I’ve had a number of PMs and e-mails in the past week or so since I referenced that there do exist several Divine Liturgy books that include the full public text, without abbreviations. A friend has scanned and e-mailed to me one that I put together for private use back in 1997. It is probably in use in about 30 or 40 parishes. The book is essentially an update to the “Green Book” but with the complete liturgy and a lot of material from Msgr. Levkulic’s Pew Book.

You can find it linked on the chant page or access it directly by clicking here. Note it is in pdf format and is very large (almost 13 M). It is not the prettiest pdf in the world but some may find it useful. If anyone wants a “hard copy” I can provide it. Parishes have been duplicating it for about $7-8/book. I can provide (at no charge to parishes) a master camera ready copy suitable to be given to a printer.

There was also a shortened version that I did to accommodate the official Parma Liturgy that made the rounds.

Some cantors disagree with the work published in the 1960s. While I would not have set the texts exactly the way the commission set them back then I do realize and accept that we now have a Church that has grown up with those settings and very often knows nothing else. [This apparently seems to be the exact method the Slavs used with the Greek chant before creating Slavic chant.] For them, it is Prostopinije. Major changes to the texts and settings are extremely unpastoral, especially to the unchanging parts of the Divine Liturgy which they know by heart.

At some point I will try to post pdfs of the Vespers and Matins books.

Always follow the directives of your pastor or whatever is approved / mandated for your eparchy.

As always, I encourage anyone interested in producing musical settings to place their gifts on the altar so that the Church may examine them. The Lord will bless what He wishes.

We are one of the parishes that uses that book. Well, probably not anymore! I live in Central Pennsylvania and the priest is also pastor of three other parishes. We use the same books in all. They are put in a suitcase and carried around. It has the musical notation, which is nice, but can be hard to follow, since it has three or more versions of many prayers. My wife was raised United Church of Christ and is a musician. She things the DL is beautiful. But it drives her wild that most books don't have the musical notes. Now she just has to figure out which page to turn to when!

Tim