{"id":46330,"date":"2019-03-15T13:16:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T18:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=46330"},"modified":"2019-04-02T12:56:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T17:56:33","slug":"an-unlikely-liturgist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/15\/an-unlikely-liturgist\/","title":{"rendered":"An unlikely liturgist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1845 when John Henry Newman entered into full communion with the Catholic Church it was considered remarkable that he managed to figure out how to pray the breviary by himself, without the need to be initiated by an expert. This was a feat that was not repeated in the case of any of the other Oxford dons who entered the Catholic Church!<a href=\"\/\/9154854D-6494-41B8-B650-D7D6ED4CEE7C#_ftn1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since Newman\u2019s day the Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Rite has been comprehensively revised on two occasions. Both of these revisions significantly simplified the rubrics. The first revision was published under Pope Pius X in 1913. The second revision was prepared after Vatican II popularised the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours in people\u2019s everyday languages and simplified the whole liturgy.&nbsp;&nbsp;However the current edition is still a somewhat complicated arrangement. Indeed it wouldn\u2019t be an exaggeration to say that most people are very off put by the complicated structure of the Liturgy of the Hours when they first encounter it, and many people feel intimidated by the volumes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However new technology, that nobody could even imagine when the Liturgy of the Hours was last revised in the late 1960\u2019s, has made it much easier for anybody to pray the full Liturgy of the Hours today, and the popularization of these technologies has created a new type of liturgical leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this post I give a short introduction to an unlikely leader of the contemporary liturgical movement.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nugae.com\/\">Martin Kochanski<\/a>, the owner and founder of Universalis Publishing. Martin is not a trained theologian or liturgist. He is more of an accidental liturgical leader, yet his influence on a practical level surpasses that of many chairs of liturgy in various theological departments. Martin studied his secondary school in the Benedictine Abbey of Downside and went on to Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Mathematics and Philosophy. Upon graduation he entered the field of computer software writing software for the business community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1995 Martin came across a second hand set of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.co.uk\/9780007210893\/divine-office-volume-1\/\"><em>Divine Office<\/em><\/a>  (as the UK version of the&nbsp;<em>Liturgy of the Hours<\/em>  is entitled) in the Bookshop of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.downsideabbey.co.uk\/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5NPjBRDDARIsAM9X1GL4gPfmlmT2W9aDLEpf5wInZqZGq0t1raV2sxgV2UWIejz1cX-dOkkaAiMGEALw_wcB\">Downside Abbey<\/a>  where he was attending the Easter Retreat. Many Catholics consider it to be a prayer book for \u201cprofessional Catholics\u201d like priests and nuns and feel that laypeople should go for a simpler prayer book, if they desire to pray more.&nbsp;However Martin, being a software engineer, was fascinated by the repetitions and combinations of the four-week psalter, the different cycles, seasons, calendars, commons and hours. Immediately he thought that this could be much more accessibly arranged in digital format, removing the complication that gets in the way of prayer and devotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He started&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/universalis.com\/\">Universalis<\/a>  with the aim of harnessing computer technology to help in enriching the spiritual life of Christians, specifically by making the liturgical and devotional resources of the Catholic Church available on the new electronic media. The Liturgy of the Hours is available on the website and as apps, downloads and e-books, and so is the Mass: both the readings at Mass and the unique \u201cMass Today\u201d page which combines the Order of Mass with the prayers and readings in one continuous stream. You can buy a Universalis app for around \u00a310 (about $13.25) or, for twice that, a code giving you everything: apps for iPhone\/iPad and Android, and programs for Mac and Windows, and e-books. Even if you are not in a position to pay, you can still get the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass readings for yesterday, today and the week ahead, for free, directly on the web site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Visitors to the Universalis web site include priests, laity, the young and the old. They come from all denominations: some have not heard of the Breviary before; some cannot afford the books; and some are blind and cannot use them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Universalis has never been advertised, but over three and a half thousand people a day visit the site, reading a daily total of fifty thousand pages. The visitors include Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Anabaptists. They come from all over the world, including a nun from Hong Kong whose work takes her on journeys \u201cto a country where religion is very much controlled by the government,\u201d where it is risky to carry a breviary but a laptop computer arouses no suspicion; and in Belgrade one user found time to email a question as the NATO bombs were falling. There are Universalis users to be found in U.S. missile sites and at the BBC; seminarians use it as they are being taught the Breviary, and in many parts of the world it is much in evidence at meetings of the clergy. The blind and almost blind read it in half-inch-high letters or in Braille.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Martin encourages everyone to try Universalis which, in his words&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cis not only addictive but also liberatingly discreet. You can always avoid satirical comments from your friends by pretending you are surfing for something quite different.\u201d He points out that \u201cas we embark on the third millennium, it becomes more important than ever that we should obey the Lord\u2019s command and pray without ceasing, to<strong>sanctify time, the world, and ourselves.<\/strong>The Universalis Web site has been created, to give us all, wherever we are, at all times, the chance to participate in the Church\u2019s universal prayer. One click &#8211; one bookmark &#8211; and we can pause for a moment in our busy lives and contemplate what really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This post is simply an introduction to an often-overlooked aspect of liturgy and undoubtedly a good news story that can give an element of positivity to our discussions of liturgical matters. Next week I will share some questions that I put to Martin when I recently met him in London.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> I have posted the interview with Martin at: <a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/21\/an-interview-with-martin-kochanski-founder-of-universalis-publishing\/\">https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/21\/an-interview-with-martin-kochanski-founder-of-universalis-publishing\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"\/\/9154854D-6494-41B8-B650-D7D6ED4CEE7C#_ftnref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>Donald A. Withey,&nbsp;<em>John Henry Newman, The Liturgy and the Breviary: Their Influence on his Life as an Anglican<\/em>  (London: Sheed and Ward, 1992), 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1845 when John Henry Newman entered into full communion with the Catholic Church it was considered remarkable that he managed to figure out how to pray the breviary by himself, without the need to be initiated by an expert. This was a feat that was not repeated in the case of any of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,18,1191],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-liturgy-of-the-hours","category-technology-and-worship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An unlikely liturgist - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/15\/an-unlikely-liturgist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An unlikely liturgist - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1845 when John Henry Newman entered into full communion with the Catholic Church it was considered remarkable that he managed to figure out how to pray the breviary by himself, without the need to be initiated by an expert. 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Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Fr.-Neil-Featured-Image.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46330"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46522,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46330\/revisions\/46522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}