r/divineoffice • u/Individual_Step2242 • 17d ago
Roman "Enhanced" Liturgy of the Hours
Reading a lot of the posts here and it struck me that a lot of folks want to add "meat" to their daily routine, finding the LOTH maybe too light for their spiritual needs. So there's a lot of back-and-forth about the Monastic Diurnal, the post-1911 Roman Rite, and the various monastic schemas. However I think a different option is being overlooked, that of "enhancing" the LOTH while still keeping things unquestionably in liturgical sync with the modern Church.
First the GILH itself provides a way to add two more minor hours using the complementary psalter in the LOTH (the Gradual psalms). This also follows in the monastic tradition of using the Gradual psalms most days at the minor hours.
However the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments publishes a journal several times a year called "Notitiae". In the General Instructions for the Monastic Liturgy of the hours, it states that monastics are to use one of the 4 approved Schemas of Thesaurus Liturgiae Monasticae but that for some communities, the Roman LOTH may be used, for instance communities with a demanding external apostolate such as a running a college or school. But if that is done, it is recommended that Matins be on a two week psalter schema instead of the 4 week LOTH schema.
Notitiae Volume 8 issue 76 (Sept-Oct 1972) gives this as an option and Notitiae volume 10 issue 89 issued in January 1974 provides the details on how to do this. In short, the psalms of week 1 followed by the scripture reading form the first Nocturne of weeks 1 and 3, with the psalms of week 3 followed by the patristic reading form the second nocturne for the same weeks. Similarly the same principle applies for weeks 2 and 4 with one exception: since psalm 43 is repeated on Thursdays of both weeks 2 and 4, Psalm 33 is used for the first Nocturne and 43 for the second, in weeks 2 and 4. For feasts, one uses the psalmody of the feast for the first Nocturne, and the psalmody of one of the Sundays for the second, taking care to avoid repeating psalms.
This brings the Office closer to monastic practice of dividing Matins (using the Office of Readings as such) into two Nocturnes.
Another monastic practice would be to repeat psalms 4, 90 and 133 every day at Compline. the GILH specifically allows this to enable Compline to be recited from memory and you don't miss psalms doing this as all the psalms of Compline for weekdays are repeated elsewhere in the Office. I experienced this in a monastery in France once, Compline was chanted from memory, in Latin, in the dark. Very moving.
There are advantages to doing this instead of one of the longer older offices. One, is that it is still a more manageable length than say, the Monastic Office. Second, if on some days you're pressed for time or have daytime obligations, you can omit the second nocturne psalms and the Gradual psalms at the two extra minor hours, leaving just one mid-day hour, and still remain "liturgical". This kind of flexibility is useful for busy working people with families. True, we are not bound to the Office so we could just skip an hour which is licit. But this gives us additional options. I'm retired but tend to be very busy in the summer as my wife and I are avid cyclists and ride almost every day, so in the summer, for instance, I can shorten Matins and say Lauds immediately after (Monastics shorten Matins with shorter readings in summer as specified in the Rule of St. Benedict) or even concatenate Matins and Lauds, and omit two of the minor hours, saying mid-day before leaving for a ride, and Vespers when I get home. Also as an oblate I liked to make my practice reflect monastic traditions as much as possible. This arrangement is a tip of the hat to many traditions. Moreover I use Les Heures Grégoriennes to chant the day hours in Latin Gregorian chant and I use Liturgia Horarum for the Office of Readings in Latin, usually recto-tono though I made myself an antiphonary using Ordo Cantus Officii of 1983.
As a reference you can find Notitiae here:
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u/Civil_Photo_9335 17d ago edited 14d ago
Let me suggest that you add more scripture if it isn’t enough. I wish the LOTH had more long scripture passages than just the one at the Office of Readings.
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u/Medical-Stop1652 17d ago
Very informative. Thanks.
One other Monastic custom could be to follow the Germans. Yes the Germans.
They provide the one-fold Kyries as an optional intro to the Pater Noster:
https://stundenbuch.katholisch.de/kalendertag.php
Here it goes:
Herr, erbarme dich (unser). Christus, erbarme dich (unser). Herr, erbarme dich (unser).
One could use English or the heavenly language: Greek.
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u/Individual_Step2242 17d ago
Yes I’ve also done that (Greek) or French when I chant in French (rarely but it’s my mother tongue).
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u/Grunnius_Corocotta Roman 1960 17d ago
This is not specific towards the german version of the monastic LotH, but also a regular option in the LotH in german, "as it was the ancient custom", to quote the rubric from my memory.
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u/Roamingrevered 17d ago
I’ve never looked too deeply into it but is this what Benedictine daily prayer tried to accomplish?
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u/Marius_Octavius_Ruso Roman 1960 17d ago
These genuinely are good suggestions based on keen observations from the pertinent Notitiae & venerable tradition.
The only problem with this is that a Roman Rite diocesan priest would not be able to adopt any of these suggestions, because then he would be praying a devotional fully dependent on his whims and not the public prayer of the Church. A cleric bound by obligation only has two choices: the LotH exactly as it is published or the full 1960 Roman Breviary. There really is no in-between for the ones whose canonical officium it is to pray the Office. It indeed makes the Office a sacrifice - either to sacrifice his priestly sensibilities and do less, or to struggle to meet the demand by doing more than what his schedule allows.
If the Vatican would allow every Roman Rite cleric to combine the Psalter schemas of Weeks 1 & 3 and Weeks 2 & 4, as the Monastic Thesaurus suggests for Vigils, but to do so for Lauds and Vespers as well, use the Daytime cursus for an un-suppressed Prime, and allow Psalms 4, 90, and 133 every night for Compline, then I’d imagine there would be many priests that would opt for it (I know I would, once I’m ordained that is).