Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham Project
Post-Biblical Readings
As anyone reading this site likely already knows, the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham was a daily prayer book for the Ordinariate (comprised of former Anglicans who become a distinct part of the Roman Catholic Church). It was written by Msgr. Andrew Burnham and Fr. Aidan Nichols and published in 2012. Its use was later superseded by Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition) when that text was published in 2021. The Customary (abbreviated CoLW) is now out of print and can only be purchased through online bookstores at a prohibitive cost or borrowed through inter-library loan.
The CoLW contains a number of ecclesial treasures, many if not most of which were preserved in its successor text. (I unreservedly recommend Divine Worship: Daily Office [Commonwealth Edition] to any persons looking for an Anglican-style morning and evening prayer book containing the psalter and full scriptural lessons in a single volume.) Of note, the CoLW contains a number of "Post-Biblical Readings" which were not incorporated into Divine Worship: Daily Office. These readings come from the lives of various saints, great Anglo-Catholic thinkers, and other edifying sources.
In addition to the intrinsic worth of these "Post-Biblical Readings", they should be made widely available because they are listed as optional readings in the 2022-2023 Ordo of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. My scholarly project's purpose, then, is to preserve, catalogue, and make available as many of those "Post-Biblical Readings" as is legally possible. This is an ongoing project which will take time to complete. Since I am a husband, father, and a university philosophy professor my time is necessarily limited. But this is doubtless a worthy use of it.
The Project's Steps:
1) Scan to PDF all pages containing "Post-Biblical Readings" COMPLETE
2) Enhance and OCR all PDF pages COMPLETE
3) Catalogue all "Post-Biblical Readings" in a spreadsheet (including full citations) COMPLETE
3A) Catalogue page numbers, authors, and liturgical days COMPLETE
3B) Catalogue citations and years of publication COMPLETE
4) Determine which (if any) readings are in the public domain ONGOING
5) Make available all public domain readings ONGOING, SEE BELOW
5A) Make PDF scans available of public domain readings ONGOING
*Note: In all cases the PDFs have been edited to remove non-public domain content. EDIT 1/2024: I have returned to my normal teaching load this semester, so I anticipate being able to make further progress on this project.
5B) Make text available of public domain readings FORTHCOMING
6) Determine which (if any) readings are in copyright and subject to "fair use" exception FORTHCOMING
7) Make text and PDF scans available for all "fair use" texts FORTHCOMING
8) For any texts in copyright and not subject to "fair use", determine if alternative public domain sources/translations exist and make available. FORTHCOMING
Rubrics:
The rubrics concerning the placement of these post-biblical readings have changed between the original publication of the CoLW and Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition). The Divine Worship rubric supersedes.
Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition):
"After the Third Collect, the Officiant may add other appropriate Collects, or Prayers and Thanksgivings. These may be taken from Divine Worship, or some other suitable source" (General Introduction #27, pg. 17).
"If so desired, the Second Reading from the Office of readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, or a non-biblical reading from some other suitable source, may be read following the conclusion of the Office, namely after the Third Collect" (General Introduction #40, pg. 19).
Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham:
"Certain readings by writers of the patristic period, or of the mediæval period, or by canonized saints or beati (especially those in this collection by Blessed John Henry Newman), as set out in this Customary, may be used, within the Ordinariates, as the second reading at the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours. They may also be read as the second lesson at either Morning or Evening Prayer in the Divine Office set out in this Customary. Other readings, though they may be read as the second lesson at either Morning or Evening Prayer in the Divine Office set out in this Customary, should not be used in place of the appointed readings in the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours.
Many post-biblical readings, having the character of a homily, or drawn from a homily, may commend themselves for use in addition to two Biblical readings. Suitable points for this third reading would be following the Benedictus at Morning Prayer, or after the Nunc Dimittis, or other Second Canticle at the end of Evening Prayer, in place of a sermon" ("Use of the Post-Biblical Readings", pg. 26).
