Divinum Officium now with full Italian translations

Great news for this first day of the Liturgical Year.

Formation of the Clergy in Latin and for Latin

The always delightful and insightful Fr. Hunwicke of the blog Mutual Enrichment has frequently written of the binding auctoritas or authoritativeness of Tradition as a measure for subsequent papal and conciliar acts—a sentiment with which Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI would certainly concur, given his pointed remarks on papal absolutism in The Spirit of the Liturgy. 

Divinum Officium Advent Update

Dear Friends of the Divine Office:

We at the Divinum Officium Project would like to thank everyone for their continued support and prayer for the success of this project.

As we prepare for the coming of the Word Incarnate during the Advent Season, what better way to prepare than to familiarize oneself with the Church's liturgical texts, and harmonize our own prayer with the Church's worship? Throughout the Advent season, the Church proposes for our consideration in the Mass and in the Divine Office the prophecies of Isaias, who beautifully foreshadowed the coming of Emmanuel, God-With-Us, He who will be born of the Virgin and bring about the gift of salvation.

First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent

The very first canonical hour of the new liturgical year is a wonderful moment ... to begin praying the Office, the Roman Breviary (or the traditional Breviaries of different orders and uses of the Latin Church).

Do you have a Breviarium Romanum published between 1912 and 1960, but are not sure of how to use it according to the 1960 rubrics? The Variationes, published together with the 1960 Codex Rubricarum, make your life quite easy: we make them available to you in  a printable version of the original Latin text (provided by Mr. Laszlo Kiss, R.I.P.). The changes are available in English from page 118 of the excellent translation and commentary by Fr. Patrick Murphy, made public by the FSSP Sydney Latin Mass Community. And do not forget this particular source: Divinum Officium, which may be of great help.

Divino Afflatu centennial - III The Centenary of Divino Afflatu and St. Pius X’s Breviary Reforms: A Personal Appreciation

All Saints' Day, the first day in November, marks the first centennial of the Apostolic Constitution "Divino Afflatu", signed by Pope Saint Pius X in 1911. This remarkable document enacted, among other measures, the order of the psalter used in the recitation of the Divine Office in the Traditional, Ancient, or Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite - the Breviarium Romanum, according to the rubrics of 1960, which may be used as the normative Office by all those in the clerical state in the Latin Church (Summorum Pontificum, Art. 9, § 3) and, naturally, by all lay faithful who wish to do so (and are, indeed, encouraged to do so - Sacrosanctum Concilium, 100).

Fr. Anthony Cekada, regardless of our natural and strong disagreements with him in a matter of rock-solid and foundational relevance, is one of the most knowledgeable living analysts of the liturgical developments of the Latin Church in the last few centuries. His most famous publication, Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI (Philothea Press - also now with a related YouTube channel), has received compliments from different places (from Msgr. A. Wadsworth, ICEL General Secretary, who remarked that it is "full of interesting and credible analysis... an important contribution... scholarly ...I encourage others to read it," to Dr. Alcuin Reid, who, in a review published by The New Liturgical Movement, wrote that “Father Cekada’s great service is to flag the big question that we have not widely, as yet, been prepared to face…," that is, “if the Missal of Paul VI is indeed in substantial discontinuity with the preceding liturgical and theological tradition, this is a serious flaw requiring correction.”)

We deeply thank him for accepting our invitation to put his vast liturgical knowledge to good use once again in writing this most thorough (and also very personal) account of the impact of the admirable work put in place by Saint Pius X one hundred years ago today and that is an intimate part of the life of every traditional priest, every single day, from Matins to Compline.

_______________________________________

The Centenary of Divino Afflatu

and St. Pius X’s Breviary Reforms:

A Personal Appreciation

by

Rev. Anthony Cekada

  

Helping diocesan priests pray the Roman Breviary

Summorum Pontificum made clear that those bound to pray the Divine Office in the Latin Church may do so by using the traditional book, that is, the Breviarium Romanum (Roman Breviary). The German District of the  Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) announced today an admirable initiative: it is inviting all diocesan priests in Germany for a meeting in its seminary in Zaitzkofen, Bavaria, on November 28, which will include both a spiritual introduction to the use of the Breviary and practical instructions for praying the hours of the Traditional Office. (Source.)
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The Divinum Officium Project sends us the following note:

"The Divinum Officium Project warmly supports this initiative to assist diocesan priests in praying the Traditional Breviary. If anyone has access to a copyright-free German version of the Psalter, please contact us at canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com. We would like to make the German psalter available for this important event."

Divinum Officium update Ayúdenos a crear una versión en español Aidez-nous à faire la version française

An update from the Rorate Cæli Purgatorial Society chaplain and Divinum Officium webmaster:

I would just like to take a few moments to thank everyone who has volunteered to help with Divinum Officium upon the untimely passing of Laszlo Kiss.  You have all been remembered at a Traditional Mass celebrated for those who are involved in any way with this website.

We have had a couple more people who have volunteered via email to assist us with the Perl coding on the website.  We are taking things slowly, and our intent is to leave Laszlo's work alone as much as possible, except where there are verifiable errors.

A rumor has surfaced on some Internet fora that we are not interested in preserving the pre-1960 versions of the site.  We would like to reassure everybody that this is completely false.  To the contrary, we have been in contact with people who are experts in the pre-1960 codices of rubrics, and we are more than happy to welcome anybody else aboard who is willing to offer corrections for such versions of the site.  Some of the problems we have encountered are a lack of consistency with accents and ligatures in the Latin text as well as a significant number of typos and other imperfections in the texts.  We are using Subversion to track changes made to the site, so that all of us who are doing the work of editing can see what variations are made and by whom.  We also have established an open-source backup on Google Code in case anything unforeseen should happen to the website.

We have remained in contact with Laszlo's widow and his son, who are both very pleased at the work that is being done on the site.

We would like to ask the Rorate Cæli readership if there is anyone who is willing to collaborate with us on the project of translating files.  Any and all assistance would be most appreciated.  We have had several emails from people inquiring about Spanish and French translations, and certainly, there is a need for translations in all major European languages (including the definition of the best freely available Psalter translation in each language).  There are approximately 3500 text files which would need to be translated in the Divinum Officium site alone, not counting the Sancta Missa site.  If anybody is willing to contribute to this very important task, please contact us!

The Divinum Officium Project

http://www.divinumofficium.com

canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com

Divinum Officium update

Father "Divinum Officium", the chaplain of our own Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society, sends us the latest news of this ongoing effort to bring the Breviarium Romanum to the largest possible audience - those bound to recite the Divine Office, those not bound but willing to pray the public prayer of the Latin Church, and those simply curious about it. As always, we are honored to be a part of this project, founded by the personal effort of Laszlo Kiss (may he rest in peace), for the greater glory of God.

We are very pleased to announce that Divinum Officium has had a significant number of errata corrected over the past 3 days. We have also uploaded the code for the site to Google Code, so that the website's code remains open-source for anybody to use. At the same time, we established a repository, so that those of us who have been working on developing and editing the code can do so in a collaborative way. We are also exploring the possibility of hopefully sprucing the site up aesthetically, as well as updating the versions of the "standalone" program for people to download and use offline. 

The Divinum Officium Project

http://www.divinumofficium.com

canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com

Divinum Officium update

Thanks to the kindness of his family, the legacy of Mr. Laszlo Kiss, Divinumofficium.com, is now under the care of a dear friend of this blog - a diocesan Priest in the East Coast of the United States and chaplain of our "Purgatorial Society". Many parties will be involved with the running of the site and with the establishment of stable mirror sites, including at least one religious Congregation.

Father once again dearly thanks all who offered their help, and informs us and assures you that the specific Divinumofficium.com domain name is not going anywhere for a long time. He also asks us to inform you that, instead of directing correspondence to Mr. Kiss's former email address, all mail regarding the website, as well as, and in particular, all offers of help (from proofreading and rubrical corrections to technical aid and new vernacular translations - we are particularly interested in including a French translation of the contents) are to be addressed to:

 canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com

_______________________________________

Deus in adiutorium (8 v.)

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla

[Updated:] Divinum Officium and Laszlo Kiss's legacyThank you for your interest

Dear readers,

I believe most of you are familiar with the website divinumofficium.com, which has been linked to our page ever since its own foundation (it is posted under both "Today's Mass: Missale Romanum" and "Today's Office: Breviarium Romanum", right at the beginning of the sidebar).  I personally consider it to be one of the most important websites ever created. Unfortunately, the author of this admirable endeavor, Mr. Laszlo Kiss, passed away unexpectedly on July 11 - may he rest in peace.

The website is available to be downloaded and was updated one day before Mr. Kiss's decease. The perpetual calendar on the website is surprisingly accurate and usually conforms almost 100% to the Universal Ordo, as defined by the rubrics in force for the 1960 Code of Rubrics (and, for historical reasons, also for the preceding sets of rubrics). 

A priest who is a friend of our blog contacted us wondering if perhaps any members of our readership who are internet and computer-savvy would be interested in working on a project to repost the site using the downloaded files, so that the site may be kept alive and any edits can be made so that it remains accurate. Ideally, it would be nice to have other languages available in the future besides Latin, English, and Hungarian. The site itself remains online, but who knows for how long? Mr. Kiss wrote on the website: "I keep doing this in the hope, that a team will pick up the idea, and will use the computers in entirety to help worship God." Father adds, "I firmly believe that this is what he would want to happen to his website and to his work. Having access to the entire Traditional Breviary and Missal online is a great boon to the many priests and lay people who use the site as a very helpful resource for praying the traditional Divine Office to the greater glory of God."

[Update (2200 GMT): thank you for the overwhelming, generous, and incredibly prompt response; I believe we have achieved our goals - including the crucial one of finding a permanent and stable institutional web location for this invaluable instrument: we are honored to have "brokered the deal" for the latter. Father will be saying a Traditional Mass this Friday for all those involved in the project. We will post updates on the situation when we are informed.] 

Thank you.

[New update: Aug. 20.]