y, or may
be done inadvertently, or may arise from an inveterate habit very
difficult to correct, and in the attempt to cure it time and patience
may have been spent (St. Alph., 164-165). This bad habit, if it extend
over a large portion of the recitation and destroy notably the sense of
the words, may bind _sub gravi_ to repetition, as this fault or habit
affects the very substance of recitation. Priests seldom are bound to
such a repetition, as the mutilation is not destructive to the sense of
a notable part of the office and hence does not affect the substance of
the obligation to vocal recital. St. Alphonsus holds (n. 165), that the
obligation is fulfilled as long as the meaning is not destroyed, _quando
servatur aliqua significatio verborum_.

Pronunciation should be _continuous_. That is, the recitation of each
hour should be continuous, non-interrupted, and every notable stoppage
or break in the recitation of a canonical hour is a venial sin, if there
be no excusing cause for such an interruption. Any reasonable cause for
interruption (e.g., to obey a bell call, to see a parishioner who
calls, to hear a confession) excuses from all fault (St. Alph., n. 168).

If the recital of the office for any canonical hour be interrupted,
should the whole hour be repeated? Some theologians say that it should
be repeated. But the more probable opinion denies that there is any such
obligation; it holds that the union of the prayers prescribed by the
Church is not broken, as each psalm, each lesson, each prayer, has a
complete signification and they are united sufficiently in one round of
prayer by the intention formed of continuing the Hour, or even by the
actual continuation. Gury states that a priest interrupting the office
between the verses of a psalm is not bound to repeat the entire psalm on
resuming the recitation, as he says each verse has its own
signification.

May Matins be said separately from Lauds without any excusing cause?
Yes, for it was the practice of the early Church to say these parts of
the liturgy at times separated by intervals. But if Matins be said
separately, without Lauds following immediately. _Pater Noster_ with
Dominus Vobiscum and the prayer of the day should be said at the end of
the _Te Deum_, If Lauds follow Matins immediately the _Pater_ and _Ave_
should not be said, for the Congregation (same decree) says "_Laudes
incohandas ut in Psalterio_," but in the Psalter the _Pater_ and _Ave_
are