Does it utilize the Abbey Psalms and Canticles and the revised collects/prayers (at least those that were already re-translated as part of the current Roman Missal)? As much as I despise throwaway booklets for liturgical use, I agree that it could be a good "stopgap" at least until the new books are published, and in general for those who would like to pray the Hours in general. I'm just curious to know if Bishop Barron/Word on Fire is able to use the newer texts in this publication or if they have to use the older texts.

@CGZ The repeated reorganisations are a feature not a bug... I will continue to use the Ancient Divine Office, in its various forms.

The hymn section in the back of this resource is quite good actually

RMSawicki,

The Office is much, much easier to use than you all are making it out to be.

Serviam,

I grant that unguided use of the Divine Office can be a challenge, but how often is one praying the Office alone without having the chutzpah to accept the challenge?

Not so nice thing about WoF.....

WoF

The fundamental problem with the "We'll get there" philosophical presupposition is that one must begin on that journey in order to reach the destination, which some of you here seem unwilling to do (something about a grouchy 12-yr old confirmand).

Most of us were, at one point, newcomers to the Divine Office and the TLM. Some of us didn't even grow up Catholic. There are many stories (some even available on the internet) of people who found their first experience of the proper way of doing things off-putting, but those stories also demonstrate how such discomfort has been --- more and more frequently -- overcome.

The fact that the discomfort can be overcome, and is being overcome more and more, explains why the lies have to be told: if you believe that the Mass is all about you, then you think the priest should be talking to you, facing you, the whole time (and, if it were true, you would be right), and you'd think he should be speaking a language that is easy for you to understand right now because you've got to understand everything just as if it were an English assignment in a public school and.... and...

The same thing goes for the Divine Office. If you think God is easy to understand, except those hard teachings which medieval men imposed on your grandparents, then praying in a language you don't yet understand to any appreciable degree seems quite stupid. If you think everything is an intellectual exercise, and so words only matter, and sentences should be short because your attention span is short, then beautiful Latin texts and melodies seem pointless, needless barriers to "authentic" prayer. Of course, you would also be living in a fantasy world.

Our parish is getting younger. More and more young people are being attracted by God to the traditional forms, and this is as surprising as that the sun came up this morning.

RMSawicki, Gamba,

First, the Divine Office doesn't cost $400 in four volumes. I have two volumes, for two distinct parts of the year. I don't know exactly how much they cost, because they were given to me by a dear friend. If, Gamba, you want to impress that grumpy, grouchy 12 yr old of the importance of the Divine Office, maybe you give him a two-volume set? Maybe you invite him to pray the Office with you, or just part of it?

Of course there's a learning curve! My own soon-to-be-twenty-six year old son had both of us on a steep learning curve when he was born. (My wife has 7 sisters, so she had to adjust to boys, and I am the younger of two with no babysitting experience). One can't get to the top of that curve (or, as C.S. Lewis memorably said, something about overcoming the terrors of Greek to discover the beauties of Greek) if one doesn't begin.

(or, as C.S. Lewis memorably said, something about overcoming the terrors of Greek to discover the beauties of Greek)

I love it!

An enjoyment of Greek poetry is certainly a proper, and not a mercenary, reward for learning Greek; but only those who have reached the stage of enjoying Greek poetry can tell from their own experience that this is so. The schoolboy beginning Greek grammar cannot look forward to his adult enjoyment of Sophocles as a lover looks forward to marriage or a general to victory. He has to begin by working for marks, or to escape punishment, or to please his parents, or, at best, in the hope of a future good which he cannot at present imagine or desire. His position, therefore, bears a certain resemblance to that of the mercenary; the reward he is going to get will, in actual fact, be a natural or proper reward, but he will not know that till he has got it. Of course, he gets it gradually; enjoyment creeps in upon the mere drudgery, and nobody could point to a day or an hour when the one ceased and the other began. But it is just in so far as he approaches the reward that be becomes able to desire it for its own sake; indeed, the power of so desiring it is itself a preliminary reward.

The Weight of Glory, second full paragraph

by C. S. Lewis

Preached originally as a sermon in the
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford,
on June 8, 1941: published in
THEOLOGY, November, 1941,
and by the S.P.C.K,
1942

This is a "stepping stone" experience, meeting folks where they are and helping them to move "further up and further in" (Lewis again). I feel that stepping stone experiences are crucial to the Church's mission and are truly pastoral in the best sense of that word.

Doubtless many people will move on from their initial entry point to discover further liturgical riches. That's probably what happened to most of us. It's a feature, not a bug.

Full disclosure: I'm largely responsible for the hymn section of these booklets, so I'm not impartial. But I'm pretty sure I would still agree with the spoonful of sugar approach if I weren't involved.