Bl John Henry Newman: Office Propers

The office propers for Bl John Henry Newman's feast day have been published. You can find them in Latin and English here. Yes, the introduction is in Italian but scroll down a bit. The proper texts themselves are in Latin and English.

There has been some commentary already, including praise for the text choices. But Fr Hunwicke marks a note of, um, disappointment in the Latin composition. The words "stilted and wooden translation into Latin" were used. And there was a question about the use of confer with the infinitive and accusative. Oh, dear. I haven't the slightest idea what might be correct. It's the sort of article that's very good for one's humility. It occurred to me that lumen benignum tuum sequentem might be better as an ablative absolute. But that's probably another first-year mistake. I probably shouldn't admit that in public. Pretend you didn't read it.

Of course, that's only for the Novus Ordo and the Liturgia Horarum. If anyone wants to celebrate the new beatus in the traditional rite it will have to be a votive commemoration on a free day. Fr Hunwick suggests the common for a confessor-not-a-bishop, with the epistle and gospel from the common of doctors [2 Timothy 4:i-viii and Matthew 5:xiii-xix]. Seems sensible to me.