The Liturgy of the Hours

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NicPais83

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I am curious about starting to pray Lauds and Vespers and was wondering if anyone could identify a good edition to use that contains the prayers in both Latin and English and is Post-Vatican II. I saw that there is such a book on the EWTN website, and Amazon.com sells it for almost $20 less, but does anyone know if this is a good book, or should I simply stay with the book entitled “Christian Prayer”?
 
Unless you can understand Latin as you read I would stick with Christian Prayer. The beauty of the LOH is to pray the psalms and to take the words of the psalm into your heart. If you don’t understand what you are reading it is hard to do that. It is not like the Latin mass where the preist is praying in Latin and you follow along in English. ALso with the prayers of the Mass, they are pretty much the same each day, the psalms and prayers of the LOH are different each day of the four week cycle of the psalter.
 
It depends on why you want the Latin/English edition (presuming you refer to Lauds and Vespers per Annum).

The Latin side is the *editio typica *of the Liturgia Horarum. The English side is NOT ICEL and is therefore NOT approved for public worship (but may be used privately, I suppose). (It is intended to be a truer translation than ICEL)

I have a copy of the book, but I only look at the English side if I run into something I can’t understand on the Latin 😉

tee
 
I don’t know why you want the Latin, but I happen to have the Latin text in a um… I think it’s a pdf… it’s some sort of electronic format, if you want it.
 
A concern of mine is that if I get the official ICEL translation, spending some $50+, and then find out in two years that the whole thing was retranslated. I’ll admit that I’m far from being a master of Latin, but I am also curious as to what the prayer actually says, rather than what ICEL may have translated (“Et cum spiritu tuo” vs “and also with you”). So, I guess I have an academic curiosity.

That being said, I also have a desire to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and I was hoping that there might be something that would have the official English translation paired with the original Latin.
 
NicPais83 said:
A concern of mine is that if I get the official ICEL translation, spending some $50+, and then find out in two years that the whole thing was retranslated. I’ll admit that I’m far from being a master of Latin, but I am also curious as to what the prayer actually says, rather than what ICEL may have translated (“Et cum spiritu tuo” vs “and also with you”). So, I guess I have an academic curiosity.

That being said, I also have a desire to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and I was hoping that there might be something that would have the official English translation paired with the original Latin.
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The psalms (except ps 95) in the LOTH are the Grail translation. The other prayers are ICEL translations and the readings are from the New American Bible, not the revised text. Eventually they will retranslate but it is not on the slate to happen for many years.
 
Joannm said:
The psalms (except ps 95) in the LOTH are the Grail translation. The other prayers are ICEL translations and the readings are from the New American Bible, not the revised text. Eventually they will retranslate but it is not on the slate to happen for many years.
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Err… it was my understanding that a new LOTH translation was expected within 2 years.
 
Just a note,

I found the Liturgy of the Hours online at Universalis.com. They have Morning, Evening, Night, Office of Readings, and also, Mass. I’ve been trying to get into LOTH too, but it’s a lot more convenient to use a computer if I have to do it at work 😉
 
Lazerlike42 said:
Err… it was my understanding that a new LOTH translation was expected within 2 years.
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The translation of the ROman Missal is expected in two years. They haven’t even started on the LOTH and probably won’t until the present missal is completed. Given that the Missal took or will take about 10 years to translate, that makes the translation of the LOTH about 2020
 
NicPais83 said:
A concern of mine is that if I get the official ICEL translation, spending some $50+, and then find out in two years that the whole thing was retranslated. I’ll admit that I’m far from being a master of Latin, but I am also curious as to what the prayer actually says, rather than what ICEL may have translated (“Et cum spiritu tuo” vs “and also with you”). So, I guess I have an academic curiosity.

That being said, I also have a desire to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and I was hoping that there might be something that would have the official English translation paired with the original Latin.
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So far there is none. The “Lauds and Vespers” book is meant for those who wish to pray in Latin, with the unofficial English as a vocabulary reference, but the English is not meant to be used as LOTH, privately or otherwise.

If you wish to have an inexpensive Latin LOTH, then you may purchase the Lauds and Vespers BUT it is not complete. It lacks the Proper of Saints.

As for the English translation don’t worry. It will be many, many years before another one comes out, if ever. Invest in Christian Prayer or the 4-volume LOTH for the complete official English.
 
Actually the Liturgy of the Hours is the next project for ICEL, or so I have been told by the Director of the Office of Liturgy of the CCCB. From what I understand it has been started.

It really shouldn’t take that long to translate the LotH. The majority of the texts are biblical, which has already been translated, and are not likely to be translated from the Latin. Part of the reason the Missal has taken a while was the restructure that needed to take place in ICEL. Also the application of Liturgicam Authenticam and ratio of translation took time to be finalized. Personally I’m glad the are doing a good job on the translations, better to take a bit more time and have a better translation.

The texts for the Psalms and the Biblical readings needs to be chosen. Which translation will be used? RNAB, NRSV, RSV, Grail, Revised Grail, JB. It will be interesting to see. Perhaps there will be a desire to have the Biblical readings correspond to the Lectionary, which in the US will be the RNAB and for the rest of the English speaking world the NRSV (revised). Will the Psalms be of the same translation as the Biblical texts. Most of the orations are taken from the Missal. The largest part will be the Second Readings from the Office of Readings. Decisions will also have to be made regarding hymns.

Finally another thing for Conferences of Bishops to decide upon will be things like Psalm Prayers, and the Second Cycle of Reading for the Office of Readings.
 
The Christian Prayer Breviary is a good place to start for prayer the LOTH. It was nice when I first stated out. It has the complete morning, daytime (including the complimentary psalms) evening and night prayers. It also has some of the Office of Readings. I changed over to the The Complete Liturgy of the Hours (Catholic Book Publishing) because I was ready for more. The latter version is rather expensive ($189.00 for the leather bound and I believe $169.00 for the hard back).

Starting with Christian Prayer is a good choice. The price is good for those who are just beginning.

Hope this helps

God bless,
Nicole
 
nicolep said:
The Christian Prayer Breviary is a good place to start for prayer the LOTH. It was nice when I first stated out. It has the complete morning, daytime (including the complimentary psalms) evening and night prayers. It also has some of the Office of Readings. I changed over to the The Complete Liturgy of the Hours (Catholic Book Publishing) because I was ready for more. The latter version is rather expensive ($189.00 for the leather bound and I believe $169.00 for the hard back).

Starting with Christian Prayer is a good choice. The price is good for those who are just beginning.
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Both of these are excellant. Christian Prayer is a littler easier to use. They can both be confussing however, so I would ask your priest, deacon or nun how to use them for the most benifit. There is also a book that is avaible to explain how to use them, but the personal touch is best.
Peace, FAB
 
FAB said:
Both of these are excellant. Christian Prayer is a littler easier to use. They can both be confussing however, so I would ask your priest, deacon or nun how to use them for the most benifit. There is also a book that is avaible to explain how to use them, but the personal touch is best.
Peace, FAB
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I tried to get through Christian Prayer on my own and it didn’t work. I sat down with one of my priests and he explained it in about 10 minutes. I had no problem making the switch. I agree that Christian Prayer is easier to use. There isn’t as much flipping back and forth since all of the canticles are printed in the psalter.

God bless,
Nicole
 
nicolep said:
I tried to get through Christian Prayer on my own and it didn’t work. I sat down with one of my priests and he explained it in about 10 minutes. I had no problem making the switch. I agree that Christian Prayer is easier to use. There isn’t as much flipping back and forth since all of the canticles are printed in the psalter.

God bless,
Nicole
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I’ll have to qualify this because I know what you’re talking about. Others might not.

nicolep is referring to the black-covered Christian Prayer by the Daughters of St. Paul, which has the Gospel Canticles printed in place every day in the Psalter.

The more common red-colored Christian Prayer by Catholic Book Publishing does not, and so one must always turn to the Ordinary or the reference card for the Gospel Canticles.
 
porthos11 said:
I’ll have to qualify this because I know what you’re talking about. Others might not.

nicolep is referring to the black-covered Christian Prayer by the Daughters of St. Paul, which has the Gospel Canticles printed in place every day in the Psalter.

The more common red-colored Christian Prayer by Catholic Book Publishing does not, and so one must always turn to the Ordinary or the reference card for the Gospel Canticles.
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Thanks for making that easier to understand for me. I completely forgot that there were two books with the same title.

God bless,
Nicole
 
I had Christian Prayer, and then I got the 4 volume LotH. However, I got tired of the uninspiring translation ala ICEL. I wanted something with Latin/English, so I looked at the Lauds and Vespers, but I never got it because I wanted something complete. L&V seemed to have too many gaps. If they were to have the proper of saints (and maybe Compline), I’d have switched to that in a second.

However, based on a recommendation from a friend, I decided to check out the Little Office of the BVM (Baronius). I can truly say that I have found a treasure that fits my needs precisely. It has Latin and English, the English is Douay-Rheims Elizabethan English (not conversational English), the binding is durable and high-quality, the pages are gilded, and the collection of prayers is complete for the year. While it does follow the older Breviary (it still has Prime and it follows the old calendar), this has only a minor influence on the praying since each day is the same (except Matins which is on a weekly cycle). While you may say that the repetition is monotonous, it actually is good in that you can gradually build up your ability to learn to pray the Latin itself (after you’ve gotten used to the English). Even then, after you get used to the Latin, you can move on to Gregorian Chant since this is the first time chant has been printed in the LOBVM. Finally, this version of the LOBVM is consonant with the Office prayed by generations and generations. One thing that always got me about the LotH is that it is brand new - it has no history to which you can link yourself. There’s something powerful to me about participating in the same prayers that my forefathers said. The LOBVM does that.
 
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