Some years ago, The Liturgical Institute in Mundelein took a publishing risk in trying to bring an easy-to-use version of the Divine Office to the Church. Under the leadership of the Institute’s director, Fr. Douglas Martis, the Institute’s publishing arm Hillenbrand books produced a hard cover, 1344 page book which contained all of the approved English-language texts for singing morning, evening and night prayer as well as the Office for the Dead. It added simple psalm tones composed by Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB and the proper hymns for each day that came from the Latin typical edition set in traditional chant. The publisher was a bit nervous, as you might imagine, since this expensive proposition had no recent precedent. Would parishes, schools and regular people buy a book of the Liturgy of the Hours to sing? The answer has come.
The Mundelein Psalter is going into its third printing since it first appeared in 2007.
Here we see the flowering of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, which told us that in the Divine Office, Jesus Christ “joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise” (SC, 83). It also stated that the Church is and should be “ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world.” While before the Council many people thought that singing the Office was only for priests and nuns, Vatican II clearly states that “the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine Office” (SC,100).
People have written to the Liturgical Institute saying that they have started the public singing of the Liturgy of the Hours in their parishes. Some seminaries are using it. We have even heard that husbands and wives sing morning prayer together before work or with their children. So this official prayer of the Church has been made available to the whole English-speaking world and the sung praise of God is spreading. To learn more about the Mundelein Psalter, visit http://www.mundeleinpsalter.com/. If you have any stories to share about how you use the Psalter, please let the Institute know at litinst@usml.edu.
December 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Glad to hear people are picking it up. I hounded my parents as a seminarian to begin praying the prayer of the Church. I have since left seminary but now I enjoy praying it with them when I am home, three lay persons praying the Divine Office… beautiful.
December 16, 2008 at 6:39 pm
My wife and I pray the morning office together. We would love to sing it. But I am afraid we would probably need a CD to teach us the basic tones etc. There’s just a massive disconnect when we see the way chant is “annotated” (for lack of a better word). Does anyone know of anything that might help in this regard?
December 16, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Rob, if you follow the link given in the post, they have some free audio downloads and also some free pdf files converting some of the music to more modern annotations.
December 16, 2008 at 7:42 pm
also, a clue on the chant notation is that the little clef that looks like a “c” marks the “doh” note or tonic, or first note of a major scale. Once you get that, it is very easy. If you don’t get that things can sound very weird. If you see a clef that has three “dots” that is the “fah” clef, which indicated the 4th note in the scale: doh, re, mi, FAH
December 16, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Congrats to the Liturgical Institute for their third printing of the Mundelein Psalter! It truly is a wonderful resource for chanting the Liturgy of the Hours, and I’m glad that I was able to be at Mundelein Seminary during the “beta” testing stage.
December 16, 2008 at 10:27 pm
What a beautiful Psalter! Hmm, maybe I will save up for it. I like my Pauline Press one, but I am irked that I can’t sing all the songs because there is no musical notation at all. I know some of them already but not all of them.
Does anyone else have one? Do you have to go flipping around the pages like I do in mine? I’ve been trying to ease into it, and the more I look up the more I have to flip between sections… I think it’s time to finish reading “The Divine Office for DODOs”….
December 16, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Nzie,
There is some page flipping, especially during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. Mainly the psalms and canticles in one section and the propers of the seasons in another. Also, as you’re learning, there’s the ordinary, which is the unchangeable parts of the prayers. Fortunately, as you learn it, the necessity to refer to the ordinary fades quite quickly. Short of using eBreviary, there’s really no way to pray the Liturgy of the Hours without ribbon flipping.
December 16, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Thanks, Father. I think what got me was that I realised I needed to be referring to the Proper of Seasons on Immaculate Conception — and while I did manage to keep it straight, it was a bit tricky, and I definitely need more ribbons! I never heard of eBreviary – that could be handy.. but a book feels more.. well, I love the feel of a book so I can’t imagine abandoning it.
This reminds me of a funny thing a priest who is a family friend told us about — apparently, when he was at seminary, the running joke was the Ribbon Society. If a seminarian was to unexpectedly expire at some point, the Ribbon Society would make sure he was up-to-date in his breviary and possibly arrange him into a suitably prayerful position.
December 17, 2008 at 4:28 am
Rob, you could also try “An Idiot’s Guide to Square Notes”, from the Sancta Missa site. It’s quite good:
http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/music/books-and-articles-on-sacred-music/an-idiots-guide-to-square-notes.html
December 18, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Thanks to those who posted some helpful links. If anyone is still paying attention to this thread, and who knows, does the chanting of the psalm or canticle use the same “tone” as its antiphon? Or do you only chant the antiphon? I ask because the mp3 files at the Mundelein Psalter site are only for the antiphons.
December 18, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Rob, yes, the chant tone continues for the entire psalm, not just the antiphon. About the only thing that doesn’t get chanted is the short reading after the psalms.
December 18, 2008 at 6:42 pm
[snark]
You know, usually when someone mentions “fruits” and “Mundelein” in the same sentence, it’s about a different topic.
[/snark]
December 18, 2008 at 7:18 pm
You should see Mundelein these days… all night Eucharistic adoration, a chant schola, (mostly) very loyal to the liturgical norms. Still a few outdated administrators and faculty members and a rector who is Chicago business-as-usual, but the Holy Spirit can work miracles even at Mundelein.