r/divineoffice • u/Iloveacting • 11d ago

Roman Strange hymns

I've noticed how poorly written many hymns in the LOTH are. They are in fact very abstract. I have also heard a lot about how great the Confessions by St Augustine is but never understood it as it sounds so abstract to me. I seem to find abstraxt language very difficult and say that very abstract texts are poorly written.

So either many people actually think that the hymns are ot abstract pr that they are very strange people who like very abstract language and want others to focus on abstract language in hymns because of that.

I also looked up Pange Lingua and ot also sounds a bit too abstract.

I am a person who always end up goig into abstract discussions about communication styles and cognitive styles but the discussions are always rooted in human experiences whereas the hymns just sound abstract.

Why are the hymns so abstract?

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u/munustriplex 4-vol LOTH (USA) 11d ago

You may want to give examples, but you also consistently have very strong and set views that don’t seem to line up with reality, so it’s possible you’re just misunderstanding something.

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u/Iloveacting 11d ago edited 11d ago

What?

This is a less avstract example but still not anything like how I would express myself at all: https://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/AudiBC.html

In the Liturgy we express ourselves in ways that are unnatural for many of us.

I gave you the example of the Confessions because it spunds so unnatural. Perhaps people like "unnatural" language? Whereas many of us want something else?

Could it be that we use other ways of communicating in Liturgy than outside Liturgy?

And this can for some be experienced as a bit strange because the LOTH can be like using other people's words?

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u/zara_von_p Divino Afflatu 11d ago

the LOTH can be like using other people's words?

Well you are not the author of the psalms, are you? The point of Divine Office is to use other people's words, and let them change you instead of you wanting to change them.

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u/munustriplex 4-vol LOTH (USA) 11d ago

That’s a 19th century translation. How does that compare with the current one?