Q: When attending conferences and meetings in various places, I have noticed during the celebration of one of the hours, sometimes the Psalm Prayer is omitted.
I am not able to find any statements, official or otherwise, indicating that when the liturgy of the hours is celebrated communally, this is to be observed. Would you be able to shed any light of this question.
Thank you for your time and effort.
==
A: The psalm prayers are considered optional. In the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, they are mentioned in the same breath with “captions”, which are not recited aloud (110); they were to be placed in the supplement (112)—though they were not published in the typical edition; and the recitation of the prayer is something that may or may not happen (202).
It remains to be seen if the revised English translation will include them. If it does, they would not be obligatory.