O
OraLabora
Guest
Well in my case I pray the LOTH in Latin; so the psalm translation is less of an issue, unless there are issues between the Vulgate and Neo Vulgate.
I don’t do the 1962 Breviarum Romanum; when I have time, usually in winter, I try to do the Monastic Office. I use the current monastic office, which follows the basic schema of St. Benedict. I also do that in Latin.
I do have the psalms in French alongside the Latin to help me along (as French is my mother tongue).
Much of what you speak of, concerning the rigorous language, necessity of grace, etc., can still be found in the Latin hymns used with the current LOTH if you pray in Latin. Even the Dies Irae, lost in the current Requiem Mass, is the designated hymn for the last week of Ordinary Time (it’s divided into three parts for Matins, Lauds and Vespers), and the Dies Irae certainly spares nobody’s sensibilities from the rough stuff.
I think if you take the LOTH in Latin, and scratch a bit below the surface, you can see much of what we thought lost hasn’t, in fact been lost at least in Latin, but has been lost in the translation. But the real big loss for me is the deprecatory psalms and the deprecatory verses of the psalms that were not deleted (for the latter, fortunately the source that I use to pray has them in brackets).
Using the Monastic Office solves that. The current Monastic Office schemas to me are the way to go if you want a very full Office. Schema A follows the order laid down by St. Benedict (praying 255 psalms a week obviously with repetitions), and schema B prays all 150 psalms in a week. Both these schemas have been adapted to the current liturgical year, so share the readings, collects and intercessions with the LOTH without losing any of the psalmody.
However few have the luxury of time to do that. For me, if I do it fully, it’s about 3 hours of prayer daily since I chant all the Offices. I can shave off maybe half an hour by distributing Vigils over 2 weeks. I am blessed as I work from home so I don’t have a commute to worry about.
For others the LOTH is perfectly fine given one’s reality in life, and now that we have resources to chant it in Latin, we can regain much of the lost treasure, albeit distributed over a longer period of time.
The current Monastic Office should be your friend though. It is traditional enough to suit for most I would think, but it is also entirely compatible with the OF Mass. In fact I was on retreat a couple of weeks ago, at a monastery in France, where they use the traditional schema of St. Benedict (basically what’s in the Monastic Diurnal but with modern readings, collects and intercessions), and they do an OF Mass in Gregorian Chant,
