The Revision of the English Liturgy of the Hours

The Revision of the English Liturgy of the Hours

Although the American version of the hymns for the Office have not yet seen the light of day, the intention is good.

Uwe Michael Lang (Author, Editor) Authentic Liturgical Renewal in Contemporary Perspective Sacra Liturgia UK conference, London July 2016.

In this collection of lectures Bishop Alan Hopes (Bishop of East Anglia and Chairman of the Committee for Liturgy of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales) reports on the principles behind the American Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) proposed revisions of the Liturgy of the Hours. This talk alone is enough to justify the cost of the book. Here I will just try to summarize the section on the Hymns.

All of the hymns of the Liturgica Horarum will be translated into English, guided by four principles or considerations (Bishop Hopes says there are five principles but I can only count four) :

1.       Fidelity to the Latin Text

The theological and spiritual superiority of the Latin hymns is acknowledged. The Latin Hymns are ‘sober’ and deeply connected with Scripture. So the hymns are to be translated, not rewritten. The form of the hymn is to be respected as much as possible. “The natural rules of English usage should be respected, while striving to be faithful to the original Latin".

2.      Nobility of Expression

‘Hymns are sung prayers in poetic form . . . and must be respected first and foremost as prayers”.

3.      Rhyme

“Due to the heavy stress accent natural to English and due to the fact that English is not an Inflected language, the use of rhyme brings into a stanza of English verse a dominant element that controls the structure of the verse. This may easily lead to the imposition of a structure that is alien to the natural rhythm and assonance of Latin verse”.

4.      Adaptability of the Hymn Texts to various Uses

The hymns will allow for both singing and spoken recitation. Each hymn will be accompanied with a chant setting taken from the Liber Hymnarius.

The absence of the Latin Hymns is probably the principal defect in the English Liturgy of the Hours. If they did nothing else, supplying these hymns would draw more people to the English Office.

In fact, the list of defects in this office is longer:

1.  Only three antiphons for Sundays and Solemnities: to be corrected in the new translation.

2. The dated and frankly lame translations of the Preces: to be corrected.

This is a welcome development and proves the points of those detractors of the current English Hours.