Saturday, January 3, 2015

Christmastide Breviary Confusion, continued

The homepage today at ibreviary.com has some explanation for what's going on. Summary: it's not us--it's the book. Read on:

Dear users of the iBreviary,

We would like to take a moment to explain our choice of texts for the weekdays of the Christmas season upto the Epiphany in the English version of the iBreviary.

Due to an error in the liturgical books for the Liturgy of the Hours that follow the translation of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, the weekdays from January 2nd to the Epiphany are incorrectly labeled according to the weekday instead of the calendar date (i.e.‘Monday from January 2 to the Epiphany’ instead of ‘January 2’) in the printed books.

This is clear from the rubrics found for the Office of Readings in the printed books for the ‘Second Sunday of Christmas’ and the ‘Monday from January 2 to Epiphany’. It is also evident from comparison with the Latin editio typical altera, as well as the liturgical books printed for the use of the UK/Australia/NZ, etc. and Africa.

Despite this error, many communities prefer to still observe the Liturgy of the Hours according to the weekday rather than the calendar day.
 This is because the Roman Missal follows the weekday (i.e.  ‘Monday/Tuesday, etc. from January 2 to the Saturday before the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord’) instead of the calendar date (January 2’, ‘January 3’, etc.) when assigning Mass texts. By using the texts for the weekday rather than the calendar day, the Closing Prayer at the Hours are aligned with the Collect (Opening Prayer) at Mass.

Both sets of texts have thus been provided so that users may follow the prevalent usage of their own community. The first set of texts is provided according to the weekday (e.g. Thursday from January 2 to the Epiphany') and the second according to the calendar date as found in the Latin edition (e.g. January 4).

We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused by this selection to any of our users. Thank you for your understanding and we wish all our users the blessings of the remainder of this holy season.

Another good reason to use ibreviary today: it has the second reading in the OOR and the concluding prayer for the recently revived optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus. This was a feast that had been  suppressed after Vatican II but Pope Benedict XVI decided to put it back in place.