Thursday 18 July 2013

A matter of weight

In preparing for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in September, weight has become an issue. Not my own (although, come to mention it...) but that of of necessary items to be carried in my backpack.
All the available information states that 8 kilograms is the maximum one should carry on one's back. 
Volume three of the Divine Office unfortunately weighs in at 1.3 kilograms.
Of course, I do have a basic Kindle; but the Divine Office isn't available to download, and all the other available alternatives seem to be either very difficult indeed to negotiate in an electronic form or to lack certain essential elements of the daily office. Those more traditional breviaries which have been adapted are simply too time-consuming to attempt to say while trying to walk more than fifteen miles a day, find accommodation, eat, shower and get a decent night's sleep. And, before you ask, the ibreviary isn't available for my BlackBerry, which, in any case I don't want glued to my hand for a month or so ..... it defeats the object of the pilgrimage to be so constantly 'connected.' 
So, how to fulfil the obligation of saying the office - even in an abridged form - while on the Camino?
The solution seems to be to take my old copy (given to me as a teenager) of the considerably smaller A Manual of Catholic Devotion, For Members of the Church of England (1962)  suitably fitted out with ribbon markers, and weighing rather less than 400g. Together with a selection of office hymns for (BCP) Morning and Evening Prayer, an RSV bible and an ordo all on the Kindle, it will just about serve. An unvarying form of the lesser offices are included in the Manual together with the Coverdale psalter, Marian antiphons, a great deal of devotional material and much of the text of the Anglican Missal.  
Far, far, better than nothing ....






5 comments:

  1. Joseph Golightly18 July 2013 at 18:31

    How about this?

    http://www.universalis.com/n-ebooks.htm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm very grateful! As you see, I'm a technophobe really ....

      Delete
  2. joseph Golightly19 July 2013 at 07:39

    Me thinks you are a little modest. Some really good blogging - keep it up!

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  3. Here's another one you might try, which has the benefit of Tradition:
    http://divinumofficium.com/

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  4. I've got universalis on my kindle, though I don't use it much as I prefer a real book, but it's the best option in your situation. Glad to see your Manual of Catholic Devotion is having an outing. I bought mine about 1975 in Mowbrays on my first visit to All Saints Margaret Street - many happy memories of both the church and the shop.

    ReplyDelete

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