I have a pre-Vatican-II edition of the Little Office of the BVM; it also contains the Te Deum during the hour of Matins. It rests side-by-side with the Latin, and the translation is amazingly close. (Yes, I do understand Latin, though I’m not fluent in it.) When I pray the breviary online, I do so substituting the traditional TeDeum for the one in the Office. To the ears of one raised with the traditional prayers, the modern versions actually sound somewhat insipid at best, inane at worst. Take, for instance, the Salve Regina during Compline. The traditional prayer is:

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy.

Hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope.

To thee to we cry, poor banished children of Eve,

To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.

Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us,

And after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

(Yes, I know, strictly speaking those last two lines are not an integral part of the prayer, but a following versicle and response.)

Now go read the modern version. When I first read it, I didn’t even recognize it. In comparison…insipid. Lukewarm, the dreaded lukewarm. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

As for the Glory Be, I don’t know where that “world without end” part came from. In the Latin, it’s “saecula saeculorum,” which is loosely rendered “forever and ever.” In German, it’s “in alle Zeit in Ewigkeit,” which means literally, “in all time in eternity;” a looser translation might read, “throughout all time and forever.” Though the English “world without end” is the way I was taught it, and, in my readings, I’ve since learned that it goes back centuries, it’s never made any sense to me. It contradicts everything we are taught, that the world *will* end someday. Now the version of the “Glory Be” in the 1980s breviary, like the modern Salve Regina, was barely recognizable for what it was. I’m glad to see that the Universalis Office uses the more traditional one. But I really would like to see that “world without end” replaced with something that makes more sense.

I don’t mind the “is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” because it’s traditional, however if they wanted to use something more literal, why not go with what the Orthodox use: “now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.” That at any rate would seem to be closer to the idea behind “nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.”

I think we shouldn’t just have English translations of the hymns, but also have old hymns such as “Lord who at Thy first Eucharist,”"Holy Holy Holy, ” “Now we thank thee for our God,” and “Holy God we Praise Thy Name.”