Vatican website translation:<\/p>\n
93. To whatever extent may seem desirable, the hymns are to be restored to their original form, and whatever smacks of mythology or ill accords with Christian piety is to be removed or changed. Also, as occasion may arise, let other selections from the treasury of hymns be incorporated.<\/p>\n
Latin text:<\/p>\n
93. Hymni, quantum expedire videtur, ad pristinam formam restituantur, iis demptis vel mutatis quae mythologiam sapiunt aut christianae pietati minus congruunt. Recipiantur quoque, pro opportunitate, alii qui in hymnorum thesauro inveniuntur.<\/strong><\/p>\n Slavishly literal translation:<\/p>\n 93. Hymns, as much as it seems advantageous, are to be restored to their pristine form, with those things excised or changed that are understood as myth or are less congruent with Christian piety. In addition, as opportune, let other [texts] that are found in the treasury of hymns be received.<\/p>\n I have found both Matthew Britt\u2019s The Hymns of the Breviary and the Missal<\/em> (New York et al.: Benziger Brothers, Inc., 1955 [orig. 1922] and Joseph Connelly\u2019s Hymns of the Roman Liturgy<\/em> (New York et al.: Longmans, Green and Co Inc, 1957) helpful in appreciating the Latin hymns appearing in the Roman Rite Divine Office. \u00a0I expect that the new online Dictionary of Hymnology<\/em> (hymnology.co.uk) will have even more riches to plumb as scholarship has advanced.<\/p>\n Both Britt and Connelly provide background to the Council Father\u2019s directive that the hymns of the Office are to be \u201crestored to their pristine form.\u201d Connelly writes: \u201cWhatever the origin of the hymnal, it is quite certain that, when formed, it came under fire from the Humanists. It was, in their eyes, a tasteless thing and its Latin inelegant and barbarous. A revision of the hymns was made\u2026and Clement VII allowed its use in the private recitation of the Office\u2026. The unrevised text of the hymns was used by Quignon in his Breviary and also in the Breviary of Pius V. But the desire for reform was still present and the seventeenth century saw the desire fulfilled. This revision, no universally admitted to have been a great mistake, was set on foot by Urban VIII and carried out vigorously by him in his double capacity of pope and poet\u2026.\u201d [xvii].<\/p>\n Britt offers a summary of the hymn text revisions carried out under Urban VIII: \u201c952 corrections were made in the 98 hymns then in the Breviary. Eighty-one hymns were corrected: 58 alterations were made in the hymns of the Psalter, 359 in the Proper of the Season, 283 in the Proper of the Saints, and 252 in the Common of the Saints. The first lines of more than 30 hymns were altered. The Ave, maris stella<\/em>, the Jam lucis orto sidere<\/em>, the hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a few others were spared. It required no little confidence to correct the hymns of St. Ambrose, Fortunatus, Sedulius, and Prudentius; but apparently there was no lack of confidence. Some hymns were practically rewritten, others were scarcely touched\u2026. The revised version\u2026was introduced into the Roman Breviary in 1632.\u201d [xxiii-xxiv].<\/p>\n While the work of restoring these Latin hymn texts does appear in the post-Vatican II multi-volume Roman Rite Liturgia Horarum<\/em>, it has had relatively little impact upon those praying the Office in English since the hymn texts found there (mostly written in the 19th and 20th C) are not limited to translations of the hymn texts found in the Latin editio typica<\/em>. Presumably territorial bishops\u2019 conferences decided that more recent vernacular hymn texts could fulfill the prescription that \u201cother [texts] that are found in the treasury of hymns be received [in the reformed Office].\u201d Interestingly, a few decades of use made it clear that the vernacular hymn texts provided in the English versions of the Liturgy of the Hours<\/em> were not always congruent with the idea of the sanctification of daily time at the core of the Office. A group of distinguished liturgists and musicians from a variety of religious communities collaborated on the creation of a Hymnal for the Hours<\/em> (Chicago, IL: G.I.A. Publications, Inc., 1989), but how wide-spread its use has been is unclear. New English translations of the revised Latin hymn texts have been made a priority for the revision of the English-language Roman Rite Divine Office.<\/p>\n Although this change was not mandated by the Council Fathers, the revisers of the editio typica<\/em> moved the placement of the hymn from its traditional place after the biblical readings (thus serving in many cases as a meditative summary of the scriptures proclaimed) to the beginning of each hour after the opening dialogues (and the Invitatory Psalm in the case of the Office of Readings).<\/p>\n Pray Tell<\/em> readers may wish to discuss: 1) the present position for the hymn in each Hour; 2) the advantages and disadvantages of singing the hymns in their revised Latin texts; 3) the advantages and disadvantages of restricting Office hymnody to vernacular translations of the revised Latin texts; 4) the characteristics that should mark Office hymns intended for \u201cfull, conscious and active\u201d participation of the faithful; 5) what distinctions might be made between the hymnody needed for religious communities who pray the Office in common daily and parochial and other communities who pray the Office more irregularly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hymns, as much as it seems advantageous, are to be restored to their pristine form, with those things excised or changed that are understood as myth or are less congruent with Christian piety. In addition, as opportune, let other [texts] that are found in the treasury of hymns be received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[18,22,3814,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgy-of-the-hours","category-music-hymns","category-re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium","category-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n