion: Compact Edition

This Office is a wholly private devotion, born of the desire to extend and deepen the praying of the official Liturgy of the Hours and especially to provide a kind of "Scriptural template" or "collage" for abiding contemplation of the central mysteries of our faith, for remaining always with one's gaze upon Jesus Christ who reveals the face of the Father.

Thus the rubrics for this and the official Liturgy of the Hours are the same. Either some or all of the hours can be prayed, and in any way that one desires, since the design of this prayer book, inspired by the devotional offices such as the "Little Office of our Lady," is solely intended to deepen one's own experience of prayer and one's lectio divina throughout the day.

A note on the structure of the days, in order to aid on comprehension. The week is arranged to facilitate a deeper penetration of the mystery of God's love, of the intimacy of the Trinity as the center of revelation and of the whole of human history, and as our deepest vocation and destiny. In this light it is also aimed to ever renew and deepen personal participation in the divine compassion that is expressed in the Paschal Mystery, and through this Mystery, to lead back into the gratuity of the Trinity anew. The two primary ways in which this is done are 1) through recurring reflection on the great events of our salvation, especially the "Holy Triduum" of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, and 2) through "accompanying" those who experienced a special closeness to the Lord, especially along the way of his Cros and his journey to the Resurrection.

There is a one week Psalter with sets of Psalms and Canticles for every one of the times of prayer that are also present in the Liturgy of the Hours, and a four week cycle of Biblical readings, responsories, and prayers.