Urban Monastic Ecumenical Translations

Beautiful texts to help us connect with God, others, and ourselves.

We looked for texts, but could not find ones we wanted to use with our community. Texts that felt at home with what Urban Monastics was becoming. Many of the available texts used outdated language. Others had stiff wording. We made the decision to create our own. Our first translations began in October 2020. Our focus is to make texts that are easy to read, use contemporary language, are welcoming, and are honoring to God. This project is ongoing.

The need for Scripture in a specific situation drives our work. This is important because scripture is at the heart of many of our spiritual practices. Scripture makes up most of the Divine Office and Lectio Divina. Unless otherwise noted, we use our own work. Currently, there are no plans to translate the full Bible.

The translations fall into three categories. The first is for the breviary. This is our prayer book, and it includes scripture and all the other parts that make up the Divine Offices of our liturgical year. The next is a Bible. It is unclear if/when a full version of our Bible will be completed, but the Divine Office uses large portions of scripture (directly or by reference). The final section is for all the other texts and resources that exist outside the breviary and the Bible. Note that our Breviary will also make use of the Bible translation for the readings, while the pointed Psalms and Canticles for singing are adapted and a part of the Breviary. You can learn about some of our distinctives by reading our writing guidelines.

Translations of Psalms and Canticles

The Psalms and Canticles are the foundation of the Divine Office. These scriptures are our focus for translation. There is a page for the Psalms and Canticles. Each page highlights the progress made.

Licensing and Usage

All our translations and texts are copyrighted by Urban Monastics. They are free for personal use. They are not available for commercial use without prior written consent. All uses that generate revenue are commercial. These texts are living documents. They will change over time to better serve their roles within the lives of Urban Monastics.

Common Source Texts

These are some of the source texts used by our translations.

• SBL Greek New Testament
• Morphological Greek New Testament
• Nova Vulgata
• Thesaurus Liturgiae Horarum Monasticæ (1977)
• Liturgia Horarum (©2000 Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
• Septuagint (LXX)
• Codex Sinaiticus
• Leningrad Codex (Westminster)