Note: For consistency, the term breviary is used in this post to refer to the hardcopy four-volume Liturgy of the Hours.
The liturgy of the hours is the prayer of the church, prayed 24 hours a day by members of the church throughout the world. Some may think that it is a prayer reserved for the clergy and religious, but the Catechism of the Catholic Church has stated that “the liturgy of the hours is destined to become the prayer of all God’s people”. (1175, emphasis added) However, the printed breviaries that priests and religious are sometimes seen carrying in leather cases with various ribbon markers can seem overwhelming to the layman. where do you start? maybe the layman just wants to pray without the stress of tapes, commons and page turning…sometimes 3-4 pages go at a stretch a few hours on some days. It is with these sentiments in mind that Word on Fire Ministries (WOF) recently began publishing a monthly subscription simply titled The Liturgy of the Hours.
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i think many readers of our blog are familiar with wof, a catholic ministry of evangelization founded by bishop robert barron. The ministry has published numerous books authored by Bishop Barron, as well as a variety of theology, evangelism, and apologetics books by world-renowned theologians and scholars. in particular the wof bible volume i (which has been reviewed on our blog) and later volume ii has been very well received by people all over the world, not only because of its comments, but also because of its quality and beauty. producing beautiful books and publications has always been something that wof has striven to do because beauty is a form of evangelization. furthermore, our blog’s liturgy series has always mentioned that beauty remembers the author of beauty, who is god.
thus, wof’s liturgy of the hours instilled in me great expectations for a booklet that was simple, practical, but also beautiful, and no matter if it was merely a monthly subscription booklet. evangelization & culture, the wof institute magazine serves as a testament to the high quality of subscription pieces published by wof.
physicalities
When you open the plastic, you find yourself holding in your hands a simple and beautiful orange red cover book, with an embossed/embossed gold foil that represents the symbol of the holy name of jesus (ihs) and a monogram, and white calligraphic text. . Symbols are embossed/debossed without gold foil on the back. Personally, I am not a big fan of red-orange, simply because when I think of the design of a liturgical publication, even if it is a missal or monthly devotional, orange is not a color that comes to mind. my mind often turns dark red or dark green, as seen in many classic liturgical book bindings. but perhaps, the orange was chosen because wof wanted to allow the book to stand out on his nightstand, allowing him to remind himself to “let’s pray it!” morning and afternoon.
The pamphlet paper is not newsprint like the Canadian Monthly Missal Living With Christ. The paper is cream-colored thin bible paper, which more closely resembles the Magnificat monthly devotional and missal. I never liked the newsprint missals or the annual missals found in the pews of some parishes. even if a resource were to be replaced monthly or yearly, i think it should in no way resemble a copy of the daily newspaper like the toronto star, where you read it once and throw it away. the liturgy of the paper of the hours provides this sense of dignity to the content of the texts that will be prayed; Ultimately, these are liturgical prayers, drawn from passages of scripture, and therefore I think it is correct that a piece of paper be used in addition to newsprint.
There is a sense of reverence when you hold and pray using a printed copy of the liturgy of the hours that a mobile app simply cannot achieve. not only the cover and paper deserve attention, but the use of fonts, calligraphy and optimization of two-color printing elevate the content of the brochure. wof seems to stick to two colors for the brochure: black and a red-orange font, which complements the elements of the cover and gives a cohesive feel to the brochure as a whole. Scattered throughout the book are full pages of calligraphic text of bible verses in orange-red ink – just beautiful. These passages from a page of bible verses, although they seem quite trivial, or like “gap filler”, sometimes provoke more thought and reflection.
wof’s website states: “booklets include special artwork to mark and celebrate solemnities throughout the year, helping you better enter the liturgical life of the church.” unfortunately, I couldn’t see that; I ordered a review copy in May for the June issue, which never arrived. I received a revision copy for July and unfortunately July had no solemnities… I guess it was bad luck, because June had many solemnities and August at least has the next solemnity of the assumption. I would have loved to see the art of the solemnities of June, especially that of the solemnity of sts. peter and paul, and the solemnity of the sacred heart of jesus, simply because wof has always had great works of art in many of its publications.
The size of the booklet is good, easy to use and portable, it measures about 5″x7″x0.75″, which is less than half the size of a classic breviary. i put aside my copy of the breviary for the month of july to fully immerse myself in the experience of the little book, and was quite happy to be able to carry this copy of the liturgy of the hours with ease during my pilgrimage to quebec at the end of the month.
“bare bones”, easy to pray
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the content is “basic”. Whether it’s your first time praying the liturgy of the hours, or you’re very familiar with the breviary, the liturgy of the hours makes praying the church prayer easy. I think the first thing that needs to be made clear is that the booklet for the liturgy of the hours, unlike the full breviary, only contains the morning, afternoon and evening prayers. I also often pray the office of readings and had to supplement that segment with a copy of a now out of print office of readings published by st. paul’s edits.
the liturgy of the hours provides the “basic skeletons” to facilitate the simplest prayer experience of praying the liturgy of the hours. for each hour, the introduction is printed, the psalms and canticles are provided with the antiphons in bold at the beginning and end of each psalm/canticle (without the psalm prayers found in the breviary), and appropriate closing formulas for either laity or clergy.
For every hour, there is only one instance of a page flip, and ironically, that’s the anthem. why do I say “ironic”? because in the breviary, at least during ordinary time, the hymn is already printed after the introduction, unless you want to choose a different hymn. I often use the hymn provided for that hour. therefore, having to flip during that part of the hour seemed a bit unusual to me, but totally understandable. unlike the breviary, wof provides notation for the hymns that actually allows one to pray the liturgy of the hours in its fullest possible sense. I know several people who have difficulty singing with a breviary due to the lack of notation. Unless you’re familiar with the melody, it’s hard to follow. wof removes this questioning of “how’s this tune going?” and provides the notation that makes singing the hymn much easier.
In keeping with the “basic” user-friendly structure, I like that the headings are not printed in the text block itself, but in the left margin. this is useful for new users to know what should and should not be recited, because I think “say black, do red” is unfamiliar among laymen. I know that the breviary even has some quotes from saints or another source before some of the psalms and canticles, and they are printed in black and italics, which could make things even more confusing for someone new to the breviary.
some criticism
an American liturgical calendar: while the liturgy of the hours is the prayer of the church, like the mass and the lectionary texts, there are some adaptations regarding the liturgical calendar of each country. while it was not a surprise to me, it may be a surprise to some canadian subscribers, and those outside the united states, that the liturgy of the hours reflects the liturgical calendar of the united states. this was evident in July in two instances for me. The first was on Thursday, July 14, 2022, which had as a memorial to St. kateri tekakwitha. Canada does not celebrate St. Kateri’s memorial on this day, but on April 17. another instance was on tuesday july 26, 2022 in which in the united states the memorial of sts. Joachim and Anne are observed, while in Canada, this day is observed as a holiday. therefore, not only would one of the commons be used for most of the morning and evening prayer, but the morning prayer was supposed to use the psalms and canticles of Sunday of week 1, as is the case with the prayer morning of the parties and solemnities.
this is understandable for wof, because wof is based in the united states, and it seems that americans are the main recipients of their materials, compared to canada. even the current breviary does not recognize canadian saints and the canadian liturgical calendar, which makes praying the breviary on days like st. Kateri Tekakwitha or the Feast of Sts. Jean de Brébeuf and colleagues made it even more difficult with the additional work to locate sentences, insertions, and commons. These days, I find it much better to pray with the Universalis app, because the app has mirrored these Canadian adaptations. the only problem with that is the use of a mobile device, instead of a printed book.
I think wof should address the use of American liturgical adaptations in their FAQ. They have a FAQ on their site that says:
on saints/holidays, will you give people choices or just choose a set of prayers?
The booklet includes a set of prayers for each day, choosing the highest ranking holiday or celebration. our goal is simplicity. we want to reduce the number of options so that people can just read and pray without worrying about additional decisions.
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I think this is a perfect place to mention adaptations of the American liturgical calendar. It is unfortunate that the Canadian market is too small to justify the creation of a Canadian version of the Liturgy the Hours subscription program. even the popular magnificat has a version with translations from the American lectionary and no Canadian version. but in general, you will only find these adaptations on a handful of days of the liturgical calendar.
recordings for the hymns: I’m glad wof has chosen to include musical notations for the hymns. For someone who can read music notation, I can find my way through hymns easily, but I don’t think that’s the case for many users. To make it easier to learn some of the hymns, I recommend adding a page with hymn recordings to the wof website. Permissions may have to be sought, but even if these recordings are available only to subscribers, it could be of great help to many who wish to learn these hymns.
reconsider gospel songs and evening prayer: I know wof wants to have the prayers in the proper sequence for each day, even doubling the prayers every days as needed, but is there too much duplication? I questioned this as he prayed using the booklet, especially for the gospel songs. I wonder if it’s better to have benedictus, magnificat and nunc dimittis or at least just benedictus and magnificat on the inside covers, especially since from now on, the two inside front covers are blank.
I don’t think it would be difficult or inconvenient to have to go to the front or back cover of these songs. that means that the antiphon would only have to be printed once at the point where these canticles are to be recited. In addition, I have found that the Gospel canticles are easy to learn by heart after frequently praying the liturgy of the hours.
You could also consider evening prayer, which is less complicated than morning and evening prayer, and I think it’s better to have a section dedicated to evening prayer in the back with the prayer of the night from Sunday to Saturday. this is a better alternative, I think, than printing four weeks of the same sentences. the only extra effort required is turning to the rear each night, but that’s very simple, since you know what day of the week it is. for the day prayer after the evening prayer, some note to turn to page # for the evening prayer could be an option.
add the psalm of the invitatory : I was a little disappointed not to see the psalm of the invitatory included in the liturgy of the hours, especially since the introduction of the invitatory is so significant, “Lord, open my lips and my mouth will proclaim your praise. the invitatory psalm, often psalm 95, but psalm 100, 67, or 24 may serve as an alternative, said earlier in the day. I often pray it in the office of readings, but for users of the liturgy of the hours, it is more appropriate to include it in the morning prayer. I hope that consideration will be given to including the invitation psalm in future editions of the liturgy of the hours booklet.
for future wof consideration
wof has provided a wide range of resources on theology and apologetics, and it seems that with the liturgy of the hours, wof is entering a different field: that of liturgy. Seeing the quality that wof puts into their posts, I have doubts that they can publish other types of posts, especially in the area of liturgy. it’s coming out in a couple of years, it’s the second edition of the liturgy of the hours, and I wonder if wof will consider a more permanent resource, publishing an easy-to-use breviary for the lay faithful that isn’t subscription-based.
Also, the artistic beauty makes me wonder if wof has any plans to publish high quality liturgical books. I would love to one day see the possibility of an edition of the roman missal printed to the highest standards, similar to the wof bible. since the promulgation of the third english edition of the roman missal in 2011, there have been no new editions (i.e. new bindings, printings) of the roman missal on the english market, and i hope that wof can come up with something new, worth using in the altar these are just a few possible liturgical projects, which I hope wof may consider in the future.
conclusion
the liturgy of the hours is a wonderful subscription that will help introduce you to the hours. for as little as $7/month (with special founder discount), one can have the opportunity to immerse their prayer life in the prayer of the church. I recommend it for individuals, families or prayer groups and chaplaincies in educational institutions so that many more people can be introduced to this wonderful prayer of the church.
for more information on subscribing to the liturgy of the wof hours, click here.
Disclaimer: Vincent Pham was provided with a review copy of the Liturgy of the Hours – July 2022 to provide an honest review on this blog. catholic man reviews thank you word on fire for the opportunity we have to review this subscription on our blog and we look forward to future reviews. all thoughts and opinions expressed here are our own and reflect our sincere thoughts on the title.
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