Mary in the Liturgy of the Hours by Martha Garcia

Yes, you read that right. Someone wrote a 32-page article on Mary in the Liturgy of the Hours. I am linking it for the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For more articles on Mary see Marian Studies, University of Dayton. I think you'll find a lot of it interesting. One of the many items  Martha Garcia covered in her article is shown below. Read the whole thing and celebrate Mary on her feast day. 

Visitation

1st Reading from the Song of Songs (2:8-14; 8:6-7). The coming of the beloved. Response: Marian.

2nd Reading by St. Bede the Venerable (Lib. 1,4: CCL 122, 25-26, 30). The greatness of the Lord working in Mary.

From the hours for this feast: Oration(s): Keep us united in prayer with Mary; "with Mary may we praise you."

Marian Titles: Israel, white dawn, mother of mercy, queen of heaven.

Marian Themes: God's "loved one from the beginning"; "taken ... to live with him"; his chosen; one preserved beforehand from all sin; the Savior's "purest home and the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit"; the Lord's humble, lowly servant; mother of God's Son.

Brooklyn Museum - The Visitation (La visitation) - James Tissot

USCCB will gather for their annual Spring General Assembly, June 13-14

Slowly the Liturgy of the Hours will be revised and updated, perhaps even in our lifetime.

Among the topics scheduled for discussions will be the Liturgy of the Hours:

"Discussion and votes will also be proposed regarding new translations of various components of the Liturgy of the Hours including certain antiphons and intercessions. This will be one of several votes due to occur for this project over the next few years. Translations of the Liturgy of the Hours Grail Psalms have already been approved for U.S. dioceses.    

Added discussion and votes will occur regarding supplementary materials for the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours for the feast days of Saints John Paul II, John XXIII, and Mary Magdalene."

http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-080.cfm

Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest

For Mitchell Palmer and all those who are celebrating the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest. Here is a link for a 35-page PDF containing the text (i.e., propers) for the feast from the Liturgy Office of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It has the Liturgy of the  Hours, Lectionary, the Roman Missal, the Roman Martyrology, and hymns in musical notation. It has rubrics in red and helpful notes. It's a beautiful thing to read and pray and sing no matter where you live. Enjoy!

From the New Liturgical Movement

How to Choose Art for the Psalms and the Divine Office: A Summary of Past Principles

by DAVID CLAYTON

If you want to see some of the best Christian art ever created (in my humble opinion) then do a search on google images for “Gothic psalters” or “medieval illumination”. By digging around from those starting points, you can see wonderful examples of Western and Eastern Christian sacred illumination. Unlike, most larger paintings, the pages have not been displayed for centuries in the light, and their colors remain fresh, their design sharp and clean...

Which Marian Antiphon after Compline?

Traditionally, the Marian antiphon that concludes Night Prayer (compline) is supposed to vary according to the liturgical season.

Right now--ordinary time--we say the Salve Regina aka Hail, Holy Queen. The Alma Redemptoris Mater is for  the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Ave, Regina Caelorum is for Lent. Regina Caeli for the Easter season.

Some longer explanation and the musical history of these great marian hymns can be found today in The National Catholic Register

New Memorial Alert!

For anyone who did not read the comments on the previous post.

A new memorial for  Mary, Mother of the Church, has been established by Pope Francis on the Monday after Pentecost. Until such as time as new official texts are finalized and translated into English, our bishops tell us to celebrate this memorial thusly:

Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer:
Psalmody of the current weekday. (Which this year will be Monday, week III, since it will be week 7 of Ordinary time. )

Other elements may be taken  from either  the Psalter of the day OR the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, except for the following:

Prayer

O God, Father of mercies,
whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother,
to be our Mother also,
grant, we pray, that with her loving help
your Church may be more fruitful day by day
and, exulting in the holiness of her children,
may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Mike Demers and I wish you all a blessed Pentecost. May the fire fall and kindle in you the flame of God's love. Enjoy the "Green Valley" of ordinary time.  

From Notre Dame: A DIVINE SCHOOL OF SOLIDARITY: THE HOURS [updated]

You never know what you'll find on the internet. Here's a great piece from the University of Notre Dame's Oblation: Life and Liturgy section on the Liturgy of the Hours. Look at the opening paragraph by Timothy P. O'Malley, PhD.:

Each morning at 5:00 AM, I rise and plop down upon the couch in my living room to greet the new day. My deepest desire at the time is to consume a cup of coffee and to gaze mindlessly at the television as I recover from slumber. Yet, more often than not, I pass by this temptation to spend the morning “doing” the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer (with a cup of coffee in hand, of course). Before 5:30 AM comes around, I have acknowledged to God the sin that I am responsible for; I have asked God to let me hear the voice of the Lord thundering over the mountains; I have lamented the sorrows that inflict not only me but the entire People of God; and, I have praised God for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’s recreation of the world.

Read the whole thing. Highly recommended by me and Daria!

A DIVINE SCHOOL OF SOLIDARITY: THE HOURS

http://sites.nd.edu/oblation/files/2015/09/Hours.jpg

Wait! There's more...

ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY AND THE PLAYFUL GRAVITY OF TIME

THE COMFORT OF NIGHT PRAYER

“NEVER SHALL THEY ENTER MY REST”: THE DANGEROUS COMMITMENT OF THE INVITATORY PSALM

Update: 

The Oblation: Liturgy and Life website has changed its name to Church Life Journal. I have now found 38 results for the Liturgy of the Hours on this site. There is so much to read and learn here. Check it out!

Repost: Evening Prayer I for Ascension tonight...

http://dariasockey.blogspot.com/2013/05/evening-prayer-i-for-ascension-tonight.html

John Singleton Copley, 1775

Everyone's Writing About Psalms these Days

Doing my work for me. It's great.

In this article the incomparable Msgr Charles Pope wonders aloud why we use Psalm 19 ("The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the firmament shows forth the work of his hands...") for feasts of Apostles.

He wonders, and then he answers the question very nicely.

The Psalm that Brought him Home

In case you missed it, check out this piece from the National Catholic Registerabout Psalm 88.

We read Psalm 88 every Friday night at Compline. You know, it's the one that ends, "Friend and neighbor you have taken away, my one companion is darkness."

It's the ultimate example of how the psalms are the perfect antidote to the twisted notion that a Real Saint absolutely enjoys suffering, offering fervent thanks to God whenever it occurs and begging Him for even more. And conversely, that if we complain to God and question His plans during our hours of darkness, we are bad, bad, bad!

Nope. It's not so simple. This author points out:

As I sat in that waiting room reading these words over and over again, new shades of meaning emerged, along with new questions, the most pressing of all being, “How did this get in the Bible?” It’s a rebuke to everything we learned in Sunday school about faith in a loving God. That’s because the Psalm is incomplete on its own. The circle of meaning remained open, a question like those asked by the Psalmist and so many other writers of the Old Testament. Only in the fullness of time would the meaning be clear. The Psalm was completed on calvary. The pit of darkness was not and could not be the end because Christ climbed back out of it.

The words of Psalm 88—like the words of all the Psalms—are spoken by Christ himself. And if the Son of God can hurl this howl of rage and despair at His Father, along with the other hymns of praise and doubt and thanksgiving and lamentation, then all the experience of humanity—its wonders and horrors, joys and sorrows—are inscribed in the flesh of Christ. In writing the entire world in flesh, God gave all of it new meaning, new life.

Read the rest. 

National Catholic Register: How to Pray Before Your Daily Prayers by Kevin Di Camillo

The Liturgy of the Hours is, next to Holy Mass itself, the prayer par excellence.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/dicamillo/how-to-pray-before-your-daily-prayers