If a member of the laity wants to pray the UK Divine Office (for its more majestic language) while residing in North America, or wants to pray the US Liturgy of the Hours (for its more simple language) while residing in the UK, does this hypothetical person, whatever his nationality is, pray liturgically in union with the prayer of the Church, or can this only be seen as a private devotion?
/…/ Should an American in London pray the UK Divine Office, and a Brit in New York pray the US Liturgy of the Hours? Or should it be according to nationality/ethnicity? How do we even determine this?
Your question is more involved than one may at first think
First, any time the Liturgy of the Hours is integrally prayed, it is a liturgical prayer. Whether by a cleric, a Religious/Consecrated, or a lay person
If you’ve not assumed the duty of the Office by some title, you have broad latitude. Which seems to be the case you posit. If that’s not the case, the answer could be different
As a basic rule of thumb…one retains the Office, for solitary recitation, of that place where you belong in some way ecclesiastically. That can sound simpler that it may be in actual practice
Americans who are diocesans, for example, be they priests or seminarians, who are assigned to Rome…either to teach or study or work…retain their own liturgical texts. If one went to the North American College…in spite of the fact that it’s in the heart of Rome and in the shadow of the Vatican…one will find the missal, breviary and calendar used are those of the United States
The same is true for those who are at the Venerable English College and indeed with all the various national colleges…they use their own proper texts, not Italy’s missal, breviary and calendar
When any of these attend liturgical functions of the Diocese of Rome, outside their national colleges, then they conform themselves to the practices of the Diocese of Rome
They do not, however, across the years – or even decades – of their life in Rome adopt the Italian breviary or missal of necessity
Similarly, an American priest assigned to obtain his doctorate at l’Institut Catholique de Paris need not adopt the breviary or missal of France, assuming he is saying his Office alone and celebrating a private Mass. If, on the other hand, he’s doing supply ministry in a Parisian parish, then of course he would need to adopt for those functions the appropriate texts and calendar…he couldn’t impose his American calendar or Liturgy of the Hours on Parisian parishioners
If an American were to become a Benedictine Oblate of the Tyburn Sisters or Stanbrook Abbey, I would not find it odd if the oblate opted to use a British form of the Office that mirrored the use of the Religious in some way. The same would be true if there were a British Benedictine Oblate of Saint Meinrad Archabbey living in Chichester. They could legitimately choose to use the abbreviated monastic Office published by Saint Meinrad as the form of Office they prayed personally
Actually, the English Congregation of Benedictines have established three houses in the United States: Saint Louis Abbey in Saint Louis, Missouri; Saint Anselm Abbey in Washington, DC; Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Americans who attend the Liturgy of the Hours in these abbeys would experience British Office texts, and not the American texts, and the calendar of the Congregation heavily incorporates the British calendar together with feasts proper to the English Benedictines
I would find it a bit odd, frankly, for an American pilgrim to adopt an Italian breviary as their daily way of saying the Office for the rest of their life based uniquely on a 5 or 10 day pilgrimage to Rome and knowing Italian…but ostensibly they could. It would not be strictly “wrong” since they are laity doing something they are not obliged to do
On the other hand, if they became a lay member/associate of La Famiglia dell’Amore misericordioso of Collevalenza, founded by the Beata Esperanza, and wanted to use the Italian breviary to be in sync with the Religious and their praying of the Liturgy of the Hours as part of being of the extended spiritual family…well, yes, that again could be an understandable choice
For someone who is British to retain the British breviary while they live and work in America or vice-versa would be quite legitimate. In fact, it would give you the opportunity to celebrate, for example, the Feast of St Alban in America by the breviary even if he be not mentioned in Masses in the United States on June 20
Conversely, if one were an American who became a lay member of Notre Dame de Vie founded by Père Marie Eugène, then I could see such a person choosing to adopt the French breviary
For bishops and priests, as we travel from one country to another and from one jurisdiction to another, we do not switch our breviaries. We retain what we normally use, adapting ourselves to either the national calendar or the calendar proper to the Order if we join in a public celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in either a parish or a Religious House
In your case, as long as you are praying the Liturgy of the Hours as a solitary, I would suggest you have a great latitude that you should use.
As for the use of the Latin breviary, having taught Latin I never found it as rewarding to pray as one of my conversational languages. I’ll certainly do the Benedictus or the Magnificat or the Nunc dimittis in Latin from memory…even occasionally one of the psalms here or there. But I was quite happy to have the option of the Office in my conversational languages. I have no problem to revert back to Latin when that is what is used in the monastery I am visiting but I would never use it for my own recitation, personally
Very helpful and simple.