I have written several posts in the past about the ongoing revision of the Liturgy of the Hours’ American edition, giving props to USCCB and ICEL for their excellent work, reasonable timing and transparency about progress. Although this continental revision of the translation will not solve some fundamental issues with the current Roman office that would require a general reform by Rome (most notably the abridgment of the psalms and canticles), it will nonetheless do for the Divine Office in this country what the 2011 translation of the Roman Missal did for the Mass, giving it a more fitting, elevated, accurate tone faithful to the Latin Liturgia Horarum.
To recap where things currently stand, before getting to the new items that occasioned this update:
- The new translation of the psalms and canticles, done by Conception Abbey in Missouri, was completed, the copyright acquired by the USCCB, renamed “Abbey Psalms and Canticles” (formerly Revised Grail), and published as a complete, handsome little hardcover by the sadly-defunct USCCB Publications in 2020. These were approved for (optional) use effective immediately upon publication, and can be incorporated into the LOTH as it currently stands.
- The hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours were always something of an idiosyncratic mess in the American edition. Most of them decent, some almost unsingable, quite eclectic in origin, this strange mix will finally be replaced in the LOTH Second Edition with accurate translations into modern but poetic English by ICEL of the 294 Latin hymns in the current Liturgia Horarum. This translation work is already completed, and the U.S. bishops and the Holy See have approved the texts. Because of the shutdown of USCCB Publications, the bishops are working with GIA Publications to publish a new standalone book, which will be called “The Divine Office Hymnal,” due to be available for purchase in the first half of 2023. This hymnal will contain the new texts with a Gregorian-tone plainchant setting and a modern metrical hymn tune alternative given for each hymn. (For better or for worse, Gregorian setting will be reproduced in modern notation, not four-staff Gregorian neumes.)
- The new three-year A/B/C cycle of Benedictus and Magnificat antiphons, the Intercessions at Lauds and Vespers, and all the prayers that were not already included in the Roman Missal’s retranslation (i.e. the weekday collects of the Four-Week Psalter) have all been completed and approved by the Bishops.
The major new update relates to the finalization of the draft of the Ordinary of the Liturgy of the Hours, i.e. those parts of the hours that provide the unchanging “skeleton” for the divine office: introductory and closing versicles, Gospel Canticles (Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis), the Te Deum on feasts, Sundays and solemnities, etc.
I am happy to report the new draft Ordinary that the Committee on Divine Worship intends to propose to the Bishops for their consideration and (hopefully) approval at their Summer 2023 meeting includes:
- Changing the doxology (Gloria Patri) that is usually appended to each psalm and most canticles, from the current modern text (“Glory to the Father… is now, and will be forever. Amen”) to the older English form originating in the Anglican tradition and known universally to English-speaking Christians, including any Catholic who prays the Rosary: “Glory be to the Father… is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
- Restoring the traditional names of the hours: Morning Prayer will be Lauds; Evening Prayer, Vespers; Night Prayer, Compline; and all the little hours of the day (Midmorning, Midday, Midafternoon) will be once again indicated as Terce, Sext, and None (Latin for third, sixth, and ninth hour). I believe this will already be reflected in the GIA Divine Office Hymnal due out 2023.
- Including Latin alternatives for the Gospel Canticles from the Liturgia Horarum for the Benedictus at Lauds, the Magnificat at Vespers, the Nunc Dimittis at Compline, and the Te Deum in the Office of Readings, for optional use.
- Having a more literal translation of some closing versicles, notably “Benedicamus Domino. / Deo gratias.” which in the current edition is rendered as “Let us praise the Lord. / And give him thanks.” but will become, more accurately, “Let us bless the Lord. / Thanks be to God.”
- Adding the customary aids to chanting, i.e. flexes (†) and asterisks (*) to psalms and canticles, which are already present in the Liturgia Horarum and most other languages’ translations (as well as the UK edition of the Divine Office), but are missing from the current American version.
- Indicating specific Marian Antiphons to be recited after Compline based on the traditional rotation depending on the season (e.g. Alma redemptoris mater in Advent/Christmastide, Regina caeli during Eastertide, etc.), instead of simply reproducing all of them.
Although not yet final, having yet to be formally submitted to and voted on by the Bishops and confirmed by the Holy See, the fact that the Committee is going so strongly in this direction is excellent and very encouraging news.
Perhaps it’s a good idea to keep both the Committee and its support staff who have done this yeoman’s work, and the Bishops, in our prayers in view of a favorable final result!
With these major components all done and in place, the only things remaining for a full publication of the Liturgy of the Hours Second Edition will be the final revision of the New American Bible Revised Edition for liturgical use as the new all-in-one official Bible of the American church, and some questions about psalm and canticle antiphons drawn from the texts of psalms and canticles, which will be affected by the new Abbey translation.
I can only speak for myself, but I very much look forward to this new package of reforms to be finally in place, and I remain grateful to the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat for Divine Worship for their tireless work on creating a good product that will vastly enhance the liturgy of American Catholicism in the years and decades ahead.
Tom's Digest 
Wow, this is excellent news. It seems that every “switch” they could flip (given that this is just a translation and not a revision of the LotH itself) they have flipped in the right direction. Very encouraging.
I’m quite nervous about their indication that the publication of the new translation will coincide with the revision of the NAB, which seems like a much larger task and one that does not need to be finished before the LotH is out. It would be a shame to needlessly delay the new LotH translation because they are waiting on the entire Bible translation project.
Well, the reason it needs to be finished before is because the First Lessons from OR and all the little chapters from the other hours will be drawn from this new final NABRE that will be approved for liturgical use across the board (which will also mean a new Mass lectionary drawn from it + the Abbey psalms for the responsorial psalms and minor propers).
Right that makes sense. I guess what I meant is I hope they just translate what they need to in order to publish the Hours without waiting for the full translation of the Bible. Surely the scriptural material in the Hours is a small fraction of the entire scriptural text? I guess I don’t know for sure.
Salve in Domino! Thanks for this excellent summary report. You mention about the re-translation of certain antiphons which are drawn from the text of the psalms and canticles. Do you know if the second edition of the LOTH will include a dagger, as the Latin Liturgia Horarum does, after an antiphon which merely duplicates the first line of the psalm/canticle – indicating that line need not be repeated twice?
Good question… I don’t know.
I’ve also heard rumors from reliable sources that Word on Fire plans on releasing an edition of the revised LOTH. I’m exited because Word on Fire produces very well made and beautiful books. Their subscription version of the LOTH is excellent. As is their Bible. Imagine how awesome their LOTH will be! 🙂
I agree the Word on Fire books are beautiful, but I don’t relish the thought of a mass discarding of books every months. One hopes they’re recycled, at least, but…it’s the old problem with missalettes.
I should’ve be more clear. I’ve heard they plan on producing a permanent printed edition like the one we presently use from Catholic Book Publishers. I’ve also heard the Daughters of St. Paul are waiting for the bishops so they can produce theirs also. I really love their one volume. It is sadly long out of print. It was awesome because it has all of the day offices. The Catholic Book publishers has way too many hymns at the back of their one volume. I’m also looking forward to not having to look at that very dated 1970’s art.
Thanks, Andrew, for the clarification, which is most encouraging. I agree with all of it. I highly value my leatherbound Daughters of St Paul edition of Christian Prayer and the big duct-taped Office of Readings volume, both of which I chanced upon at used-book fairs.
I do hope the psalms and canticles are pointed at the half-verse as well as laid out in strophes. This facilitates several types of recitation and singing of the texts and is done in the UK Divine Office books. I’ve never understood American publishers’ apparent allergy to such pointing. Monastic houses have had to do this themselves if they use the Grail. (I’m not sure we need the Gelineau “accent” marks to show how the Gelineau tune goes with the text, but keeping that would add a third type of chant made possible, and the final Gelineau mark in a line also helps with Meinrad and other tones that aim for the last accented syllable.
Do you know when the LOTH hymnal will be available for preorder? Thanks!
No idea. Sorry! I was told it was going to be released early to mid-2023.
On this special day of Remembrance for all Victims of the Holocaust, I have always wondered by the LOTH uses the terms “burnt offering” and “holocaust” almost interchangeably, like synonyms. All my Hebrew teachers in college who are Jewish consider this terribly offensive. Given the rather vague meanings of the “holocaust” term (from Latin), and the theologically specious sense that a Nazi could actually be making an offering to the Lord from a martyr for his/her faith, who would we speak to petition to simply use “burn offering” in the translation? After all, St. John Paul II called the Jews “our older brothers and sisters in the faith.” I do not know who to comment, but this seems pretty obvious a thing to fix.
With the deepest respect, the word “Holocaust” comes from the Greek and does mean “burnt sacrificial offering”. I don’t think it’s an incorrect translation.
BUT
I do agree that we should be more careful
with the use of the word in our Bibles and LOTH. It would be equally correct to use the term “burnt offering”. I think Catholic translators should be cognizant of how the word “holocaust” can impact people.
I know some Jewish people now prefer the term “Sho’ah” (catastrophe) as a result of the difficult connotations found in the word “holocaust”.
Either way, we should be respectful and listen to the concerns of our Jewish brothers and sisters. We should also join with them to fight anti-Semitism which is sadly on the rise (even in some Catholic circles).
For whatever it’s worth, the new Abbey Psalms uses “burnt offerings wholly consumed” in Ps51 where the current Grail says “holocausts offered on your altar”
Do we know yet if they will be producing a 4 volume set and a single volume similar to what we have now or just one or the other etc.?
I’m almost certain there will be a new 4-volume complete edition but I don’t know what they will do in terms of abbreviated forms, who the publisher(s) would be, etc. I hope if they do a 1-vol Christian Prayer, they will follow the Hungarian edition’s lead and do a full diurnal that contains every hour except Office of Readings, rather than “selections” from OR and “selections” from Daytime Prayer.
What drives my nuts about our current one volume LOTH is:
a) the super dated 1970’s art
b) the huge selection of hymns to the detriment of a full midday prayer section (and other prayers).
Well, the good thing will be 1) I know all the 1970s art will be gone, as I’ve been told no one wants to keep it (shocker, lol); and 2) the hymnody will be streamlined with a straight translation and import of all the Liturgia Horarum rather than the current eclectic mix. All things to look forward to
So when are the official volumes of the Liturgy of the Hours expected to be released? Should I hold off buying the current edition?
It’s going to be at least 2-3 years and likely longer. It’s probably still worth getting the current version
“likely longer” than 3 years.
You have got to be kidding. That would blow way past 2025 and the lifespan of current Pope Francis. Over on the Catholic Bible Talk blog, a reader there shared news that Mary Sperry recently made an appearance on the Fans of NABRE Facebook community to talk about the status of the NT Revision. She said the goal was still to publish in 2025. There is actually no reason at all to delay further. Over half the NT Revision (specifically the Pauline Literature, all epistles attributed to Paul + Hebrews) was completed when the revision team submitted their work back in 2019. See this article from TWO YEARS ago: https://www.shu.edu/theology/news/seminary-professors-contribute-to-new-testament-revision.cfm
If LOTH 2nd Edition and the forthcoming definitive Liturgical Bible are supposed to be published in the same timeframe, your comment here means the Liturgical Bible (whatever the definitive revision of the NABRE ends up being named) won’t be available before 2026 or 2027. Why on Earth would anybody shoot for something so unbelievably dumb?
All I know is that I remember when 2022 was the promised ETA for both, so I wouldn’t bet on any promises when it comes to church timelines.
Looking forward to all of those…except for bit about the Doxology. 😦
As someone who generally prefers more literal translations from the Latin (such as “And with your spirit”), that “…world without end” has always bothered me. One of the things I loved when I first discovered the LotH is that it gives us “permission” to pray what the Latin actually says! (When I pray the Rosary by myself, the LotH way of saying it is the only form I ever use. And yeah, that does mean I tend to trip over my words whenever praying the Rosary publicly 😉
I have long prayed for and hoped that the LotH would have some gravitational pull on the way English speakers say, that “…and will be forever” or some equivalent phrase would eventually become the universal norm.
So I am sad that the pull seems to be in the opposite direction. Perhaps the more literal translation could at least remain an option…I guess we’ll find out.
But still, lot of good things coming down the pike for which to be grateful.
Go back to the translation of Psalms used BEFORE 1991 New American Bible translation used in The Liturgy of the Hours in the 1980’s And Holy Mass and get rid of the ‘inclusive language’ we will be fine. It used to be that all translations of Catholic Bibles were approved by Rome. Go back to that. The 1991 translation of the Psalms is Not used in Mass. Try Chanting it in English ( yes, there are Monasteries that still do this.) I did, and though I didn’t make Solemn Profession and did leave, that interlude was a gem for my whole succeeding life. When you chant the Psalms and Canticles, they stay with you for life. I remember them from 1986, I am now 65. God bless you all!
Pingback: The Divine Office Hymnal Now Available from GIA! | Tom's Digest