Dear Folks,

A new edition of The Liturgy of the Hours is coming out. It is being put out by Ascensionpress.com and Wordonfire.org. I am so fond of both organizations so I can’t really tell you which one to choose. The full set is four volumes, but I’m told that there will be some shorter versions for those who want to get their feet wet. You can pre-order the four volume set now, but you can’t see any of it until January.  

The older (current) edition used the Grail Psalms, but tweaked the translation a bit, so there were small differences. The new edition uses the Revised Grail Psalms and also tweaks the translation a bit.  “The Abbey Psalms and Canticle” put out by Ascension press has (I’m told) the version that will be used. 

Word on Fire has come out with a monthly paperback subscription of the Liturgy of the Hours.  If you want to start now, and have no one to teach you, it is a good tool. 

The most pivotal “hours” are morning prayer and evening prayer.  Their basic structure (the wording might change with the new edition, but the structure shouldn’t):

Opening: God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me. Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen. Alleluia. 

There will be a hymn.

Then comes the Psalmody: an antiphon, the Psalm itself, Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, Amen. Then the antiphon is repeated. There come two Psalms or portions of Psalms, then a canticle prayed the same way. 

Then there is a short Scripture reading, then a responsory.

There is a Gospel Canticle (Canticle of Zechariah in morning prayer, Canticle of Mary in evening prayer). 

Then there will be intercessions, the Our Father, and a closing prayer. 

There will be exceptions, but that can come later. 

I’m currently going through the book “The Psalms: Songs of Faith and Praise” which gives each Psalm with commentary and a short prayer after.  If you want to know more about the Psalms, this is a good tool. (It uses the Revised Grail Psalter, but doesn’t have the final changes, so it won’t match the new Breviary exactly, but I is close). 

Blessings,

Fr. Jim