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

3. To ask God to grant us health and peace of heart, as the hymn for Sext sings:—

     "O God, Who canst not change nor fail,
      Guiding the hours as they go by,
      Brightening with beam the morning pale,
      And burning in the midnight sky,
      Quench Thou the fires of hate and strife,
      The wasting fever of the heart;
      From perils guard our feeble life,
      And to our souls Thy grace impart.
      Grant this, O Father, only Son,
      And Holy Ghost, God of Grace,
      To whom all glory, Three in One,
      Be given in every time and place—Amen."

      (Translation by Cardinal Newman of St. Ambrose's
       hymn, Rector potens).

1. "And they took Jesus, and after they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him and put His own garments on Him and led Him out to crucify Him" (St. Mark, c. 15).

2. "Bearing His own cross, Jesus went forth to that place called Calvary."

3. "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but for yourselves."

General Intentions. The wants of the Church; for peace and goodwill amongst all States and peoples; for the Pope; for Church students.

Personal Intentions. For patience; for fraternal charity; for the love of the practice of mortification.

Special Intentions. For Catholic schools; for increase in number of daily communicants; for the success of catechists and their work.

Etymology. The word None comes from the Latin word nona, ninth (hora nona), because this part of the Office was said at the ninth hour of the Roman day, that is, about three o'clock in our modern day.

Antiquity. This hour was set apart in Apostolic times for joint prayer, "Now Peter and John went up into the Temple at the ninth hour of prayer" (Acts iii. 1).

Structure. See note under this head at Terce.

Why does the Church desire prayer at the ninth hour?

1. In this she follows the example of her Founder, Christ, Who prayed at the ninth hour. "At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying 'Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani?' which is, being interpreted, 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?'" (St. Mark xv. 34).

2. That ninth hour was the long-wished-for and long-watched-for hour when reconciliation between earth and heaven was complete.

3. To beg from God light and grace, especially towards the end of life, for the day's decline in the afternoon is a figure of the waning of spiritual and corporal life. The hymn for None expresses this:—

     "O God, unchangeable and true,
      Of all the light and power,
      Dispensing light in silence through
      Each successive hour;
      Lord, brighten our declining day,
      That it may never wane
      Till death, when all things round decay,
      Brings back the morn again.
      This grace on Thy redeemed confer,
      Father, Co-equal Son,
      And Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
      Eternal Three in One—Amen."
      (St. Ambrose's hymn, translated by Cardinal
       Newman).

1. "Come down from the cross" (St. Matthew, c. 27).

2. "Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy Kingdom" (St. Matthew, c. 23).

3. "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?" (St. Matthew, c. 27).

General Intentions. All the intentions of the Sacred Heart; the conversion of Britain; the Church in America.

Personal Intentions. Fervour in preparation for Mass; fervour in thanksgiving after Mass; fidelity to professional duties and studies.

Special Intentions. The temporal welfare of Ireland; to beg a blessing on her priests; to beg a blessing on her Church students; to beg a blessing on her Catholic laity; to beg a blessing on her elementary schools.

Etymology. The word vespers comes directly from the Latin Vesper; Vespera or Espera was a name given to the star Venus, which rising in the evening was a call to prayer. This Hour is recited after None and before Compline. In structure, it resembles Lauds, Pater Noster, Ave, Gloria, Five Psalms with antiphons, Capitulum, Hymn, Versicle, antiphon, Magnificat, antiphon and collect.

It had several synonymous names. It was called Duodecima Hora (Antiphonary of Bangor), because it was said at the twelfth hour of the day, six o'clock, or, perhaps, the name came from the twelve psalms which made up the Hour in some churches. It was known, too, by the names Lucernarium, hora lucernalis, the hour of the candles; because at this hour a number of candles were lighted, not only to shed light but for symbolic purposes. It was sometimes referred to as hora incensi, from the custom of burning incense at this evening service, and sometimes it is called gratiarum actio (St. Isidore), because it gives thanks to God for the graces given during the day. It came to mean not the evening Hour, but the sunset Hour. And in the sixth century it was celebrated before daylight had gone and before there was any need for artificial light. In the fourth century it was recited by torchlight.

Antiquity. The Jews honoured God by special and solemn evening service. Their feasts by God's command began in the evening. "From evening unto evening you shall celebrate your sabbaths" (Lev. xxiii, 32). And David sang "Evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare" (Psalm 54:32). The eariy Christians faithfully followed the practice.

"In the sixth century, the order of Psalms, etc., in Vespers differed little from the Vespers in our modern Breviaries. Long before the sixth century there were evening Offices in various forms. Its existence in the fourth century is also confirmed by St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Ephraem … Before the fourth century we find allusions to the evening prayer in the early Fathers, Clement I. of Rome, St. Ignatius, St. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, the Canons of St. Hippolytus, St. Cyprian (for texts see Baumer-Biron; 1. c.t. 20 seq. 73-74, 76, 78)"—(Dorn Cabrol, Cath. Ency., art "Vespers").

Why do we offer up public prayer in the evening? The old liturgists reply:—

1. To imitate the devout Christians of apostolic times.

2. To honour Jesus, the true Sun of the world, Who hid Himself at His Incarnation, and in His life, and Whose glory was hidden in His Passion.

3. To thank Christ for the Eucharist, which He instituted in the evening of His earthly life, … "and they prepared the Pasch. But when it was evening (vespere autem) He sat down with His twelve disciples" (St. Matthew, xxvi. 20). At this vesper meeting He gave to priests the power to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, to change bread and wine into His body and blood. At this vesper service, too, Christ and His apostles celebrated the divine praises, "Hymno dicto" (St. Matthew xxvi. 30).

4. In the evening our Lord's body was taken down from the cross.

5. At the approach of evening Christ appeared to His disciples at Emmaus and revealed to them His divinity. "Stay with us because it is towards evening (advesperascit) and He went in with them. He took bread and blessed and brake and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew Him" (St. Luke xxiv. 29-30). At Vespers we thank God for the Eucharist.

The hymns at Vespers date for the most part from the sixth century. They are of great beauty and have the peculiar characteristic of telling of the days of creation. Thus St. Gregory's (?) fine hymn, Lucis Creator optime, in Sunday's Vespers, refers to the creation of light; Monday's hymn, Immense coeli Creator, refers to the separation of land and water; Wednesday's hymn (written probably by St. Ambrose), Coeli Deus sanctissime, refers to the creation of the sun and moon; the hymns for Thursday's vespers, Magnae Deus potentiae, refers to the creation of fish and birds; Friday's hymn, Hominis superne conditor (St. Gregory), refers to the creation of the beasts of the earth; Saturday's hymn (St. Ambrose) is an exception, as it refers to the Trinity. All these hymns have been beautifully translated into English and the text and translations repay study.

Sunday's hymn, Lucis Creator optime, stands thus in translation:—

     "O blest Creator of the light,
      Who makest the day with radiance bright,
      And o'er the forming world didst call
      The light from chaos first of all.

      Whose wisdom joined in sweet array
      The morn and eve and named them day,
      Night comes with all its darkening fears;
      Regard Thy people's prayers and tears,

      Lest sunk in sin, and whelmed with strife,
      They lose the gift of endless life;
      While thinking—but the thoughts of time,
      They weave new chains of woe and crime.

      But grant them grace that they may strain
      The heavenly gate and prize to gain;
      Each harmful lure aside to cast,
      And purge away each error past.

      O Father, that we ask be done,
      Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
      Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
      Doth live and reign eternally. Amen."

(Translation by Dr. J.M. Neale).

Structure. Vespers, in structure, resembles Lauds and consists of five Psalms. It begins with Pater Noster, Ave (said silently), Deus in adjutorium,… Domine ad adjuvandum…. Gloria Patri…. Sicut erat. Alleluia or Laus tibi…. Antiphon begun only if the feast be not double; if feast be a double the antiphon is said in full before and after each psalm. If feast be a semi-double or simple the antiphon is intoned at the beginning and is said in full at end of each psalm and then only. Then are said Capitulum, Deo gratias, Hymn, versicle and response, antiphon to Magnificat, the canticle Magnificat, Gloria Patri…. Sicut erat…. Dominus vobiscum…. Et cum spiritu tuo, Oremus, collect, commemoration if any made by versicle and response and antiphon of Magnificat proper to commemoration with collect, Dominus vobiscum, Et cum…. Benedicamus Domino; Deo gratias, Fidelium animae…. Amen. If Compline be not said immediately after Vespers, Pater Noster is added.

At the opening words of the Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis and Benedictus, it is a practice with many priests to make the sign of the cross from forehead to breast, as at Deus in adjutorium (cf. Ceremoniale Epis. lib. II. i. 14). This custom, where it exists, should be preserved (S.R.C., April, 1867).

Writers on liturgy tell us that the number of Psalms in Vespers have a symbolic meaning, typifying the five wounds of the Saviour, the last of which, the wound in the side, was inflicted on the evening of Good Friday, and the others, as the Church says in the hymn Vergente mundi vespere, at the waning of the day of the Old Law, before the dawn of salvation (Honorius of Autun, circa 1130). Other writers say that these five psalms should produce acts of contrition for the sins committed during the day, by the five senses; and that they should be for us, morally, what the five lighted lamps were for the wise virgins in the Gospel parable (Amalare of Metz, circa 850).

Magnificat. Author. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the author of this canticle. "The witness of the codices and of the Fathers is practically unanimous for the Vulgate reading: 'Et ait Maria,' but apart from this, the attribution of the Magnificat to Elizabeth would in St. Luke's context be highly abnormal" (Dr. H. T. Henry, Cath. Encyc., word, Magnificat)—The Roman Breviary entitles it Canticum Beatae Marine Virginis.

It is divided by commentators into three parts (St. Luke 1, vv. 46-49; 50-53; 54-55). It "is in many places very similar in thought and phrase to the Canticle of Anna (I. Kings ii. 1-10) and to various psalms (Ps. 33, vv. 3-4; Ps. 39, v. 9; Ps. 70, v. 9; Ps. 125, vv. 2-3; Ps. 110, v. 9; Ps. 97, v. 1; Ps. 117, v. 16; Ps. 32, v. 10; Ps. 92, v. 7; Ps. 33, v. 11; Ps. 97, v-3; Ps. 131, v. 11). Similarities are found in Hab. c. III. v. 18; Mal. c. III. v. 12; Job. c. 5, v. 11; Is, c. 41, v. 8; Is. c. 149, v. 3, and Gen. c. 17, v. 19. Steeped thus in scriptural thought and Phraseology, summing up in its inspired ecstasy the economy of God with His chosen people, indicating the fulfilment of olden prophecy, and prophesying anew until end of time, the Magnificat is the crown of the Old Testament singing, the last canticle of the Old and the first of the New Testament. It is an ecstasy of praise for the inestimable favour bestowed by God on the Virgin, for the mercies shown to Israel, and for the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs" (Dr. Henry, loc. cit.).

It is found universally in the ancient liturgies and affords a