Vatican gives final approval to new Liturgy of the Hours edition coming in 2027

BALTIMORE (OSV News) -- The faithful can expect a new edition of the Liturgy of the Hours by Easter 2027, according to Bishop Steven J. Lopes, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Divine Worship who made the announcement Nov. 11, during the bishops' fall meeting.

To loud applause from the bishops' assembled, Bishop Lopes, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, shared the news that the Vatican's Dicastery for Divine Worship issued a decree approving the new edition of the church's ancient daily liturgical prayer.

The Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office, is the daily prayer of the church and sanctifies the day with prayer. This liturgical prayer also takes different set forms within the Latin Catholic and 23 Eastern Catholic churches that together make the worldwide Catholic Church, and each form has prayers that vary in accordance with each particular church's calendar.

The standard Liturgy of the Hours in the Roman rite of the Latin Church is divided into five "hours" or parts prayed at different times each day: the office of readings; morning prayer or lauds; daytime prayer; evening prayer or vespers; and night prayer or compline. These five parts, which draw from Scripture, particularly the Psalms, usually take less than 20 minutes to pray.

Outgoing USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services signed the decree of publication, moving the process to the publishers.

"It is imagined, because that's a bit of a complicated work to produce a four-volume work like that," Bishop Lopes said, "that the first volume to be released will be Volume Two: Lent and Easter and so that will be able to go into effect for Ash Wednesday of 2027."

Bishop Lopes expressed his gratitude to the body of bishops for their patience and their work over "what has been a 13-year process" from when the bishops first agreed to begin work on revising the Liturgy of the Hours in November 2012 with the aim of retranslation to "more accurately reflect the original Latin texts."

On Oct. 7, Ascension and Word on Fire Publishing announced that they had been selected as publishers for the new edition.

At the time, Word on Fire's senior publishing director, Brandon Vogt, said that Word on Fire was honored to be selected. He told OSV News that the organization published booklets to help the lay faithful -- 30,000 subscribers -- in praying the Liturgy of the Hours which he called the "highest form of prayer" after the Mass and sacraments.

"The success of these booklets has positioned Word on Fire well to publish the new Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition," he added.

Jonathan Strate, president and CEO of Ascension, said in a press release at the time that the company was honored to serve as publishers for the new edition.

"Our goal is to create a reverent and beautiful edition that embodies the dignity of the Church's common prayer. This new translation marks an extraordinary moment for Catholics everywhere," he said.

Ahead of the new English edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, liturgical experts have been encouraging parishes and other Catholic communities to begin praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

While it is a required prayer for clergy, the church encourages the faithful to take it up as it is meant to "become the prayer of the whole people of God," according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"Sacrosanctum Concilium," the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, encourages the laity to pray the Divine Office "either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually."