Benedictine Liturgy of the Hours?

[CountrySteve]

I read on another thread here that theres a Benedictine Office that prays the Psalms on a two week scale. Does anyone know were one might purchase one? God bless!

 

[OraLabora]

I read on another thread here that theres a Benedictine Office that prays the Psalms on a two week scale. Does anyone know were one might purchase one? God bless!

There are several 2-week schemas, actually.

Schema B is on a one-week cycle, but there are a couple of options to spread it over two weeks, given in the General Instructions.

Schemas C and D are on two week cycles.

I don’t know of any source in print. Most monasteries generally put together their own choir books. Are you looking for Latin or English? If Latin, Solesmes sells the individual psalms with antiphons (noted for chant) on individual pages so you can assemble your own.

This site gives the psalm arrangements for most breviaries pre- and post-Vatican II:

Psalter Schemas

If you’re handy with desktop publishing you could make your own booklets. Basically you’d use the Liturgy of the Hours books for everything except the psalms and canticles with their antiphons, which would be in the booklet. But that’s no small project!

I do have books for Schema B, but they’re in French only with Latin and optional French antiphons. It’s the schema used by my abbey (but on a one-week cycle).

 

[CountrySteve]

There are several 2-week schemas, actually.

Schema B is on a one-week cycle, but there are a couple of options to spread it over two weeks, given in the General Instructions.

Schemas C and D are on two week cycles.

I don’t know of any source in print. Most monasteries generally put together their own choir books. Are you looking for Latin or English? If Latin, Solesmes sells the individual psalms with antiphons (noted for chant) on individual pages so you can assemble your own.

This site gives the psalm arrangements for most breviaries pre- and post-Vatican II:

Psalter Schemas

If you’re handy with desktop publishing you could make your own booklets. Basically you’d use the Liturgy of the Hours books for everything except the psalms and canticles with their antiphons, which would be in the booklet. But that’s no small project!

I do have books for Schema B, but they’re in French only with Latin and optional French antiphons. It’s the schema used by my abbey (but on a one-week cycle).

Thanks for the reply! Actually at the moment I pray from a Monastic Diurnal, so ideally, I’m hoping for Latin, I just miss the readings for Matins, which the books doesn’t have, so, I’m hoping to find a Benedictine Breviary(thats Latin-English) that contains them, well still being liturgical, unfortunately I have not found one. God bless!

 

[OraLabora]

Thanks for the reply! Actually at the moment I pray from a Monastic Diurnal, so ideally, I’m hoping for Latin, I just miss the readings for Matins, which the books doesn’t have, so, I’m hoping to find a Benedictine Breviary(thats Latin-English) that contains them, well still being liturgical, unfortunately I have not found one. God bless!

For the current Monastic LOTH (that is, post Vatican II), the Solesmes.com bookstore has the Psalterium Monasticum (Latin only) or Psautier Monastique (Latin-French). They’re liturgical, and contain all the hours and psalms for the current Schema A (one-week cycle, original schema of St. Benedict). It’s noted for chant at least for the psalm antiphons for the daily recitation. You’d need other books for the Seasons and Saints.

It also has the references in the back for other schemas, so you could use it, but with lots of page flipping. You’d also need the Liber Hymnarius (for hymn melodies) if you plan to chant the hymns.

Admittedly it’s no easy task. I simply use the 4-week LOTH but chanted in Latin Gregorian chant, at least for Lauds and Vespers and Compline, and for mid-day when working from home. It’s much easier with my work and commuting schedule. Sometimes when I have more time I use our abbey’s 1-week cycle (Schema B).

My own personal advice (which I tell my kids is free, and “you get what you pay for”), is to not try to struggle too hard with the Divine Office by setting up for yourself all kinds of obstacles to a full participation. I found that when using shorter cycles like the 1-week, it was an obstacle to full participation as there were some hours (and thus psalms) that I routinely had to miss. With the 4-week cycle, I can have a full participation in the Church’s prayers, and when I have the time even do 7 canonical hours in a day by including Terce and None in addition to mid-day prayer (which the LOTH conveniently provides psalms for ).

For my use I use Les Heures Grégoriennes, noted for Gregorian chant, and Latin-French, which is excellent.

You can also use the new Antiphonale Romanum II to chant Vespers for all Sundays of the year plus feasts and solemnities, in Latin Gregorian chant (includes both first and second Vespers where appropriate).

The mixing of Latin chant with the modern Office for me has been a happy marriage of the traditional and the modern. The 4-week LOTH is a gift from the Church for both busy clergy and busy laity. If you study it carefully you’ll see how much Benedictine influence was retained in it, for instance the selection of Sunday psalms, the use of psalms entirely from the monastic office for Vespers of Week 4, the option to use psalms 4, 90 and 133 at Compline daily, the Gradual Psalms for the minor hours, and the options for the OT Canticles to turn the Office of Readings into a proper celebration of Vigils.

Also, for the Matins readings (not the psalmody), the same lectionary as in the current LOTH can be used for the monastic. Some monasteries use it, some use a 2-year cycle of readings. The second reading is often more from monastic patristic sources. I have a French 2-year lectionary and it has more readings from monastic sources such as Cassian et al. The first (biblical) reading is the same as for the LOTH’s 1-year or 2-year cycles (the back of the LOTH has the biblical references for the 2-year cycle). The second, patristic reading, can be flexible and you can substitute your own sources from good Catholic Church fathers.