Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Closing Up Shop

Dear Readers,

Since 2011 I've been blogging about the Liturgy of the Hours.  The title, Coffee&Canticles,along with the image of breviary, beverage, and to-do list was meant to evoke the audience I was trying to reach. We're laymen who, encouraged by the statements of Vatican II and recent popes, are trying to make the public prayer of the Church an anchor of our day. Not being monks or nuns who respond to bells, file into the choir, and learn from their elders how to use the breviary and understand the psalms, we have questions to ask and adaptations to make. We also wanted to share our "wow!" moments as we started to uncover the glories of praying with the words, heart and mind of Christ while joined to His mystical body, the Church universal.

Although my love for the Liturgy of the Hours hasn't waned, my desire to blog about it has, somewhat. So has the time I have for this project, given some changes in  my daily and weekly responsibilities at home.  I'm not sure how many times in the last two years I've chided myself for not blogging here  often enough. How many times I  resolved to do better, and...didn't.

Mike Demers has been supplying for my failings pretty well since March, but he, too, has responsibilities at home that have made blogging difficult. (Thank you, Mike!)

So, all in all, it seems like the time is ripe for me to close up shop here and move on.

The good news, which was pointed out by in the comments by  Rachael on this recent post, the Liturgy of the Hours seems to be much more of a topic on the Catholic internet subculture than it was in 2011. Maybe this blog (and my book which more or less grew out of this blog) managed to light a small fire which is now spreading nicely.  This blog was once one of a very few places on the web to learn about the Divine Office, the breviary, etc.  That is no longer so.

Although I probably won't be writing here anymore, I'm not taking the blog down just yet. So long as it doesn't get hacked or overrun with spam comments, it will remain here as a resource. If you have a question about some aspect of the LOTH, just do a google search on my name plus a keyword such as "psalm prayers" or "memorials and optional memorials" or "hymns" (to name a few perenniel topics) and you should get a list of posts that deal with your question.

If you crave an ongoing community discussion of the Liturgy of the Hours--which frankly I haven't been much supplying lately) then it's time to join one of the many fine Facebook groups devoted to it. Two of these that I belong to are called "Liturgy of the Hours Discussion and Support Group (Catholic and Anglican)"  and "Breviary and Divine Office Discussion Group." (This latter tends more toward discussion of traditional, pre-1962 breviaries for those of that persuasion.) I'm also told that   fans of Reddit will find an LOTH subreddit if they look.

If you are holding your breath (N.B.,don't!) about progress towards the new translation/revision of the USA breviary, then check now and then at www.usccb.org, especially following any meeting of the Bishop's conference. Just put "liturgy of the hours, second edition" in their search box and you should be able to find the latest developments.

Anyone else who knows of other good sources should feel free to list them in comments.

In conclusion, it's been  fun and inspiring getting to know so many fellow LOTH fans. Your questions have spurred me to learn more. Your obvious devotion and love for the psalter keep me from taking it for granted. Thank you.

If anyone has a question that isn't answered with a search of this blog (or through reading my book )
feel free to email me. thesockeys"at" gmail is where you can reach me.

May the Lord bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
















Thursday, June 21, 2018

An update on divineoffice.org

Way back in May 2016 divineoffice.org had to reorganize itself as a Nonprofit(c)(3) status due to legal problems regarding permissions with GIA (psalms) and the USCCB for selections from the New American Bible. It has been a long and costly process for this website. It was soon forced to close itself to the public. 

The unique thing about divineoffice.org was its audio library of hymns and the entire Liturgy of the Hours was spoken, recited, chanted, and sung every day for all the hours. It was truly an amazing thing and showed how much work and love these people had put into it. 

I asked Monica Geana yesterday for an update. I'll simply post her reply:

We are told the review of our content will take another 6 months, so God willing, we will be able to add the app back on the market and open the website next year. I'm sorry we don't have a precise date. God bless.
Thank you for praying with us,

Monica

DivineOffice.org
facebook.com/divineoffice
twitter.com/DivineOffice
Please help divineoffice.org by your prayers and any financial contributions you can afford. Thank you.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Update on LH from Bishops' Conference [updated]

With thanks and a tip of the hat to one of our regular readers, Tom B., we have the following information:

By the way, results from the Bishops' summer conference:

COMMITTEE ON DIVINE WORSHIP


SUBJECT: Proposed translation of the Liturgy of the Hours: Proper of Time


ACTION ITEM #4: Do the Latin Church members approve the ICEL Gray Book translation of the Liturgy of the Hours: Proper of Time for use in the dioceses of the United States?


VOTE: Majority of the members present and voting
Two-thirds of the Latin Church members with subsequent confirmatio by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments


RESULTS: Passed (175-Yes, 6-No, 2-Abstain)


http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-101.cfm

UPDATE: Here's an interesting look at the work done by ICEL from an article at Adoremus by Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth.
Excerpt:

These texts, of widely differing character, have required much attention and now move towards their final stage of appraisal as Gray Books for the canonical vote of the bishops’ conferences before they are ratified by the Holy See for liturgical use. [NB: Gray Books are the final ICEL draft presented to the bishops; Green Books are the initial draft.] Each of these texts presents significant challenges which have to be resolved as the translation process unfolds. It may be of interest for me to comment on the early stages of the preparation of these texts.

Read the whole thing. It shows how much work is involved and why it's very time-consuming.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

NCR Podcast: Reflecting on ordinary time

Here's a podcast on something many of us take for granted: Ordinary Time or as Daria calls it, "the Green Valley".

Excerpt:

The liturgical season of ordinary time may be long, but it's deceptively full of the extraordinary...

(Unsplash/Calwaen Liew)