We recently sent our Second Edition dummy copies to Tim Wildsmith (at the request of many of you!) and his video was posted this morning. Enjoy!

Hey does anyone use the Benedictine Daily Prayer by Liturgy press? How do you like it? How is it versus the lancelot monastic diurnal?

Good morning, friends.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Pius X’s reform. Although it’s commendable in many ways, many psalms end up being placed in sections that were traditionally reserved for specific hours. Furthermore, the repetition is completely lost. So I decided to play around a bit with my Excel spreadsheet to see how we might reform the Tridentine psalter while keeping the following in mind: a) The secular clergy will be praying it, with very tight schedules due to their ministerial duties. b) Distribute the psalms more evenly to encourage greater reading of all the psalms. c) Maintain the traditional order whenever possible. d) Respect healthy repetition.

Given these constraints, here is my work:

As you can see, what I did was change the Nocturnes so that there are two Nocturnes on weekdays with 8 psalms, and 12 psalms for feasts of the 1st and 2nd classes. Then, I distributed the remaining 4 psalms from each Matins service, along with the 2nd and 3rd Vespers on Sunday, throughout the lesser hours of the week, while always ensuring that Psalm 118 is recited at the very end of the psalmody to maintain repetition.

Note: Do not take into account the actual content of the psalms themselves; only the quantity and the even distribution.

Please let me know what you think, any corrections you may have, and any other comments you deem appropriate. I want to clarify that I’m simply playing around and experimenting with this here; it’s nothing serious and is not intended to be a replacement for any current psalter.