Sing a New and Ever-Ancient Song to the Lord! Introducing the Divine Office Hymnal

By Alexis Kazimira Kutarna

This summer, the new Divine Office Hymnal will be available in print: our first glance at the new translation of hymn texts for praying the Divine Office. This liturgical book of music represents the fruit of a decade’s worth of work for the new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, fittingly highlighting the song of praise of the Liturgy of the Hours, the eternal song of Christ to the Father.

For as the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH) notes, “When the Church offers praise to God in the Liturgy of the Hours, it unites itself with that hymn of praise which is sung in the heavenly places throughout all ages; it also receives a foretaste of the song of praise in heaven, described by John in the Book of Revelation, the song that is sung without ceasing before the throne of God and of the Lamb” (16).

The Divine Office Hymnal features the English translation of the hymn texts from the Latin typical edition. Each hymn is set to two different melodies: first to chant-melodies of the Gregorian repertoire, and second to metrical melodies. The choice to include both tunes from the Church’s tradition of Gregorian chant alongside metered hymn tunes serves to “encourage both aspects of the Church’s musical patrimony,” said Father Andrew Menke, executive director of the Secretariat for Divine Worship of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). He is optimistic, too, that “we might see a renaissance in praying the Liturgy of the Hours among the faithful,” echoing the call of encouragement from the Second Vatican Council for the laity to take up this daily prayer (see Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), 100). This hymnal represents a significant contribution to the liturgical life of the Church, both for individuals as well as communities who pray the hours in common, as “the divine office is the voice of the Church, that is of the whole mystical body publicly praising God” (SC, 99). The Liturgy of the Hours “is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer” (SC, 90).

Second Edition

At their fall meeting in 2012, the

“When the Church offers praise to God in the liturgy of the hours, it unites itself with that hymn of praise sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven; it also receives a foretaste of the song of praise in heaven, described by John in the Book of Revelation, the song sung continually before the throne of God and of the Lamb” (GILH 16).

USCCB voted to approve the “scope of work” for the new translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, according to the second typical edition (published by the Holy See in 1985). This scope called for the use of the entirety of the body of approved hymns from the Latin typical edition of the Liturgia Horarum and their translation into English. The work of translation of liturgical texts into English is accomplished by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) which serves the English-speaking episcopal conferences. Through the work of ICEL, the 294 Latin texts of the Office hymns were researched and translated by the efforts of several individuals and

Righteous Tunes

The Divine Office Hymnal—official soundtrack to the Liturgy of the Hours—is out and, as Alexis Kazimira Kutarna notes, its rich mix of everancient and ever-new was worth the wait 1

All-consuming Beauty

Taste and eat—taste and see! According to Mary Catherine Levri, the Catholic Church has the recipe for true beauty: Christ disfigured on the cross and Christ glorified at his Resurrection 6 De Lubac: De Profundis

Out of the deep mind of 20th-century theologian Henri De Lubac, Owen Vyner retrieves some timeless wisdom on the Eucharist and the Church as a timely way to bolster faith in both 8 the independent work of two women’s religious communities. Executive Director of ICEL, Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, remarked that this effort represents a “phenomenal recovery of a large portion of liturgical texts that were not previously available in English.”

In the current edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, the hymns are often presented with multiple options for texts, which many times do not include the rich and ancient hymnody present in the same edition in Latin. Instead, the decision was previously made to include modern hymn texts and other songs, often replacing or omitting these great masterpieces of

Please see HYMNAL on page 4

Formation’s Foundation

In this reprint from the book Liturgical Formation—translated for the first time into English by Jan Bentz—Romano Guardini explains how true formation in the liturgy is the liturgy 5

Reading History

John Grondelski reviews Paul Turner’s Words without Alloy: A Biography of the Lectionary for Mass—and he finds enough liturgical insights to fill a three-year cycle of Sundays 12

News & Views

Editorial

Pop Quiz: Are you smarter than a liturgist?

Orthodox Church has recognized the holiness of the Coptic martyrs, and celebrates them with other modern martyrs every 8th of Amshir, the sixth month of the Coptic calendar, which roughly corresponds to February 15 on the Gregorian calendar used by the Catholic Church.

“Today we hand over part of their relics, dipped in their blood shed in the name of Christ for the Church, so that they may be remembered in the martyrology of all the Churches of the world, and know ‘we too’ are ‘surrounded by such a multitude of witnesses,’” he said.

“Precisely because the saints are one of the main pillars of our Churches, beginning with the apostles Peter, Paul, and Mark,” Pope Tawadros said, “we now write in the martyrology of the Churches the new martyrs who have guarded the faith and bore witness to Christ, who did not lose heart in the face of torture and passed on to us a living example in martyrdom.”

The May 11 meeting between Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II, which also included a private conversation, concluded with prayer in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

The encounter was one of several events this week marking the 50th anniversary of a historic meeting between St. Paul VI and Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, which was a turning point in relations between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches.

On May 10, Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II held the Vatican’s weekly public audience together, each expressing his gratitude for the friendship of the two Churches. This date marked the 10th commemoration of the “Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship.”

On May 10, 1973, St. Paul VI and Pope Tawadros’ predecessor, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, signed a joint declaration that marked a major development in relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church.

While in Rome, Pope Tawadros II also celebrated an Orthodox Divine Liturgy at the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran and visited the local Coptic Orthodox community.

The Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the Orthodox Church’s sacraments.

Pope Tawadros II, 70, is the 118th pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. There are an estimated 10 million Coptic Orthodox Christians in the world, roughly 90% of whom live in Egypt.

St. Peter’s Basilica Introduces ‘Prayer Entrance’ Amid Tourism Influx

By Courtney Mares

CNA—With 100,000 people cramming into St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday in 2023, the lines to enter the Vatican basilica have returned to their prepandemic wait times.

In light of the influx of tourists to the Eternal City, the Vatican has introduced a separate “prayer entrance” for Catholics who want to enter St. Peter’s Basilica for Mass, confession, or adoration.

The entrance, signaled only by a small sign, is immediately to the right of the barricades to enter through the metal detectors on the right side of the piazza.

Mountain Butorac, who leads small groups of Catholics on pilgrimages to Rome with his company The Catholic Traveler, calls the prayer entrance “long overdue.”

According to Butorac, it can take up to two hours of waiting in a long line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica during the peak tourism season.

“When I first moved to Rome, I was always going to Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s…, but then standing in line for an hour and a half to go to Mass got old pretty fast,” he told CNA.

“We also do weekly family confession there and we always would have to go right at 7 or 8 a.m. And now we can go later in the day,” he added.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said the prayer entrance was introduced during Holy Week on an “experimental basis.”

“In line with the Holy Father’s wish, we would like to restore maximum accessibility to the sanctuary for spiritual, liturgical, and celebratory life,” Cardinal Gambetti said.

The cardinal expressed hope that the new entrance will “allow the faithful, prayer groups, and pilgrims to come to pray in St. Peter’s and participate in the sacraments easily, without waiting in long queues.”

The prayer entrance will soon lead to a “pilgrim path” designated by red velvet ropes that will guide people along the right side wall of the basilica, while the throngs of tourists and guided groups will remain in the main part of the basilica.

The new path will bring pilgrims past Michelangelo’s Pietà and the tomb of St. John Paul II directly to the chapel with daily Eucharistic adoration and the back corner of the basilica reserved for confessions.

However, it appears that the Vatican is still coordinating the logistics of this prayer path after the soft launch of the new entrance during Holy Week, as the current prayer entrance merely drops pilgrims off at the front of the line to enter through security, essentially allowing those who wish to access the sacraments in the basilica an option to “skip the line.”

To enter, tell the security guard near the new prayer entrance sign that you are coming to the basilica to pray.

Recap of U.S. Bishops’ Spring Plenary in Orlando

ORLANDO, FL—TheThe United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered June 14-16 for their Spring Plenary Assembly in Orlando, FL. Throughout the gathering, the bishops spent time in prayer and fraternal dialogue with one another.

Four of the action items the bishops voted on pertained to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), the commission established for the benefit of bishops’ conferences in countries where English is used in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy according to the Roman Rite.

1) The ICEL Gray Book of the Liturgical Texts for Saint Faustina Kowalska passed with 165 votes in favor, 0 votes against, and 2 abstentions. The approval of this requires a two-thirds vote of the Latin-rite bishops, with subsequent “confirmatio” from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

2) The ICEL Gray Book of the Ordinary of the Liturgy of the Hours passed with 165 votes in favor, 3 votes against, and 2 abstentions. The approval of this requires a two-thirds vote of the Latinrite bishops, with subsequent “confirmatio” and “recognitio” from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

3) The Proper Texts for the Dioceses of the United States of America for the Liturgy of the Hours passed with 168 votes in favor, 1 vote against, and 1 abstention. The approval of this requires a twothirds vote of the Latin-rite bishops, with subsequent “confirmatio” and “recognitio” from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

4) The bishops also passed an action item pertaining to the revision of the statutes that govern ICEL’s work with 165 votes in favor, 2 votes against, and 2 abstentions.