Quick Reference Sheet for Benedictine traditional Office - Wednesday

Summary notes for use as a supplement to the 'How to Say the Office' series - page references are to the psalter section of the Farnborough Monastic Diurnal.

Wednesday Lauds

Note: on some feasts, the antiphons, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the feast and the festal psalms (under Sunday in the psalter) may be used – see Ordo.

• Opening prayers and Psalm 66 as for Monday, MD 58-59;
• Then go to MD 89ff;
• Select either the ferial (MD 94) or the festal ( MD 96) canticle depending on season or class of day;
• Benedictus from the card, or MD 73;
• Concluding prayers as for Monday, MD 75;
• Collect of the previous Sunday or feast, see Ordo; if there is a commemoration (memorial), the relevant texts are said immediately after the collect of the day.

Wednesday Prime

• Opening prayer and hymn, MD 1-2;
• Antiphon (said before and after the psalms) of the season (MD 15), day or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 16-20;
• Chapter, versicle and concluding prayers MD 7-9.

Wednesday Terce

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Nunc Sancte MD 183;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 184, or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 184-186;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD186ff, or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Wednesday Sext

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Rector potens MD 190;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 190-191, or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 191-193;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD 193ff, or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Wednesday None

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Rerum Deus, MD 196-197;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 197, or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 198-199;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD 200ff or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Wednesday Vespers

Note: on some feasts and seasons, the antiphons, psalms, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the day – see Ordo.

• Starts MD 226 (opening prayer as on MD 1);
• Antiphons for the season, MD 226, or day (see Ordo);
• Magnificat MD 209-210;
• Concluding prayers MD 210-211 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the Sunday (or feast) - see Ordo.

Compline

• Starts MD 257;
• Choose the Marian antiphon to conclude according to the season (throughout the year it is Salve Regina, page 268).

Quick reference sheet - Tuesday

Summary notes for use in conjunction with the 'How to Say the Office' series - page references are to the psalter section of the Farnborough Monastic Diurnal.

Tuesday Lauds

Note: on some feasts, the antiphons, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the feast and the festal psalms (under Sunday in the psalter) may be used – see Ordo

• Opening prayers and Psalm 66 as for Monday, MD 58-59;
• Then go to MD 76ff;
• Select either the ferial (MD 80) or the festal (MD 82) canticle depending on season or class of day;
• Benedictus from the card, or MD 73;
• Concluding prayers as for Monday, MD 75;
• Collect of the previous Sunday or feast, see Ordo; if there is a commemoration (memorial), the relevant texts are said immediately after the collect of the day.

Tuesday Prime

• Opening prayer and hymn, MD 1-2;
• Antiphon (said before and after psalms) of the season, MD 9; or day or feast (see Ordo);
• With psalms MD 10-15;
• Chapter, versicle and concluding prayers MD 7-9.

Tuesday (to Saturday) Terce

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Nunc Sancte MD 183;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 184, or feast (see Ordo); • Psalms MD 184-186;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD 186ff or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Tuesday (to Saturday) Sext

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Rector potens MD 190;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 190-191, or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 191-193;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD193ff, or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Tuesday (to Saturday) None

• Opening prayer (Deus…) as per MD 1;
• Hymn Rerum Deus, MD 196-197;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 197, or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 198-199;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD 200ff or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Tuesday Vespers

Note: on some feasts and seasons, the antiphons, psalms, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the day – see Ordo.

• Starts MD 220 (opening prayer as on MD 1);
• Antiphons for the season or day (see ordo);
• Magnificat, MD 209-210;
• Concluding prayers MD 210-11 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the Sunday (or feast) - see Ordo.

Compline

• Starts MD 257;
• Choose the Marian antiphon to conclude according to the season (in time throughout the year it is Salve Regina, MD 268).

Quick reference card for the Benedictine Office - Monday

Summary notes for use in conjunction with the 'How to Say the Office' series - page references are to the psalter section of the Farnborough Monastic Diurnal.

Monday Matins

Not found in the Diurnal, refer to the Monastic Breviary.

Monday Lauds

Note: on some feasts, the antiphons, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the feast and the festal psalms (under Sunday in the psalter) may be used – if so the page reference will be provided in the Ordo.

• Starts MD 58;
• Select either the ferial (MD 65) or the festal (MD 66) canticle depending on season or class of day;
• Collect of the previous Sunday or feast, see Ordo; if there is a commemoration (memorial), the relevant texts are said immediately after the collect of the day.

Monday Prime

• Starts MD 1;
• Select antiphon for the season (MD 2-3) or feast (first antiphon of Lauds if not otherwise specified).

Monday Terce

• Starts MD 163 (as per full version, MD 1);
• Antiphons, chapter and versicle for the season (MD 163, 166ff) or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Monday Sext

• Starts MD 169 (as per full version page 1);
• Antiphons, chapter and versicle for the season (MD 170, 173ff) or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Monday None

• Starts MD 176 (as per full version MD 1);
• Antiphons, chapter and versicle for the season (MD177, 180ff) or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the week (from the Sunday) or day (see Ordo).

Monday Vespers

Note: on some feasts and seasons, the antiphons, psalms, chapter, hymn etc are specific to the day – if so the Ordo will provide a page reference.

• Starts MD 211 (opening prayer as on MD 1);
• Antiphons for the season (MD 212) or day (see Ordo);
• Text of the Magnificat MD 209-10;
• Concluding prayers MD 210-11 (from Kyrie);
• Collect of the Sunday (or feast) - see Ordo.

Monday Compline

• Starts MD 257;
• Choose the Marian antiphon to conclude according to the season; throughout the year it is Salve Regina, MD 268.

Monday 30 August – SS Felix and Adauctus, Martyrs, Memorial

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that these saints were martyrs at Rome, 303, under Diocletian and Maximian.

Their Acts, first published in Ado's Martyrology, relate as follows: Felix, a Roman priest, and brother of another priest, also named Felix, being ordered to offer sacrifice to the gods, was brought by the prefect Dracus to the temples of Serapis, Mercury, and Diana. But at the prayer of the saint the idols fell shattered to the ground. He was then led to execution. On the way an unknown person joined him, professed himself a Christian, and also received the crown of martyrdom. The Christians gave him the name Adauctus (added).

Their veneration, however, is very old; they are commemorated in the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great and in the ancient martyrologies.

Their church in Rome, built over their graves, in the cemetery of Commodilla, on the Via Ostiensis, near the basilica of St. Paul, and has been lost and rediscovered more than once, most recently again unearthed in 1905. 

Leo IV, about 850, is said to have given their relics to Irmengard, wife of Lothair I; she placed them in the abbey of canonesses at Eschau in Alsace. They were brought to the church of St. Stephen in Vienna in 1361. The heads are claimed by Anjou and Cologne. According to the "Chronicle of Andechs", Henry, the last count, received the relics from Honorius III and brought them to the Abbey of Andechs.

The picture (above) is The Glorification of St Felix and St Adauctus by Carlo Innocenzo Carlone.

Liturgical status of the Traditional Benedictine Office*** updated

Checking where people are coming from to find this blog, I stumbled across a thread on Catholic Answers which raised an issue I've seen a few times recently under various guises, namely whether we can be 'doing liturgy' when we say the traditional Benedictine Office. 

The Office can be said either as a devotion or as liturgy.  As a devotion, there is no issue about approved versions, rubrics etc - essentially it is a matter of do as you like (within reason of course)!

As I think there is a bit of misinformation out there, however, let me reiterate a few points here.  Firstly, lay people can, in principle, say the Office liturgically, regardless of whether a cleric or religious is present when they do so.

Secondly, contrary to some claims, the traditional Benedictine Office, with its traditional calendar, using rubrics and calendar approved in 1962 (and very similar to, but not identical with, the 1962 Extraordinary Form calendar and rubrics), continues to be officially approved, and is used by quite a few monasteries.   The Farnborough edition of the Diurnal follows that approved form.

It is true that in 1979 the Benedictine Confederation approved a series of revised options for the Office.  However, from 1984 onwards a number of monasteries received explicit permission through the Ecclesia Dei Commission of the Holy See to retain the traditional Office, Mass and calendar (in line with the permissions for the use of the traditional mass more broadly).   

In 2007, with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the permission to use the traditional forms of the Mass and Office for the Roman Rite was generalized to all clergy wish to use it.  The Ecclesia Dei Commission has indicated that this also extends to the rites and uses of religious orders. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that the traditional Benedictine Office as set out in the 1962 Monastic Breviary is approved for liturgical purposes.

There are though a few issues that do need to be considered in relation to the Diurnal. 

First, while the Latin clearly has ecclesiastical approval, it is not clear whether or not the particular English translation included has approval for liturgical purposes.  An edition of the Diurnal from 1963 using the same text did obtain an Imprimateur, but I haven't seen the detail of its terms, and the English may have intended to be used for study purposes only.  Moreover, the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae specifies in relation to the Roman Breviary that it must be said in Latin.

Secondly, the Farnborough edition of the Diurnal lacks an official attestation that it is published in accordance with an approved edition (CL 826). 

Whether either of these issues is sufficient to render the saying of the Office from the text in English devotional rather than liturgical is perhaps still debatable.  But in the light of  Universae Ecclesiae, the safest approach is to say the Office in Latin, and use the English as an aid to understanding.

Quick reference cards for the daily Office - Sunday

There seems to be some interest in more of a cheat sheet for page numbers of the Office in the Farnborough Monastic Diurnal, so I'm going to have a go at providing something that may be of use.  If you have suggestions on alternative formats or content, do let me know and I'll see whether or not I can oblige!

Please note that this is not a substitute for working through my How to say the Office series - you really do need to become familiar with the structure of each hour and how the Office works to say the traditional Office correctly.  But once you have worked through that, having a cheat sheet at your side may be helpful (note also that this material now also appears in the summary section on each hour in the series).

Secondly, note that you still need to consult the Ordo for the relevant month.

Thirdly, the simplest way to print this is to copy it into a word document, and convert all text to black.

The Office on Sunday

Sunday Matins

Not found in the Diurnal, refer to the Monastic Breviary.

Sunday Lauds (at first light)

• Starts MD 37;
• Choose the appropriate psalm schema – for most Sundays during the year it is schema 1: Psalms 50, 117, (jump over 92, 99), 62, then canticle, Psalms 148-150;
• Choose the correct antiphons (including the number of them) as this varies by season (during the year is included in the Diurnal in the Sunday section);
• The hymn varies by liturgical season and time of year – for most of time after Pentecost it is Ecce Iam Noctis, MD 55 (skip over Aeterne rerum);
• The antiphon for the Benedictus is specific to the particular Sunday, check the Ordo for the correct page number;
• The collect (prayer) is specific to the particular Sunday, check the Ordo for the page reference.

Sunday Prime (early morning)

• Starts MD 146;
• Concluding prayers MD 8;
• Note that the ‘Capitular Office’ said in monasteries (including the reading of the Rule and the Martyrology) is not included in the Diurnal.

Sunday Terce (mid-morning)

• Opening prayers MD 151;
• Hymn Nunc Sancte MD 151;
• Select antiphon (said before and after psalms) for the season, MD 151-152 or feast (see Ordo);
• Psalms MD 152-154;
• Chapter and versicle of season, MD 154ff or feast (see Ordo);
• Closing prayers as at MD 154 (from Kyrie);
• With collect for the particular Sunday, see the Ordo.

Sunday Sext (noon)

• Starts MD 155;
• Use collect set for the particular Sunday, see the Ordo.

Sunday None (mid-afternoon)

• Starts MD 159;
• Use collect set for the particular Sunday, see the Ordo.

Sunday Vespers (evening)

• Starts MD 203 (opening prayer as on MD 1);
• Antiphons for the season or day (see ordo);
• Antiphon for the Magnificat (MD 209) is particular to the day, for the correct page number see the Ordo;
• Concluding prayers MD 210-11 with collect of the Sunday (or feast) - see Ordo.

Sunday Compline (before bed)

• Starts MD 257;
• Choose the appropriate Marian antiphon to conclude the hour (during the year, Salve Regina, MD 268).

Why pray in Latin?

One of the perennial debates around the Office is what language you should use to pray in. 

A debate on this topic appears to have been cut off elsewhere I can only assume in the interests of protecting perceived fiefdoms by virtue of leaving some misinformation in place.  That's unfortunate, but I don't want to get into all of that here.  Instead, some brief comments on the more important underlying issue around the use of Latin from my perspective.

1.  Prayer in any language is better than none!

First, note that the most important thing is to pray - what language you use is a secondary issue.  Prayer, as we all know, can take a wide variety of forms.  We often use set forms (the Mass, the Divine Office, particular prayers) to help us.  Sometimes the content might be what we are focusing on.  Sometimes it is more the general intent behind the prayer.

In the case of the Divine Office, it is not necessary to be deeply conscious of the meaning of each word or phrase each time you say it (whether in your native language or some other).  Far more important is the intent of praising and worshipping God.

2.  When it comes to liturgical prayer, the important thing is to follow the approved rubrics

There are two broad types of prayer - liturgical (such as the Mass) and devotional (the rosary, meditation, etc).  The Office can be said either as a devotion or as liturgy.  If it is said devotionally, you have  a fair amount of freedom as to how you say it.  However, the Church strictly regulates the liturgy in order to protect its integrity.  That includes the Divine Office (aka Liturgy of the Hours, etc).

In the Catholic Church, Latin is the official, normative language of the liturgy.  Translations of the Latin have to be approved for liturgical use (not just study use) by the proper authorities.

3.  Praying in Latin has advantages when it comes to liturgy

Since Vatican II, the use of the vernacular has been permissible for both the Mass and the Office.  Sacrosanctum Concilium clearly intended the use of the vernacular to be rather limited, particularly when it came to the Office, and Popes from Paul VI onwards have stressed the desirability of preserving the tradition; instead, use of English has become the norm. 

But use of the Latin is worth considering for a number of reasons.  A number of religions use 'sacred languages' (Jews use Hebrew; Muslims, Arabic for example) in order to help create the sense of 'sacred space and time' - to help us focus on the sense of God's otherness to us.  The use of 'hieratic' language reminds us that we are worshipping, not just chatting amongst friends.  That's important in a world that is reluctant to kneel before its God.  And in the Western Church, the Latin of the Vulgate achieved that position by virtue of being a neutral language that transcended individual cultures.

In the Western tradition, use of Latin as a universal language of the Church was regarded as a counter to the chaos of Babel, a practical means of continuing the gift of understanding engendered at that first Pentecost.

By using the Latin text, you are using the same words St Benedict would have sung in his monastery, and the same texts that generations of monks, nuns and oblates have used down the centuries until our own.  You are entering into a tradition.

And by learning at least a smattering of Latin, you will find it easier to understand the great spiritual works of the West (including the Benedictine Rule) which assume the use of the Latin Vulgate as their starting point.

4.  You don't have to be a great Latinist

The best way to learn a language is actually by immersion in it!  Start using it, and with a bit of effort and few aids, you will gradually pick up a lot by osmosis. 

The translation contained in the Monastic Diurnal is a very useful starting point for getting the sense of the text, even as you say the Latin.  And there are some excellent resources around to help you gain a greater understanding of it, such as the very good Simplicissimus course specifically geared at helping people learn enough Latin to follow the Mass and Office.

You might also want to consider the suggestions outlined at my post on this subject in my how to learn the Office series.

5.  Translation is one thing, understanding is another

It is also important to keep in mind that just understanding the literal meaning of a text is not enough.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paras 115-119) stresses that Scriptural texts (including the psalms, chapter verses, many of the antiphons etc in the Office) has both a literal and a spiritual sense, and that the spiritual includes the allegorical, moral and anagogical meanings of the text.  There is real value in looking at commentaries and treating the Office as a source of 'lectio' to penetrate its deeper meanings. 

6.  Do pray the Office!

Finally, by way of a summary, on an email list I was once a member of, a monk said that when they were novices they were taught about a hierarchy of 'attentions' for the Office, which I've adapted a little here.  When thinking about the Office we should pay:


(1) Attention to the WORDS -- getting the rubrics right, so that we say the correct texts at the correct time; using the appropriate body postures; and saying or singing the words correctly;

(2) Attention to the SENSE -- focusing on the "what " we were saying, the translation of the words;

(3) Attention on GOD -- not worrying about words or sense but simply praying before the Divine Majesty.