The Roman Diurnal Noted
The day hours of the Roman Rite, in Latin and English, with the chant — according to the rubrics of 1962
Dixit Dóminus Dómino meo * Sede a dextris meis.
The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand.
Every psalm is marked once and sings to any of the eight tones. Bold falls on the accents a cadence turns upon; italic on the syllables that lead into them. A syllable can carry both. Learn your tone, and the marks tell you the rest.
That one verse, as it is marked above, sung in each of the eight tones.
The pointing above is not theory. Children and teachers at our school chant Prime and Sext from it every day.
If you wish to pray the day hours of the Roman Rite in Latin or in English, or to chant them, no single book exists from which you can do all three. This is an attempt to create one.
What it is
Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline according to the rubrics of 1962, with the Latin and the English side by side, and the chant — antiphons, hymns, brief responsories, the psalm tones — set on the page with the text. Pray it in English, chant it in Latin, or learn the one while praying the other.
Made as a liturgical book
Set in Garamond, printed in true rubric red and black on bible paper, sewn and bound to be opened every day for thirty years. The typesetting is being done to the standard of the books it means to stand beside, not to the standard of what can be got out quickly. That is most of why it is taking so long.
Why it doesn't already exist
Anyone who prays the monastic office knows the Monastic Diurnal from Farnborough — one volume, Latin and English facing, pointed for the tones, made to a standard that lets a layman pray from it for thirty years. The Roman office has never had its equivalent. Its day hours can be had in Latin for those who read Latin, and the Liber Antiphonarius carried the chant until it went out of print before the Council. What has never existed is one book, made to that standard, holding all three.
Where it stands
Under way, in the hands of one man who teaches full time. The ordinary is largely set and the Sunday psalter is coming along. A printer is lined up and the red is chosen. What remains is the long middle of the work, and I would rather finish it properly than promise you a date and miss it. It will be years, not months.
Hear when it's ready
One list, no newsletter. I'll write when there is something worth reporting — sample pages, a proof, and the day it can be ordered.