Colebrook Again

As I live closer to Colebrook than Hobart, I drove to St Patrick's Church again this Sunday, though earlier in the day, as the monks (I mean, Fr Prior and the pre-postulants) planned to sing Terce at 9:45 am, followed by their sung Mass at 10 am, and, as it transpired, the office of Sext a little before noon. 

Being able to join in their solemn, public worship by attending both those Little Hours was a great privilege, as was participating in the supernatural joy of the Missa cantata for the First Sunday of Lent, most fitly adorned by their singing of its magnificent Gregorian propers, all taken from Psalm 90 (the only concession to their small numbers being the psalm-toning of the even verses of the Tract, which even so lasted about six minutes), not to mention the chanting of Mass XVII and Credo I. I was able to join confidently in the Ordinary, all the responses and also the Introit, which shares its melody with that of Trinity Sunday, whose chant I learnt long years ago.

Please do join in prayer that the monastic community of Notre Dame Priory finds its permanent home soon. St Joseph, pray for us.

Quasi-Collects

While "Recitation of Morning and Evening Prayer, with the prescribed psalms and readings, as set out in [the] Customary, is a complete celebration of the daily cycle of the Office", yet "Prayer During the Day and Compline are provided for additional use, as required." (Customary, 23) I have detailed Compline according to the Customary already; now, for some discussion of Prayer During the Day.

Firstly, and quite traditionally, Prayer During the Day (that is, any or all of Terce, Sext and None) is provided with psalmody drawn from both the twenty-two portions of Psalm 119 (118 in the Vulgate numbering), that great Psalm of the Law sung daily in the Roman Office down to 1912, and also with Psalms 120 to 128 (Vulg. 119 to 127), the first seven of the Gradual Psalms, used five days a week in the Monastic Office. 

Psalm 119's parts are spread over a week, with the first four sections on Sunday and three each for successive weekdays; if all three Little Hours are read, then just one section is read at each Hour (two at Sunday Terce). It is suggested that Psalm 119 be thus employed on Weeks 1 and 3 (corresponding to those weeks in the modern Roman Office), but not when Psalm 119 is read at Mattins and Evensong (that is, on the 24th to the 26th days of the month, when the Psalter is used in course).  Especially in Weeks 2 and 4 (except on the 27th day of the month, when they are read at Mattins and Evensong), the Gradual Psalms or "Songs of Ascent" are to be used instead: at Terce, or Prayer During the Day on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, Psalms 120 to 122; at Sext, or Prayer During the Day on Tuesdays and Fridays, Psalms 123 to 125; and at None, or Prayer During the Day on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Psalms 126 to 128.

A rubric notes that the Psalmody is as set out, or as prescribed by the Ordinary (presumably for special occasions and greater feasts, or if some other arrangement of the Psalms is proposed for his approval).

It begins naturally enough with "O God, make speed to save us" (the Anglican version of Deus in adjutorium meum intende), followed by the Lesser Doxology (Gloria Patri) and "Alleluia" (outside Lent). The Office Hymn is then used: at Terce, "Come, Holy Spirit, live in us" (Nunc, Sancte, nobis, Spiritus); at Sext, "O God of truth and Lord of power" (Rector potens, verax Deus); and at None, "Eternal Father, loving God" (Rerum, Deus, tenax vigor). There is a note to the effect that these "or some other" (translation? version?) ought be used.

The Psalms are then sung, with "Glory be" afterward, but without antiphon – as is Anglican practice, and as St Benedict provided in the case of less musically adept groups of monks.

After the psalmody, a short reading follows: through the year, distinct readings are provided for Terce, Sext and None over a two-week cycle; for the seasons, a one-week cycle of readings are given, with one reading per day. Unlike the Roman Office, there is no short responsory (Cranmer famously having purged out all such responds); instead, the "collect or prayer" follows at once, and the Hour concludes with the versicles "The Lord be with you" (if read by one in holy orders) and "Let us bless the Lord" (Benedicamus Domino), with the final blessing "May the divine assistance remain with us always" (Divinum auxilium).

The "collect or prayer" is the most liturgically noteworthy part of Prayer During the Day: either the Collect of the Day may be used, or instead what I term a "quasi-collect" may be read. During the year (outside of the liturgical seasons such as Advent), there are seven such prayers proposed for use on each succeeding day of the week.  They sometimes end "through Jesus Christ our Lord", and sometimes not, which is why, together with their more poetic character, I term them "quasi-collects". Unsurprisingly, they are at least in the main drawn from the Anglican Patrimony – for example, the Saturday prayer is taken from the Sarum Primer, "God be in my head, and in my understanding...".

Herewith, a list of all these prayers, with the page number upon which they occur in the Customary (those marked with an asterisk * end with "through Jesus Christ our Lord" or a like ending):

Quasi-Collects for Prayer during the Day

Sunday: "Christ be with me, Christ within me" (from St Patrick’s Breastplate) 80

Monday: "Eternal Light, shine into our hearts" (Alcuin of York)* 83

Tuesday: "O Eternal God" (cf. St Augustine of Hippo)* 86

Wednesday: "O Lord our God" (St Anselm)* 89

Thursday: "O gracious and holy Father" (St Benedict of Nursia)* 92

Friday: "Thanks be to thee, Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. St Richard of Chichester) 95

Saturday: "God be in my head, and in my understanding" (Sarum Primer) 98

Advent: "Keep us, O Lord" (Richard Baxter)* 177

Christmastide: "Almighty and everlasting God" (cf. Missale Romanum)* 211

Epiphanytide: "O good Jesu" (cf. St Gregory the Great)* 231

Lent: "Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest" (St Ignatius Loyola) 270

Passiontide: "Soul of Christ, sanctify me" (Anima Christi, 14th C.) 293

Eastertide: "Christ yesterday and today" (from the Easter Vigil) 341

Ascensiontide & Pentecost: "O King enthroned on high"  (Byzantine Rite, Pentecost Troparion) 356

All Saints until Advent: "Bring us, O Lord God" (Eric Milner White, cf. John Donne) 448

This system of "quasi-collects" appears to me the most experimental of the various liturgical options within the new Customary.

******

This new form found in the Customary may be compared to "An Order of Service for Noonday" (or "Noonday Prayer") as found in the Book of Divine Worship. Noonday Prayer begins in the same way; a hymn may be sung just as given above; one or more of Psalms 19, 67, 119 parts I to XXII, and 120 to 133 may be sung (note that this list, not further divided up and ordered, includes several Psalms not used in the Customary's Prayer During the Day – Psalm 19 would if anything be better at Prime if that were used, and Psalm 67 is an alternative Invitatory Psalm for Mattins in the Customary).

By contrast to the Customary's abundant selection of readings, in the BDW but three passages of Scripture are provided for use at Noonday Prayer, albeit with a rubric allowing choice of any other suitable passage; similarly, the BDW simply provides four general collects from which one may be chosen, or else the Collect of the Day ought be used. The BDW does, however, insert before the Collect both the threefold Kyrie and the Lord's Prayer, with "Lord, hear our prayer" (Domine, exaudi) rather strangely inserted between them – this (but for the versicle) could profitably be adopted in the Customary – and ends simply with "Let us bless the Lord". Rubrics note that a silent or spoken meditation may follow the short reading, and that after the Collect, "free intercessions may be offered".

Thou Hast Made Both Summer and Winter

Each Thursday at Sext I strike the line in the psalmody, æstatem et ver tu plasmasti ea -  "summer and spring Thou hast fashioned them" (Ps 73:17).  Strangely, the Grail Version I know from using the modern Office in years past has "you have made both summer and winter" (as does the R.S.V.); a quick check of the Septuagint shews that the Latin follows the Greek in reading "spring" for "winter".  How odd...  The Hebrew says חֹרֶף (ḥōrĕph, meaning harvest time, autumn, or winter); how did this become spring in Greek, and why, what is the interpretation to be made of this?  St Jerome already read "winter" here, following the Hebrew; the Neo-Vulgate has amended the line thus: æstatem et hiemem tu plasmasti ea.

But why does this line move me?  Because it reminds me of heaven, or rather of something Aquinas says of heaven in a prayer attributed to him: ubi est amœnitas vernalis, luciditas æstivalis, ubertas autumnalis, et requies hiemalis - "there resides the cheerfulness of spring, the brilliance of summer, the fruitfulness of autumn, and the gentle repose of winter".

After days brought low through my fault, I feel a certain lifting up of my spirit, God grant it a measure of repentant return to Him from Whom too often I hide away.  "For God is our King from before the ages: He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth," even in this mortal clay I pray (Ps 73:12).  I make the last words of the prayer Qua ad cælum adspirat (For the Attainment of Heaven) my own, asking to be directed toward my best Goal and final End:

Da, Domine Deus, vitam sine morte, gaudium sine dolore, ubi est summa libertas, libera securitas, secura tranquillitas, jucunda felicitas, felix æternitas, æterna beatitudo, veritatis visio, atque laudatio, Deus.  Amen.

(Give, Lord God, life without death, joy without sorrow, where there is the greatest freedom, untrammeled security, secure tranquillity, delightful happiness, happy eternity, eternal blessedness, the vision of truth, and praise, O God.  Amen.)

A Slip at Sext

When the Sunday Psalms are appointed for Prime and the Little Hours, that means in large part - literally - the reading of Psalm 118 (Beati immaculati in via), that hymn to righteous obedience, divided into eleven parts*.  Now, for some time now I've been making what seemed a mysterious mistake: at Sext, once I'd read the first verse of Psalm 118 part viii, I'd turn the page, expecting to say Septies in die laudem dixi tibi... (Ps 118:164) but find a different verse instead - for that line doesn't crop up till None, when it is the fourth verse of Psalm 118 part xi.  

Why this weird error?  Well, it wasn't until I'd been tripped up by this confusion several times that afterward I went back to see why this was tricking me, and found that the verse I'd just read at Sext was Iniquos odio habui: legem tuam dilexi (Ps 118:113), whereas at None the verse actually preceding Septies is Iniquitatem odio habui, et abominatus sum: legem autem tuam dilexi (Ps 118:163) - it turns out the verse at Sext is almost identical to the one at None, hence my mistake.

(* At Sunday Prime, the first psalm to be said is Psalm 117, appropriately enough of course, whereas at festal Prime it is Psalm 53, and thereupon one begins Psalm 118 parts i and ii; I've long thought that, owing to its twin themes of sunrise and of love for God's Law, it would be good to instead begin Prime with Psalm 18, as has in fact been used at Prime on Monday since St Pius X's reform of the distribution of the Psalms in the Breviary.  I remember when making a retreat at Tarrawarra Abbey taking a very long walk, with a psalter in hand, and reading Psalms 18 and 118 in one go...)