At the orders of the Holy Father Pope Francis, the then-Congregation (now Dicastery) of Divine Worship on Feb. 11, 2018 instituted a new obligatory memorial on the General Roman Calendar to be observed on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday: The Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Mother of the Church (a theme strongly emphasized … Continue reading
Blessed Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist to all! The gospel according to Mark, acknowledged by the consensus of Scripture scholars today to have been the first to be written chronologically of the four canonical gospels, is my personal favorite of the four, for its breathless, action-packed excitement mixed with a matter-of-factness that to me … Continue reading
The new translation of the Psalms and Canticles that will be incorporated into the Liturgy of the Hours Second Edition, called the “Abbey Psalms & Canticles” (formerly the Revised Grail), was first published upon its approval for optional liturgical use in early 2020 by USCCB Publications in an attractive hardcover format. Unfortunately, with USCCB shuttering … Continue reading
I have written before about the new collaborative product of ICEL, the USCCB, and GIA Publications: The Divine Office Hymnal, published in 2023 and containing all the new translations of the Liturgia Horarum second typical edition’s Latin hymns — in accurate, clear, crisp, poetic, modern English — that will be included in the upcoming Liturgy … Continue reading
Great news! The new collaborative publication between GIA, the USCCB and ICEL, titled “The Divine Office Hymnal,” is now available for orders on GIA’s website. This is the fruit of many years’ work by ICEL in leading the translation into fresh, accurate, metrically matching, contemporary but poetic English of all 294 Office Hymns in the … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Daytime Prayer in the Roman Office: A (Very) Brief Historical Overview From about the mid-first millennium until 1911, when Pope Pius X radically rearranged its psalm distribution, the divine office of the Roman rite had a never-changing psalmody for the “little hours” of the day: Prime (First Hour, 6 a.m.), Terce (Third Hour, 9 a.m.), … Continue reading
The current American breviary in force includes as an option the Latin vespers hymn for Eastertide from the Liturgia Horarum, Ad cenam Agni providi. However, it does not have the equally excellent Latin hymns for the Office of Readings, Lauds (Morning Prayer), and the daytime hours of Terce (Mid-Morning), Sext (Midday) and None (Mid-Afternoon). To … Continue reading
It has been 47 years since the new Liturgy of the Hours (U.S. edition) first appeared in English in 1975, but the Second Vatican Council’s strong admonition (SC §100) that pastors ensure at least Sunday and Feast day Vespers be celebrated regularly in parishes is very far from being a recognizable reality in the American … Continue reading
The Catholic investigative journalism outfit, The Pillar, just published an excellent, extensive “inside-baseball” interview with Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, the executive director for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), the body responsible for translating many (though not all) liturgical texts from Latin into English. The main topic was the hymnody for the Liturgy … Continue reading
Tom's Digest 