would love to reflect psalm 139 in a liturgical sense. I’ve been practicing today a bit; I think of it what was then, what is the lens of Christ, and what is now as far as a liturgical sense and its application.

Liturgy of the Hours (Holy Office) , Vespers 28th Ordinary Time Week IV Wednesday over Psalm 139.

—-
It foretells the incarnation and the divine nature of our Lord.

First with king David, has many fundamental attributes of God like omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresence (cannot escape from God), and moral alignment (notice how the end of the psalm where the psalmist pleads to God to search in his heart to root out the sins and guide him to everlasting life. God created us which establishes the dignity of human sacredness of life.)

Christological Dimensions like the incarnation. When verse 13 speaks of being “knit together” in the womb, this as a reflection of the eternal Word taking on human flesh. In Christ, God entered the human experience fully. The "womb" points forward to the Annunciation, the Virginal Conception, and the sanctity of Christ's human body, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and God dwelled among us (John 1).

It also has an inescapable rescue. In the liturgy of the hours psalm 139 it speaks of “wings of the dawn.” God is there even when the deceased are in the grave; Christ descends into the "lower parts of the earth" which is Sheol, and during the Triduum to redeem the captive souls, proving that no depth is outside the reach of divine presence and salvation

What about the liturgical sense? Application of life? The sacrament of baptism takes place in the verses, or the context, and is the full proof for the sacredness of human life to conception to meeting its demise (death). The dead never leaves the sight of God.

So, the psalm invites us to invite God into our daily routines, decisions, and private thoughts, transforming ordinary moments into prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to gently reveal areas of our lives that need healing, conversion, and alignment with God's will.

When FSSP and ICKSP have the indult to use the pre-55 Holy Week liturgies, does that permission extend to all of the Pre-55 divine office during Holy Week? Not just Tenebrae but all of it?

I am talking about Sts. Cabrini, Ann Seton, Ketari, Neumann, Claver and such. I believe that currently none of them have proper hymns. In particular I'm wondering about St. Cabrini, because she actually HAD her own proper hymns prior to the V2 reforms, and now she doesn't!

From what I've been able to find in an old ecclesiastical journal it was commercialized by Herder in Barcelona in 1961 which makes sense since I live in Spain and found mine at a local thrift store

It consisted of two volumes:

-Tomus Prior: Hiemnalis and Verna

-Tomus Alter (mine): Aestiva and Autumnalis

Each volume cost between 1.200 and 1.350 ptas (the old Spanish currency) which would be around $20–22.70 depending on how luxurious the covers and details were

Hello! In reading "the Monastic Hours" edited by Anne Field, I noticed it gives instructions for monastic communities to use the Roman office psalm schema if they choose, but with two nocturns at Office of Readings. It has been my observation that psalm schema "b" is most common, or some variation, but are there any monastic communities that implement this practice?

I ask as I am blessed to have the time to pray the full office of LOTH but might want to implement this.

Thanks in advance. I love seeing all the interest with the upcoming 2nd edition!

Preferably a downloadable mp3 version I can purchase online. Thanks.

Hi, I'm new to learning about the Liturgy of the Hours, but would like to try giving it a chance in hopes of deepening my faith and relationship with God. Which has admittedly, over time, become luke-warm.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and any advice on which books/apps are best would also be.

Thank you.

What is your experience in doing so? I tried it with psalm 120 for the mid morning prayer though I didn’t know the context of the Bible passages. I was lazy to go on google.

I was meditating on this passage:

“Alas, that I abide a stranger in Meshech,
dwell among the tents of Kedar!”

Although I have the context wrong but to me I talk to God saying I abide with strangers of the earthly world dwelling among unbelievers but you oh God belong to the tent of Kedar, the holy place. I’m not sure what’s kedar is but I pray and reflect that kedar is mass.

Yup, lectio divina is difficult since I wouldn’t know the context, but what is your experience and how long it takes you to mediate?

I’ve been in the custom of praying all 3 Hours of Daytime Prayer on occasion. However, I always seem to arbitrarily choose which Hour to use the Current Psalmody and which to use the Complimentary Psalmody series, and I’ve found that I choose the “wrong” Hour with which to pray it upon reading at the end of the Psalmody that I was supposed to use a different series for each Hour. I of course say “wrong” because I am not bound to pray these Hours, and there is no penalty present for accidentally praying Psalm 124 twice in the same day. Yet I hoped one day to sit down and recognize a pattern to help me choose properly to avoid repetition.

I believe I have done exactly that with the screenshot photos I have included in this post. I use the term “mandatory” loosely in the tables in that the rubric at the end of the Daytime Prayer current psalmody for that day will specify which of the two complimentary series are to be used. The last table also doesn’t fit precisely with a pattern of alternating weeks. But I’ve been using it the last couple weeks to enrich my praying of the Hours, and I hope it helps anybody who might desire a solution to this conundrum.

This last set of weeks, while praying out of the Volume IV book for the current edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, I've noticed that most days it will indicate "at the other hours, the complementary psalmody is used," but oddly there are specific days where this isn't the case:

Friday in Week II indicates that complimentary psalmody's II and III are used at the other day hours. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Week III indicates that complimentary psalmody's I and III are used at the other day hours. Monday and Thursday in Week IV indicate that complimentary psalmody II and III are used at the other day hours.

When consulting the General Instruction for the Liturgy of the Hours, there is acknowledgement of the complimentary psalmody in paragraphs 81-83, but there doesn't seem to be indicated "rule" on when to use specific sets for specific days.

Is there some specific rule on how to pick which ones to pray for each day of the week, or is this just a case where Catholic Book Publishing made an error many years ago and its just remained to this day?

I first posted these links in here a few months ago, but thought I'd repost them since Bl. Carlo's feast day is tomorrow.

Original post discussing these

Italian and Latin propers

Unofficial English translation of the 2nd reading - all of section 1, "On the Lord's Body"

GILH 190: "Intercessions for recitation with the people or in common are introduced with a short invitation by the priest or minister. This introduction also includes a phrase or response which the congregation can then repeat after each of the intentions."

Does this mean that someone praying the intercessions by himself can leave out both the the opening invitation and the response? (Even when the Dominicans at my parish pray Vespers in choir, they don't use the response after each intention, but they do use the invitation.)

Also, I have heard that there's an official short set of generic intercessions you can use in place of the proper intercessions - I've never been able to find these online. Are they usually included somewhere in the back of breviaries?

I've been praying LOTH/Divine Office with St Gregory's Prayerbook/LOBVM and then Christian Prayer for some time now and feel pretty strongly that I'm called into this form of prayer more deeply and so I'm really excited for the new editions! :D

The trouble is that THEY'RE BOTH SO GREAT! I love the art in and layout of WOF, but I also love how Ascension's seems like the natural progression from the CBP editions and is a bit more subtle in its design. The Ascension's middle tier and WOF edition are the price points I'm interested in. I'm also not in a position to take advantage of the WOF early bird special right now, but I am in a position to pre-order either sometime in November.

Anyhow, I'm mostly a nerd interested in glazing both; and ultimately, I know that I couldn't go wrong with either, or neither so long as I keep growing in my love of Jesus, but also looking for some prayerful advice if you're in a position to do so. Thanks so much for reading! God bless!

Anyone have an opinion as to the relative merits of these two versions (assuming reading Latin is not an obstacle in the case of Solesmes)?

I assume they have the same Scripture readings but how do the 2nd readings compare? The Pluscarden doesn't have readings for saints' feasts and memorials - does the Solesmes follow the liturgical calendar more closely?

I understand that Pluscarden's Patristic lectionary is only approved for liturgical use in their abbey - is Solesmes's more widely approved for liturgical use?

Does either set have responsories? If not, if one does not pray the responsories is one failing to pray Office of Readings strictly speaking? More generally, if you use either of these lectionaries, how do you incorporate it with OOR?

UPDATE: Pluscarden tells me they do have Latin responsories for their Lectionary which they can send me digitally. I've asked if they know whether these were included in the Jonathan Britt printing.

FURTHER UPDATE: Solesmes tells me their lectionary is approved for general use.

Hey everybody!

https://www.lordmakehaste.org/moanstic-diurnal-saintmichael-8th/

I have a new blog article up today. It’s all about the Monastic Diurnal from Saint Michael’s Abbey, that’s the one with Latin and English side by side.

We teamed up with Praying Latin - they are a pretty cool place I bought my own diurnal from - to offer a coupon on the Monastic Diurnal.

If you’re not in the market for one, I hope you find some value in the article regardless.

Anybody pray this daily? It is a great little book to just behold, curious to hear who is navigating the Benedictine calendar like a champ.

Lately I've been experimenting with different Psalter cycles—I'm trying a weekly one right now where there are fixed psalms every day and evening (4 in the morning and 4 in the evening, drawn from traditional offices), then splitting the Psalms into a weekly schedule that can be read through throughout the day.

I'm liking it so far, but anyway, I started wondering if there was something like a Psalter cycle, but that focused on the core scriptures. In other words, if you were to identify the most important passages from the bible, and organize those into a monthly schedule broken out by theme, what would that look like.

I took a pretty quick crack at it, curious if anybody has seen anything like this or had any thoughts about it. I may give it a try. It covers about 20% of the bible in a month, which sounds quite nice.

Hello everyone, I’d like to get a very nice copy of the Liturgy of the Hours for my family. I’m comparing the Ascension Press editions and I’m wondering how different the quality will be between the Premium Leather edition and the Premium Natural Grain Leather edition. From what I can tell, the main difference is that the cover will be softer on the latter, along with some differences in paper quality. I’m not terribly educated on the subject, but is the Bolloré Primapage Ivoire paper really enough to warrant the drastic price increase? I’d love your opinions on the matter.

Can anyone please explain how to use actually use the resources on Antiphonale.net, for instance on this page? https://antiphonale.net/OCO/Psalterium/index.html I don't know what the different abbreviations stand for such as 1H1LB. I can tell they are antiphons for different psalms in the different hours, but I am lost as to what is what.

Also, would anyone here recommend Les Heures Gregoriennes for chanting the entire LOTH in Latin? Are there any downsides to the this book or its chant settings that I should know about? I read in Adoremus Journal that LHG is out of date now since the new Ordo Canticus Officii was published in 2015 - but is it unusably out of date?

From the Proprium Officiorum Ordinis Prædicatorum (Rome: Ad Sabina 1982), here is the Latin text for the proper elements for the Office of Feast (or Solemnity) for the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary for those who pray the Liturgia horarum.

I've been spending my mornings in Psalm 34 and wanted to share what stood out to me.

David wrote this Psalm right after one of the most frightening moments of his life. He was running from King Saul, ended up trapped in a foreign city, and had to pretend to be out of his mind just to get out alive. Yet what he wrote afterward was a song, not a complaint.

A few hings that stood out:

1. The order in verse 4. "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." David sought first. He didn't wait until he had strong faith or the right words. He just turned toward God.

2. He was delivered from his fears, not only from his enemies. A lot of us are dealing with the fear of the problem as much as the problem itself. God cares about that too.

3. The prayer in verse 6 is simple: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." No polished words. A cry was enough.

4. Verse 18 is honest. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart." And verse 19 doesn't pretend life is easy: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all."

If you're in a hard season right now, I hope this encourages you. What verse has carried you through a rough time?

(If anyone would like to pray through this Psalm, I put together a short morning prayer on it. I'll drop the link in the comments if that's allowed here.)

While translating Hieronymus Emser's 1523 answer to Luther's New Testament, I came across a dispute about Acts 3:1. Emser, Luther's Catholic critic, reads "the ninth hour of prayer" through the canonical hours he knew.

He objects that Luther:

"does not translate it 'the prayer hour' or 'the hour of prayer,' but says simply, 'they went up at the ninth hour to pray.'" (Emser, tr. Tucker, p. 75)

Leaving his accusation about Luther's motives aside, the difference is interesting. "The hour of prayer" presents a time already set aside for communal worship. "At the ninth hour to pray" can sound more like a time when two people happened to go.

The NABRE reads "the three o'clock hour of prayer," with a note giving the literal wording as "at the ninth hour of prayer."

That doesn't establish that Peter and John were praying the later Christian Office in its developed form. But it does make Emser's way of reading the verse worth examining. How do histories of the Office distinguish continuity with fixed Jewish prayer times from the later development of the Christian hours? Are there particular stages where that distinction becomes especially important?

The text of the typical Latin text and an approved English translation.