Word on Fire to provide new Liturgy of the Hours to every seminarian in the U.S.

On the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Jan. 28, Word on Fire announced that the ministry will provide a complete four-volume set of its new Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition, to every Catholic seminarian in the United States — at no cost to the seminaries or seminarians.

Thanks to a generous donation, Word on Fire estimates that roughly 4,000 volume-sets will be distributed across the United States.

“One particular supporter, who asked to remain anonymous, stepped up in an extraordinary way with a desire to provide every U.S. seminarian with a free set,” Brandon Vogt, executive publishing director at Word on Fire, told EWTN News. “The supporter saw how this gift will shape a whole generation of future priests and bishops, to give them prayer books that they will pray with every day, multiple times, throughout their priesthood.”

The Liturgy of the Hours — also known as the Divine Office — is a set of daily prayers that priests and religious are obliged to pray and that many lay Catholics also make part of their daily prayer practice. The prayers are set according to the Church calendar and are composed of psalms, hymns, and readings from Scripture.

In November 2012, the U.S. bishops voted to revise the translation, following new English translations of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, and the 2001 Vatican document Liturgiam Authenticam. The approval process was completed in November 2024 and in May 2025 the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) sent the completed manuscript to the Holy See for confirmation. In October 2025, the USCCB chose Catholic media companies Ascension and Word on Fire to publish the Liturgy of the Hours, Second Edition.

Vogt highlighted Pope John Paul II’s remarks regarding the importance of the Liturgy of the Hours during his visit to the U.S. in 1979.

The pontiff said: “The value of the Liturgy of the Hours is enormous. Through it all the faithful, but especially the clergy and religious, fulfill a role of prime importance: Christ’s prayer goes on in the world … Through this prayer of Christ to which we give voice, our day is sanctified, our activities transformed, our actions made holy.”

The pope added that the Liturgy of the Hours should be “among the highest priorities of our day.”

“We want to help seminarians more easily and fruitfully establish that priority,” Vogt said.

Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire, said in a press release: “This gift is an expression of gratitude and hope. While rector at Mundelein Seminary [in Illinois], I encouraged men to lean on the Liturgy of the Hours as a pillar of their priestly life. By placing a beautiful, durable edition into the hands of every seminarian, we hope to foster a lifelong fidelity to the Church’s prayer among those preparing for holy orders.”