Divine Office App and Site to Close!

Each  of the  3 major apps for Liturgy of the Hours have had some significant things happening lately--some good and some not.


First and foremost, our friends at DivineOffice.org are having some issues with the permissions for the many texts they quote in the app. This recent post by DivineOffice.org's founder and CEO Dane Falkner pretty much explains it. In short, Dane thought he already had all the permissions he needed, but apparently not. So in three days' time he will suspend sale of the divineoffice.org mobile app until the permission process is completed, and there is no telling how long that might be.

The texts in the Liturgy of the Hours have material that is copyrighted by the U.S. Bishops' conference, by ICEL (International Commission on English  in the Liturgy) and, for all I know, maybe by the Vatican as well. And, although the Prayer of the Church and the Word of God belong to all of us--guess what? The particular translations of these texts are copyrighted! And furthermore, getting permission to reproduce them is not easy. And furthermore, if you are going to make any money at all from reproducing them (and even in some cases, if you are not), the holders of the copyright are usually going to expect some compensation.

I learned this the hard way when I wanted to quote a handful of antiphons and a few other items from the breviary in The Everyday Catholic's Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours. I had to pay for that privilege. The psalms I quoted were from the Revised Grail Psalter rather than the current Grail version in our breviary, and although I had to obtain permission, the publisher of the RGP was gracious enough to not charge me anything for the psalms that I quoted.  And I also had to contact someone in Rome just to quote a few paragraphs from the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours. (again, no payment required--just the bother of writing and waiting for the Okay.)  

I can readily sympathize with Dane in this situation--there could be layers upon layers of permissions needed for the various parts of these texts. It's difficult to be aware of all the t's that need crossing and i's that need dotting when it comes to getting permissions. Besides, a zealous Christian tends to feel that we are all in the same boat of wanting to make liturgical prayer more widely available and loved--we don't expect these kinds of roadblocks.    Someone else I know recently rushed to put a papal encyclical text up on his website--simply in his zeal to make the pope's message accessible to more people-- and got slapped down by someone in the Vatican and threatened with legal action until he took it down.

Anyway, this is important: if you have been  thinking about buying the divineoffice.org app but were putting it off, DO IT NOW. Otherwise you may have to wait for a long  time. I know this app isn't free, but it's a good one and really worth it if you need the audio versions when travelling. 

Update: For these last few days it's available, the price of the app will only be $3.99  Definitely worth it. 

Update: This will also impact the free DivineOffice.org website.  Here's what Dane told me:
The second bit of breaking news is that we have been asked to close off the site to new members. This was very gracious of them to let us support our existing community and not shut us down completely. To this end, in the coming days, we will funnel everyone who comes to our site through a login process to login or create new logins. In a week or two we will close off access to new users.

On the more pleasant side of breviary apps news:

I mentioned several weeks ago that the newest version of iBreviary had significant bugs and pretty useless audio files (in "robo" language) added.  The good news there is that the app (at least my android version) doesn't seem to be crashing very often anymore.

Next, the Universalis app  (not the website version, only the mobile app) has a new option in the Office of Readings. As you may know, there is an optional two year cycle of scripture readings (a year I and year II cycle). You can already access the book/chapter/verse citations for these in an appendix of the one-volume Christian Prayer breviary, and then look them up in your bible. But now, with the touch of an app buttton, these alternate readings pop up for you, no fuss, no muss.

Please add a prayer that the difficulties that DivineOffice.org has encountered will be resolved quickly, so that this excellent ministry may continue to fulfill the hope of the Second Vatican Council, and more recently, Pope Benedict, that the Liturgy of the Hours be familiar to all the laity.

Intercessions in Lauds and Vespers--a Primer

A reprint of an older, but popular post. This is a good one to share with friends who are new to the Liturgy of the Hours.

 Did you ever notice that the prayers of intercession in Morning Prayer are of a different character than those of Evening Prayer? If not, take a look.

In the morning, we are still aiming at starting the day off right, that is, sanctifying it, and renewing our dedication to God. So these intercessions will focus on praising divine attributes and begging for divine assistance to help us grow in holiness. It's the Evening Prayer intercessions where we will pray for the needs of others: the pope and bishops, priests, for vocations, for the poor, the sick, and (this one every single day) the dead.
This distinction between morning and evening intercessions is not hard and fast. You'll see an occasional intercession for others in morning prayer, and occasional intercessions in evening prayer related to personal holiness. Also, on some Fridays, personal repentance and conversion predominates even during Evening prayer intercessions.

The General Instruction also states that you may add additional intercessions of your own composition at Evening Prayer, just prior to the final intercession listed in the breviary (which is always for the dead and/or the dying.)

More trivia. Many people who own four-volume breviaries aren't aware of an appendix of alternative, shorter intercessions that may be used in place of what is in the four week psalter. Appendix II.

Rubrics trivia: there are several options for how to pray the intercessions. Some are only meant for group recitation of the liturgy when one person functions as a leader. But whether in a group or private, most people try to use all options at once, as a result doing the intercessions awkwardly. To wit:

*The introductory, opening sentence of the intercessions is only meant when there is a group with a leader. If you are praying alone, you may simply begin with the first intercession.

*Each intercession has two parts, and a repeating, response along the lines of "Lord, hear our prayer" You may do one of the following with these elements:

 a. in a group, the leader reads both parts of the intercessions and the group responds with the "Lord hear our prayer"-type response. OR the group leader reads the first part of the intercession and the group responds with the second part, in which case the "Lord, hear our prayer"-thing is NOT said by anyone!!! OR the group without a leader takes turns with the two parts of the intercessions, but  in this case, once again, no one says the "Lord hear our prayer"-response!
b. When praying alone, you just say the two parts of the intercession, and omit the "Lord hear our prayer" -thing. If you are praying with one other person, one of you may read both parts of the intercession and the other do the "Lord hear our prayer." 
What is NOT correct--although it is done everywhere--is for the same person/s to say the second half of the intercession, and then aso say the Lord hear our prayer-response. It should be intuitive that this is awkward (you're responding to your own response--doesn't that feel odd?), but since the instructions in the ordinary don't explain how to do the intercessions, and almost no one bothers to read the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, we end up with an epidemic of Intercession Awkwardness.

I feel like a liturgical geek army of one in the Ban Intercession Awkwardness movement. But boy, it felt good to rant about this today.

However, I'll add this: if your group has been using the Awkward Method for years, and is not likely to accept you as an authority on this matter, don't be afraid that this is some Huge Liturgical Abuse that you must fight with all your might until you get kicked out of your prayer group. The Awkward Method still insures that all the intercessions are prayed, so really, no harm is done. It's not as if the group had decided to eliminate intercessions altogether, or use nothing but spontaneously composed intercessions.