Liturgy of the Hours Translations

[JMJ_coder]

In this current round of translations, will anything other than the Psalms be re-translated for the Liturgy of the Hours? Antiphons? Proper Prayers? etc.?

 

[benedictgal]

In this current round of translations, will anything other than the Psalms be re-translated for the Liturgy of the Hours? Antiphons? Proper Prayers? etc.?

Blessed New Year! It is now 2009 in Texas, at least most of us who live in the CST. El Paso still has to wait another hour.

Here is the answer you are seeking:

1. A New Liturgical Psalter
   The final liturgy “action item” on the bishops’ agenda was voting on a new translation of psalms for liturgical use, the Conception Abbey Revised Grail (CARG) Psalter, recommended by the BCDW.

A recent revision of the Revised New American Bible (RNAB) had also been considered by the BCDW this summer. For comparison, texts of both the CARG and a newly revised version of the Psalter were provided to the bishops. The CARG Psalter has already been adopted by all English-speaking episcopal conferences except the United States and Canada. (See report in AB, November 2008, “A New Liturgical Psalter for the United States Would Signal Progress in Reform”).

The following rationale for recommending the CARG Psalter appeared in the introductory material to this “Action Item”:

The Committee on Divine Worship recommends that the Revised Grail Psalter by the Monks of Conception Abbey be adopted for liturgical use in the United States for the following reasons:

(a) It has been recommended by musicians for its musicality and is open to the use of various musical forms. It can be easily sung, chanted or recited.

(b) It is faithful to the Hebrew text and paraphrases have been corrected. The text has been revised to keep true to the Hebrew sense of strophes for each line.

(c) It is a text that is somewhat familiar to those who pray the Breviary even with the improvements.

(d) While being faithful to Hebrew imagery and anthropology it is critically aware of the Christological references.

The bishops’ vote in favor of the proposed Psalter was 203-5. If approved by the Holy See, this version of the psalms would be used in the Lectionary, the Mass texts, and the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office or Breviary). At present, the Congregation for Divine Worship is reviewing a request from the bishops of Kenya to use this version of the Psalter for its revised Lectionary for Mass, Bishop Serratelli said. After Vatican approval is received, the details of permissions will be arranged for publishers and composers of musical settings of the psalms for liturgical use.

So, a new psalter has been approved. I hope that this answers your question!

 

[peregrinus_sg]

In this current round of translations, will anything other than the Psalms be re-translated for the Liturgy of the Hours? Antiphons? Proper Prayers? etc.?

Since the collects of the Masses during the seasons of Advent, Christmastide, Lent, Eastertide, Sundays of the Year and Proper of Saints are identical to the concluding prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours for those days also, the new translation of the Roman Missal for these prayers will be transplanted into the Liturgy of the Hours directly. Though the switch will only occur when the rest of the Liturgy of the Hours are retranslated, such as the antiphons, readings and other prayers. So it will take a while more.

 

[Laurence_Peter]

This just in from Fr. Hunwicke’s blog, dated Jan 28, 2009, under ‘You Read It Here First’,

Mgr Harbert said tonight that ICEL had in fact done some work on a new English version of the Liturgy of the Hours, but had then put the brakes on when a very senior person in Rome intimated that perhaps the Latin base text, the Editio typica altera Liturgiae horarum, might find itself returned to the melting pot. Just as ICEL had waited until it had the definitive Editio typica tertia Missalis Romani to hand before doing its English draft of the Missal, so it did not want to do a lot of work on a new Breviary when the Latin base-text might be about to metamorphose.

You can read the whole article at ‘Fr. Hunwicke’s liturgical notes’;
Fr. Hunwicke is an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Church of England. (If this is incorrect, my apologies).

PAX

Laurence

 

[peregrinus_sg]

Thanks for the info Laurence. That’s very big news indeed, seeing that the editio typica altera is still not complete, and just last year, there were rumours of an upcoming publication of Volume 5.

But then again, this is Rome. How long would they take to produce a new edition of the Divine Office?

 

[drforjc]

Thanks for the info Laurence. That’s very big news indeed, seeing that the editio typica altera is still not complete, and just last year, there were rumours of an upcoming publication of Volume 5.

But then again, this is Rome. How long would they take to produce a new edition of the Divine Office?

Good question. If redoing the editio typica is in question, not just a new translation, all bets are off, I’d think.