Correction June 30

For the Feast of June 30, Commem. of St. Paul, there is an error. For the Little Hours, it should say:

"At the little Hours, ant. and pss. of the current day."

Correction - Common of Apostles, II Vespers, Ps 138

In the Common of Apostles, the psalms for II Vespers, there is an error:

All of Psalm 138 should be said here, but only the first part was shown. The last verse of the psalm should be:

Et vide, si via iniquitátis in me est: * et deduc me in via ætérna.

If it's not, please refer to the Psalter, Friday at Vespers, for the second part (Psalm 138 ii.)

Correction June 26

June 26, feast of Ss. John and Paul, Martyrs.

At Vespers, the following note should be added:
Antiphons as in Lauds.
Psalms as in Sunday Vespers, but in the last place Ps. 115, Crédidi.

I received a wonderful suggestion from a kind soul that I implement a list of all such errata. As a temporary solution I will make these posts under the label "Errata," and will put a link so that these can be pulled up easily. The dates of the posts can be compared against the "Published On" date on the title page.

Printed version...canon law

I just yesterday became aware of canon 826, and its relevance to my work.

Can. 826 §1. The prescripts of => can. 838 are to be observed concerning liturgical books.

§2. To reprint liturgical books, their translations into the vernacular, or their parts, an attestation of the ordinary of the place where they are published must establish their agreement with the approved edition.

§3. Books of prayers for the public or private use of the faithful are not to be published without the permission of the local ordinary.

Bottom line: whatever I choose to call this, permission is required.

A document by the US Conf. of Catholic Bishops offers the following clarification regarding the extent of this canon:

a. Is the work in written, printed format?
... Similarly, current canon law pertaining to the approval of books and other writings within the Latin Catholic Church does not extend to all of the instruments of social communication that are available to advance the new evangelization, such as audio, radio, video, cinemagraphic, television, or other electronic productions. ...

b. Is the writing intended for public distribution?
The canonical requirement for the authorization of written works applies only to texts that are destined for public distribution. Generally speaking, the requirement does not apply to writings that have been prepared for private use by a particular group of the Christian faithful. Similarly, the canonical requirement for authorization does not apply to a work that has been professionally printed or bound, if the work is not going to be made available for public consumption—either for purchase or by means of free distribution.

It seems that only actual printed materials are covered, not electronic formats such as PDF files. Therefore I will continue to make the PDF available, unless I am told otherwise. It also appears that there is no restriction on printing these PDF's out for personal use, or for use in a limited group.

I've already changed the website, and the link to the print PDF is gone. I will continue work, and I will continue to make the PDFs available. And God willing when I complete work on formatting, I hope to submit this work to my local Ordinary for approval.

For additional thoughts on the topic, I would recommend this post on "What Does That Prayer Really Say," by Fr. Zuhlsdorf:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/01/quaeritur-can-i-use-an-angleus-press-prayer-book/

Typo, St. William

It seems made a typo on today's feast of St. William, Abbot. It seems I accidentally gave him the title of "Apostle." The correct title should of course be "Abbot," and the reference should be to the Common of Confessors. I've fixed the problem, but have not updated the print or electronic copies.

Apology

I received an email today from Lulu giving a list of purchases. Much to my chagrin I found that somehow a very old copy of my Diurnal had somehow regained active status, and that some poor soul had purchased it.

I believe I inadvertently caused this when I was attempting to revise an old "large print" version. I wanted to update it, so that I could offer a new large print edition (8.5"x11" size). Somehow during this process, the old copy was reactivated. I've since fixed the problem.

I feel just awful about this, as the copy purchased is probably about a year out of date, and almost certainly missing a good deal of the Propers. I have no way to know who this person is; I have no access to Lulu purchase information. If you are this poor soul, please email me at breviary@indyblue.com, and I will make this right.

New version now online, comments on Color

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working on a number of revisions. I updated the print and PDF copies this morning, so please take a look!

I'm very happy with the incorporation of the little Hour Hymns into the psalter: I've found this helps a lot with usability.

In addition to the changes I mentioned in the earlier post, I also went through and found all the page reference "Error:" messages. For those who purchased copies with this error, my humblest apologies! (Thank you to the kind soul who told me about this error)

Here is a short synopsis of what I'll be working on next:

• I'll be making what should be minor revisions to the "Pars Specialis" of the Ordinary.
• Some parts of the Proper of Saints that need some reformatting.
  
• The entire Proper of Seasons needs a lot of reformatting!
  

I would also like to address a comment made by the same "kind soul" as above: I would very much like to be able to print this work in color, but the costs on Lulu are simply too high. I checked, and a color copy would be about $150.

The reason for this is found in the way "publish-on-demand" services function. Lulu uses large "digital presses," which are basically huge laser printers. Because of this, there are only two options: black and white, and full color.

A traditional printing would allow for both black and red text, and a very reasonable price. But the down side to traditional printing is that there is a lot of cost associated with setting up the press, meaning you can't reasonably print one or two copies at a time.

I've looked into a print run from a shop in Michigan, and this is an option I'm hoping to pursue in the future. This shop prints a lot of Bibles and such, so they are very familiar with how to print leatherbound editions on the very nice thin paper traditionally used in Breviaries and Bibles. They can also attach the page marker ribbons, which are so helpful in a Breviary.

Before this is an option, I have to have all of the revisions and formatting issues resolved. I'll probably revisit the topic at some point in the future.

Lots of revisions coming

As I mentioned in my last post, I've had a number of changes and revisions on my mind for a while now. I'm just about done with a large number of these revisions, and will be posting a new update soon. All of these changes are targeted at usability:

1. All of the section headings in the Ordinary and Psalter are in English now...or Latin and English. There shouldn't be any more Latin-only headings.
   
2. I've added a LOT more rubrics/instructions to the Ordinary.
3. I added a short version of the opening versicle to all the hours (except Matins), and the hymns for Prime, Terce, Sext and None on all the weekdays in the psalter. This should cut down on a LOT of page-flipping, as pretty much all of the hours can be said through the end of the psalms without leaving the psalter.
4. I moved some of the "supplemental" psalms from Sunday Vespers to the beginning of the book. Psalm 116 is still there after 113, which makes sense because it is the psalm most often used in place of 113 on feasts. It's also what most "real" Breviaries do. The other psalms that are used with somewhat less frequency (115, 131, 137, and 147) I have moved to the very front, starting on page 3. This way they'll be handy when needed, but won't be quite so obtrusive the rest of the time.
5. In addition to these changes, I've also fixed a number of typos and misspellings.
   

It's going to take me a few more days to get things to a point where I can post an update, and this will give me a little more time to make sure I didn't move or delete something inadvertently.

All content is now complete

I have finished the Proper of Saints, and have updated the copy on Lulu. As of now, all of the Propers for the Universal Calendar are included. I say "Universal" to point out that most countries and dioceses have "Particular" feasts. I have not done any work on these particular propers.

I've already started working on making various formatting changes and updates, and this will continue. I will also continue to proofread, making corrections to typos and misspellings.

There is one change that I was forced to make: The indexes at the end of the book have been removed. This copy has 735 pages, and with the eight or nine pages of indexes, I exceeded the 740 page limit on Lulu. The page count will fluctuate somewhat as I start making changes...I'm hoping to put these back in eventually.

Working on the Assumption

This morning, I started on the last feast yet to be done: Aug 15, the Assumption of our Lady. I'm hoping to finish it today or tomorrow.

Shouldn't be long now

I haven't uploaded a new update, but I completed Aug 1 through 6 today. It probably goes without saying, but it's very likely that the remainder of the propers will all be done and included in the next week or so.

There are only two feasts left with any propers to speak of: St. Laurence (Aug 10) and The Assumption (15). The rest are basically just collects.

Another update...All of July

I just uploaded another update, both print and PDF.

They can also both be found on my Lulu "storefront":
http://stores.lulu.com/breviary

The major part of the update is that all of July is now finished. The only propers yet to do are August 1 through 15.

Special thanks to a kind soul who found an error: The feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary was showing up twice, once in August (oops) and again in its proper place in October. That has now been fixed.

Amazon listing

I found this on Amazon today:

http://www.amazon.com/Breviarium-David-Siefker/dp/B002AD9GSC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244260045&sr=1-4

If you search by "breviarium", it's on page 6.

More good news: The price is now the same on Amazon as it is on Lulu! And it may be my imagination...but I think that the shipping is lower than on Lulu's site.

WARNING: I'd be very cautious about placing an order through Amazon at this point: I saw something on Lulu's website about possible delays in updates. This could apply to content. As there have been numerous changes to the content over the last few weeks (and hopefully several more coming in the next couple of weeks!), there is the risk that any orders through Amazon will be an old revision.

Another update...All of June

I've managed get May 31 and all of June completed. I just updated the print copy with this.

Another major accomplishment is that I've completed the changes to the Common of Saints; there should be optional (T.P. Alleluia)'s everywhere that they should appear.

I've also made a few minor adjustments elsewhere: I rearranged the prayers before/after the Office, and added some page references. There are some references pointing to the Ordinary, which appear just after the prayers before the office. I'm hoping that this will be helpful for those starting out. I've also added page numbers in the Ordinary, for each respective hour in the psalter.

The number of actual missing propers is relatively small now. There are a lot of other formatting updates to be made...but having all the content is obviously the most important thing. Once the remaining propers are done, I'll try to post a bit of a "road-map" of what's coming next (first will almost certainly be an overhaul of the Ordinary and Psalter, with a mind toward making them a little more user-friendly).

New Update...almost all of May

I've just finished uploading a new print copy to Lulu. All of the propers for May are now included, with the exception of May 31 (Queenship of Mary).

I've been working my way through the Common of Saints, adding (P.T. Alleluia) where appropriate. I'm not done yet, so several of the commons don't have this.

Edit: Oh, one other noteworthy thing: I received the following email from Lulu this week:

Dear Lulu Author,

Congratulations, your book has been selected for listing on Amazon.com's Marketplace! As a result, your book will now be easily found on the world's largest online bookseller.

There will be some differences between your listing on Lulu and your listing on Amazon. Amazon charges a fee to list your book, and in order to cover that cost your book will be listed with a 30% markup; however your royalty will remain the same, and your book's price on Lulu will not change. . . .

As all of you hopefully already know, I have set the "royalty" amount to $0.00, for both downloads and print copies. There is absolutely no markup whatsoever; the only costs are those charged by Lulu. I have no intention of ever changing this.