Liturgical Code of St Benedict: Lauds/2 (Feb 15/June 16/Oct 16)

Today's section of the Rule looks at the structure and content of Lauds on ferial days, or days throughout the week.

Caput XIII: Privatis diebus qualiter agantur matutini

Diebus autem privatis Matutinorum sollemnitas ita agatur: id est, ut sexagesimus sextus psalmus dicatur sine antiphona, subtrahendo modice sicut Dominica, ut omnes occurrant ad quinquagesimum, qui cum antiphona dicatur. Post quem alii duo psalmi dicantur secundum consuetudinem: id est, secunda feria quintus et trigesimus quintus, tertia feria quadragesimus secundus et quinquagesimus sextus, quarta feria sexagesimus tertius et sexagesimus quartus, quinta feria octogesimus septi-mus et octogesimus nonus, sexta feria septuagesimus quintus et nonagesimus primus, sabbato autem centesimus quadragesimus secundus et canticum Deuteronomium, quod dividatur in duas Glorias. Nam ceteris diebus canticum unumquodque die suo ex prophetis, sicut psallit Ecclesia Romana, dicantur. Post haec sequantur Laudes; deinde lectio una apostoli memoriter recitanda, respon-sorium, ambrosianum, versu, canticum de 'Evangelia', litania, et completum est.

Chapter 13: How Lauds shall be said on ordinary days

On ordinary days Lauds shall be celebrated in the following manner: let the sixty-sixth psalm be said without an antiphon and somewhat slowly, as on Sunday, in order that all may assemble in time for the fiftieth, which should be said with an antiphon.

After this let two other psalms be said according to custom: that is, on Monday the fifth and thirty-fifth; on Tuesday the forty-second and fifty-sixth; on Wednesday the sixty-third and sixty-fourth; on Thursday the eighty-seventh and eighty-ninth; on Friday the seventy-fifth and ninety-first; and on Saturday the hundred and forty-second and the canticle from Deuteronomy, which must be divided into two parts.

But on the other days let there be a canticle from the prophets, each on its own day, according to the custom of the Roman church. After that let the Laudate psalms follow; then a lesson from the apostle to be said by heart, the responsory, the hymn, the versicle, the canticle from the Gospels, the Kyrie eleison, and so the end.

Commentary

The hour of Lauds is absolutely central to St Benedict's construction of the Office, reflecting two key principles, namely repetition each day of certain key psalms, and secondly (more controversially) the progression of the week according to a thematic program.

The value of repetition

These days we tend to shy away from repetition, preferring instead novelty!  Yet repetition of key messages is a central feature of St Benedict's Office.  Indeed, the fixed psalms and canticle of Lauds make up well over half of the verses said at this hour each day.

The twentieth century saw a rejection of the value of repetition in the liturgy, reflected in the reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X, and then in the reforms of the Mass of Vatican II.  But modern liturgists, following the work of people such as Dom Gerard Calvet of Le Barroux and theologian Catherine Pitstock, are starting to rediscover the importance of repetition in the process of building up and reinforcing those spiritual walls  that protect us from the enemy.  The new English translation of the Mass has even seen the reintroduction of some of those much despised repetitions.

In the case of the Benedictine Office, the fixed psalms I think, very much reflect St Benedict's core spirituality and are meant to be memorized and internalized, and repeated over and over so that they truly become automatic to our thinking. 

The hour starts each day by asking for God’s blessing and grace (Psalm 66), echoing that call in the first section of the Prologue of the Rule that before undertaking any good work, we ask God to perfect it.

In Psalm 50 we express our repentance and dependence on God, again reflecting that call to return to him from whom we have strayed from by the sloth of disobedience. 

And the hour ends in the Laudate psalms (148-150).

Abbot Lawrence of Christ in the Desert argues for the importance of this repetition:

"It is important that we notice the repetitions that occur in the Divine Office. If we follow the Divine Office exactly as it is outline in the Rule of Benedict, we will end up with praying about 279 Psalms in a week because of the repetitions…Saint Benedict knows that the Divine Office is longer because of repetitions but he still seems to like them because certain Psalms add a distinctive flavor, at least to some of the Divine Offices. Is there any value in repetition? Certainly! It is the principal element of the Divine Office because every week we repeat the same Psalms. Over many years of monastic life, we can come to know most of the Psalms by heart. Saint Benedict would have presumed that every monk would know the entire Book of Psalms by heart and probably also all of the New Testament."

Thematic progress?

St Benedict also sets out, in this chapter, the variable content of the hour, in the canticles, imported from the Roman Office, and the two variable psalms.

It is often suggested that the Benedictine Office does not have any thematic unity or underlying program.  I don't agree.  My thesis is that St Benedict has shaped the variable psalm cursus quite carefully in order to provide thematic links that flow largely from the program set up by the canticles, a view I might add, that I'm finding some support for in the medieval literature.  Note here that I am talking about the 'ferial' canticles - the festal ones are a much later addition to the Office.

I'll say more on the programmatic dimension of the Benedictine Office later in this series in the context of the rest of St Benedict's psalm cursus.  Still, I do want to suggest that St Benedict sets out these provisions for Lauds here rather than later in order to stress their centrality, their role as a key to the whole Office.  So do take a close look at those ferial canticles, and keep an ear our for the connections to (some of ) the psalms of the day for yourself! 

The Saturday ferial canticle

There is one other point worth noting in relation to the 1962 Office in particular, relating to the Saturday canticle.

St Benedict specifies it should be divided, and in the 1962 breviary, but not for some reason, the Diurnal, it is. But even in the Monastic Breviary, the canticle as it appears in the 1962 Office has been drastically cut, the victim, it would appear, of revisionist liturgical butchery: in its full form it amounts to some 65 verses. By contrast, the 27 verses included in the 1962 version don’t even take us up to the divisio point in the older version of the Office!

Reading it one can see why modernists might bulk at it, since it falls into that Old Testament of hard – but important – sayings. After chronicling the infidelity of the people, it promises judgment.

Yet the full version of the canticle has been retained (at least for some times of the year) in the traditional Roman Office, and is worth a good read or two!

The next part of this series can be found here.

St Benedict's Liturgical Code: Lauds/1 (Feb 14/June15/Oct 15)



Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, folio 182v

Today's section of the Rule describes the structure and content of Lauds on Sunday.

If you look at the Latin you will see that St Benedict uses the word 'Matutinis' to describe this hour (and vigils for what we now call Matins) - don't be confused by the terminology, this is the first of the day hours we are talking about here, taking its modern name from the three 'Laudate' psalms that conclude the psalmody for the hour.

Caput XII: Quomodo matutinorum sollemnitas agatur

In Matutinis dominico die, inprimis dicatur sexagesimus sextus psalmus sine antiphona in directum. Post quem dicatur quinquagesimus cum Alleluia; post quern dicatur centesimus septimus decimus et sexagesimus secundus; inde Benedictiones et Laudes, lectio de Apocalypsi una ex corde et responsorium, ambrosianum, versu, canticum de 'Evangelia', litania, et completum est.

Chapter 12: How the Office of Lauds is to be Said

LAUDS on Sundays should begin with the sixty-sixth psalm chanted straight through without an antiphon. After that let the fiftieth psalm be said, with Alleluia; then the hundred and seventeenth and the sixty-second; then the Benedicite and the Laudate psalms; then a lesson from the Apocalypse to be recited by heart, the responsory, the hymn, the versicle, the canticle from the Gospel book, the Kyrie eleison, and so the end.

Commentary

Sunday in the Office and Mass is a weekly celebration of the Resurrection, and the imagery, texts and rubrics St Benedict specifies for this hour all reinforce this.

The symbolism of light and darkness

In the previous chapters (especially chapter 8) it was made clear that the timing and length of Matins was to be adjusted in order that Lauds started strictly at daybreak (McCann translates it as dawn, but the general consensus is that daybreak or first light is the actual meaning).  Unlike the Roman Office, where Matins and Lauds are typically joined together, St Benedict, you will recall from Chapter 8, actually provides for a separation between them, of shorter or longer duration depending on the season.

Some modern commentators see this daybreak start as a relic of a bygone age that was driven by the rhythms of agriculture, and there is a certain truth in this in that St Benedict clearly expected his monks to follow the flow of the seasons.  Still, St Benedict seems actually to have taken the structure of his office of Lauds, as he implies in the next chapter, pretty much entirely from the urban `Cathedral' Office of Rome, not the desert or the countryside traditions.

Moreover the symbolism of light and darkness St Benedict draws on in these provisions reflects a tradition dating back to the first Christians, and indeed, in all probability, Jewish practice as attested to not least in the very psalms we sing at the hour.  But in Christian practice the hour became strongly linked to the Resurrection. Dom Delatte, for example, in his classic commentary on the Rule, states that Lauds "represents the hour of victory of light over darkness, the hour of Our Lord's resurrection."

The psalms of Sunday Lauds

St Benedict is very specific in the psalms to be said at Lauds on Sunday, so it is worth considering the specific content of the psalms he sets for it.

The first psalm to be said, the invitatory psalm, Psalm 66, clearly sets the tone for the hour, by asking for God's blessing on the day to come.

Psalm 50 can be seen as serving as something of a continuation of the invitatory, addressing our need to purify ourselves from sin before offering God praise, and to help us recognize that, as Dom Delatte suggests,  "God alone can make it [the soul] come forth from its darkness". That he freely gives us this grace is reflected in the Alleluia St Benedict adds as its antiphon.

The resurrection focus of Sunday, however, is given pre-eminence by the use of  Psalm 117: the verse Haec Dies is used throughout the Easter Octave at Mass.  In the old Roman Office, this psalm was said at Prime.  St Benedict shifts it to the more important hour of Lauds, presumably in the interests of symmetry: Psalm 117 is the last of the 'Hallel' psalms on major Jewish feasts, and in an interesting reversal of their order (the first shall be last and the last first?), the first of this group of psalms (psalm 112) closes off Sunday Vespers.

Psalm 62 which follows perhaps provides something of a counterpoint to the Resurrection focus of Psalm 117, stressing the 'almost but not yet' character of the age we live in, speaking of the longing for Christ's return. 

Above all though, the rejoicing at the rising sun/Son is most aptly captured in the Benedicite, the three Laudate psalms, and the Benedictus (Gospel canticle), all of which serve to link God's work of creation, salvation and the re-creation of the world through Christ.

This commentary on the Rule continues here.

St Benedict's Liturgical Code: Matins/4 (Feb 13/June 14/Oct 14)

Agnès de Kiqeumberg's Matins, c1425

Today's section of the Benedictine Rule deals with the much longer than usual Sunday Night Office.

Caput 11: Qualiter diebus Dominus Vigiliae Agantur

Dominico die temperius surgatur ad Vigilias. In quibus Vigiliis teneatur mensura: id est, modulatis ut supra disposuimus sex psalmis et versu, residentibus cunctis disposite et per ordinem in subselliis, legantur in codice ut supra diximus quattuor lectiones cum responsoriis suis; ubi tantum in quarto responsorio dicatur a cantante Gloria, quam dum incipit, mox omnes cum reverentia surgant. Post quas lectiones sequantur ex ordine alii sex psalmi cum antiphonis, sicut anteriores, et versu. Post quos iterum legantur aliae quattuor lectiones cum responsoriis suis, ordine quo supra. Post quas dicantur tria cantica de 'Prophetarum',quae instituerit abbas; quae cantica cum Alleluia psallantur. Dicto etiam versu, et benedicente abbate, legantur aliae quat-tuor lectiones de Novo Testamento, ordine quo supra. Post quartum autem responsorium incipiat abbas hymnum Te Deum laudamus. Quo perdicto, legat abbas lectionem de 'Evangelia', cum honore et timore stantibus omnibus. Qua perlecta respondeant omnes Amen; et subsequatur mox abbas hymnum Te decet laus, et data benedictione incipiant Matutinos. Qui ordo Vigiliarum omni tempore tam aestatis quam hiemis aequaliter in die dominico tene-atur; ni, si forte (quod absit) tardius surgant, aliquid de lectionibus breviandum est aut responsoriis. Quod tamen omnino caveatur ne proveniat; quod si contigerit, digne inde satisfaciat Deo in oratorio, per cujus evenerit neglectum.

Chapter 11: How the Night Office is to be said on Sundays

On Sundays let the brethren rise earlier for the Night Office, in which let this order be kept. When the six psalms and the versicle have been chanted, as we ordained above, and all are seated in their stalls, duly and in order, then let there be read from the book, as we said before, four lessons with their responsories. In the fourth responsory only shall the reader chant the Gloria, and when he begins it let all rise immediately with reverence. After these lessons let there follow in order another six psalms with antiphons, like the previous ones, and a versicle. After these again let four more lessons be read with their responsories, in the same way as before. After these let there be three canticles from the book of the prophets, as appointed by the abbot, and let these canticles be chanted with Alleluia. Then, when the versicle has been said and the abbot has given the blessing, let another four lessons be read from the New Testament, in the same way as before. When the fourth responsory is finished, let the abbot begin the hymn Te Deum Laudamus. When that has been said, the abbot shall read the lesson from the book of the Gospels, all standing with fear and reverence. That having been read, let all answer Amen, and then let the abbot follow with the hymn Te decet laus, and the blessing having been given let them begin Lauds. This order of Matins shall be observed on Sundays all the year round, both in summer and winter; unless (which God forbid) they be late in rising, so that the lessons and responsories have to be shortened. However, let the greatest care be taken that this do not happen; but if it happen, let him through whose neglect it has occurred, make due satisfaction to God in the oratory.

Commentary

These days we tend to think of Sundays as a day of rest; St Benedict, however, presents it as a day for worship, with his monks rising earlier order to say a much longer than usual Night Office. 

Though this approach to Sunday might seem counter-cultural to us today, in fact St Benedict’s schema represented a considerable concession at the time, compared to the common monastic practice of the time of staying up all night as Vigil for Sunday.

Blessed Pope John Paul II’s letter Dies Domini suggests that we need to recover something closer to St Benedict’s conception of the Sunday, and treat it as a ‘day of faith’ first and foremost rather than a day of rest:

“The commandment of the Decalogue by which God decrees the Sabbath observance is formulated in the Book of Exodus in a distinctive way: "Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy" (20:8). …Before decreeing that something be done, the commandment urges that something be remembered. It is a call to awaken remembrance of the grand and fundamental work of God which is creation, a remembrance which must inspire the entire religious life of man and then fill the day on which man is called to rest. Rest therefore acquires a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him, in praise and thanksgiving, intimate as a child and friendly as a spouse….Therefore, the main point of the precept is not just any kind of interruption of work, but the celebration of the marvels which God has wrought.”

The second point to note, also reflected in Pope John Paul II’s exposition, is the joyous character of Sunday’s Office.

The psalms are upbeat in tone, containing many obvious allusions to the Resurrection and the coming joy of heaven, starting from psalm 20 at Matins, one of the Royal psalms which speaks of the crowning of the King.

It is normally festooned with Alleluias.

And each week, a Te Deum is sung (the hymn was probably composed by Bishop Nicetas c400) in thanksgiving for all God does for us, as well as the Te Decet Laus.

Sunday, Pope John Paul II reminds us, was viewed by the early Church as a mini-Easter:

‘"We celebrate Sunday because of the venerable Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do so not only at Easter but also at each turning of the week": so wrote Pope Innocent I at the beginning of the fifth century, testifying to an already well established practice which had evolved from the early years after the Lord's Resurrection. Saint Basil speaks of "holy Sunday, honoured by the Lord's Resurrection, the first fruits of all the other days"; and Saint Augustine calls Sunday "a sacrament of Easter".’

Finally, minor additions of prayers and blessing aside, it is worth noting that the modern Office differs from that prescribed by S Benedict in one important respect, and that is the selection of readings: Patristic commentaries on the Gospel now generally substitute for the New Testament readings that St Benedict prescribed for the third nocturn.

This concludes St Benedict's commentary on Matins.  For his notes on Lauds, see the next part of this series.

St Benedict's Liturgical Code:Matins/3 (Feb 12/June 13/Oct 13)

Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux
c14th

Today's section of the Benedictine Rule looks at the structure of Matins in Summer.

Caput X: Qualiter aestatis tempore agatur nocturna laus

A pascha autem usque ad Kalendas Novembres, omnis ut supra dictum est psalmodiae quantitas teneatur, excepto quod lectiones in codice, propter brevitatem noctium, minime legantur; sed pro ipsis tribus lectionibus una de Veteri Testamento memoriter dicatur, quam brevis responsorius subsequatur, et reliqua omnia ut dictum est impleantur; id est, ut numquam minus a duodecim psalmorum quantitate ad Vigilias nocturnas dicantur, exceptis tertio et nonagesimo quarto psalmo.

Chapter 10: How the Night Office is to be said in summer

From Easter to the first of November, let the number of the psalms be exactly as given above; but let there be this difference, that the lessons from the book be not read, on account of the shortness of the nights. Instead of the three lessons, let there be but one from the Old Testament, said by heart, and let it be followed by a short responsory. But all else should be done as has been said; that is to say that there should never be less than twelve psalms at the Night Office, not counting the third and ninety-fourth.

Commentary

That demanding Benedictine moderation

The abbreviation of Matins in summer reinforces St Benedict's first message of this section of the Rule, namely that the life of the monk is not based on sleep deprivation or other artificial austerities. The Office comes first, yes, but in the context of a balanced life.

St Benedict, I think, does emphasize moderation rather than the 'more is better' approach of his contemporaries, whose monks spent many more hours of the day reciting the psalms than St Benedict prescribes. Still, the saint does insist on a minimum number of psalms to be said at Matins - twelve plus the two invitatory psalms - that is not small.  Accordingly, it seems to me a considerable stretch to get from St Benedict's prescriptions to the 'less is more' approach of most monasteries today, who instead of retaining the weekly psalter, put a greater emphasis on the readings.

The primacy of the psalms

Indeed, this chapter also makes clear the primacy of the psalms as the basis of the Benedictine Office: readings and other elements are less important than this core, and can be dropped out as the seasons and other needs dictate.

It is true that the inclusion of readings at Matins does seem to have been a Benedictine innovation.  Still, it does seem to me a considerable irony that most modern versions of the Office actually reverse the relative emphasis between psalms and readings that St Benedict proposes.  Abbot Lawrence of Christ in the Desert Monastery, for example, argues that:

"In this short Chapter 10, we have an important teaching about the Divine Office as understood by Saint Benedict. In the modern age, our focus is very much on intellectual content and thus on listening to the readings. For Saint Benedict, it is clear, the psalms are the most important part of the Divine Office and so if the Divine Office has to be shorted, the readings are the first things to be omitted. So in the summer, when the night is shorter, the three longer readings are dropped and one shorter reading from the Old Testament is substituted."

This emphasis reflects the long tradition that saying the psalms is especially pleasing to God.  St Romuald's (950-1027) brief Rule for his Comaldolese Congregation of Benedictines, for example, instructed his monks as follows:

"Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.

If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind.

And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.

Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.

Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him."

The next part of this series can be found here.

St Benedict's Liturgical Code: Matins/2 (Feb 11/June 12/Oct 12)

Gray-Fitzpayn Book of Hours, c14th

Continuing my series on St Benedict's liturgical code, today's section of the Benedictine Rule continues to set out details of the night Office, Matins.

Caput 9: Quanti psalmi dicendi sunt Nocturnis horis

Hiemis tempore suprascripto, in primis versu tertio dicendum, Domine labia men aperies, et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam; cui subjungendus est tertius psalmus et Gloria: posthunc, psalmus nonagesimus quartus cum antiphona, aut certe decantandus. Inde sequatur ambrosianum: deinde sex psalmi cum antiphonis. Quibus dictis, dicto versu, benedicat abbas; et sedentibus omnibus in scamnis legantur vicissim a fratribus in codice super analogium tres lectiones, inter quas et tria responsoria cantentur. Duo responsoria sine Gloria dicantur; post tertiam vero lectionem, qui cantat dicat Gloriam; quam dum incipit cantor dicere, mox omnes de sedilibus suis surgant ob honorem et reverentiam Sanctae Trinitatis.

Codices autem legantur in Vigiliis divinae auctoritatis tarn Veteris Testamenti quam Novi; sed et expositiones earum, quae a nominatis et orthodoxis catholicis Patribus factae sunt. Post has vero tres lectiones cum responsoriis suis, sequantur reliqui sex psalmi cum Alleluia canendi. Post hos lectio apostoli sequatur ex corde recitanda, et versus, et supplicatio litaniae, id est Kyrie eleison; et sic finiantur Vigiliae nocturnae.

Chapter 9: How Many Psalms are to be said at the Night Office

In the aforesaid winter season, there is first the versicle Domine labia mea aperies, et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam [O Lord open my lips, that my mouth may declare thy praise], to be said three times; then must follow the third psalm and the Gloria; then the ninety-fourth psalm to be chanted with an antiphon, or at any rate to be chanted.

Let the hymn follow next, and then six psalms with antiphons. When these are finished and the versicle said, let the abbot give a blessing; and then, all being seated in their places, let three lessons be read from the book on the lectern by the brethren in their turns, and let three responsories be chanted between them. Two of the responsories shall be said without the Gloria; but after the third lesson let the reader chant the Gloria. And as soon as he has begun it, let all rise from their seats in honour and reverence to the Holy Trinity.

The books to be read at Matins shall be the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and also the commentaries on them which have been made by well-known and orthodox Catholic Fathers.

After these three lessons with their responsories, let there follow the remaining six psalms, which shall be chanted with Alleluia. After these shall follow the lesson from the apostle, to be recited by heart, the versicle, and the petition of the litany, that is Kyrie eleison. And so shall the Night Office end. (trans J McCann)

Commentary

This chapter sets out the structure of daily Matins, and its prescriptions continue to be followed with only minor variants in the 1962 version of the Office.

In designing a liturgy for his monks, St Benedict took as his starting point the contemporary (fifth century) Roman Office.  But he seems to have done a fair amount of recrafting of its design to reflect his own particular school of spirituality, and this is particularly apparent in Matins.

First, the opening versicle that he has selected, Domine labia mea aperies, seems to serve as a reminder of what I would argue is the primary purpose of the Benedictine Office, namely to praise God. Pope Benedict XVI has said:

"Monks pray first and foremost not for any specific intention, but simply because God is worthy of being praised. ‘Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus! – Praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is eternal!’: so we are urged by a number of Psalms (e.g. Ps 106:1). Such prayer for its own sake, intended as pure divine service, is rightly called officium. It is “service” par excellence, the “sacred service” of monks.”

Secondly, consider first the Trinitarian focus St Benedict gives Matins.  The Fathers loved the symbolism of numbers (have a read of Benedict's contemporary Cassiodorus' commentary on the psalms for example), and St Benedict is no exception to this, opening Matins with a threefold repetition of a verse from Psalm 50; having three readings and three responsories on winter weekdays.

Similarly, the doxologies he instructs be added to the psalms, as well as reinforcing that trinitarian message, are perhaps also intended to reinforce the idea that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New, and the New interprets the Old.  They also serve as a constant reminder of why we offer the Office:  as Pope Benedict XVI has said, the Office “is offered to the triune God who, above all else, is worthy “to receive glory, honour and power” (Rev 4:11), because he wondrously created the world and even more wondrously renewed it."

There is also I suspect some symbolism in the number of psalms to be said: twelve variable psalms to represent the twelve apostles?  And perhaps fourteen to reflect the Incarnation (St Matthew's genealogy of Our Lord comes in three groups of fourteen generations)?

Finally, St Benedict inserts not one but two 'invitatory' psalms to be said daily, namely Psalms 3 and 94.  These psalms, I think, strongly reflect the spirituality set out in the Benedictine Rule. 

In particular, Psalm 3 asks for help in the daily spiritual warfare, and uses the kind of robust martial imagery that St Benedict frequently uses in the Rule. 

Psalm 94, by contrast, is a joyful invitation to worship our creator, redeemer and protector.  But it also has a darker message, namely a warning not to put off repentance, but to respond to God’s call here and now, a theme St Benedict dwells on at length, referencing this psalm, in the Prologue to the Rule.

And you can find the next part of this series here.

St Scholastica OSB (Feb 10)

St Scholastica Altar, Austria, 1765

Today is the feast of St Scholastica (480-543), twin sister of St Benedict, and foundress and patroness of Benedictine nuns.  The martyrology entry is:

"On Monte Cassino, St. Scholastica, virgin, whose soul was seen by her brother, St. Benedict, abbot, leaving her body in the form of a dove, and ascending into heaven."

Almost everything we know about St Scholastica, as for so many Italian saints of the era, comes from St Gregory the Great's Dialogues.  In them, she outshines her brother in holiness, able to call on God's help in the form a storm to prolong her visit when St Benedict is being overly stuffy about sticking to the rules!  St Gregory also records St Benedict's vision of her entry into heaven in the form of a dove.

Tradition holds that she established a convent at Piumarola in Italy, living under the same Rule as used at nearby Monte Cassino.  A useful reconstruction of some aspects of  the social context in which she lived can be found here.  It is worth noting that scholars have found early calendars and place-names in the Monte Cassino region which do offer some independent evidence of a modest nature for the historical reality of St Scholastica.

St Benedict's liturgical code: Matins/1 (Feb 10/June 11/Oct 11)

circa 1405-10 Parisian Book of Hours

I want to start my series on the Benedictine Office today, with a look at the section of the Rule of St Benedict set for February 10 (as well as June 11/October 11), which deals with the hour of Matins (aka Vigils or Office of Readings in the modern Liturgy of the Hours). 

I've included the Latin, as well as the English, of the Rule both for reference purposes and because in many traditional monasteries, the Latin version is read as part of  'chapter' (traditionally said immediately after Prime), and then the vernacular translation is read at lunch or dinner. 

Caput VIII: De Officiis Divinis in Noctibus

Hiemis tempore, id est, a Kalendis Novembribus usque in Pascha, juxta considerationem rationis, octava hora noctis surgendum est, ut modice amplius de media nocte pausetur, et jam digesti surgant. Quod vero restat post Vigilias, a fratribus qui psalterii vel lectionum aliquid indigent, meditationi inserviatur. A Pascha autem usque ad supradictas Novembres, sic temperetur hora ut Vigiliarum Agenda parvissimo intervallo, quo fratres ad necessaria naturae exeant, mox Matutini, qui incipiente luce agendi sunt, subsequantur.

Chapter 8: The Divine Office at Night

In winter, that is from the first of November until Easter, prudence dictates that the brethren shall rise at the eighth hour of the night, so that their sleep may extend for a moderate space beyond midnight, and they may rise with digestion completed. Those brethren, who need a better knowledge of them, should devote the time that remains after Matins to the study of the psalms and lessons. From Easter to the aforesaid first of November, let the hour of rising be so arranged that there be a very short interval after Matins, in which the brethren may go out for the necessities of nature, to be followed at once by Lauds, which should be said at dawn. (trans J McCann)

Commentary

One of the difficulties in reading St Benedict’s liturgical code is that he just launches right in, without providing any rationale for how and why to say the Office (though some of that is set out later), and without providing much explanation for the choices he makes.  Accordingly, we need to read between the lines.

The first point to note is that this chapter on some of the practicalities around saying Matins (aka Vigils aka Office of Readings) reinforces that St Benedict's is a training scheme involving body, mind and soul.  There is therefore a strong continuity between this chapter and the last, which instructed his monks on how to develop and maintain an attitude of humility in mind and body at all times.

The needs of the body

In terms of the body, there is something of a pattern in the Rule of St Benedict first asserting that is regime is moderate and easy, a Rule for mere beginners - and then setting out a regime that in fact looks pretty tough to modern eyes at least. This section on the Office, with its quite long and detailed requirements is just such a case!

The reference to the “eighth hour” is to the Roman system of time keeping that divided the hours of light and darkness into equal sized hours, whose length changed with the season. Since the length of the night ‘hours’ is much shorter in summer, there is less time for study if the monks are still to get the bare six to seven hours of sleep this regime allows (supplemented by a siesta).

Further on in the Rule (particularly in Chapters 41, 42 and 48) St Benedict provides a fair amount of flexibility in arranging the times of the 'hours' of the Office to fit the needs of the monks: to enable them to eat in light, fit in the demands of work, and so forth. Although as St Benedict later states, the liturgy has absolute priority, it is not supposed to squeeze out all other considerations and duties. There is an important message in that, particularly for those not bound to the observance of the full breviary such as oblates and other laypeople!

Unlike other contemporary rules, there are no all night Vigils legislated for here, no asceticism based on sleep deprivation. St Benedict is not an extremist when it comes to asceticism, at least by the standards of his time. He specifies that the days and nights are to be arranged so that the monks get adequate sleep. Nonetheless, even seven hours sleep is only just enough for most people, particularly coupled with rising around midnight.

The needs of the soul

One of the ongoing debates about the Office is its primary purpose: is it primarily an act of worship, an act of the Church to give glory to God, or is it meant more to provide meat for the monk’s contemplation?

St Benedict’s regulations here certainly seem to reject the Eastern desert idea of the Office as an extended meditation session, with the psalms seen primarily as readings rather than prayers. Instead, St Benedict seems to put more emphasis on the pure praise of God when it comes to the Office.

He does not neglect to feed the soul in the course of this act of worship, however, using devices such as the symbolism of light and darkness in the Office.  He specifies that there should be a Vigil prayer said in the dark hours of the night, but with Lauds timed to start at first light, for example.

Nor does St Benedict neglect to mention the mind, specifying that study and meditation on the psalms and other texts of the Office to take place outside the hours of the liturgy, in times set aside for study.

The monastic character of Matins

Finally, it is useful to keep in mind that although the Office in general seems to have been something equally said by the laity, ascetics and priests in the early and medieval church, there was no expectation that the clergy and lait would say all of the hours of the Office each day.  Rather, Matins or night prayer was generally regarded as something more appropriate to religious than the laity. Even today, this view still holds in many places. Abbot Lawrence of Christ in the Desert for example argues that this hour is absolutely crucial to the monastic vocation:

“We can probably say, without much dispute, that Vigils is a defining office of the monk. The monk is a Christian who keeps vigil every day.”

For this reason then, the Monastic Diurnal aimed at Oblates and other laypeople, does not contain Matins (though for those who wish to say it there are a number of books around around to enable you to do so).

As we read these instructions on the saying of Matins then, laypeople should perhaps reflect on the sacrifices offered on our behalf by those monks and nuns who still rise in the dark and pray for the whole world on our behalf. We should consider how we can support them both financially and through our own prayers. And we can consider how we can join our prayers to theirs even if we don't have the time or knowledge to say Matins each day, for example by saying the much shorter Matins of the Little Office of Our Lady or the Office of the Dead (contained in the Diurnal), or even just a short prayer if we wake up on the dark.

For the next part in ths series, click here.