This week and next, there will be a feature that will appear occasionally throughout the year in the Formed in Christ column. It will provide updates about newly available and required liturgical books. It will be a place to recommend further multimedia and print resources for your ongoing liturgical formation. If you send in questions, the answers or observations will be here. I am always eager to hear from you about suggested topics and information that can be shared with our fellow readers.

Two new liturgical texts from several publishers will be available for your parish library and sacristy. The title, the date of the decree from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the date when you are permitted to use the new text, and the date when the new text is mandatory. By the mandatory date, you ought to collect all previous versions and see to their proper disposal, and from that required date, use only the revised text. That's also a good time to ensure you have the latest version of any liturgical texts and replace those worn by regular use.



"Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass"

USCCB Decree Jan. 25, 2024

Permitted Sept. 14, 2024

Required Dec. 1, 2024



"Order of Christian Initiation of Adults"

USCCB Decree March 31, 2024

Permitted Dec. 1, 2024

Required March 5, 2025

Various versions of the new texts are available from your local religious goods dealer or directly from publishers

-- Catholic Book Publishing: catholicbookpublishing.com

-- Liturgical Press: litpress.org

-- Liturgy Training Publications: ltp.org

-- Magnificat: bookstore.magnificat.net

-- Midwest Theological Forum: theologicalforum.org.

Speaking of liturgical texts, as this column has indicated, the process of revising previously translated liturgical books continues for English-speaking nations and parishes.

Three liturgical books are in various stages of translation, review, and revision and are seeking approval from the Holy See.



Liturgy of the Hours

This project began several years ago. Because of the amount of material that would be included in the finished product, it was thought that it would take at least a decade.

Familiar to clergy in its four-volume edition and to many religious and laity in the smaller one-volume Christian Prayer, this liturgy consists of psalms, canticles, and readings from both the Old and New Testaments, as well as readings from various authors from immediately after the New Testament to our own day. There are also hymns and antiphons. The whole content was subject to revision.

The biblical texts were brought over from the process of the new translation of biblical books, except the psalms and canticles, which were entrusted to a different process.

The remaining texts had to be reviewed, and most had to be retranslated or at least tweaked. A whole additional set of second readings for the Office of Readings also had to be addressed.

Progress is ongoing, and the most likely appearance in print will be in 2028.

A word about "in print." Much ink is being spilled over how the new version should be available. There are many online versions of the present books available.

Printed texts are useful. Books, though, are limited because of their size and the lack of printing presses capable or willing to take on such a huge project.

Online versions are much more flexible for this text. First, everything can be laid out for each day. The various options can also be presented. The much-discussed, among bishops and liturgists anyway, use of the second cycle of readings mentioned above could easily be incorporated into an online version. Likewise, additions, corrections, etc., could be very easily addressed. It would be cost-effective to have an annual subscription for those interested. Online alerts might be available in place of ribbons or memory lapses.



Lectionary for Mass

Related to the above is the revision of the Lectionary for Mass.

Again, this is an enormous task, given particularly to biblical scholars. It also meant incorporating the translations of the psalms and canticles used in the Liturgy of the Hours into the Lectionary, or vice versa.

This must be in printed form, just like the Roman Missal. The Lectionary is a part of the Roman Missal.

Most are familiar with the present four-volume arrangement, which is likely how the new translation will appear.

The Episcopal Conference of England and Wales recently released a new, improved, quite beautiful, and to be truthful, expensive version of its new Lectionary and accompanying Book of the Gospels. The arrangement of readings is done with the reader in mind, so sense lines, etc., are obvious, and the type is larger. These are considerations that the publishers, in conjunction with our bishops, will have to address when the US translation is available in a few years.

More next week.