Another LOH Question

[joegrabowski]

According to the Ordo for my Diocese, the dates for the week between January 2 and Epiphany in the Liturgy of the Hours are to be adjusted so that “Monday” in the Sanctoral is celebrated on Tuesday (January 2nd) and so on…

First of all, from a practical standpoint, should the day of the Psalter also be adjusted, or should the Psaltery be followed according to the real day of the week?

Secondly, for discussion: Doesn’t it seem like this hasn’t been thought out too well? For one thing, why does the Ordo call for the adjustment of the days? Either way, a day is going to get “dropped off” to make room for the Solemnities: why is Monday of the intervening week more important than Saturday?

I hope I don’t seem to be splitting straws, but I know that most of my friends who pray the Breviary don’t have Ordos, and they’ll simply be following the book in an ordinary, common sense way. It seems disunitive and confusing to make such adjustments, and then on top of it all the USCCB’s liturgical calender is very vague and unclear about this time of year.

Why can’t we in America just do what everyone else does and pray with the rest of the Church?

 

[AlexV]

I can give you the simple answer.

If you had the Latin LOTH, from the Vatican Press, guess what?

These days just say January 2, January 3, January 4, etc.

The USA LOTH, amazingly, decided to print Monday - January 2, etc., etc.

In other words, they got it wrong.

Just ignore the days of the week entirely, and worry about the calendar day. Problem solved.

Maybe some day the American bishops will also stop worrying about which days are Holy Days and revise their 1975 Breviary, complete with its vintage 70s sacred pop hits.

 

[joegrabowski]

Thanks, Alex. I have the 2000 Latin breviary, and was wondering whether the discrepency was present in the old Latin one as well (so as not to give undue blame to the BCL, who get plenty of other things wrong to keep us chagrinned).

A follow up question, though. I am having trouble translating the “red text” about the Baptism of the Lord… there seems to be more there in the Latin than is in the English. An actual translation might explain why this year we’re transferring it to Monday, as a feast… any takers?

 

[AlexV]

Before 1979, if your country observed Epiphany on Sunday January 7 or January 8, your country omitted the Baptism entirely.

In 1979, JP II added the rubric that in such countries, the Baptism would be celebrated on Monday, January 8 or January 9.

That’s the rubrical issue.

It’s a sloppy mess.

In countries like the USA,

1. January 6, this year Saturday, is before Epiphany. The first reading in the LOTH is identical to the Baptism, just cut off a bit short. But the second reading…with its responsory!..is borrowed from the Baptism. That reading is totally about the Baptism, and the responsory even says “Today the heavens were opened,” etc. Talk about anticipation. It makes zero liturgical sense to have that reading and responsory before the Epiphany. It’s downright bizarre.
2. Epiphany already IS the Baptism. Epiphany celebrates 3 manifestations: Magi, Baptism, Cana. In the old liturgy, this is clear. January 13 is called the COMMEMORATION of the Baptism, not the FEAST, because the FEAST of the Baptism is the Epiphany. It’s liturgically illogical to have a Feast of the Baptism on top of the Feast of the Epiphany, if the Epiphany already celebrates the Baptism. Illogical, that is, if you are obsessed with avoiding doublets…which the new liturgy purports to be.

This WHOLE problem stems from one thing…the mess caused by moving Epiphany from its ancient date of January 6.

 

[Psalm45_9]

The USA LOTH, amazingly, decided to print Monday - January 2, etc., etc.

In other words, they got it wrong.

Just ignore the days of the week entirely, and worry about the calendar day. Problem solved.

Maybe some day the American bishops will also stop worrying about which days are Holy Days and revise their 1975 Breviary, complete with its vintage 70s sacred pop hits.

My 1975 breviary says: “Tuesday from January 2nd to Epiphany.” In other words the Tuesday after January 1st, which this year is January 2nd. That is why we are skipping over “Monday from January 2nd to Epiphany.” Maybe it is a typo in the OP’s breivrary? I am thankful that JP II made it manditory for countries that observe Epiphany on the Sunday after New Year’s Day to obeserve the Baptism of Lord on the Monday after Epiphany observed. When Christmas falls on a Sunday or a Monday, it causes this situation to happen, because we do not observe Epiphany on January 6th in this country. If it weren’t for our late Pope then this year we wouldn’t be observing the Baptism of the Lord at all, you can find these rubrics still printed in the 1975 breivrary. At least us daily Mass attendees will be able to observe the Feast that brings Christmas’ Epiphany tide to a climatic close as well as the season of Christmas all together.

 

[Psalm45_9]

This WHOLE problem stems from one thing…the mess caused by moving Epiphany from its ancient date of January 6.

I can’t wait for next year, because January 6th will fall on a Sunday, causing us to observe Epiphany on its traditional date and the commemoration of our Lord’s baptism on its traditional date of January 13th, the following Sunday. The readings for daily Mass during that week emphasize Our Lord’s Epiphany, so next year the Octave of Epiphany will make an unoffical return. What the new missal has done has dissolved the octave of Epiphany and incorported Epiphany as a tide being part of the Christmas season rather then its own season all together. In term they have shortened it from its traditional 8 days and fused it with Christmas, lets just extend Epiphany tide to February 2nd like our Eastern breathern do… Can you imagine us keeping our Christmas decorations up that long?

 

[AJV]

In the UK Divine Office, the days are marked like in the Latin: January 2, 3, 4 and so on and each day is marked in 2 cycles: ‘A’ for when Epiphany is on January 6 and ‘B’ for when Epiphany is transferred to a Sunday. Here, I observe the ‘A’ cycle. In the UK, they also observed the ‘A’ cycle until this year they’ve switched to the ‘B’.
January 2 corresponds to “Monday between Jan 2-Epiphany” in the US books. January 3 to Tuesday, and so on.
The LOTH, while doing away with the octave does divide Christmastide to before and after Epiphany.
One thing that I really regret is that they have not translated the hymns for the Office. The UK does some but not all but at least it provides some decent alternatives. The ICEL version is worse in this respect. I’ve been trying to get hold of that book of the revised hymns of the breviary but its out of print, it seems.
Another of my pet peeves about the ICEL version is that the psalms aren’t marked for chanting, and also some reason it occasionally tweeks the intercessions- like today when it avoids referring to the Jews.

 

[AlexV]

The hymns for the American LOTH will, I think, go down as one of the lowest points in liturgical history. They are just appalling, by and large.

The British books, in trying to be more convenient with 3 instead of 4 volumes, are very confusing and un-aesthetic on days like the ferias of Christmastide, where they try so hard to avoid repetition of material that I think they succeed in causing some confusion and annoying page-turning. The hymns are appreciably better, though not anything to rave about.

 

[peregrinus_sg]

The Ordinary part of the UK editions is worse. When I started praying the Divine Office, I took a very long time before I made sense of the how the “Fequently Used Texts” play in the various offices, which practically rearranged the Ordinary in a less than logical format.

But having used both the ICEL and UK versions, I must say that the UK version is better overall, both with regards the translation and arrangement. The 3 volume approach is very neat when we cross frome 1 season to the other: if you used the ICEL version, you would start with Vol 1 in Advent, go on to Vol 3, then to Vol 2 (for Lent), back to Vol 3 before ending the liturgical year with Vol 4. With the UK version, we proceed from Vol 1 to 2 to 3 linearly.

 

[MikeWM]

The British books, in trying to be more convenient with 3 instead of 4 volumes, are very confusing and un-aesthetic on days like the ferias of Christmastide, where they try so hard to avoid repetition of material that I think they succeed in causing some confusion and annoying page-turning.

I don’t mind them too much, but then I’ve not yet seen the 4-volume set to compare.

My current complaint is that it seems far from obvious what week of the Psalter we’re supposed to be on from January 2 - and, unlike every other week, it’s not printed in our newsletter and it’s not listed in our Diocesan Year Book (so I guess I’m not the only one confused).

As I’ve just noticed it says Psalter Week 1 under Holy Family, I guess we’re in Week 1? Second Sunday after Christmas has Psalter Week 2, so I guess so (not that we’re ever going to get a Second Sunday after Christmas anymore, given as of this year Epiphany is always going to be on the closest Sunday here in the UK, rather than on January 6th, which it ought to be imo, but I moaned about that at the time the Bishops decided to make it that way, so I guess I should just deal with it).

Mike