There wasn’t a newsletter in August, because so many people were away, but now everyone is back, so are the newsletters. Autumn is about to get into its stride, with the Office of Readings taking us through two weeks of Ezekiel, backed by St Augustine’s magnificent sermon On Pastors.
Chanting the Psalms
Posted by universalis on 19 July 2018
The Grail psalms, which are used in the English Liturgy of the Hours, are designed with a given number of stresses in each line. The number of syllables per line may vary from one verse to the next, but the stress pattern remains consistent throughout the psalm. As one might say:
When chánting each psálm,
the páttern of stréss is consístent.
If you lóok at the márks,
you will sée how the psálm should be chánted.
In general, among the printed Liturgy of the Hours books, the English books tend to include these marks (“pointing”) and the American ones tend not to. The latest versions of Universalis give you a choice between viewing the stress marks (if they are helpful) or hiding them (if they are distracting).
The question then arises – what to do with these marks once you have them?
Posted in Downloadable Universalis, Liturgy | 1 Comment »
Cheating with the daytime Hours
Posted by universalis on 13 July 2018
In the Liturgy of the Hours, the daytime Hours (Terce, Sext and None) are designed to cater for all preferences. Specifically, they are designed to cater for people who celebrate all three of them each day and also for people who celebrate only one.
The tricky thing about the daytime Hours is that what psalms you use depends on which kind of person you are. There are “psalms of the day” which should be used each day, once only; and there are “complementary psalms” which should be used at any daytime Hour when you don’t recite the psalms of the day. Moreover, now and then, there are rules about which Hour you can use the psalms of the day at, and which you can’t.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis, Liturgy | Comments Off on Cheating with the daytime Hours
“Waking up to God”: a review
Posted by universalis on 17 April 2018
José Manuel Eguiguren, Waking up to God: an Experience of Lectio Divina, Downside Abbey Press 2017, ISBN: 978-1-898663-19-5, £20 from Downside Abbey Bookshop (follow the link or email them at books@downside.co.uk).
In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI said, ‘Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time.’ The ancient practice of Lectio Divina is becoming increasingly well known to Catholics and is building strong links with Christians of other Churches and traditions. Universalis has recently included in its offer an approach to Lectio Divina that takes users to the Gospel of the day and places it within a framework that encourages readers to listen with the ear of the heart, as Jesus’ first disciples listened to him and, where possible, to share with one another what God’s Word is saying to them in their own personal situation.
There are already a great many books on Lectio Divina and Waking up to God is big (over 500 pages). Why should you read it?
Posted in Spiritual Life | Comments Off on “Waking up to God”: a review
When do the psalm-prayers happen?
Posted by universalis on 23 February 2018
In the revision and renewal of the Liturgy of the Hours that was completed in the early 1970s, one of the important and interesting changes was the addition of “psalm-prayers”, collects that are inserted after each psalm and canticle. As §112 of the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours puts it:
Orationes super psalmos, quae recitantes adiuvent in eorum interpretatione praecipue christiana, in Supplemento libri Liturgiae Horarum pro singulis psalmis proponuntur et possunt ad libitum adhiberi ad normam veteris traditionis, ita scilicet ut, absoluto psalmo et aliquo silentii spatio observato, oratio psallentium affectus colligat et concludat.
“Prayers on the psalms, to help those who recite the psalms to interpret them in a particularly Christian sense, are offered for each psalm in the Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours. They can, if wished, be added to the Office, following an ancient tradition – that is, the psalm having been completed and a certain period of silence having been observed, to bring together the thoughts and feelings of those who have recited the psalm, and to bring them to a conclusion.”
That section does not say anything about exactly when the psalm-prayers should be said (if people choose to use them). Some American books place the psalm-prayers before the final antiphon. This is wrong. The psalm-prayer should go after the final antiphon and an optional period of silence. Here is §202 of the General Instruction:
The purpose of this silence is to allow the voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard more fully in our hearts, and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and the public voice of the Church. […] Periods of silence may be inserted in different ways: after the psalm, once its antiphon has been repeated… and especially if there is a Psalm-prayer after the silence…
Accordingly Universalis places the psalm-prayers after the final antiphon.
Posted in Liturgy | 2 Comments »
Electric Prayer 