LITURGY OF THE HOURS. PSALM PRAYERS CONCLLUSIONs ?
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    Are the psalm prayers in the LOTH concluded like the COLLECT. i.e. "We ask this through your Son who lives and reigns"?. I know they are addressed to God the Father.
  • VilyanorVilyanor
    Posts: 388
    I've never heard them used like that, or at all. Honestly, you should just ignore them, or read them privately, they're additions from nowhere that got shoehorned into America's LotH.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    And which are being removed by 2020...
    Thanked by 2Daniel Bennett Page CHGiffen
  • rarty
    Posts: 96
    I don't think they're meant to be concluded like a Collect would, but in the short form, e.g. "Through Christ our Lord. Amen." (Or, if directed to Christ/mentioned at the end: "Who live(s) and reign(s) for ever and ever. Amen.")

    The prayers weren't invented for the American breviary, but the American edition might be the only major edition to include them in-line with the psalter. And for some reason they are printed directly after the psalm, before the antiphon repeats, though it should (optionally) be said after the repeat of the antiphon (which makes more sense).

    “When the psalm prayers are used, after the repetition of the antiphon, the bishop puts aside the miter, rises, and once everyone else has stood says, Let us pray. After a brief pause for silent prayer by all, he says the prayer corresponding to the psalm or canticle” (Ceremonial for Bishops, n. 198).
    Thanked by 3chonak CHGiffen Vilyanor
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    From the General Instruction to LOTH
    112. Psalm-prayers, which help those reciting the psalms to interpret them in a Christian way, ...
    These are for optional use in accordance with the traditional norm: ...
    Doesn't really help answer the question, or where they come from. The English version doesn't have them even in an appendix, as promised.
  • rarty
    Posts: 96
    Hm, maybe the American psalm prayers were composed by ICEL, but I have seen Italian versions of them also. I imagine until an official LH supplement is published, these prayers are more akin to the prayer that concludes the Intercessions at Mass.

    (And I think the psalm-prayers in the American breviary are very good, for the most part.)
  • RevAMG
    Posts: 162
    While I personally think they are best skipped in public recitation (as is the custom at the Pontifical North American College in Rome), when I have heard them prayed publicly, they always end in the same way that the concluding prayer of Daytime Prayer ends, namely, if the prayer is directed to the Father: We ask this (Grant this) through Christ our Lord, or We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Or if the prayer is directed to the Father after which a mention of the Son is made: Who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever. Or if it directed to the Son: You live and reign for ever and ever. Not all of the Psalm Prayers are directed to the Father, see Week III, Wednesday Morning Prayer after Antiphon 3, which begins "Lord Jesus, you have revealed...". They are always prefaced with Let us pray., as well (cf. CB, 198.)
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    That seems like an eminently reasonable solution.
  • OraLabora
    Posts: 218
    @rarty

    Hm, maybe the American psalm prayers were composed by ICEL, but I have seen Italian versions of them also.


    And French in my abbey's monastic breviary, Liturgie monastique des heures.

    They aren't from the ICEL. They were composed by a Spanish Benedictine, Jorge Pinell. They are somewhat controversial and even Mgr Bugnini was against their inclusion. See From Breviary to Liturgy of the Hours by Stanislaus Campbell, a fascinating if somewhat dry recounting of how the Liturgy of the Hours came to be.

    The bottom line is that they are optional and can be licitly omitted.

    Ora
    Thanked by 3rarty a_f_hawkins kevinf
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