In what order the Psalms are to be said (II)

Monday, 23 October 2017

22 Feb. 23 June. 23 Oct.

At Tierce, Sext and None on Monday are to be said the nine remaining parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, three parts at each Hour. This Psalm having thus been said through in two days, that is, Sunday and Monday, let the nine Psalms from the hundred and nineteenth to the hundred and twenty-seventh be said on Tuesday at Tierce, Sext and None – three at each Hour. And these Psalms are to be repeated at the same Hours every day until Sunday; the arrangement, moreover, of hymns, lessons and versicles remaining the same throughout, so as always to begin on Sunday from the hundred and eighteenth Psalm.

Saint Benedict treats here of the great Psalm 118 with its 176 verses divided into 22 sections of 8 verses each. The privileged place of Psalm 118 in Saint Benedict’s distribution of the psalms merits consideration. You will recall that in the ancient Roman Office, in vigour until the reform of Pope Pius X in 1911, Psalm 118 was recited in full every day. In medieval Rome, Psalm 118 accompanied the solemn Good Friday

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In what order the Psalms are to be said (I)

Sunday, 22 October 2017

CHAPTER XVIII. In what order the Psalms are to be said
21 Feb. 22 June. 22 Oct.
First of all let this verse be said: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me,” and the Gloria, followed by the hymn proper to each Hour. At Prime on Sunday four parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm are to be said. At the other Hours, that is, Tierce, Sext and None, let three parts of the same Psalm be said. At Prime on Monday let three Psalms be said, namely, the first, second and sixth and so in the same way every day until Sunday let three Psalms be said at Prime in order, up to the nineteenth; the ninth and seventeenth, however, being divided into two Glorias. It will thus come about that at the Night-Office on Sunday we shall always begin with the twentieth Psalm.

Straightaway Saint Benedict treats of the Deus in adiutorium me intende (O God, come to my assistance), the prayer of the monk at every hour and in all circumstances.

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How many Psalms are to be sung at these Hours

Saturday, 21 October 2017

christ-on-the-road-to-emmaus-fragment-1311_duccio

CHAPTER XVII. How many Psalms are to be sung at these Hours
20 Feb. 21 June. 21 Oct.

We have now disposed the order of the psalmody for the Night-Office and for Lauds: let us proceed to arrange for the remaining Hours. At Prime, let three Psalms be said separately and not under one Gloria. The hymn at this Hour is to follow the verse, Deus in adjutorium, before the Psalms be begun. Then at the end of the three Psalms, let one lesson be said, with a versicle, the Kyrie eleison, and the Collect. Tierce, Sext and None are to be recited in the same way, that is, the verse, the hymn proper to each Hour, three Psalms, the lesson and versicle, Kyrie eleison, with the Collect. If the community be large, let the Psalms be sung with antiphons: but if small, let them be sung straight forward. Let the Vesper Office consist of four Psalms with antiphons: after the Psalms a lesson is to be recited; then a responsory, a hymn and versicle, the canticle from

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How the Work of God is to be done in the day-time

Friday, 20 October 2017

beuron_mauruskapelle_fassadengemalde_benedikt

CHAPTER XVI. How the Work of God is to be done in the day-time
19 Feb. 20 June. 20 Oct.
As the prophet saith: “Seven times in the day have I given praise to Thee.” And we shall observe this sacred number of seven if, at the times of Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, we fulfil the duties of our service. For it was of these hours of the day that he said: “Seven times in the day have I given praise to Thee”; just as the same prophet saith of the night watches: “At midnight I arose to give Thee praise.” At these times, therefore, let us sing the praises of our Creator for the judgments of His justice: that is, at Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline; and at night let us arise to praise Him.

Already, from the time of Tertullian (Letter on Prayer, Chapter 25) and of Saint Cyprian (On the Lord’s Prayer, Chapters 34–36), the Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers set forth the Church’s Hours of Prayer and

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Mectilde de Bar: Stupendously Benedictine

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Dom Jean Leclecq, OSB of the Abbey of Clervaux
A Benedictine in her century: M. Mechtilde de Bar (1614-1698)

From Catherine de Bar à l’écoute de Saint-Benoît, ed. by the Benedictines of the Blessed Sacrament, Rouen, 1979, Introduction.  Italian translation ed. by the Benedictines of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Ronco-Ghiffa, by kind concession of the author, printed in Deus Absconditus: Primo Centenario dell’Istituto delle Benedittine dell’Adorazione Perpetua del SS. Sacramento in Italia, 1880-1980, Supplement to Deus Absonditus 71 (1980), pp. 72-81.  English translation from the Italian by a Benedictine monk of Silverstream Priory.

  • A Benedictine in her century

    • Notwithstanding the particular conditioning of 17th-century France which is manifested in the general language of the time, Mechtilde formulates, with an inexorable lucidity, the fundamental demands of all Christian spirituality.

    The stylistic archaisms proper to the era are found in Mother Mechtilde less frequently than one might expect, and certainly in a lesser proportion compared to other writings of the same time; rarely do they obscure her thought, rather, more often they add beauty to the exposition.  The presence of

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    Situated amidst pasture land and forest in the eastern reaches of County Meath, Silverstream Priory was founded in 2012 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, and canonically erected as an autonomous monastery of diocesan right on 25 February 2017. The property belonged, from the early 15th century, to the Preston family, premier Viscounts of Ireland and Lords of Gormanston. In 1843 Thomas Preston (1817-1903), son of Jenico Preston, the 12th Viscount (1775-1860), built what today is Silverstream Priory.

    Silverstream Priory is a providential realisation of the cherished project of Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874–1935), who, following the impetus given by Catherine–Mectilde de Bar in the 17th century, sought to establish a house of Benedictine monks committed to ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. The community of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the Divine Office in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” of the Roman Rite. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream keep at heart the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably the development of the land and gardens, hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, scholarly work, and publishing.

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