The translation was modeled on the French La Bible de Jérusalem,[1] according to the school of Fr.
The Grail Psalms were already popular before the Second Vatican Council revised the liturgies of the Roman rite.
Because the Council called for more liturgical use of the vernacular instead of Latin, and also for more singing and chanting (as opposed to the silent Low Mass and privately recited Divine Office, which were the predominantly celebrated forms of the Roman rite before the Council),[2] the Grail Psalms were utilised as the official liturgical Psalter by most of the English-speaking world.
They were also utilized, with some minor alterations, in a parallel translation of the Liturgy of the Hours titled The Divine Office in 1974.
As these are the only two officially recognized Roman Catholic translations of the canonical hours in English, the Grail became the de facto liturgical Psalter.
[citation needed] Some Episcopal Conferences, such as that of England and Wales, also adopted the Grail for the Responsorial Psalms in the Lectionary for Mass.
[citation needed] A separate edition of the Grail Psalms, revised with inclusive language, was produced in 1986.
[4] The 1994 ICEL Psalter issued for study and comment was another alternative to the Grail Psalms, but never approved for liturgical use.
[5] In 2001, Pope John Paul II promulgated the encyclical Liturgiam authenticam, which called for a more literal translation of liturgical texts.
[8] In 2019 the USCCB acquired the rights to the Revised Grail from the monks of Conception Abbey, and released a new revision titled Abbey Psalms and Canticles, which "will gradually be incorporated into the Church’s official liturgical books.