I’m taking a deep dive into my church nerdery today. More specifically, I’m diving deep into a particular subset of church nerdery to which I am obsessively devoted: The Divine Office (a.k.a. The Daily Office or The Liturgy of the Hours).

The Divine Office Hymnal arrived in today’s mail. It is part of the Roman Catholic Church’s ongoing update to their Liturgy of the Hours in English. Promulgated by the USCCB in 2022 and published by GIA in 2023.

The hardcover is simple and elegant; the binding is solid.

On the inside, there are sparse illustrations that are lovely and do not interfere with the flow of the music. I particularly like the one on the title page.

The contents include a calendar of saints (Roman), hymns for all major seasons and saints, including a 2-week cycle for Ordinary Time. There are separate indices for metrical and plainsong tunes, as well as English and Latin first lines, which is helpful.

The hymns included are the traditional Office hymns, each offered with a metrical melody (odd numbers) and a plainsong melody (even numbers). I like this much more than the hymn offerings in the previous American edition of the LOTH. The musical layout is easy to read and follow. Text size is good. All music is in modern 5-line notation, rather than Gregorian neumes. This will be a turnoff for some, but I personally don’t mind. The English translations are decent and probably more accurate than Newman’s more familiar translations, they fit the meter well, but don’t often rhyme.

In form and style, this hymnal bears the most resemblance to the now out-of-print Lumen Christi Hymnal, but is greatly expanded. Included in this version are hymns for the Office of Readings and the Little Hours, which were lacking in Lumen Christi. An English Te Deum is included for the Office of Readings, but the translation is different from the ICEL one I am familiar with from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

What I would have liked to see, which aren’t in The Divine Office Hymnal, are settings for the Marian Antiphons after Compline. These are readily available in other resources, like The Parish Book of Chant, so their omission here is only a minor problem.

All in all, it looks like GIA has done a good job of putting together a very useful resource for USCCB’s long-awaited update of the Liturgy of the Hours. Since it contains only hymns, it will also be quite useful for Christians in other denominations, like me (Episcopal), who also pray the Daily Office.

The price is also very reasonable, at $25 (before S&H).

I give The Divine Office Hymnal a thumbs-up and would recommend it.