The Divine Office by Edward J. Quigley (cool books to read .txt) 📕

Lauds, the Pater Noster and Ave Maria begin Lauds. After the psalms, comes the Capitulum, the Hymn, Versicle and Response, antiphon to Benedictus, Canticle Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel, Gloria Patri, Sicut erat, Antiphon to Benedictus repeated, Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo, Oremus, collect, commemorations preceded by versicle, response and Oremus before each. Then Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo, Benedicamus Domino, Deo Gratias, Fidelium animae, Amen. If another Hour do not succeed immediately, Pater Noster (said silently), Dominus det nobis (with a sign of the cross) suam pacem, Et vitam aeternam. Amen. Then is said the antiphon of the Blessed Virgin, Alma Redemptoris or Ave Regina, or Regina Coeli, or Salve Regina, according to the part of the ecclesiastical year for which each is assigned, with versicle, response, oremus, collect, Divinum auxilium…. Amen.

Rubrics. In the paragraphs dealing with the structure of this hour is given the rule for saying Pater Noster and Ave, The Psalms for Lauds in the new Breviary follow these rules:—

General Rule: Psalms of the current day.

Exception: Sunday Psalms on the excepted Feasts.

In applying the general rule to Sundays and week days, it will be seen that the Psalter contains two sets of Psalms for Lauds. The use of the two sets is as follows:—

Sundays: (i) Throughout the year: first set of Psalms.

(ii) Sundays from Septuagesima to Easter: second set of Psalms.

Ferias: The first set of Psalms is to be used on:—

(i) Ferias throughout the year, not including those in Advent, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima weeks.

(ii) Ferias in Paschal time.

(iii) Feasts at any season of the year.

(iv) Vigils of Christmas and Epiphany.

The second set of Psalms is to be used on:—

(i) Ferias of Advent.

(ii) Ferias from Septuagesima to Wednesday in Holy Week, inclusive.

(iii) Vigils (common) outside Paschal time, when the Office of Vigil is said (New Psalter and Its Uses, p. 188).

On Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the Psalms of the Feria are to be said. But the Canticle of Moses (Deut, 33) is not said on Holy Saturday.

Antiphons. As a general rule antiphons of the current day of the week are to be said.

Exceptions. (1) On excepted Feasts, (2) non-excepted Feasts which have proper antiphons, (3) Holy Week has special antiphons, (4) Six ferias before Christmas have special antiphons.

In Paschal time, all psalms and the canticles are recited under one antiphon.

Antiphon of Benedictus (1) Sunday antiphons are proper. (2) Ferias throughout the year have antiphons of current feria. But Ferias in Advent, and in Lent, in Passiontide, Paschal time and September Ember days have proper antiphons. (3) Feasts have antiphons from proper or from common.

Capitulum (Title XXIX.). Etymology, meaning and synonyms.

The word capitulum comes from the Latin, and means a little chapter, a heading, a beginning, an abridgment, because this little chapter is a little lesson, a brief extract from Sacred Scripture, the head or the beginning of the Epistle of the Mass of the Feast (Gavantus, Bona). It is found in every Hour, except Matins. It is known by other names, the summarium, collectio, collatio, lectio brevis, epistoletto, lectiuncula, Versiculus brevis.

Antiquity. Some authors hold that this usage of reading a brief extract from Sacred Scripture is of Jewish origin. For, the Jews were accustomed to interpose brief readings from Scripture prose in their psalm chanting service. The capitulum is found in Christian services of the fourth century; and St. Ambrose (340-397) is said to have instituted the capitula of Terce, Sext and None. This new practice spread quickly and several councils recommended or ordered the usage—e.g., the Council of Agde In 506 A.D.

Remarks. The Capitulum is said always except from Holy Thursday to the Vespers of Saturday preceding Low Sunday, and in Requiem Offices. In Compline it is said after the Hymn.

The Capitulum of Lauds is ordinarily taken from the beginning of the Epistle of the Mass of the day of the feast. Sext and None generally have their capitula drawn from the middle and end of the same Epistle extract. Terce has generally the same words for the Capitulum, as Vespers and Lauds, because it is the grandest and most sublime of the little Hours. The Capitulum is said without a blessing being sought, because it is (in choir) read by the Hebdomadarius, who there represents the person of Christ, just as the Capitulum does too, and for Whom it would not be consonant to ask a blessing. It concludes without Tu autem, because these words are correlative of Jube. And since it is such a short lesson it is easy to recite it without fault or sin, the more so as it is read by the Hebdomadarius, who should be advanced in perfection. It is short, whilst the lessons of Matins, the night Office, are long, because the day is specially given to toil and the night to contemplation. During the recital of this little lesson all turn to the altar through respect for Christ, figured by the Capitulum. Sometimes the words of the Capitulum are from the Itala version and not from the Vulgate.

Psalms and Canticles of Lauds. The Office of Lauds now consists of four Psalms and a canticle, followed by a little chapter, a hymn, versicle, antiphon, of Benedictus, the canticle, Benedictus and prayer. One of the characteristics of Lauds is the canticle taken from the Old Testament. Fourteen canticles taken from the Old Testament now find a place in our Breviaries. Formerly, only seven canticles from the Old Testament were given in the Psaltery (cf. supra, p. 149).

"If, according to the new distribution of the Psalter, the Psalms for Lauds do not refer so directly to the symbolism of sunrise, they are nevertheless more varied and are generally well chosen. The canticles inserted among the Psalms have also been changed. The whole selection is worthy of note. It contains, besides those given in the former arrangement of the Psalter, others which are very beautiful and admirably prayerful.

"The hymns for Lauds, all ancient and varying with the seasons, form a fine collection. Their theme is one: the rising of the sun as a symbol of Christ's resurrection, and the crowing of the cock, which arouses the sluggish and calls all to work. Some of these hymns are of considerable poetical merit: that for Sunday, Aeterne Rerum conditor, is a little masterpiece.

"The 'Benedictus' corresponds with the Magnificat of Vespers. Both are sung with the same solemnity and are of the same importance; they form as it were the culminating point of their respective Hours, and for feast days the altar is incensed while they are chanted.

"The 'Benedictus' or Canticle of Zachary recalls the Precursor's mission of proclaiming the Messiah and the new alliance. It is altogether appropriate to the Office of daybreak, as ushering in the dawn of a new era. The closing verse speaks of the light which the announcement of the Messiah shed upon the nations 'sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death'" (Dom Cabrol, Introduction to Day Hours of the Church).

"This Canticle of Zachary (St. Luke i. 68-79) naturally falls into two parts. The first (verses 68 to 75, 'Benedictus Dominus … diebus nostris') is a song of thanksgiving for the fulfilment of the Messianic hopes of the Jews, to which is given a Christian sentiment. The power, which was of old in the family of David for the defence of the nation, is being restored, and in a higher and more spiritual sense. The Jews mourning under the Roman yoke prayed for deliverance through the house of David. The 'deliverance,' a powerful salvation ('cornu salutis nobis') was at hand so that the Jews were seeing the fulfilment of God's promise made to Abraham, and this deliverance, this salvation was such that 'we may serve Him without fear in holiness and justice, all our days' (St. Luke i. 75).

"The second part of the canticle (verses 76-80, 'Et tu puer … ad dirigendos pedes nostros') is an address by Zachary to his own son, who was to take an important part in the scheme of the powerful salvation and deliverance by the Messiah. This canticle is known as the canticle of joyous hope, hence its use at funerals at the moment of interment, when words of thanksgiving for the Redemption are specially in place as an expression of Christian hope" (Catholic Encyclopedia, art. "Benedictus").

Oratio (Title XXX.). The word oratio has various meanings. In the liturgy it is translated by the word "collect." The word "collect" means either that the priest who celebrates Mass collects in a short form the needs, the thanksgivings and the praises of the people, to offer them up to God; or most probably "the original meaning seems to have been this: it was used for the service held at a certain church on the days when there was a station held somewhere else. The people gathered together and became a collection at the first church; after certain prayers had been said they went in procession to the station church. Just before they started, the celebrant said a prayer, the oratio ad collectam (ad collectionem populi), the name would then be the same as oratio super populum, a title that still remains in our Missal, in Lent, for instance, after the Post-Communion. This prayer, the collect, would be repeated at the beginning of Mass at the station itself. Later writers find other meanings for the name. Innocent III. says that in this prayer the priest collects all the prayers of the faithful" (De Sacr. Altar. Mystic. ii., 2). See also Benedict XIV. (De SS. Missae Sacr. ii., 5,—Dr. A. Fortescue, Cath. Encyl., art. "collect").

Antiquity of collects. No one can say with certainty who the composers of the collects were. All admit the antiquity of these compositions. In the fourth century certain collects were believed to come from apostolic times; indeed, the collects read in the Mass on Good Friday, for Gentiles, Jews, heretics, schismatics, catechumens and infidels bear intrinsic notes of their antiquity. Other liturgical collects show that they were composed in the days of persecution. Others show their ages by their accurate expression of Catholic doctrine against, and their supplications for, heretics, Manicheans, Sabbelians, Arians, Pelagians and Nestorians. St, Jerome in his Life of St. Hilarion (291-371) writes, "Sacras Scriptures memoriter tenens, post orationes et psalmos quasi Deo praesente recitabat." It is said that St. Gelasius (d. 496), St. Ambrose (d. 397), St, Gregory the Great (d. 604) composed collects and corrected existing ones. The authorship and the period of composition of many of the Breviary collects are matters of doubt and difficulty. Even the date of the introduction of collects into the Divine Office is doubtful. In the early Christian Church there seems to have been one and only one prayer, the Pater Noster, in liturgical use. St. Benedict laid it down in his rule that there should be none other. It is generally held by students of liturgy that the collects were originally used in Mass only and were introduced into the Office at a time much later than their introduction into the Mass books.

In the Masses for Holy Week we see the collects in their oldest existing form. The rite of the Mass has been shortened at all other seasons, and there remains now only the greeting, Oremus, and the collect itself. The Oremus did not refer immediately to the collect, but rather to the silent prayer that went before it. This also explains the shortness of the older collects. They are not the prayer itself, but its conclusion. One short sentence summed up the petitions of the people. It is only since the original meaning of the collect has been forgotten that it has become itself a long petition with various references and clauses (compare the collects for the Sundays after Pentecost with those of modern feasts)—(Cath. Encyl., art. "Collects").

The following examples which are not extreme, may help to make clear and emphatic the matter of the shortness of the old and the length of the new collects.

"Protector in te sperantium, Deus, sine quo nihil est validum, nihil est sanctum: multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam; ut te rectore, te duce, sic transeamus per bona temporalia, ut non amittamus aeterna. Per Dominum."

Translation—"O God, the Protector of all that hope in Thee, without Whom nothing is sure, nothing is holy, bountifully bestow on us, Thy mercy, that Thou being our ruler and our guide, we may so pass through temporal blessings that we lose not the eternal. Through our Lord …" (Collect for