Brush up your rubrics: When are the hours properly said?

I had a query recently about the extent to which it is permissible to join together hours, with a reference to Cardinal Richelieu's infamous practice of saying the entire Office at midnight each night.

Accordingly, this week I thought I might provide a refresher on just what the rubrics are on this subject, and some of the issues around them.

The rules around saying the hours at the proper time

The rules for saying the Benedictine Office using the Diurnal are governed both by overarching Church law, and the rubrics of the 1963 breviary.

In particular, Universae Ecclesiae sets out that breviaries are to be used as they were, so technically the relevant provision of the current Code of Canon law, 1175 arguably doesn't apply:

In carrying out the liturgy of the hours, the true time for each hour is to be observed insofar as possible.

In reality, however, the 1963 rubrics for the Benedictine Office say virtually the same thing, saying that the canonical hours are intended for the sanctification of the hours of the natural day and accordingly should be said as near to their proper time as possible (General Rubrics of the Breviary, Bk II, 137).  There is no provision, as far as I can see, for joining of hours (ie saying more than one under the same set of concluding prayers) other than Matins and Lauds, though this was done in earlier versions of the Office.

There are good reasons for this, as most of the hours have specific associations with the time of day that are mentioned in the hymns, psalms and prayers set for each hour.  Terce, for example, is associated with Pentecost, that took place 'at the third hour', and this connection is alluded to in the hymn.

So what are the proper times?: The rubrics

The general principles for when the hours should be said are set out in the Benedictine Rule in various chapters (both in the liturgical section of the Rule, and in the discussion of the arrangement of the day) and make it clear that St Benedict was fairly flexible (within certain limits) about when most of the hours are said.  As a result, may monasteries do things like say Sext and None one after the other, or join Terce to Mass.

The two absolutes, if you read the Rule, would seem to be that Matins needs to be said in the dark of the night (with an instruction to rise at the eighth hour of the night), and to start Lauds at first light.

Experience has shown, however, that while St Benedict's timetable for the Night Office, of rising at the 'eighth hour of the night' (around 3am depending on the time of sunset), might arguably have worked well in Monte Cassino, at other latitudes with much greater variations in the number of daylight or night hours, adjustments may need to be made.  There are several ways this can be done, including saying Matins the day before (which is permitted in the 1963 rubrics 'for a just cause', but not before 2pm ("Matutinum, ex iusta causa, horis post meridianis diei praecedentis anticipare licet, non tamen ante horam quartamdecimam"); saying Matins at midnight and then going back to bed until Lauds (done by at least one contemporary Benedictine women's monastery); or cutting down or out the gap between Matins and Lauds.

The 1963 rubrics also specify that Lauds should be said first thing in the morning when said in common or in choir (ie cannot be anticipated), but can be said 'when convenient' if said by oneself.

They also allow Vespers in Lent and Passiontide to be said any time after midday (in consideration of the fasting rules set out in the Rule) when said in common or in choir (or a time convenient if said alone).

The final provision is that Compline is always said as the last hour of the day (but in this case the Pater Noster etc in the opening section is omitted, and examen done privately) in, even if Matins is anticipated.

Exceptions

For those with a formal obligation to say the Office, however, there has to be some more flexibility, and the rubrics do provide that it is sufficient to say all of the hours within a twenty-four hour period.

In this light I recently came across some timely advice for hermits on what to do if you sleep in for Matins (I think from St Basil, but I can't currently lay my hands on the reference): viz close the windows and doors (to simulate darkness outside) and get on and say it, however late it may be!

For laypeople though, if you sleep through Matins or Lauds, or can't say the proper hour at more or less the correct time (plus or minus a few hours), I would suggest that the appropriate solution is to just skip the hour: you have no obligation to say any or all of the hours. If you really want to say the psalms, just say them, it doesn't have to be part of the Office.

Best practice?

Either way, we should not, in my opinion, just be ruled by law, but should also consider why we are praying the 'liturgy of the hours' (and the name is not just a modern invention!).

Though St Benedict doesn't set out an explicit rationale for each of the hours, he probably thought he didn't need to: he could assume that his readers were familiar with the expositions of the subject provided by SS Cyprian, Basil, Cassian  and many others of the Fathers.

I've tried to summarise the key associations/rationales often cited in the table below by way of an aid.

Hour	Time of day to be said	Why?
Matins (not in Diurnal)	Darkness, very early morning	Ps 118: at midnight…; Anna prayed in the temple day and night (Lk 2:37); Paul and Silas prayed at midnight; Watching for the second coming
Lauds	First light	Psalm 118: Seven times a day… Hour when lamps trimmed, incense offered, morning sacrifice in tabernacle and temple; Rising of the sun/Son - celebrates the Resurrection.
Prime	First hour after sunrise -  before starting work	First hour when workmen recruited for the vineyard (Mt 20:1-6). Consecrate first thoughts and work of day to Christ the first and last.
Terce	Literally the third hour after sunrise - mid-morning	In honour of the Trinity; Labourers in the vineyard recruited; Hour of Pentecost
Sext	The sixth hour after sunrise,   Midday - lunchtime	In honour of the Trinity; labourers in the vineyard recruited; Visitors to Abraham (Genesis 18); Hour Peter prayed, vision of the gentiles (Acts 10); Time of the crucifixion
None	The ninth hour after sunrise - mid-afternoon	In honour of the Trinity; Labourers in the vineyard recruited; Peter and John prayed at the temple (Acts 3); Cornelius prayed at this hour (Acts 10); Death of Jesus on the cross.
Vespers	As the sun is setting - early evening	Labourers in the vineyard recruited (11th hour); Lighting of the lamps and evening sacrifice in tabernacle and temple; At setting of sun, ask the true Sun/Son to come again.
Compline	Before bed	Prayer before sleep, asking for a resurrection from the little sleep that mimics the sleep of death; Hour Christ prayed with his disciples in the Garden; Fulfils four night hours of Nehemiah 9:3 (with Vespers, Matins and Lauds)

St Peter of Alcantara (EF); SS John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, St Paul of the Cross (OF), Oct 19

Today's saints in the Ordinary Form include two North American martyrs.  St Jean de Brebeuf was a Jesuit martyred in 1649, while St Isaac Jogues was martyred in New York State in 1646.

Also in the OF today St Paul of the Cross:

"At Rome, the birthday of St. Paul of the Cross, confessor, founder of the Congregation of the Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom Pius IX canonized on account of his remarkable innocence of life and his penitential spirit, assigning the 28th of April as the day of his festival."


And in the EF:

"At Arenas, in Spain, St. Peter of Alcantara, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor who was canonized by Clement IX on account of his admirable penance and many miracles."

October 18: St Luke the Evangelist

St Luke the Evangelist was a Greek-speaking Syrian physician who lived in the Greek city of Antioch in Ancient Syria. 

He is mentioned in various of St Paul’s epistles and was by profession a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and later followed Paul until Paul's martyrdom.

St Luke states at the beginning of the Gospel he wrote that he was not an eyewitness to the events of the Gospel.

He reputedly died at the age of 84 years in Boeotia.  His tomb was located in Thebes (Greece), from whence his relics were transferred to Constantinople in the year 357.

St Hedwig (EF/OF, Oct 16)

Saint Hedwig of Silesia (1174 – 1243):

"The Feast of St. Hedwiges, widow, duchess of Poland, who went to her rest in the Lord on the 15th of this month."

In the Ordinary Form today is the feast of St Margaret Mary Alacoque, but it is tomorrow in the EF.

October 15: St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church, Class III

Alonso del Arco (1635-1704)

Pope Benedict XVI gave a General Audience on St Teresa on 2 February 2011:

"In the course of the Catecheses that I have chosen to dedicate to the Fathers of the Church and to great theologians and women of the Middle Ages I have also had the opportunity to reflect on certain Saints proclaimed Doctors of the Church on account of the eminence of their teaching.

Today I would like to begin a brief series of meetings to complete the presentation on the Doctors of the Church and I am beginning with a Saint who is one of the peaks of Christian spirituality of all time — St Teresa of Avila [also known as St Teresa of Jesus].

St Teresa, whose name was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515. In her autobiography she mentions some details of her childhood: she was born into a large family, her “father and mother, who were devout and feared God”, into a large family. She had three sisters and nine brothers.

While she was still a child and not yet nine years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven (cf. Vida, [Life], 1, 4); “I want to see God”, the little girl told her parents.

A few years later Teresa was to speak of her childhood reading and to state that she had discovered in it the way of truth which she sums up in two fundamental principles.

On the one hand was the fact that “all things of this world will pass away” while on the other God alone is “for ever, ever, ever”, a topic that recurs in her best known poem: “Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices”. She was about 12 years old when her mother died and she implored the Virgin Most Holy to be her mother (cf. Vida, I, 7).

If in her adolescence the reading of profane books had led to the distractions of a worldly life, her experience as a pupil of the Augustinian nuns of Santa María de las Gracias de Avila and her reading of spiritual books, especially the classics of Franciscan spirituality, introduced her to recollection and prayer.

When she was 20 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in Avila. In her religious life she took the name “Teresa of Jesus”. Three years later she fell seriously ill, so ill that she remained in a coma for four days, looking as if she were dead (cf. Vida, 5, 9).

In the fight against her own illnesses too the Saint saw the combat against weaknesses and the resistance to God’s call: “I wished to live”, she wrote, “but I saw clearly that I was not living, but rather wrestling with the shadow of death; there was no one to give me life, and I was not able to take it. He who could have given it to me had good reasons for not coming to my aid, seeing that he had brought me back to himself so many times, and I as often had left him” (Vida, 7, 8).

In 1543 she lost the closeness of her relatives; her father died and all her siblings, one after another, emigrated to America. In Lent 1554, when she was 39 years old, Teresa reached the climax of her struggle against her own weaknesses. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously wounded”, left a deep mark on her life (cf. Vida, 9).

The Saint, who in that period felt deeply in tune with the St Augustine of the Confessions, thus describes the decisive day of her mystical experience: “and... a feeling of the presence of God would come over me unexpectedly, so that I could in no wise doubt either that he was within me, or that I was wholly absorbed in him” (Vida, 10, 1).

Parallel to her inner development, the Saint began in practice to realize her ideal of the reform of the Carmelite Order: in 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, with the support of the city’s Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, and shortly afterwards also received the approval of John Baptist Rossi, the Order’s Superior General.

In the years that followed, she continued her foundations of new Carmelite convents, 17 in all. Her meeting with St John of the Cross was fundamental. With him, in 1568, she set up the first convent of Discalced Carmelites in Duruelo, not far from Avila.

In 1580 she obtained from Rome the authorization for her reformed Carmels as a separate, autonomous Province. This was the starting point for the Discalced Carmelite Order.

Indeed, Teresa’s earthly life ended while she was in the middle of her founding activities. She died on the night of 15 October 1582 in Alba de Tormes, after setting up the Carmelite Convent in Burgos, while on her way back to Avila. Her last humble words were: “After all I die as a child of the Church”, and “O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another”.

Teresa spent her entire life for the whole Church although she spent it in Spain. She was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614 and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622. The Servant of God Paul VI proclaimed her a “Doctor of the Church” in 1970.

Teresa of Jesus had no academic education but always set great store by the teachings of theologians, men of letters and spiritual teachers. As a writer, she always adhered to what she had lived personally through or had seen in the experience of others (cf. Prologue to The Way of Perfection), in other words basing herself on her own first-hand knowledge.

Teresa had the opportunity to build up relations of spiritual friendship with many Saints and with St John of the Cross in particular. At the same time she nourished herself by reading the Fathers of the Church, St Jerome, St Gregory the Great and St Augustine.

Among her most important works we should mention first of all her autobiography, El libro de la vida (the book of life), which she called Libro de las misericordias del Señor [book of the Lord’s mercies].

Written in the Carmelite Convent at Avila in 1565, she describes the biographical and spiritual journey, as she herself says, to submit her soul to the discernment of the “Master of things spiritual”, St John of Avila. Her purpose was to highlight the presence and action of the merciful God in her life. For this reason the work often cites her dialogue in prayer with the Lord. It makes fascinating reading because not only does the Saint recount that she is reliving the profound experience of her relationship with God but also demonstrates it.

In 1566, Teresa wrote El Camino de Perfección [The Way of Perfection]. She called it Advertencias y consejos que da Teresa de Jesús a sus hermanas [recommendations and advice that Teresa of Jesus offers to her sisters]. It was composed for the 12 novices of the Carmel of St Joseph in Avila. Teresa proposes to them an intense programme of contemplative life at the service of the Church, at the root of which are the evangelical virtues and prayer.

Among the most precious passages is her commentary on the Our Father, as a model for prayer. St Teresa’s most famous mystical work is El Castillo interior [The Interior Castle]. She wrote it in 1577 when she was in her prime. It is a reinterpretation of her own spiritual journey and, at the same time, a codification of the possible development of Christian life towards its fullness, holiness, under the action of the Holy Spirit.

Teresa refers to the structure of a castle with seven rooms as an image of human interiority. She simultaneously introduces the symbol of the silk worm reborn as a butterfly, in order to express the passage from the natural to the supernatural.

The Saint draws inspiration from Sacred Scripture, particularly the Song of Songs, for the final symbol of the “Bride and Bridegroom” which enables her to describe, in the seventh room, the four crowning aspects of Christian life: the Trinitarian, the Christological, the anthropological and the ecclesial.

St Teresa devoted the Libro de la fundaciones [book of the foundations], which she wrote between 1573 and 1582, to her activity as Foundress of the reformed Carmels. In this book she speaks of the life of the nascent religious group. This account, like her autobiography, was written above all in order to give prominence to God’s action in the work of founding new monasteries.

It is far from easy to sum up in a few words Teresa’s profound and articulate spirituality. I would like to mention a few essential points. In the first place St Teresa proposes the evangelical virtues as the basis of all Christian and human life and in particular, detachment from possessions, that is, evangelical poverty, and this concerns all of us; love for one another as an essential element of community and social life; humility as love for the truth; determination as a fruit of Christian daring; theological hope, which she describes as the thirst for living water. Then we should not forget the human virtues: affability, truthfulness, modesty, courtesy, cheerfulness, culture.

Secondly, St Teresa proposes a profound harmony with the great biblical figures and eager listening to the word of God. She feels above all closely in tune with the Bride in the Song of Songs and with the Apostle Paul, as well as with Christ in the Passion and with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Saint then stresses how essential prayer is. Praying, she says, “means being on terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us” (Vida 8, 5). St Teresa’s idea coincides with Thomas Aquinas’ definition of theological charity as “amicitia quaedam hominis ad Deum”, a type of human friendship with God, who offered humanity his friendship first; it is from God that the initiative comes (cf. Summa Theologiae II-II, 23, 1).

Prayer is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life: it begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorization by means of meditation and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the Holy Trinity. Obviously, in the development of prayer climbing to the highest steps does not mean abandoning the previous type of prayer. Rather, it is a gradual deepening of the relationship with God that envelops the whole of life.

Rather than a pedagogy Teresa’s is a true “mystagogy” of prayer: she teaches those who read her works how to pray by praying with them. Indeed, she often interrupts her account or exposition with a prayerful outburst.

Another subject dear to the Saint is the centrality of Christ’s humanity. For Teresa, in fact, Christian life is the personal relationship with Jesus that culminates in union with him through grace, love and imitation. Hence the importance she attaches to meditation on the Passion and on the Eucharist as the presence of Christ in the Church for the life of every believer, and as the heart of the Liturgy. St Teresa lives out unconditional love for the Church: she shows a lively “sensus Ecclesiae”, in the face of the episodes of division and conflict in the Church of her time.

She reformed the Carmelite Order with the intention of serving and defending the “Holy Roman Catholic Church”, and was willing to give her life for the Church (cf. Vida, 33,5).

A final essential aspect of Teresian doctrine which I would like to emphasize is perfection, as the aspiration of the whole of Christian life and as its ultimate goal. The Saint has a very clear idea of the “fullness” of Christ, relived by the Christian. At the end of the route through The Interior Castle, in the last “room”, Teresa describes this fullness, achieved in the indwelling of the Trinity, in union with Christ through the mystery of his humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, St Teresa of Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of his presence and of his action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek God, to be in conversation with him and to be his friends.

This is the friendship we all need that we must seek anew, day after day. May the example of this Saint, profoundly contemplative and effectively active, spur us too every day to dedicate the right time to prayer, to this openness to God, to this journey, in order to seek God, to see him, to discover his friendship and so to find true life; indeed many of us should truly say: “I am not alive, I am not truly alive because I do not live the essence of my life”.

Therefore time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it is time in which the path of life unfolds, the path unfolds to learning from God an ardent love for him, for his Church, and practical charity for our brothers and sisters. Many thanks."

Wonderful news for Australian readers: Flavigny monks establishing a monastery in Hobart!

You can find the details in the Catholic Weekly here and in a letter from Fr Pius Mary Noonan OSB who will lead the new monastery.

The Flavigny monks, who offer mass in the Extraordinary Form, have been coming to Australia to run retreats for several years now.  You can read an article I wrote on them several years ago for Oriens Magazine here, though it is a little out of date now.

The monastery will be dedicated to Our Lady of Cana, and is essentially starting from nothing.  The letter says:

"After a longer period of discernment and lengthy negotiations both with the Abbey authorities in Flavigny and with the local Church authorities in Australia, it has been decided that I will be released from the abbey of Flavigny in order to dedicate myself to establishing a community of traditional monastic observance in Australia. The foundation will take place in the archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania, with the blessing of Archbishop Julian Porteous. 

The community will not be officially established for a couple more months, but we have now reachedthe point where the news can be shared with our friends and benefactors. This is necessary so that you can pray for its success but also so that you can be aware of our need for support as we initiate this project.

At this stage we have nothing except the good will of several candidates to the monastic life."

The monks need help firstly with prayers (they are asking for rosaries for the success of the foundation), vocations and donations to cover basic expenses of establishment, including construction, purchase of land, and operational expenses.

Donations can be directed as follows:

NOTRE DAME PRIORY
Commonwealth Bank account # : 1024 4562
BSB:062-654.

Cheques may be made payable to “Notre Dame Priory” and sent to:
Notre Dame Priory
℅ P.O. Box 450, PICTON NSW 2571
Australia

For those in America, the donation details are:

NOTRE DAME PRIORY, INC. (501 c3 non-profit, tax deductible) Chase Bank account # : 889087032 Cheques may be made payable to “Notre Dame Priory” and sent to: Notre Dame Priory ℅ 1202 Park Hills Court Louisville, KY 40207 USA

October 14: Pope St Callistus I

Pope St Callistus I was pope from around 217 and was martyred in 222.

Most of what we know of him comes from a life by his enemy Tertullian and the anti-pope Hippolytus, so must be regarded as somewaht suspect.  Their main disputes seems to have been over whether or not apostates could be reconciled to the Church, marriage law, and Christology.  Pope Callistus was able to reconcile Hippolytus to the Church however when they were both sentenced to work in the mines, and they both died saints.