if he has recited carefully the
entire office of the day between these limits of time; because, within
these limits, the substance of the obligation binding to time is
fulfilled. Of course, it is lawful in virtue of a privilege granted by
the Church to recite on the previous evening Matins and Lauds for the
following day. In the recitation the times fixed by the Church for each
hour should be observed. But the non-recital at those fixed times is
never a mortal sin and is rarely a venial sin, unless their postponement
or anticipation is without cause.

When may a priest begin the recitation of Matins and Lauds for the
following day? There were two different replies given to this question.
One opinion stated that it was lawful to begin Matins and Lauds after 2
o'clock, p.m., and this could be lawfully done every day in the year,
and in every land. Another opinion--and St. Alphonsus calls it
_sententia verior_--denies that such a course is lawful. The old French
Breviaries gave a _horarium_ arranging the hour of anticipation of
Matins and Lauds, so that no one should, through temerity or ignorance,
begin the anticipation before the sun had passed half way in its course
between mid-day and sunset. On January 20th the time to begin the
anticipation of hours was 2.15 p.m., but on June 8th the anticipation
was not to begin till 4 p.m.

Nowadays, the first opinion is held almost universally. The principal
_internal_ argument for this opinion is the teaching that the
anticipation may begin from the public hour of first vespers, and these
may be recited publicly according to present-day custom at 2 p.m.
Therefore, this time, 2 o'clock p.m., is the beginning of the
ecclesiastical day, and can be taken as the time for private
anticipation of Matins and Lauds. The _external_ argument in favour of
this opinion is the authority of theologians. In 1905, the Sacred
Congregation of Rites was asked the question "_Utrum in privata
recitatione Matutinum sequentis diei incipi possit, 2da pomeriddiane_?".
The reply was, "_Consulantur probati auctores_" (_Acta Sanctae Sedis_
XXXVII., p. 712). Now many approved authors (e.g., Lehmkuhl, II., 793;
Ballerini-Palmieri, IV. 515; Slater I., p. 609) hold that it is lawful,
privately, to anticipate Matins and Lauds at 2 o'clock, p.m. Lehmkuhl,
who previously favoured a stricter view, was compelled, in the latest
editions of his _Moral Theology_, to say of this opinion which allows
anticipation to beg