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superamazingman
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FYI, the english is still an approved translation. You can use it even if you’re not in america.
FYI, the english is still an approved translation. You can use it even if you’re not in america.I just bought the Japanese version of the Liturgy of the Hours in hopes of “praying with the Church” with the locally approved version at least at those times when I am home and can pray with a book. It is going to be a real challenge. But I love Christ and His Body in Japan and I want to pray with that body in the same language whenever I can.
Anyway, I made a few discoveries about this book.
First, there is apparently no multi-volume set in Japanese, but only one fat book similar in size to the one volume Christian Prayer. It has the Morning, Daytime, Evening and Night Prayers plus some music in the back. It also has the Office of Readings, but only gives the Bible reference for those readings instead of the actual Bible text, and apparently omits the readings from extra biblical sources. So all in all it apparently resembles Christian Prayer in many ways, even in size.
The same Psalms are read on the same days and hours as the English versions, but I was surprised to find that the antiphons and other prayers are completely different from the English versions! So apparently the only prayers that the entire world prays together are the Psalms themselves – plus the parts that are repeated daily such as the Lord’s Prayer and Magnificat, etc.
It’s still great to know that these parts are prayed by all Christians everywhere, but I can’t help but point out that if the Psalms and daily repeated parts are the only universally uniting factor – the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours – well, the wording of these in the current version of Universalis is exactly the same as the official English versions of the Liturgy of the Hours. So it would seem that one need not panic or feel like an outcast when using Universalis in private prayer. The core parts that everyone prays are exactly the same.
So I’ll keep using Universalis when I’m away from home, and struggle with the Japanese or even breeze by with the English books when I’m at home. Lots of great options.
Yes, any approved translation is just that: approved. Be at peace, brother. God Bless you.That’s news to me, and good news at that.
Yes, I know priests in the USA who use the Irish translation because they like the songs better. Any translation currently approved is praying with the Church. (And Summorum Pontificum makes the 1962 Latin Breviary legitimate; I don’t know about previous versions or translations.)Yes, any approved translation is just that: approved. Be at peace, brother. God Bless you.