In the first part of this brief overview of Matins, I provided something of an overview of the hour.
In this part, I want to point you particularly to the opening section of the hour and the psalmody, and where to find it in your Office book.
Where to find Matins in your book
If you are using a breviary, the core texts for Matins can be found starting immediately after Prime for Monday to Saturday. For each day of the week, the breviary starts with Matins and then provides Lauds of the day before moving to Matins of the next day.
In breviaries and the Le Barroux Nocturnale, the psalter section is towards the middle of the book
Page numbers for the basic texts for each day of the week for the most commonly used books are set out in the table below.
|
Matins page numbers |
|
|
|
|
|
OFFICE BOOK |
Gower (For
Sundays, ferias…) |
Brignoles
Nocturnale vol 1 (Psalter) |
Breviary
(1963) |
Le
Barroux Nocturnale
Monasticum |
|
Dominica
(Sunday) |
Pg 4 |
Pg 9 |
Pg (22) |
Pg 652 |
|
Monday
(Feria II) |
Pg 28 |
Pg 48 |
Pg (58) |
Pg 668 |
|
Tuesday
(Feria III) |
Pg 49 |
Pg 70 |
Pg (85) |
Pg 678 |
|
Wednesday
(Feria IV) |
Pg 64 |
Pg 86 |
Pg (105) |
Pg 690 |
|
Thursday
(Feria V) |
Pg 82 |
Pg 104 |
Pg (126) |
Pg 703 |
|
Friday
(Feria VI) |
Pg 101 |
Pg 123 |
Pg (149) |
Pg 714 |
|
Sabbato
(Saturday) |
Pg 118 |
Pg 141 |
Pg (172) |
Pg 715 |
Where to find the "ordinary' of Matins
The first challenge you will encounter though, is that each of these books takes a different approach on where it places the various texts of the opening section of the hour.
In essence, as the table below illustrates, the opening section of the hour has a fixed structure used for ordinary (ferial) days, Sundays and feasts alike. But the invitatory antiphon and hymn are of the day of the week.
Note that the links in the table go to more detailed notes on each of these Office components.
|
OPENING SECTION |
VARIABLE
COMPONENTS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Invitatory
antiphon (integrated with Psalm 94) |
Of the
day, feast or season |
|
Psalm
94 |
|
|
Of
the day, feast or season |
The various books differ on whether to put all of the repeated components in a separate section or under the Sunday, and then whether to repeat some or all of the material each day.
The Gower book, for example, provides the Ordinary of the hour upfront, including the invitatory antiphons, and then just starts from the section for each day of the week with the ferial hymn. In general, they don't bother repeating Psalm 94 each day, leaving you to refer back to either the Ordinary Le Barroux), Sunday and/or Monday, or the section with Psalm 94 in each chant tone.
The table below summarises the situation for each of these books:
|
Matins page numbers |
|
|
|
|
|
OFFICE BOOK |
Gower (For
Sundays, ferias…) |
Brignoles
Nocturnale vol 1 |
Breviary
(1963) |
Le
Barroux Nocturnale
Monasticum |
|
‘Ordinary’ |
Pg 1 -3 |
Pg 9 |
Pg (58) –
(59) |
Pg 7 -12 |
|
Daily
section |
Starts at
ferial hymn |
On
Sundays all; weekdays, invitatory antiphon and hymn only for each day |
On Sunday
and Monday all; on weekdays, opening prayer, Ps 3, invitatory antiphon and
hymn of the day. |
On
Sundays, all; weekdays, includes ferial invitatory antiphon and hymn |
The opening section of the hour on feasts and Saturdays of Our Lady
It is also worth noting that on feasts, the invitatory antiphon and hymn are either specific to the feast, or (particularly in the case of Class III feasts) taken from the relevant Common. Le Barroux's Nocturnale includes all the commonly used ones in its Ordinary section, while Gower includes the relevant texts at the end of its psalter book.
The invitatory and hymn for Saturdays of Our Lady can either be found in the Ordinary, psalter section or after the Common of Our Lady (in the breviary).
The psalmody
The other key component of the hour is the psalms, which are set out under each day of the week.
Benedictine Matins (unlike the Roman version) always includes twelve psalms, divided into two sets (Nocturns) of six.
The number of antiphons used varies between the seasons, but the normal pattern is that on weekdays (including Class III feasts) Nocturn I has three antiphons (ie one antiphon for two psalms), while Nocturn II has one (consisting of alleluias).
The psalms are said in exactly the same way as for other hours, with a doxology (Glory be) at the end of each psalm, or part of a psalm.
On higher level feasts (Class I&II), however, sets of festal psalms, typically with one antiphon for each psalm are used, generally as set out in the Commons for various types of saints.
The canticles
On Sundays and major feasts, a third Nocturn is added on to the hour, but rather than adding additional psalms, it consists of three canticles, said exactly the same way as psalms are, said under one antiphon.
The table below summarises which types of days have special sets of antiphons, psalms and canticles.
|
|
Psalms and
antiphons |
Nocturn
III canticles |
|
Sundays |
Of the Sunday/ferial antiphons or of the season |
Of the season |
|
Class I&II feasts |
Of the Common or feast |
Of the Common or feast |
|
Class III feasts, Vigils |
Of the day of the week |
none |
|
Class IV days |
Of the day of the week |
none |
In the next part of this series, I will look at the readings and other variable parts of the hour.
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