by (tr) Carolinne White (Penguin Little Black Classics 122) (retail) (epub)
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The divine office at night
In winter, in other words from the first of November until Easter, it seems reasonable for the monks to rise at the eighth hour of the night so that they may rest until a little after midnight and rise with their food fully digested. In the time remaining after the night office, those brothers who need to should study the psalms and lessons. From Easter to November, the hour of rising should be set in such a way that there is only a very short interval after the night office, when the brothers can go out to deal with nature’s needs; this will be followed at once by Lauds which should be said at daybreak.
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The number of psalms to be said at the night office
In winter the office should begin with the verse, ‘Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will show forth your praise’ (Ps. 51:15) repeated three times. There should then follow Psalm 3 and the Gloria, then Psalm 95, which should be chanted, preferably with an antiphon. That should be followed by one of the Ambrosian hymns, then six psalms with their antiphons. After these, once the verse has been said the abbot should give a blessing. When everyone is seated in their places, the brothers should take it in turns to read aloud three readings from the book on the lectern, and between the readings three responsories should be chanted. Two of the responsories should be said without the Gloria, but after the third reading the reader should chant the Gloria. As soon as he begins to chant it, all should rise from their seats at once out of honour and respect for the Holy Trinity. The books to be read at the night office are those which have divine authority, both from the Old and the New Testaments, but also the commentaries on them that were written by recognized and orthodox catholic fathers. After these three readings with their responsories, there should follow the remaining six psalms to be sung with the Alleluia. These are followed by a reading from the Apostle to be recited by heart, the verse and the petition of the litany, that is the Kyrie Eleison. This brings the night office to a close.
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Arrangements for the night office in summer
From Easter to 1 November the number of psalms should be kept as prescribed in the previous section, except that there should be no readings from the book because the nights are so short. Instead of the three readings, there should just be one from the Old Testament, said by heart, followed by a short responsory. Everything else should be done in the manner prescribed; in other words, there should never be fewer than twelve psalms said during the night office, in addition to Psalms 3 and 95.
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The night office on Sundays
On Sundays the brothers should rise earlier for the night office for which the following arrangements apply. When the six psalms and the verse have been chanted (as prescribed in a previous chapter) and everyone is duly sitting in their stalls in the correct order, the four readings with their responsories should be read out from the book as we stated earlier. Only with the fourth responsory should the reader chant the Gloria. As soon as he begins everyone should stand up out of respect. After these readings the remaining six psalms should follow in order, together with their antiphons (as in the case of the earlier ones), and a verse. Then another four readings should be read with their responsories, in the same order as above. After this there should be three canticles from the prophets, as decided by the abbot, and these should be chanted with the Alleluia. When the verse has been said and the abbot has given the blessing, another four readings from the New Testament should be read, in the same order as above. After the fourth responsory the abbot should begin the hymn Te Deum laudamus. When this has been sung right through, the abbot should read the lesson from the Gospel while everyone stands out of reverence and fear. At the end of the reading everyone should respond ‘Amen’. Then the abbot should immediately follow with the hymn Te decet laus, and after he has given the blessing Lauds should begin.
This order for the night office should be kept on Sundays all the year round both in summer and winter, unless the monks happen to be a bit late getting up (which God forbid) and have to shorten the readings or responsories in some way. Great care must be taken that this does not happen, but if it does, then the one whose carelessness was responsible must make amends to God in the oratory.
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The office of Lauds
On Sundays Lauds should begin with Psalm 67, chanted straight through without the antiphon. After this Psalm 51 should be said, with the Alleluia, and then Psalms 118 and 63. Then the Benedicite and Psalms 148 to 150, followed by a reading from Revelation to be recited by heart together with the responsory, an Ambrosian hymn, a verse, a canticle from the Gospel, and finally the Kyrie Eleison.
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Arrangements for Lauds on ordinary days
On ordinary days the office of Lauds should be celebrated as follows: Psalm 67 should be said without an antiphon and quite slowly as on Sundays, to give everyone a chance to arrive in time for Psalm 51, which should be said with an antiphon. After this, two more psalms should be said according to custom: in other words, on Mondays Psalms 5 and 36, on Tuesdays Psalms 43 and 57, on Wednesdays Psalms 64 and 65, on Thursdays Psalms 88 and 90, on Fridays Psalms 76 and 92, on Saturdays Psalm 143 together with the canticle from Deuteronomy which should be divided into two with separate Glorias. On other days a canticle from the prophets should be said on the appropriate day according to the custom of the Roman church. These should be followed by Psalms 148 to 150, and then a reading from the Apostle should be recited by heart, followed by the responsory, an Ambrosian hymn, a verse, a canticle from the Gospel, and finally the Kyrie Eleison.
Of course the offices of Lauds and Vespers must never be concluded without a recitation by a superior of the whole of the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13) at the end for everyone to listen to, to prevent the thorns of resentment springing up, as they so easily do. For if the monks are confronted by the pledge made in this prayer when they say, ‘Forgive us as we forgive’ (Matt. 6:12), it is to be hoped that they will cleanse themselves from this type of sin. At other times only the final part of that prayer should be said to allow everyone to make the response, ‘But deliver us from evil’ (Matt. 6:13).
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Arrangements for the night office on saints’ days
On saints’ days and on all feast-days, the office should be performed in the same way as is prescribed for Sundays, except that the psalms or antiphons or readings appropriate for that day should be said; but the general arrangement remains the same as indicated earlier.
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The times for saying the Alleluia
From the holy feast of Easter until Pentecost, the Alleluia should always be said both with the psalms and the responsories. From Pentecost until the beginning of Lent, it should be said every night only with the last six psalms at the night office. Every Sunday outside Lent, the canticles at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext and None should be said with the Alleluia, but at Vespers with an antiphon. The responsories should never be said with the Alleluia, except between Easter and Pentecost.
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Arrangements for the divine office during the day
The prophet says, ‘Seven times a day have I praised you’ (Ps. 119:164). We will fulfil this sacred number seven if we perform the duties of our service at the hours of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, because it was with reference to these hours of the day that he said, ‘Seven times a day have I praised you.’ With regard to the night office the same prophet says, ‘In the middle of the night I rose to praise you’ (Ps. 119:62). At these times, then, we should give praise to our creator ‘for his just judgements’ (Ps. 119:164); in other words, at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline; and let us rise to praise him also at night.
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The number of psalms to be said at these hours
We have already established the order in which to say the psalms at the night office and Lauds. Now we must consider the remaining offices. At Prime three psalms should be said, one by one, each with a separate Gloria; and before
the psalms begin, the hymn for that office should be sung after the verse ‘God, come to my assistance’ (Ps. 70:1). After these three psalms, there should be a reading, a verse and the Kyrie Eleison, followed by the dismissal. At Terce, Sext and None, the prayers are to be said in the same way; in other words, the verse, the hymn appropriate for each of the offices, three psalms, a reading and another verse, the Kyrie Eleison, and the dismissal. If there is a large congregation, the antiphons should be said as well, but if it is small, the psalms should be sung straight through.
The service of Vespers should be limited to four psalms and their antiphons. After these psalms a lesson should be read, then the responsory, an Ambrosian hymn, a verse, a canticle from the Gospel, the Kyrie Eleison, and finally the Lord’s Prayer. Compline should be limited to three psalms to be said straight through without an antiphon. After these there should be a hymn appropriate for that hour, a reading, a verse, the Kyrie Eleison and a blessing to finish with.
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The order of the psalms
First of all the monks should say the verse, ‘God, come to my assistance; Lord, hasten to help me’ (Ps. 70:1), followed by the Gloria and the hymn proper to each hour. Then, at Prime on Sundays, four sections of Psalm 119 should be said; at each of the remaining hours (in other words at Terce, Sext and None), three sections of this same Psalm 119 should be said. At Prime on Mondays, let three psalms, namely Psalms 1, 2 and 6 be said. Similarly at Prime every day until Sunday, they should say three psalms in order as far as Psalm 20, remembering to divide Psalm 9 and Psalm 18 in two. In this way the night office on Sundays will always start with Psalm 21.
At Terce, Sext and None on Mondays, let the remaining nine sections of Psalm 119 be said, three at each of these hours. When Psalm 119 has been said over two days, that is on Sunday and Monday, three psalms should be said at Terce, at Sext and at None on Tuesdays from Psalms 120 to 128, in other words nine psalms in all. They should always repeat these psalms at the same hours every day until Sunday, while the order of the hymns, readings and verses should be the same every day. In this way Psalm 119 will always begin on Sundays.
Every day four psalms should be sung during Vespers. These should start with Psalm 110 and go on to Psalm 147, leaving out those that are reserved for special hours, in other words Psalms 118 to 128, 134, and 143; all the other psalms should be said at Vespers. And since there are three psalms too few, those from this sequence that seem rather long should be divided, in other words Psalms 139, 144 and 145. But because Psalm 117 is short it should be joined on to Psalm 116.
Now that the order of psalms at Vespers has been established, the rest (namely the reading, responsory, hymn, verse and canticle) should be carried out in the order prescribed in the previous chapter.
At Compline each day the same psalms should be repeated, namely Psalms 4, 91 and 133.
Now that the order of the psalms for the daytime offices has been explained, all the remaining psalms should be distributed equally over the seven night offices, by dividing the longer psalms and assigning twelve psalms to each night of the week. But we strongly recommend that if anyone finds this arrangement unacceptable, he should rearrange them if he can think of a better order, as long as he makes sure that every week the whole psalter with its 150 psalms is recited in full and that the whole sequence always starts from the beginning at the night office on Sundays. For it is clear that monks are too lazy in the service of their devotion if they sing less than the whole psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week: after all, we read that our holy predecessors had the energy to perform in a single day what we, with our lukewarm faith, aspire to carry out in the course of a whole week.
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Regulations regarding the singing of psalms
We believe that God is present everywhere and that the eyes of the Lord watch the good and the bad in every place, but we should believe that this is especially true when we are celebrating the divine office. And so we must always bear in mind the words of the prophet when he says, ‘Serve the Lord in fear’ (Ps. 2:11), ‘sing wisely’ (Ps.47:7) and ‘in the sight of the angels I will sing to you’ (Ps. 138:1). Let us then consider carefully how we ought to behave in the sight of God and his angels, and let us stand to sing in such a way that there is no discrepancy between our thoughts and the words we are singing.
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Reverence in prayer
If we wish to ask a favour of a powerful person, we would not dare to do so except with humility and respect. Is it not all the more important for us to pray to the Lord, the God of all, with the utmost humility and purity of devotion? We must be aware that he will only listen to us if we pray not so much at length but with purity of heart and tears of compunction. And so our prayer should be kept short and simple, unless divine grace inspires us to prolong our prayer. In community, however, prayer should be kept very short, and when a superior gives the signal everybody should stand at the same time.
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The deans of the monastery
If the community is quite large, brothers of good repute and a holy way of life should be chosen and appointed as deans to be responsible in all matters for the ten monks in their charge, in obedience to God’s commandments and the abbot’s orders. The deans should be selected as being those with whom the abbot can confidently share his burdens; they should not be chosen because of their rank in the community but for their virtuous behaviour, their learning and wisdom. If any dean is found to be puffed up with pride and deserves to be rebuked, he should be reprimanded once, twice and even a third time; if he still refuses to correct his attitude, he should be demoted from office and replaced by someone worthy of it. We advise that similar measures be taken in the case of the prior.
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Sleeping arrangements
The monks should sleep in separate beds, and they should be given bedding appropriate to their way of life, as the abbot decides. If possible they should all sleep in one room but if there are too many of them, then they should sleep in groups of ten or twenty under the supervision of older monks. A candle must be left burning all night in the room until morning. The monks should sleep clothed and wearing a belt or cord round their waist but should not have their knives at their sides while they are sleeping, in case they accidentally cut themselves in their sleep. If they sleep with their clothes on, the monks will always be ready, and when the signal is given, they will get up without delay and hurry to reach the work of God before the others, but with the utmost seriousness and restraint. The younger brothers’ beds must not be next to each other but interspersed among those of the older monks. When the brothers get up to go to the work of God, they should encourage each other gently, for those who are sleepy often try to make excuses.
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Excommunication for offences
If a brother is found to be insubordinate, disobedient, arrogant, complaining or in any way uncooperative and contemptuous of the holy rule and the orders of his superiors, he should be rebuked by his elders once or twice, in private, as the Lord advised (Matt. 18:15). But if he does not correct his ways, he must be reprimanded publicly in front of everyone. If even then his behaviour does not improve, he must be excommunicated, provided that he understands the seriousness of this punishment. But if he persists in error, he should undergo corporal punishment.
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Degrees of excommunication
The severity of the excommunication or punishment meted out should be in proportion to the seriousness of the fault, and it is for the abbot to judge this. If a brother is found guilty of a minor offence, he should be excluded from the communal meal. Anyone forbidden to share in the meal must follow this rule: in the oratory he is not allowed to lead a psalm or antiphon or to read the lesson until he has made amends. He must eat his meal alone after the other brothers have finished theirs, so that if, for example, the brothers eat at the sixth hour, this brother must eat at the ninth; if the brothers eat at the ninth hour, he should eat in the evening; and this
regime should continue until he has made sufficient amends and been pardoned.
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Serious offences
The brother who is guilty of a more serious fault should be excluded both from the meal and the oratory. No other brother is allowed to associate with him or talk to him. He must work alone at the task set him, continuing in sorrow and repentance, meditating on those terrifying words spoken by the Apostle, ‘This person is to be handed over for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord’ (1 Cor. 5:5). He should eat his meals alone, and it is up to the abbot to decide how much food and at what time it is suitable for him to eat. No one passing by should give either him or his food a blessing.
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Unauthorized association with the excommunicated
If a brother dares to associate in any way with an excommunicated brother, to speak to him or give him a message without being told to do so by the abbot, he should receive exactly the same punishment of excommunication.
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The abbot’s care for the excommunicated
The abbot should show the utmost care and concern for those brothers who have done wrong ‘for it is not healthy people who need a doctor but those who are sick’ (Matt. 9:12). And so, like an experienced doctor, he should try every possible remedy. He should send in ‘senpectae’, in other words, older and experienced brothers who can console the troubled brother in private, as it were, encouraging him to give humble satisfaction and comforting him ‘so that he is not overwhelmed by excessive sorrow’ (2 Cor. 2:7); instead, ‘let love be strengthened in him’ (2 Cor. 2:8) as the Apostle says, and let everyone pray for him.