diff --git a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
index 60a3df5db..081ff9824 100644
--- a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@
 // Default path is overridable with PACKET_HTML so this is not machine-specific.
 
 import { chromium } from 'playwright'
-import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'
-import { resolve } from 'node:path'
+import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { resolve, dirname } from 'node:path'
 import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url'
 
 const target = process.argv[2] || process.env.PACKET_HTML
@@ -50,11 +50,45 @@ const errs = []
 page.on('pageerror', (e) => errs.push(String(e).slice(0, 120)))
 await page.goto(pathToFileURL(file).href, { waitUntil: 'networkidle' })
 
+// Resolve the rhythm words for THIS packet's language from the shared catalog.
+// Per-key fallback to English, the same contract the renderer honours.
+const lang = await page.evaluate(() => document.documentElement.lang || 'en')
+// The catalog sits beside the generator that produced this packet, so derive it
+// from the packet's own path rather than hardcoding a machine-specific location.
+const catalogPath = process.env.PACKET_STRINGS
+  || resolve(dirname(file), '..', '..', 'packet-strings.json')
+if (!existsSync(catalogPath)) {
+  console.error(`PACKET-RENDER: FAIL — no strings catalog at ${catalogPath}`)
+  console.error('  Set PACKET_STRINGS if the packet lives outside the generator tree.')
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+const catalog = JSON.parse(readFileSync(catalogPath, 'utf8'))
+const enR = catalog.en.rhythms
+const langR = (catalog[lang] || {}).rhythms || {}
+const expected = [...new Set(Object.keys(enR).map((k) => langR[k] ?? enR[k]))]
+// ★ A NON-ENGLISH PACKET MUST ACTUALLY DIFFER FROM ENGLISH. The failure this
+// catches is a language block that exists but does nothing — a typo'd key, a
+// block under the wrong ISO code, or a renderer that ignored the lang argument.
+// Every assertion below would still pass in that case, because an all-English
+// packet is a perfectly valid packet; only the comparison reveals it.
+const translated = lang !== 'en'
+  ? Object.keys(catalog.en).filter((k) => typeof catalog.en[k] === 'string'
+      && (catalog[lang] || {})[k] && catalog[lang][k] !== catalog.en[k]).length
+  : null
+await page.evaluate((words) => { window.__EXPECTED_RHYTHMS = words }, expected)
+
 const r = await page.evaluate(() => {
   const body = document.body.innerText
   const imgs = [...document.querySelectorAll('.card img')]
-  const RHYTHMS = ['PRAISE', 'WAIT', 'CONFESS', 'READ THE WORD', 'ASK', 'INTERCESSION',
-    'PRAY THE WORD', 'THANK', 'SING', 'MEDITATE', 'LISTEN']
+  // ⚠ The expected rhythm words come from the STRINGS CATALOG FOR THIS PACKET'S
+  // LANGUAGE, never a hardcoded English list. A fixed list tests the opposite of
+  // what i18n means: it passed a packet whose translation silently did nothing and
+  // FAILED every correctly-translated one (measured — the Spanish packet reported
+  // 0/11 rhythms while rendering all twelve correctly as ALABANZA/ESPERAR/...).
+  // Read the packet's own <html lang> and resolve per-key, exactly as the renderer
+  // does, so this asserts the PROPERTY (all rhythms present, in this language)
+  // rather than a vocabulary.
+  const RHYTHMS = window.__EXPECTED_RHYTHMS || []
 
   // Whole-map property, NOT one sampled element — see header note 2.
   const mapFaults = (() => {
@@ -106,6 +140,10 @@ if (r.rhythms !== r.rhythmsTotal) fails.push(`only ${r.rhythms}/${r.rhythmsTotal
 if (!r.hasMark5) fails.push('Mark 5:1-20 is NOT printed in full (Driver requirement for point 4)')
 if (r.metacamp !== 2) fails.push(`${r.metacamp} metacamp.org attributions, expected exactly 2`)
 if (r.mapFaults.length) fails.push(`map: ${r.mapFaults.join('; ')}`)
+if (translated === 0) {
+  fails.push(`lang="${lang}" but no string differs from English — `
+    + 'the language block is missing, mis-keyed, or the renderer ignored it')
+}
 if (errs.length) fails.push(`${errs.length} page error(s): ${errs[0]}`)
 if (landscape) fails.push(`${landscape} landscape page(s) — the packet must be portrait`)
 if (pages !== r.sheets) fails.push(`${pages} PDF pages for ${r.sheets} sheets — one sheet must be exactly one page`)
@@ -117,6 +155,8 @@ console.log(`  Mark 5 in full   : ${r.hasMark5}`)
 console.log(`  metacamp.org     : ${r.metacamp}`)
 console.log(`  map              : ${r.mapFaults.length ? r.mapFaults.join('; ') : 'palette resolves, not black'}`)
 console.log(`  page size        : ${boxes[0] ? boxes[0].join(' x ') : '?'} pt`)
+console.log(`  language         : ${lang}  (${r.rhythms}/${r.rhythmsTotal} rhythms in ${lang}`
+  + `${translated === null ? '' : `, ${translated} strings translated`})`)
 
 if (fails.length) {
   console.error(`\nPACKET-RENDER: FAIL — ${fails.length} problem(s)`)