![\"Stundenbuch\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/stundenbuch.jpg\")
I regard this experience as a personal challenge: How would I arrange an office book, preserving as much of the liturgical treasure as possible, but also making it more useful for beginners or communities with little experience? Could the Roman Catholic Church get something as simple as an Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer?<\/p>\n Here is an outline:<\/p>\n Let us neither reduce the course of hours per day nor the course of elements as used since 1970 (I am not against such ideas, but that would raise much more fundamental questions). The focus in the first step should be on the arrangement of psalms and canticles for a simplified office book, fully according to the Council\u2019s reform of the Liturgy of the Hours (Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/em> 83\u2013101) and preserving key elements of the Western tradition.<\/p>\n What should be preserved?<\/p>\n We can find all of these principles more or less in the entire history of Western liturgy from the Rule of St Benedict to date. Current Old Testament scholars consider the course reading the original meaning of the psalter: The psalms were meant to be meditated in exactly that order.<\/p>\n What should be done differently to the current Roman breviary?<\/p>\n I suggest a new office book with two parts. The first part contains the Office for a one-week-cycle, the second part contains all psalms and canticles in biblical order. You need one page marker for the first part (e.g. on the page where \u201cThursday Vespers\u201d begin), and one page marker for the second part (I will explain that a little later).<\/p>\n Every hour during the week has certain fixed psalms. The Lauds start with a morning psalm and end with a \u201claud psalm\u201d. The Little Hour starts with a torah psalm and ends with a pilgrim psalm. The Vespers start with an evening psalm and end with what could be called \u201cpsalm of rest\u201d which I select from the current psalms of Vespers and Compline. Those psalms should somehow lead over to the night \u2013 even if there is still Compline afterwards. So we have two psalms fixed for Lauds, Little Hour, and Vespers, the middle place is still empty. The Office of Readings is completely empty by now. The Compline gets a small selection of traditional Compline psalms (see below).<\/p>\n Finally \u2013 and this is where part two of the edition comes into play \u2013 all empty space is filled with course reading: Take as many psalms as you like and start where you have finished last time (this is where you need the second page marker). If you want to perpetuate the current order, you take one psalm in Lauds, Little Hour, and Vespers, and three psalms in the Office of Readings. If you are a priest very tired from work but obliged to pray the office, you take no psalm at all, so you are free to shorten the hour. If you are a hermit who loves to spend every minute with the Scripture, you take more than one psalm.<\/p>\n The result might look like this:<\/p>\n The result would not be a uniform Roman Breviary for the worldwide Church. It would rather be a flexible pattern that can be (and has to be) customized by every individual or group. I regard this as an advantage. Communities that do not pray all the hours do not miss any psalm. Even if it takes a long time before a certain psalm occurs, it will occur for sure some day. Every time you pray the office you get a new \u2013 maybe unsettling, maybe inspiring \u2013 combination of biblical words.<\/p>\n There are some additional ideas I have in mind. Most of them would enlarge the printed edition or make its use more complex:<\/p>\n The result might be a book of about 300 pages in post card size (without the readings for the Office of Readings); similar to the Office in an Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer.<\/p>\n Of course, all these ideas are not fully elaborated, but I would be interested in your opinion: Is this a way the Roman Catholic office book could go?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An idea for the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":38197,"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":[3118,18],"tags":[3008,3152],"class_list":["post-38169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-liturgy-of-the-hours","tag-liturgy-of-the-hours","tag-office-book"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Book](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bookofcommonprayer.jpg\")
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\nCourse reading (as long as you like)<\/li>\n
\nSunday: Ps 118 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 150
\nMonday: Ps 63 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 117
\nTuesday: Ps 3 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 145
\nWednesday: Ps 5 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 146
\nThursday: Ps 57 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 147
\nFriday: Ps 51 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 148
\nSaturday: Ps 92 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 149<\/li>\n
\nSunday: Ps 1 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 121
\nMonday: Ps 119 I \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps.122
\nTuesday: Ps 119 II \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 123
\nWednesday: Ps 119 III \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 124
\nThursday: Ps 119 V \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 125
\nFriday: Ps 119 XIV \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 126
\nSaturday: Ps 119 XVIII \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 127<\/li>\n
\nSunday: Ps 110 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 114
\nMonday: Ps 111 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 16
\nTuesday: Ps 113 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 138
\nWednesday: Ps 115 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 116
\nThursday: Ps 23 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 62
\nFriday: Ps 130 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 31
\nSaturday: Ps 141 \u2013 course reading \u2013 Ps 27<\/li>\n
\nDaily: Ps 4 \u2013 Ps 91 \u2013 Ps 134 (or a selection of these three)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
![\"Benediktinisches](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/benediktinischesbrevier.jpg\")