6.23.2006

Liturgy of the Hours Resources

So I'm very excited (yes, I'm still a geek) to have discovered the other day, while bumping around the Catholic Church in France's website, a very easily accessible French-language Liturgy of the Hours site, Prier avec l'Église. I love language study in general, and find it relaxing to study something where there are more definite answers much of the time than in theology, and I've also found that reading the Bible and the daily news in a foreign language is a good way to maintain your gains. (Although, particularly if you're reading the Bible and/or doing theology, it does tend to limit your vocabulary a bit...e.g., I can talk about the Trinity in French for hours, but have more difficulty ordering a meal or asking where the bathroom is...) A little more searching finds the Office in Spanish at Cenaculum.org.

On the English-language side, sadly, the Liturgy of the Hours Apostolate, which has moved their English-language materials to ebreviary.com, now only has Friday and Sunday for free on their site, with a subscription service for the rest of the week. I imagine it does get expensive to maintain the site, but it's still disappointing, because their booklet-formatted prayers are great for praying the office in a group. Universalis is still free, but they don't include the antiphons or any of the prayers of the day, which I think are part of what keeps the office from being repetitive as one moves through the weekly cycles. It's also a pretty cumbersome format. Haven't found the Liturgia Horarium in Latin online in a format I can use easily, but you can get it for your PDA here...will one of my technologically-savvy traditionalist brothers or sisters get on that? Some of us pinkos like the Latin too!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The PDA link you provide is also for use with iSilo-windows PC. Which does not require you to be online. you can view these offline anytime. another online edition for feast and solemnities is http://www.brewiarz.katolik.pl/latin/index.php3

Heather said...

So nice to meet another person who finds praying in a foreign language (or at least reading) worthwhile and fulfilling!