So we sit perhaps in a starry chamber of silence, while the laughter of the heavens is too loud for us to hear… The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels… never concealed His tears. Yet He concealed something… He never restrained His anger… Yet He restrained something… There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or imperious isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that is was His mirth.
God’s mirth
Posted by universalis on 16 April 2009
Posted in Reading | 2 Comments »
What if she had said No?
Posted by universalis on 25 March 2009
This reflection appears on the Universalis web site each year on the feast of the Annunciation. I have reproduced it here because some people have asked me if they can link to it.
The question may strike you as irreverent. How dare I suggest that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, Tower of David and all the rest, could have left us in the lurch like that?
But what if she had?
Posted in Reflections | 1 Comment »
Universalis on Linux
Posted by universalis on 17 February 2009
If you’re using the Universalis web site, your browser will display it for you just as easily on Linux as on any other system. This posting is about using the downloadable Universalis on Linux.
There is no specific Linux version of the downloadable Universalis. However, one user has written to us about his experiences of using the Windows version under Linux. Here is his story:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | 3 Comments »
Pasting into Word
Posted by universalis on 6 February 2009
If you copy and paste the contents of a Universalis page (for example, Vespers) from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word, then you will find that the leftmost half an inch of each psalm is missing. This is a Microsoft bug. If you use a different web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, you will not have the problem.
Here are two ways of working round this problem.
Posted in Technical, The Universalis site | 1 Comment »
New layout
Posted by universalis on 5 February 2009
We’ve changed the layout of the daily Liturgy pages to make them clearer. We have tested the changes on several browsers, and they should work correctly on AvantGo as well.
If you have any problems displaying the new layout, please let us know by following the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of every Universalis page.
Posted in The Universalis site | 1 Comment »
Antiphons available for download
Posted by universalis on 28 January 2009
The latest downloadable Windows, Mac, Windows Mobile and Palm versions now include the antiphons. You can download the software here. If you have already bought a registration code then it will continue to work and you won’t need to buy a new one.
The updated iPhone / iPod Touch version has been submitted to Apple and will be available as soon as they have approved it. If you already have the software then you will be notified automatically through the App Store as soon as the updated version is available. The update is free of charge.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | 2 Comments »
Antiphons added!
Posted by universalis on 26 January 2009
I’ve now added the antiphons to the Divine Office. There are over 2,000 of them. You’ll find them attached to the psalms in Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the Office of Readings; also to the Benedictus in Morning Prayer and the Magnificat in Evening Prayer. This makes Universalis more complete.
If you’re looking at the web site, you can see the antiphons now. The downloadable Universalis will be updated soon – when that’s been done, an announcement will be sent to the mailing list and I’ll post a blog entry here as well.
Posted in The Universalis site | 9 Comments »
Universalis has been updated
Posted by universalis on 2 November 2008
Posted in Downloadable Universalis, The Universalis site | 16 Comments »
Psalm translations for Mass
Posted by universalis on 22 October 2008
I have a question that I’d like to ask the users of Universalis.
Everyone will have noticed that in the Readings at Mass page of Universalis, the scripture readings are shown but the responsorial psalm isn’t. This is for copyright reasons. The owners of the copyright in the psalms used in churches in most of the English-speaking world (the Grail translation) do not allow their copyright material to be reproduced on the Web.
It’s not impossible that attitudes will change one day, but meanwhile there are two things that we might do:
- Reproduce our own translation of the relevant psalm (the same version that you see in the Liturgy of the Hours), with a warning that this is for reference only and is not the version that you will hear in church.
- Reproduce the Jerusalem Bible translation of the relevant psalm, with the same warning.
The question is: would either of these courses of action be useful to you (“any psalm translation is better than none at all”), or would they be irritating (“better have nothing than have the wrong translation”)? If they would be useful, do you have any preference?
If you are in the USA, please do not respond: the issues are different there, and I hope to write a post about them soon.
Update: Thank you all for your comments. They have been very useful indeed and will help with our future planning.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis, The Universalis site | 40 Comments »
Universalis on the iPhone
Posted by universalis on 16 July 2008
There are now two Universalis-based programs available for download on the iPhone App Store. Both of them will work on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | Tagged: iPhone, iPod Touch | 60 Comments »
Electric Prayer 