St Benedict's Liturgical Code: Feast Days (Feb 17/June 18/Oct 18)

The title of today's chapter of the Rule seems to take us back for a moment, to the Night Office of Matins.  But Dom Gueranger and others argue that its provisions apply equally to Lauds, and this interpretation is certainly reflected in the structure of the Office as it has come down to us.  Indeed, some modern translators argue that the chapter in fact refers to Lauds rather than Matins...

Caput 14: In nataliciis sanctorum qualiter agantur vigiliae

In Sanctorum vero festivitatibus vel omnibus sollemnitatibus, sicut diximus Dominico die agendum, ita agatur, excepto quod psalmi aut antiphonae vel lectiones ad ipsum diem pertinentes dicantur; modus autem suprascriptus teneatur.

Chapter 14: On how the night office is to be performed on saints’ days

On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals, let the Office be performed as we have prescribed for Sundays, except that the psalms, antiphons, and lessons belonging to the particular day are to be said; but the general arrangement of the Office shall be as laid down above.

Commentary

St Benedict and devotion to the saints

There are several pieces of evidence that attest to St Benedict's devotion to the saints.  We know, from both St Gregory the Great and the archaeological record, that he established chapels at Monte Cassino dedicated to St Martin of Tours and St John the Baptist (both saints who combined the active and contemplative lives in their life and work).  Elsewhere in the Rule St Benedict talks about making vows on relics. And in this chapter he makes provision for their celebration in the liturgy.

The chapter points, then, to the great importance of the saints in the life of the Church: the saints provide us with models, and inspire us to do better.  They aid us when we need help.  And they provide a link between heaven and earth, reminding us that we are part not just of the Church Militant, but also must pray for the Church Suffering, those in purgatory, and can benefit from the intercession of the Church Triumphant, those in heaven.

The Office on saints days

It is in the area of the celebration of the saints that the Office has most become elaborated over time. As St Benedict specifies, the basic structure of three nocturns on major feast days has been retained. But as well, the use of specific sets of psalms for various types of feasts has arisen, overriding the use of the ferial psalms in many cases. And of course, a whole gradation of feast days has grown up over time (with ever changing labels and rubrics!).

Similarly, the Sunday psalms are used at Lauds for major feasts  - but the modern Office also includes festal psalms for Vespers, as well as special texts for the other hours of the day.

More importantly from a practical point of view, the number of saints celebrated in the calendar has increased dramatically.

Organic development of the liturgy?

This is perhaps a useful point at which to note the debate about how much the liturgy can be changed. At the extremes sit those who see the liturgy as entirely fixed by certain decrees (such as Pius V’s in the case of the Mass; St Benedict’s Rule for the Office), and at the other end of the scale, those who regard every aspect of the liturgy as a historically conditioned and therefore changeable.

The correct path, I think, lies somewhere in the middle.  In the case of the Office, some would point out that St Benedict was doing in these legislative provisions what many other monastic legislators were doing at the time in constructing an Office. And just as twentieth century Popes have reordered the psalm cursus and more for the Roman Rite, so too, it is perfectly legitimate, even authorized by the Rule, for modern monks to do likewise.

The alternative, and in my view better, position is that the Rule’s provisions are a providential recipe for a particular spirituality, a gift that has come down to us because God willed it. For centuries the Benedictine Office has provided an important element of continuity for new foundations and refoundations that has automatically served to provide a specifically Benedictine character to the houses of the Order.

But the framework St Benedict provides in his Rule is clearly sufficiently flexible to allow for the kind of ‘organic’ elaboration of the Office that has occurred over time, particularly in relation to feasts. The liturgy clearly can and does change over time, and there is no rationale that is obvous to me at any rate, beyond antiquarianism, something long condemned by the Church, and a rejection of the concept of obedience, for deciding to go back to St Benedict’s one class of feast schema, or to adopt without good reason and permission, some other arbitrarily chosen date for rubrics other than those currently approved by the Church (ie 1962 or later).

St Benedict and St Gregory the Great pray for us!

The next part of this series can be found here.

Lent in the Benedictine Rule....

Lent is rapidly approaching, so I thought I'd up some links to posts I've previously written on St Benedict's prescriptions for Lent in the Rule, and how we can incorporate them in our own Lenten observance.  There are three parts to the series:

Part I: Sacred Reading;
Part II: Refrain from sin and apply ourselves to prayer;
Part III: Fasting and abstinence.

St Benedict's Liturgical Code: Lauds/3 (Feb 16/June 17/Oct 17)



c1500

Today's section of the Rule deals with the conclusion of the hours of both Lauds and Vespers, and deal with the importance of the Lord's prayer.

Caput XIII/III...

Plane Agenda matutina vel vespertina non transeat aliquando nisi in ultimo per ordinem oratio dominica omnibus audientibus dicatur a priore, propter scandalorum spinas quae oriri solent, ut conventi per ipsius orationis sponsionem qua dicunt: Dimitte nobis sicut et nos dimittimus, purgent se ab hujusmodi vitio. Ceteris vero Agendis ultima pars ejus orationis dicatur, ut ab omnibus respondeatur: Sed libera nos a malo.

Chapter 13/3, continued

Of course, the Offices of Lauds and Vespers shall never be allowed to end without the superior finally reciting, in the hearing of all, the whole of the Lord's Prayer. The purpose of this is the removal of those thorns of scandal, or mutual offence, which are wont to arise in communities. For, being warned by the covenant which they make in that prayer, when they say Forgive us as we forgive, the brethren will cleanse their souls of such faults. At the other Offices, however, only the last part of that prayer shall be said aloud, so that all may answer Sed libera nos a malo.

Commentary

This instruction reminds us I think, of two important messages: firstly, the fallible nature of man, even those committed to a life of holiness; and secondly, the central importance of the Lord's Prayer.

The challenges of community life, inside and outside of monasteries!

We tend to think of monks and nuns as very holy people, and no doubt they generally are, at least relatively speaking!

Yet sanctification is a gradual process that takes a whole lifetime or more for most, as St Benedict makes clear in his Prologue and the chapter on the tools of good works, even for those who have the privilege of dwelling in a monastery!

One of the (several) reasons that I think we should take St Gregory's Life of St Benedict seriously as a source of our spirituality (for following the Rule alone is not, in my view, enough to make one a follower of St Benedict, any more than following the Rule of St Augustine – as for example the Dominicans do – makes one an Augustinian) is that it is very far from simple hagiography.  Rather, the Life is filled with tales of the weaknesses and sins of St Benedict's monks as well as much as of the zeal inspired by the saint. Nor does St Benedict himself escape entirely unscathed in this depiction, despite the justifications for some of his actions supplied by St Gregory. 

So I always wonder if St Benedict introduced the idea of the superior praying the Lord's Prayer morning and night as part of his own process of achieving forgiveness of others, particularly in relation to his first failed attempt as an abbot, where his regime was so tough and resented that the monks tried to assassinate him!

In any case, the reality is that even in the happiest of communities, the happiest of families, the happiest of workplaces, there will invariably be tensions at times. And the expression 'the fish rots from the head' is relevant here: in whatever setting, leadership from the top on this front is vital.

Probably the earliest surviving commentary on the Rule is that by Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel (born circa 760), which notes that:

"Now in this place thorns of scandal means 'angry outbursts, quarrels, dissensions, slanders, rivalries', or any of the disturbing disputes and commotions that are wont to spring up among the brothers. Morning and evening, even though the monks have peace and preserve continual charity among themselves, they should purge themselves from these things. In the morning, so that none of these faults may remain until sunset, for it is written: Let not the sun go down upon your anger; in the evening, so that a fault may not remain overnight with him until sunrise, and in the morning render the monk answerable for sins and foul in the Lord's sight." (trans David Barry OSB, Cistercian Publications, 2007)

The importance of the Lord's prayer

The role of the Lord's prayer said fervently as a means of expressing our contrition, cleansing our venial sins, and recommitting us to advancing the kingdom is one of those ideas whose centrality to Christian life I suspect we have mostly lost sight of today: how easy it is to merely say the words.

Yet in the tradition, the Our Father is an absolutely crucial prayer.

It formed the core of the regular prayer times practiced in the early Church. The first century document Didache, for example, says, "Do not pray like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this: Our Father who art in heaven...Pray this three times each day."

The prayer generated a number of substantial commentaries from many of the Church Fathers: St Augustine's excellent exposition, for example, included in his work on the Sermon on the Mount, can be found on the New Advent Church Fathers website.

And throughout the Middle Ages it was one of the main focuses of works of catechesis for the laity.

No wonder then it is said at every hour of the Office.

In terms of its content, the Rule particularly emphasizes the covenant dimension of the prayer, as Smaragdus goes on to explain:

"So that warned, that is, won over and drawn by the covenant contained in the prayer itself, that is, by the promise contained in the Lord's prayer which says: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors each one may forgive his brother from his heart. And thus purged, that is, cleansed from vices, let him in the morning proceed to perform the work of obedience, and in the evening celebrate the night watches. But at the other Offices, that is, in celebrating the other hours only the last part of that prayer, that is: And lead us not into temptation is to be said aloud, so that hearing it all may answer: But deliver us from evil."

Forgiveness flows from knowing God

Finally, it may seem strange that St Benedict emphasises the importance of the Lord's Prayer in the midst of this section on the structure of the Office, but once again I think the saint is trying to make sure we fully appreciate that he is building into the Office a theme that he reiterates many times in the Rule, on the importance of forgiveness.  Abbot Lawrence of Christ in the Desert Monastery comments:

"Saint Benedict makes it clear to us here and in many places of the Rule that we must make knowing God the very center of our being, or our personalities. We are not just tepid Christians, we must be Christians who are putting all of our personal energies into this new life in Jesus Christ. It seems so clear in the Gospels and in the New Testament: if we want God to forgive us, then we must always forgive others. Another challenge is to forgive before the sun sets. That is asking a lot from us, for sure. Many times we want to delay, we want time to get our own emotions back into order, we want time so that the other person knows that we are deeply offended, etc. Jesus Himself wants us to forgive immediately. Our forgiveness can never depend on whether the other person, the other monk, has acknowledged that he has offended us. Forgiveness must come from us immediately and without reserve--if we are truly following the Lord Jesus."

The next part of this series can be found here.

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.