Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Postscript to Breviary Revision , Welcome, Q&A

 To add to yesterday's post about the proposed changes to the breviary. It's important to realize that I only reported on what the various bishops stated were items proposed for revision in the breviary during discussion sessions.  Each of them spoke while referring to a booklet or folder which must been the complete proposed scope of the project.
There may well have been more changes, and more specific detail about the changes, in these booklets  that did not come up in the discussion. If anyone out there is friends with a bishop and can get a peak at that booklet, let me know!

One thing referenced in passing at the bishops meeting that I forgot to mention was the addition of extra antiphons for the gospel canticles on Sunday Evening Prayer I, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer II. There should be 3 different antiphons for each of these hours, for years A, B and  of the lectionary. This way, the gospel canticle antiphons will always reference the Sunday gospel of whatever year it is. (As the breviary stands now, we get one canticle each from year A, B and C, so only one antiphon each weekend actually matches the gospel. Some countries already have this complete cycle of antiphons in their breviaries. It will be great having it here in the USA.

Welcome new blog followers Matt, "DiTo32", an "dchris". Matt has a blog about books, especially liturgical books, and usually traditional liturgical books at that. He does very thorough and well illustrated reviews. It was partly due to one of his posts that I decided to shell out  for the Pauline editions  Kenyan breviary earlier this year. By using the Mundelein psalter for hymns and psalm tones, the Kenyan breviary for its Revised Grail Psalms and extra Sunday antiphons, and ibreviary for the concluding prayer, I'm already experiencing pretty much what the rest of America will have to wait five years for.

Okay, if anyone has  a question, either about the Bishops' decision on the breviary, or the usual stuff about how to pray the Divine Office correctly, then fire away. All questions are good questions.