1953 vs 1963 Pt 3: The hours

Continuing my series on the differences between the 1953 and 1963 breviaries, I want to focus today mainly on the psalter section of the breviary.

The main changes were to separate out Prime and the chapter office; make some (unnecessary in my view) simplifications; remove some verses of Psalm 13 and the Saturday ferial canticle; make some changes to the division points in the psalms; and remove some post-Tridentine accretions to the Office.

Prime and the Chapter Office

The first change, I think, concerns the separation of the texts for Prime and Chapter, and is relatively harmless in my view. 

In the Roman Office, chapter has long been, and remains, formally part of Prime. 

In the monastic use, though, its position has always been somewhat different, since it was generally said not in the church, but in the chapter room of the monastery (hence the name) and not counted as one of the formal parts of the Office (since St Benedict does not mention it in the Rule).

Although the post Tridentine breviaries generally did provide a version of chapter integrated into Prime, many monasteries used their own version of it (some of which have been published in the Rituales of the various congregations).  

Accordingly, as far as I can see the 1963 breviary's approach of placing Prime and the chapter office in different places in the book and explicitly noting that monasteries are free to use their own version just codifies existing practice (though it is unfortunate that the monastic Diurnal didn't include the chapter office in full).

Silly simplifications

There are, I have to say, some changes made presumably in the name of 'simplification' that I think are just silly, and can and should easily be restored, namely the abolition of hymn doxologies for the seasons and feasts, and abolition of the ferial Prime short chapter (Love truth and peace, says the Lord) in favour of using the Sunday version (Regi saeculorum) all the time.

Changes to the psalter

One of the least desirable changes between 1953 and 1953, though, in my view, concerns the psalter.

On the face of it changing the division points for Psalms 9 and 106, ostensibly to make them align with the Hebrew Masoretic Text version of these psalms, sounds relatively innocuous.  But I think there is more to it than that, and I've written previously on why I don't like these changes:Psalm 9 pt 1; Psalm 9 (pt 2); and Psalm 106.

Similarly a number of verses - admittedly almost certainly not an authentic part of the psalm, but included in the Vulgate translations and so treated as such in the West for centuries - were removed from Psalm 13.

But by far the biggest and most fundamental change was to cut out around half of the Saturday ferial canticle, almost certainly because it offends modern sensibilities with its condemnations of sodomy and other immoral behaviours.  

Prayer pruning

The final group of changes, and one I'm in favour of, essentially shorten the Office by removing assorted prayers that have been added to it at various points in time.

As I've noted before, the fact that the Benedictine Rule spells out the components of each hour and the order in which they are said has long served as an anchor point for this particular form of the Office. St Benedict, moreover, clearly favoured keeping the hours (relatively) short.

It is human nature, though, to keep adding things to the hours - thus the periodic need to prune.

Preparation for the hours

In terms of unnecessary accretions, my personal view is that the previous requirement to say the Creed (before Matins) and/or Our Father and Hail Mary before (or as an extra part of ) each hour is at the top of the list, particularly given the Our Father is included in each hour of the Benedictine office (though not the Roman) anyway.

We do of course need to put ourselves in the right frame of mind before starting an hour (such as the prayer Aperi Domine, that appears in many breviaries), but there is surely no need to regulate this.

Deus in adjutorium at Matins

Similarly, starting the Night Office with Deus in adjutorium is a Romanism imported into the Benedictine Office that in my view makes no sense, and so was rightly removed.

St Benedict, after all, is clear that the first words the monk says each day, ending the great silence of the night, should be O Lord open my lips, that I may announce your praise.

Suffrage of All Saints/Commemoration of the Cross at Lauds and Vespers

One of the things that has regularly been added to the Office at various points is explicit intercessions for assorted causes, or requests for assistance to particular saints (including St Benedict in the pre 1911 monastic breviaries).

The suffrages formerly said at Lauds and Vespers are one example of this, with suffrages added in the Tridentine reforms of 1563 gradually increasing in number, but then replaced by two suffrages, of All Saints and the Cross (depending on the season), in the 1911 Pius X reforms.

These (in their twentieth century versions) consisted of an antiphon, versicle and collect, so look like a commemoration, and like commemorations, they were said after the collect of the day, generally on days that were not feasts.  

The two new suffrage (of All Saints) apparently did not get positive reviews at the time of its introduction though its not obvious at first glance why - both of the 1911 suffrages are nice prayers of medieval origin that were often included in books of hours. 

But I don't personally have a problem with trimming them out of the office proper.

Marion antiphon after Lauds and Vespers

Lauds and Vespers also added the Marian antiphons to the end of the hours.  The 1960 revisions retained it for Compline only.

The preces at Prime and Compline

On ferial days, Prime and Compline previously had a set of additional prayers inserted into it, namely the Creed  (that makes three times!), an extra Confiteor (confession and absolution formulas) at Prime, and a versicle.

Given that the Confiteor is said in the daily conventual Mass (as well as any private masses), I can see why this was thought to be an unnecessary duplication.

Working forward or reverting back?

In this quick comparison between of the 1953 and 1963 monastic breviaries, the issue I've touched only lightly on concerns the rubrics, particularly when clashes of feasts occur.

It is, I think, an important topic, so I will cover it briefly in my next and last post on this series, where I will look again at the question of whether it is better to start from the 1963 breviary, and make some amendments to its rubrics and calendar (as most of the traditional monasteries are doing), or revert back altogether to some earlier date.

1953 vs 1963 breviary comparions Pt 2 - the temporal cycle

As I mentioned in a previous post, through Advent I used a 1953 breviary, adapting it to the 1960 rubrics - a task made easier I should note by the inclusion in the volume I bought, of a 1960 supplement, coupled with a few pencil deletions done by a previous owner of the books!

I've previously posted on the differences to the sanctoral cycle; so today I thought I'd continue on, and take a look at the differences to Advent itself.

Advent and Christmas

When it comes to Advent, the readings and texts in the Benedictine Office (in contrast to the Roman) have not, as far as I can see, changed over the course of the twentieth century.

There are only two differences that I could see.

The first is to extend the use of the special antiphons for the day hours between December 17 and 23 to Vespers in 1960, a change I quite like - it seems odd to me (no matter how traditional it might be) to use a set of special antiphons at Lauds to None then revert to the throughout the year set at Vespers on Class II days.

The second is that under the previous rubrics, the set of special antiphons not used on December 21 because of the feast of St Thomas were used on Saturday.  

In the 1960 office a specific set of antiphons for Saturday are included, so one day's worth of antiphons are not used each year.  The Saturday antiphons are not new inventions however, but rather apparently a relic of Solesmes' own in-house practice, the change brought the Benedictine office into line with practice in the Roman Office following the 1911 reforms.

I assume the main argument for these changes was simplicity, and there is something to be said for that - juggling the multiple moving parts during these days is hard enough as it is.

The temporal cycle

In Advent, then, there are a few minor differences of no great consequence (indeed arguably even improvements).  

And indeed, for most of the year, there are no differences at all in the temporal cycle between the two editions of the monastic breviary.

Epiphanytide

Even during the former octaves of the temporale cycle, for example, one of the worst of the wreckovations in my view, the key texts (such as for the Gospels for the relevant Sunday within the Octave) have been retained, with many of the Office texts have been transformed into the 'Ordinary' of the season.

In the former Octave of the Epiphany, for example, the canticle antiphons of the octave are retained, except where another feast or a Saturday of Our Lady intervenes.  

What a shame, though, that they didn't just make these days Class III, and thus allow us to enjoy a full de facto octave every year.  That said, I suspect the provisions of Cum sanctissima arguably would now authorise this approach.

Holy Week

Apart from January, the other contender for worst wreckovation, as a commenter on another post has noted, is Holy Week.

And when it comes to the Mass and other ceremonies outside the Office, that's certainly true (though mitigated for many these days by the permissions to use the earlier version of Holy Week)..

When it comes to the Office there are, it has to be said, the admittedly peculiar instructions to omit certain Offices if one attends some of the main ceremonies.

But there is surely nothing stopping one from saying these hours if one wishes - outside a monastery these are rarely said publicly in any case, and in a monastery they are mostly all said regardless of the rubrics as far as I can gather!

When it comes to the texts of the Office itself, though, there has been much less tinkering - it is perfectly possible to use the 1928 Triduum book for the office for example (I've done it) - the main difference being a few additional repetitions of Psalm 50 and the times at which certain hours are (supposed to be) said.

The structure of the Office

The case for 'restoring the 54', then, as far as I can see  - though it may well be that I've missed something - does not rest on the temporal cycle (octaves aside), at least in the case of the Benedictine office, but rather on the sanctoral and perhaps other features of the breviaries.

I plan to look at the extra prayers and other changes to the hours themselves in the next post in this series.

Happy New year...and welcome to the most liturgically wreckovated time of the year!

Adoration of the Magi - Roman catacombs c3rd
Source: Giovanni Dall'Orto, Wiki commons

For most of the year, I don't have major problems with most of the calendar changes made in 1960 - if it was up to me (which it isn't!) there are some feasts I'd restore, but octaves aside, the changes to the calendar mostly were not too drastic (certainly not by comparison with those made in 1970, when whole seasons were excised).

But the period January 2 to January 13, is, I have to admit, something of a disaster zone liturgically.

Let's take a look at the key issues.

January 2 - 4

For centuries, January 2 - 4 were taken up by the Octave days of St Stephen, St John and the Holy Innocents.

In the Benedictine office, at least in its twentieth century versions, these days were, in my view, very well-designed so as to provide a reminder of the feast without disrupting the Benedictine psalm cursus and reading cycle.   

The psalms of the day were used at all hours, with the antiphons of the feast at Prime to None.  There were only two Nocturns at Matins, with two readings from Romans, and third Patristic reading for the Octave.

I've posted both versions of matins for these days over at Lectio Divina Notes blog for those interested in seeing the differences between the two versions, but on the face of it, I find it hard to see what the rationale for abolishing these very ancient octaves really was.  

Most Holy Name of Jesus (January 2 or the first Sunday of January)

I'm rather less concerned about the abolition, in the Benedictine (but not the Roman) 1960 calendar, of the feast of the Holy Name on January 2.  

Its move to that date in the twentieth century is something of an oddity in my view, since the Gospel is identical to that for January 1, and it cuts across the ancient octave days.  

A better solution than outright abolition, though, would surely have been to move it to an alternative date, or just use it when there is a second Sunday after the Nativity.

Vigil of the Epiphany (January 5)

The Vigil of the Epiphany used to be one of the four especially privileged Vigils to mark the four major feasts of the year.  

Its abolition, I suppose parallels the downgrading of Epiphany itself, but it was actually restored in 2002 (where the feast is not moved to the relevant Sunday!), so there is a strong case for arguing that it is legitimate to restore it also to the 1960 calendars.

You can find a useful discussion of its celebration here.

The feast of the Epiphany and the thirteen days of Christmas?

By far the most bizarre changes, of course, occur in the Novus Ordo calendar in places (such as here in Australia) where Epiphany is celebrated where this year we have not the on January 6, thus marking the end of the twelve days of Christmas, but this year, on January 7, giving us thirteen days of Christmas!

Actually though, it seems some places did have a tradition of thirteen days of Christmas, so maybe this year's outcome is not as odd as some year's!

Less explicable though, is that for reasons I don't understand, the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord is not on the octave day of Epiphany (January 13), but on January 8.

As I've written before, the number of days around these various feasts are not meant to be random, but have a deep symbolic meaning.  Why try so hard to remove this?

Octave of the Epiphany

Last, but far from least, the abolition of the octave of the Epiphany is surely one of the most unwise of the 1960 reforms, since this is one of the most ancient of all octaves, already celebrated at least in the East in the fourth century.

Fortunately, at least in the day hours, all of the texts of the Octave are preserved as the 'Ordinary of Epiphanytide'.

Still, if you want to go a step further and revert to the 1953 rubrics, all you have to do is add back the psalms and antiphons of the feast at the day hours.  At Matins, there are antiphons for each Nocturn for each day, which are used in conjunction with the psalms of the days of the week, as well as Patristic readings.

An alternative solution for the 1960 reformers, if the concern was to preserve the psalm and reading cycles, might have been to use the psalms of the day in conjunction with the antiphons and other texts of the feast, and make the Patristic reading the third of the day....

1953 vs 1963: Monastic breviary comparisons

There is increasing interest, these days, in the use of older breviaries, at least amongst liturgical nerds and in some parts of traddy world.

Accordingly, this Advent I decided to use a 1953 (Latin only) monastic breviary as my main office book, adapting it to the 1963 calendar and rubrics, but reading the texts that differ outside the Office, so I could get a better feel for features of the older rubrics and calendar.

So herewith some reflections on the differences between the books and their respective merits, in the hope that it might spark some debate!

I plan to divide up my comments into a couple of posts, covering:

• the physical books;
• the calendar differences for the sanctoral and temporal cycles;
• differences the structure and content of the hours themselves (things like preces, hymn doxologies, etc).

The books

So first something about the physical books.

None of the monastic breviaries are currently in print, and they are all fairly scarce and expensive to buy secondhand (although the 1930 breviary is available online).

Four volumes vs two

The 1963 breviary (and the 1930) comes in two volumes, but the 1953 edition follows the Roman by being spread over four volumes, thus increasing the cost.  

The need for four volumes is presumably because of the slightly smaller size  - 1953 book is two centimeters in length shorter - but I don't personally find that any more convenient than the slightly bigger book.

The type size and fonts seem to be the same.

Psalter placement

Secondly, the 1963 breviary places the psalter at the middle of the book.  Personally I prefer that - it helps to prolong the book's life a bit, but also makes it easier to see where the temporale vs sanctorale are.  By contrast, the 1953 follows the older structure of putting the psalter at the beginning.

Repeated texts

Perhaps the most annoying feature of the 1953 book is that, like the Diurnale, it doesn't bother repeating key fixed part of the hours such as the Prime hymn and the Benedictus and Magnificat each day - with four volumes to spread it over, it seems to me that more concession to convenience could have been made.

I guess part of the rationale is that monks will tend to know these parts by heart - and yes I do know them too, but I like having them in front of me all the same! 

More importantly perhaps, breviaries were presumably mostly only used when a monk was out of the monastery, for the Matins readings (with a psalter or the Antiphonale for the psalms), and as a reference document for rubrics and planning purposes.  But it is still annoying.

Sanctoral calendar

When it comes to the sanctoral calendar, the changes are in my view, a bit of a mixed bag. The changes were that:

• the feast of St Peter Chrysologus on December 2 (a fifth century bishop of Ravenna) was reduced to a commemoration in 1963 (previously the equivalent of Class III);
• the feasts of St Ambrose and St Lucy are reduced from being a Class II equivalent, with three Nocturns, to Class III; 
• the Octave of the Immaculate Conception was abolished;
• the second and third class equivalent feasts (St Lucy and St Thomas in December) no longer have a first Vespers; 
• the commemorations of St Melchiadus (Pope 311-313, December 10) and St Thomas (Beckett, December 20) were abolished; and
• commemorations were generally previously made at both Vespers and Lauds; under the 1960 rubrics they occur at Lauds only.

The Octave of the Immaculate Conception

The biggest change is clearly the abolition of the Octave of the Immaculate Conception, and in my view that was a positive step.  

The effect of the Octave (introduced to the Roman office in the eighteenth century) was to displace the ancient texts of Advent, including the antiphons set for the day hours each week, and replace them with the same repeated texts each day in the day hours; and to replace the reading of Isaiah, a tradition dating back to St Benedict's time, with readings from the Papal Bull of Pius IX.  

In a year when the feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on a Sunday, the antiphons wouldn't be said at all. 

I really can't see a strong case for the suppression of the seasonal texts, particularly as the season already has a strong Marian flavour in its readings and the responsories.

It has been pointed out to me though, that the monks of Norcia have come up with a sensible compromise approach to this problem for those keen on octaves, namely commemorating the Octave at Lauds and Vespers but privileging the Advent days.

Class III vs Class II?

Similarly, I don't mind the reduction of St Ambrose and St Lucy to Class III feasts - Class II feasts in the Benedictine Office are not very different when it comes to the day hours, but festal Matins is very very long indeed compared to both the Class III structure (3 vs 12 readings and responsories, plus extra three canticles, Te Deum and Gospel) and the Roman Office version.

It is not obvious though, why St Peter Chrysologus was demoted, or the two commemorations abolished - they all represent quite important saints on the face of it.

First Vespers

One of the most important rubrical changes between the 1953 Office and the 1963 was the abolition of First Vespers for most feasts.

It was a mistake I think, as it means that Class III feasts regularly don't have any Vespers at all, such as when they fall on a Saturday.

Most monasteries have restored them for class II feasts, but I think there is scope to go further.

If the concern is the displacement of the ferial psalm cursus in favour of the festal, a concern I agree with in principle, the simple solution would surely be to specify the use of the ferial psalms in conjunction with the antiphons of the feast at either First and/or Second Vespers.

But anyway, more anon...

So I got a Diurnal for Christmas - where do I start?!

 

If you've just received a Monastic  Diurnal, and want to learn to pray the Office St Benedict as laid out in his Rule written around 530 AD, and used ever since by monks and nuns of his Order, welcome to the club!

First, though, take a deep breathe - learning to say the Office takes a bit of effort, so you need to get familiar with the book first, and learn a little bit about the structure of each of the individual 'hours' that make up the Office before trying to start to use it.

1. Learn the Office notes - get oriented first

The Learn the Office page on this blog has a lot of material on it for you to choose from, but here are some suggested starting points.

• If you are completely new to the traditional (ie 1960 and earlier) forms of the Office, start with this post on Benedictine Office basics.
• To help find your way around the book itself, try this post.

If you already know something about the Office, or are anxious to try to get started as quickly as possible, make sure you take a look at these key posts:

• Diurnal traps and shortcuts - the diurnal assumes you know a few things; this is a guide to some of the key ones;
  
• how the opening and closing prayers of the hours work; and
  
• a quick look at some of the parts common to all the hours, hymns, chapters, versicles and responsories.

2. Start slowly and build up

Once you have oriented yourself, then you can start looking at the notes on each of the individual hours.

You don't need to say all of the hours, and my strong advice is, start with Compline, as it changes the least, and the texts are pretty much all written out in full in the Diurnal.  It also makes a nice prayer for the evening, before bed.

There are also several good videos on youtube of monastic Compline so you can follow along.

The next hour to add in is Prime, a good prayer to say before starting work. It will also help you get used to having a few moving parts (the antiphon and psalms of the day), before you move onto the more complex hours.

When it comes to Lauds and Vespers in particular, I'd suggest focusing on understanding how the hours work on normal days (non-feasts) first, then worry about feasts and seasons once you are confident.

As the Office is meant to be sung, another good way to get started is listen to the podcasts of Le Barroux (or others).

3. Aids to learning

Before you get too far along, I would strongly recommend buying the Ordo I put together in either PDF (ebook) or paperback.

It contains a summary of the page numbers in the Diurnal for the main parts of each of the day hours, as well as detailed instructions on the moving parts for feasts and seasons.  

A short version of the Ordo can also be found on the Saints Will Arise blog, but be warned, it is only a summary version, intended for more expert users.

Secondly, you can use the Divinum Officium monastic option as a cross-check on what you are doing - it doesn't always entirely line up with the 1960 rubrics and calendar, but it can be useful when just starting out.

Thirdly, I would recommend reading through the chapters of St Benedict's Rule (8-19), and trying to match them up to the sections in the Diurnal - it will give you a feel for both the continuity with the Rule and the organic development of it that has occurred over the centuries.

You might also find A Companion to the Monastic Breviary a useful acquisition.

Happy Christmas! Puer natus est.

The Nativity depicted in an English liturgical manuscript, c. 1310–1320
National Library of Wales

Happy Christmas!

Over Advent I've been posting on the responsories.

Chant 'dialects'

For Christmas day though, I thought it might be nice to provide a  Mass proper that serves as a reminder that the versions of the chants that we are used to represent (mostly nineteenth and twentieth century) reconstructions of the style of chant of the high middle ages, namely what we call Gregorian chant.

Musicologists though, tend to prefer the term Franco-Roman chant for the style that came to dominate in the middle ages, to reflect the fact that this particular 'dialect' of chant is most probably the result of the interaction of at least two different chant traditions, that of Rome, and Gallic. 

So today, one of Ensemble Organum's beautiful reconstructions of 'Old Roman' chant, which may be closer to the style of chant sung in Rome in St Benedict's time.

The chant is the Introit for the midnight Mass of Christmas:

St Benedict

Though Benedictines in Rome from the sixth century onwards almost certainly used this style of chant, whether St Benedict's monks at Subiaco and Monte Cassino did in his time is an open question.  

Indeed, one of the dimensions of the Rule rarely emphasised these days is its various non-Roman character - St Benedict's Rule doesn't follow the Roman custom of fasting on Saturdays for example; sets a summer reading pattern for Matins that is certainly at odds with the Roman as we know it; and includes hymns and other elements in his Office that are not in the Roman.

Monte Cassino at least at some later points certainly used Beneventan chant (a term actually embraces all surviving Italian chant outside of Rome or Milan), at least until it was forbidden to do so by a tenth century Frankish pope!  Other styles St Benedict may well have encountered include Ambrosian and Gallican, and perhaps even Syrian and other Eastern rites (given that both Norcia and Rome had populations of Eastern refugee monks in the fifth and sixth centuries). 

And of course, Benedictines down the ages have often adopted the chant traditions of their locale, such as the Mozarabic, Ambrosian and many others.

Responsory for 1 Vespers of the Nativity: Judaea et Jerusalem

As I was preparing for today's Office I decided I couldn't resist posting on one more responsory, with a nice recording of it by the monks of Solesmes, which you can use for  First Vespers of the Nativity (to replace the short responsory).

The text

The mostly non-Scriptural text (the first phrase is from Zachariah 8:15) is identical to two antiphons - the respond text is the same as the first antiphon of Lauds for the Vigil, while the verse is used at the day hours on Friday in the period December 17-23.

 

R. Judaea et Jerusalem; nolite timere: * Cras egrediemini, et Dominus erit vobiscum.	R. Judaea and Jerusalem, fear not: * Tomorrow you shall go forth, and the Lord will be with you.
V. Constantes estote, videbitis auxilium Domini super vos.	V. Be steadfast and you shall see the salvation of the lord upon you.
R. Cras egridiemini, et Dominus erit vobiscum.	R. Tomorrow you shall go forth, and the Lord will be with you.

 Although there are a large number of surviving manuscripts of the responsory version of these texts, most of which place it at Matins for the Vigil of the Nativity, it doesn't actually feature in the modern Office at all in the Benedictine or Roman uses (but does seem to have survived in the Dominican Rite).

It is included, though, in the set of responsories for use at I Vespers of major feasts which can be used on an optional basis, in the 1934 Antiphonale Monasticum:

Source: Gregobase

And here's the recording:

May you have a very happy Christmas!