Universalis

Options

You get to the Options screen by using the menu command Tools > Options.

Order of Mass

Language

You can view Latin or one of a number of other languages in parallel with the English text of the Order of Mass.

Include priest's private prayers

You can choose whether to include in the Order of Mass (and in Mass Today) the prayers that are said silently or quietly by the priest.

Readings at Mass

Use the New American Bible translation

By default, Universalis uses the Jerusalem Bible with the Grail psalms. This is the most usual translation in the English-speaking world, though others are permitted. But the New American Bible is the translation used in the USA, so we provide this also.

Extra language

You can view Latin in parallel with English.

Include prayers and antiphons

If you are using Universalis as a private spiritual resource, the Mass readings of the day are probably all that you want. If you are taking it to Mass with you, you may want the Entrance Antiphon and the other prayers and antiphons from the printed missals. This option lets you choose.

Add commentaries

You can choose to see a commentary below each of the Mass readings. (Not all the readings are covered, but most of them are). Commentaries signed "HW" are by Dom Henry Wansbrough of Ampleforth Abbey.

Include longer passages for study

The Mass readings are often quite short, but since Universalis contains the Liturgy of the Hours as well as the Mass, it often has access to the same text as part of a longer passage used in the Office of Readings. For your own private study you may like to see that longer passage whenever one is available. The longer passages appear at the very bottom of the Readings at Mass page.

Liturgy of the Hours

Language

You can choose English, parallel English and Latin, Latin on its own, and various other languages.

Include the psalm-prayers

The psalm-prayers were promised in the 1970 revision of the Liturgy but never officially provided. English translations of them appear in some American-language books. Universalis offers the psalm-prayers as an option, because some people find them helpful while others do not.

Show chant marks in the psalms

The Grail psalms are structured around a fixed number of stressed beats in a line, with varying numbers of unstressed ones – a natural way of chanting in English. If you are planning to chant a psalm (even if you do it silently in your head) then you may appreciate having the stress marks to show what the translators intended. Otherwise you may find áccents on every stréssed sýllable more of a distraction than a help.

On memorials, use Common texts

The rules for the Liturgy of the Hours allow you a choice on memorials of saints. You can leave the Hour of the current day unchanged except where there is something specific to the saint, or you can replace most of the current day’s texts with the relevant Common texts, for instance, “The Common of WOmen Religious”.

Use RSV readings

The option to use readings from the RSV (Catholic Edition) applies to the readings in the Liturgy of the Hours only. It does not affect the psalms and canticles, nor does it affect the readings at Mass.