Q: I know that the USCCB asked that the dialogue “You have given them bread from heaven / Having all sweetness within it” be included in the new HCWEMOM, but such permission was not given. At the same time, what is listed in that chapter of HCWEMOM is more outline than a strictly prescribed liturgy.
So, by the omission, should we conclude that we OUGHT not include the dialogue, or MUST not include it? Likewise, HCWEMOM speaks of incorporating the MAJOR hours of the LOH into the period of adoration, and offers some guidance re: the final blessing. Is there any guidance on incorporating Night Prayer?
It would seem to me that one would celebrate Exposition as described in HCWEMOM, through the incensation. Night Prayer would be prayed as described in the LOH: psalmody, gospel canticle, prayer.
Then Benediction would be celebrated; the blessing from Night Prayer would be omitted. The Marian antiphon would be prayed after reposition? Or could that be the hymn accompanying reposition?
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A: If we could imagine ourselves in the late 1960s inside the room of the revisers of the ritual for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, I think we’d witness a joint decision to remove that dialogue simply because it was also being removed from the liturgy of bringing communion to the sick.
If we could imagine ourselves last year inside the room of the DDWDS, I think we’d witness a response to the bishops suggesting that they follow the ritual the way the revisers envisioned it. They didn’t restore it to communion to the sick, so why keep it in exposition when the same revisers made the same decision?
I omit it when I preside. If someone puts it in, I think they mean to honor a local tradition, not to offend the liturgical renewal. So I let it go.
Your proposal for Night Prayer is great. The Marian antiphon could serve either way.