must be able to state positively that the intention, resolution or
desire to recite piously, which he made at the beginning of his prayer,
was revoked with full advertence and that it did not exist either
actually or virtually during the time of distraction in his recitation.
Seldom, indeed, are these conditions fulfilled, and seldom are there
gravely sinful distractions.

This subject of attention in prayer, in the official prayer of the
Church, is important. Long and learned disputes about its nature and
requirements occupied great thinkers in times long gone by. To-day
theologians argue on different sides; and anxiety, serious, painful and
life-long, reigns in the souls of many who struggle to recite the
office, _digne, attente ac devote_.




ARTICLE VII.-CAUSES WHICH EXCUSE FROM READING THE OFFICE.

Authors generally give six causes which excuse a person from saying the
Hours: lawful dispensation, important work, grave illness, grave fear,
blindness, want of a Breviary. They are recorded in the
well-known lines:--

"Quem Papa dispenset multus labor opprimit aeger Qui timet aut occulus,
officioque caret."

1. The obligation of reading the Office is imposed by the Church and the
Pope can dispense in it even without cause. Bishops can give temporary
dispensations.