St. Bonaventure's adaptation of the Psalms

St. Bonaventure

I recently discovered something called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ascribed to the 13th-century Italian bishop and theologian St. Bonaventure. It consists of a reworking of the biblical Psalms to emphasize Mary. For example, Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man that cherishes thy name, Virgin Mary, thy grace will strengthen his soul. As a garden watered by springs of living water, thou wilt multiply in that soul the sweetest fruits of justice.

The archived version I linked to above was translated and edited by the Rev. John Cumming, DD, and published by the British Reformation Society in 1852. If such material seems an odd fit for the publisher, we need only read Cumming's preface for his motive in bringing it into print in the English language:

I publish it in order to let Protestants disposed to join Rome see what she is; and to make such who love evangelical and Protestant Christianity, thankful, and more disposed than ever to appeal to God’s people in Rome, and yet not of her, saying: “Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.”

The collection appeared seven years after John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was received into the Roman Church following two decades as a priest in the Church of England. It came 19 years after John Keble preached his sermon, National Apostasy, thereby launching the Oxford Movement. Beginning as an effort to recover the catholic roots of the Church of England, the movement led to several high profile conversions to Rome, Newman being the best known. Cumming obviously sought to stem the tide of such conversions.

Do contemporary Roman Catholics still use this collection? I couldn't say, but perhaps readers of this post could tell us. In any event, the biblical Psalms themselves are more than sufficient for the church's liturgical life.