Octave of Christmas: Daytime Prayer

[drforjc]

We are once again in Christmastide and the Octave of Christmas, that most confusing of liturgical seasons from the standpoint of the LOTH.

Today, December 26,on page 436 of Vol I, we read "At the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, and Daytime Prayer,everything is taken from the feast of St. Stephen, First Martyr, 1253 (Proper of Saints).

Turning to page 1260, I find this: “Daytime Prayer Psalms and antiphon from the current weekday.”

I am assuming that is referring to the 4-week Psalter.
Now, last week we completed Week 4 of the Psalter. I would have assumed that this week would return to Week 1 per #133 of the GILH.

The four week cycle of the psalter is linked with the liturgical year in this way: the first week is
resumed (omitting any other week) on the First Sunday of Advent, the First Sunday of Ordinary Time, the
First Sunday of Lent, and Easter Sunday.

However, the St. Joseph Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours instructs me to stay on Week 4:

“DP 1074” which is indeed Monday, Week 4 in the Psalter.

What instruction am I missing which would explain why we would still be in Week 4 instead of Week 1?

 

[OraLabora]

My breviaries say to use the psalms from Week 1. The French on-line LOTH did indeed use the psalms from week 1.

 

[GoGoDiego]

My breviaries say to use the psalms from Week 1. The French on-line LOTH did indeed use the psalms from week 1.

So did the ordo for use in the Philippines stipulate to use Week 1 for the Midday Hour Psalter

 

[7_Sorrows]

Why is the Liturgy of the Hours so confusing? I don’t own a set, but I have browsed them in the store and see many questions on CAF about LOTH?

 

[drforjc]

My breviaries say to use the psalms from Week 1. The French on-line LOTH did indeed use the psalms from week 1.

An error in my copy of the Guide, perhaps?

I wonder if anyone else noticed that?

 

[drforjc]

Why is the Liturgy of the Hours so confusing? I don’t own a set, but I have browsed them in the store and see many questions on CAF about LOTH?

It’s confusing because the standard calendar and the Church calendar are fairly complex, and don’t line up exactly from year to year. The LOTH has to include the possibilities to deal with any situation,even the most unusual years.

Combine that with the fact that various parishes, dioceses, religious orders, and even countries have their own proper calendars, patronal feasts and solemnities, etc., and you start to see the difficulty in having a universal, portable, easy to use set of volumes.

The use of the Guide I mentioned helps, but it the Guide contains an error, that throws thousands of people off.

 

[7_Sorrows]

It’s confusing because the standard calendar and the Church calendar are fairly complex, and don’t line up exactly from year to year. The LOTH has to include the possibilities to deal with any situation,even the most unusual years.

Combine that with the fact that various parishes, dioceses, religious orders, and even countries have their own proper calendars, patronal feasts and solemnities, etc., and you start to see the difficulty in having a universal, portable, easy to use set of volumes.

The use of the Guide I mentioned helps, but it the Guide contains an error, that throws thousands of people off.

I see.

 

[Todd977]

LOL. I just assumed that the repetition of Daytime psalms from Week IV this week in the St. Joseph guide was because this is the last week of the calendar year.

However, in support what the others have said about the current week actually being Week I, at www.iBreviary.org, this week the Daytime Prayers psalms are from Week I. Next week (Jan 1-7), the psalms are from Week II and the following week (Jan 8-14), the First Week in Ordinary Time, the psalms are again from Week I.

 

[OraLabora]

So did the ordo for use in the Philippines stipulate to use Week 1 for the Midday Hour Psalter

So does the ordo of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. My abbey’s monastic ordo though, is different. Since the psalter is distributed over one week only, it’s a moot point. Moreover in the monastic tradition, the Gradual Psalms are always used from Tuesday to Saturday (psalm 118 is used on Sundays and Mondays), and always at feasts and solemnities. In the newer schema used at our abbey, different psalms are used at Terce and Sext with the Gradual psalms used at None, but on feast and solemnities the Gradual psalms are always used for all of the minor hours.

Even with the 4-week LOTH I tend to follow the monastic custom especially if there’s a proper antiphon. Although the LOTH is better suited to the reality of my life than the monastic breviary, I try to incorporate some monastic traditions into it.

Why is the Liturgy of the Hours so confusing? I don’t own a set, but I have browsed them in the store and see many questions on CAF about LOTH?

It was worse in pre-Conciliar days with the multiple classes of feasts. The liturgical year was also more complex with Septuagesima, time after Epiphany, time after Pentecost; it’s no wonder the Divine Office was out of reach of the laity.

Both Pius XII and John XXIII made some simplifications, but it is much easier now with clearly defined seasons, and only 3 classes of feast (memorials, both optional and mandatory, feasts, and solemnities) although there are some vestiges left, such as memorials with proper antiphons where Lauds and Vespers are celebrated as feasts, but the rest of the Office as a memorial.

Christmas season is the worst, liturgically; the Octave is shared with several feasts, then there are places where Epiphany is moved to the Sunday (in Canada, but not in the abbey!), whether Christmas falls on a Sunday like this year, which moves the feast of the Holy Family to the 30th (and omits 1st Vespers), whether the Baptism of the Lord falls on a Sunday or a Monday, etc.

I follow the Monastic Calendar, so for me Epiphany this year falls on Friday Jan. 6; and the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday the 8th. But for the diocese, Epiphany is on Sunday the 8th and the Baptism of the Lord on Monday the 9th. However the abbey’s ordo won’t tell me which week of the LOTH we’re in, but the diocesan one will (though I can figure it out without it).

Even now it’s fairly complex, to the point where the prior and sacristan of the abbey says “I have a very great devotion to Saint Feria!”, feria referring to ordinary days without feasts or memorials where the office is of the day and therefore his life is made much easier! St. Feria, pray for us!

 

[Magdalen2013]

LOL. I just assumed that the repetition of Daytime psalms from Week IV this week in the St. Joseph guide was because this is the last week of the calendar year.

However, in support what the others have said about the current week actually being Week I, at www.iBreviary.org, this week the Daytime Prayers psalms are from Week I. Next week (Jan 1-7), the psalms are from Week II and the following week (Jan 8-14), the First Week in Ordinary Time, the psalms are again from Week I.

No – the four-week Psalter does not correspond to the part of the month we’re in. It’s based strictly on the liturgical year which begins with the first Sunday of Advent, and that’s why there’s so much variation, because that’s not the same date every year. Also, remember that you’ll go back to Week One at the beginning of Advent and Easter, with Lent beginning with the Wednesday of Week Four, so that the first Sunday of Lent falls on Sunday, Week One of the Psalter.

Does this help?

 

[tee_eff_em]

Why is the Liturgy of the Hours so confusing? I don’t own a set, but I have browsed them in the store and see many questions on CAF about LOTH?

It is really not *that *confusing – Which is why so many here can say with confidence that an error has been made. It just takes a little knowledge of how the book(s) work, and so the OP should be confident in having spotted this error.

tee