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October 7, 2020The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham launched their new Bulletin on Divine Worship, a combination of official liturgical notes, notes on their liturgical initiatives, and official news on upcoming liturgical books. The most eye-catching news was the announcement of the publication of Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition) by no later than Advent 2021.
The bulletin explains that this Commonwealth Edition will be used in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (which covers the entire United Kingdom) and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific Rim, for the Liturgy of the Hours. Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition) will replace the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham, which is an interim office book for the Ordinariate in the U.K.
The proposed Daily Office will base the chief hours, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer from the 1662 Prayer Book tradition, with optional office hymns and antiphons for the Benedictus and Magnificat. The Lesser Hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Compline, are also included to foster the devotion of the clergy and laity.
Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition) has also made a choice to have a “complete lectionary for Morning and Evening Prayer,” so a person would not need to have a Bible on hand to pray those offices. The Bulletin acknowledges that the Anglican tradition “has favoured the reading of the scriptures from a physical bible,” although some 19th century prayer books started including lectionaries for Morning and Evening Prayer. However, it does make clear that the practice of reading one’s own bible for the daily offices is still possible, and in corporate prayer “the use of a large bible and lectern will be encouraged.”
The Bulletin further explains the Commonwealth Edition Daily Office follows the 1961 Lectionary “adapted as necessary for our use.” The Daily Office lectionary follows what the 1549 Book of Common Prayer called the “godly and decent order of the ancient fathers,” according to the Bulletin, with “Isaiah read in Advent, Genesis in Septuagesima, the Lamentations in Holy Week.” It has a two-year cycle of Sunday readings and “extends the principle of a continuous reading of the scriptures, meaning that all the bible is read by those who say daily Matins and Evensong through the year.”
Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition) will be published by the Catholic Truth Society, which is the official publisher of the Divine Worship liturgical books used by the Ordinariates.
The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is expected to publish its own Daily Office book, based principally on the Anglican tradition as developed in the United States. No publication date has yet been announced.
You can read the Bulletin on Divine Worship for this and more news here.
