Using Guide to Christian Prayer for Memorials

[HaroldA]

Hello.

I use the one volume Christian Prayer for the LOTH and the Guide that changes each year.

How should I treat Memorials? Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Guide says that I should use the antiphons from the Common of the Blessed VIrgin Mary but the Psalms should be from Saturday of Week 1. However, the text of the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary says that I should use the Psalms from Sunday of Week 1. I assume the Guide controls over the directions in the Common?

Thanks for any clarification.

 

[drforjc]

I had the same question when I first started using LOTH.

What you need to do is read the section of Christian Prayer entitled “Ordinary.”
In my Catholic Book Publishing Company version this is begins on page 686 and goes through 698.

The answer to your specific question is near the top of 690, in the 4th paragraph.

“For the memorials of saints, the psalms and canticle, canticle, and antiphons are taken from the current week of the Psalter, unless there are proper psalms and antiphons.”

When the Commons mention using Sunday Wk 1 psalms and antiphons, it is referring to Feasts and Solemnities.

I really encourage folks to read the Ordinary, and if possible, the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours. If I had done that when I was first learning how to say the Office I would have avoided a number of mistakes that only later on did I realize were wrong.

 

[FrDavid96]

Hello.

I use the one volume Christian Prayer for the LOTH and the Guide that changes each year.

How should I treat Memorials? Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Guide says that I should use the antiphons from the Common of the Blessed VIrgin Mary but the Psalms should be from Saturday of Week 1. However, the text of the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary says that I should use the Psalms from Sunday of Week 1. I assume the Guide controls over the directions in the Common?

Thanks for any clarification.

Here’s what happens:

Optional memorials can be mix-and-match. I know that’s an odd way of phrasing it, but I found it works.

On an optional memorial, one is free to take some of the parts from the memorial itself and others from the current week. At a minimum, the closing prayer would be from the memorial. Aside: I say that because without that prayer, one is simply choosing not to observe the memorial.

The guides give only one option (usually). This is often just a suggestion, but an educated one, based on a hierarchy of choices.

When one is looking at the section of the book on Commons, the rubrics are written in such a way that they are saying “if you want (or are required) to do everything as it pertains to the Saint, do it this way” but what is not written is that it’s still within the rubrics to maintain certain other parts from the weekly cycle.

Does that make sense?

 

[porthos11]

Hello.

I use the one volume Christian Prayer for the LOTH and the Guide that changes each year.

How should I treat Memorials? Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Guide says that I should use the antiphons from the Common of the Blessed VIrgin Mary but the Psalms should be from Saturday of Week 1. However, the text of the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary says that I should use the Psalms from Sunday of Week 1. I assume the Guide controls over the directions in the Common?

Thanks for any clarification.

drforjc has the right advice. Familiarize yourself with the Ordinary. It is your friend.

The Guide actually says no such thing. The Guide directs you to the Common, but that tells you from which Common you pick parts depending on the rank of the celebration (a Memorial in this case).

Memorials always take (unless there are Proper parts) as follows for Morning Prayer/Evening Prayer

Invitatory antiphon: Weekday or Common
Hymn: Weekday or Common
Psalms, Canticle, Antiphons: Always weekday (unless there are Proper psalms, canticles antiphons)
Reading: Weekday or Common
Benedictus/Magnificat antiphon: Weekday or Common (unless there is a Proper antiphon)
Prayer: Always Proper

Those Sunday Week I texts you saw for Morning Prayer are used only if the celebration is a Feast or Solemnity and there are no Proper texts (e.g. you are in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, during which this would have been a Solemnity in the Church).

 

[FrDavid96]

Hello.

I use the one volume Christian Prayer for the LOTH and the Guide that changes each year.

How should I treat Memorials? Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Guide says that I should use the antiphons from the Common of the Blessed VIrgin Mary but the Psalms should be from Saturday of Week 1. However, the text of the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary says that I should use the Psalms from Sunday of Week 1. I assume the Guide controls over the directions in the Common?

Thanks for any clarification.

Again, because this is an optional memorial, the option is yours.

The Psalms and antiphons can be either those of the Common or those of the current week. It’s your choice to make.