Benedictine Divine Office

[Tonaw]

Part of St. Benedict’s rule in Chapter 18 states:

“We strongly recommend, however,
that if this distribution of the Psalms is displeasing to anyone,
she should arrange them otherwise,
in whatever way she considers better,
but **taking care in any case
that the Psalter with its full number of 150 Psalms
be chanted every week **
and begun again every Sunday at the Night Office.
For those monastics show themselves too lazy
in the service to which they are vowed,
who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles
in the course of a week,
whereas we read that our holy Fathers
strenuously fulfilled that task in a single day.
May we, lukewarm that we are, perform it at least in a whole week!”

However I have heard that the with the new Liturgy of the Hours it is not possible to do so. Yet I have heard that certain religious orders have different breviaries (or perhaps supplements that could be added?). I assume the Benedictines divine office would fulfill this rule. Seeing how Prime was dissolved though this might be difficult. I know the old universal Divine Office for everyone went through all 150 Psalms in a week but I heard for the new one it takes about a month.

So my questions are as follows:

• Does the Benedictine Divine Office still go through all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to purchase the Benedictine breviary (or supplement for the normal Divine office, if such thing exists?)?
• If their office is just the normal office wouldn’t that go against the rule to not pray all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to pray the new divine office in latin? Some sort of latin current divine office version? I heard they might do that too.
• Also what liberalities can be taken in regards to rearranging the psalms? Would changing it too much risk not fulfilling obligation?

 

[Vico]

…

• Does the Benedictine Divine Office still go through all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to purchase the Benedictine breviary (or supplement for the normal Divine office, if such thing exists?)?
• If their office is just the normal office wouldn’t that go against the rule to not pray all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to pray the new divine office in latin? Some sort of latin current divine office version? I heard they might do that too.
• Also what liberalities can be taken in regards to rearranging the psalms? Would changing it too much risk not fulfilling obligation?

Monastic Diurnal (Day Hours of the Monastic Breviary) - 1963 reprint using Vulgate psalter - costs about $90 USD

I read that it takes about five hours for all 150 Psalms.

Divine Office 1960 Rubrics (various lanuages)
divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl

 

[OraLabora]

So my questions are as follows:

• Does the Benedictine Divine Office still go through all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to purchase the Benedictine breviary (or supplement for the normal Divine office, if such thing exists?)?
• If their office is just the normal office wouldn’t that go against the rule to not pray all 150 psalms in a week?
• Is there a way to pray the new divine office in latin? Some sort of latin current divine office version? I heard they might do that too.
• Also what liberalities can be taken in regards to rearranging the psalms? Would changing it too much risk not fulfilling obligation?

Answers:

1st question: it depends. There are currently 4 main schemas for the Divine Office. Schema A is the traditional Office as laid out by St. Benedict; it has the option of abolishing Prime, and redistributing its psalms, or keeping Prime. Of the other two, Schema A does all 150 psalms in a week (with licit options to divide it in two weeks). Schemas C and D are over two weeks. Canonically, Benedictines are now only held to a 2 week psalter, but it is permitted for them to use the 4-week LOTH under certain circumstances: when traveling, when engaged in external apostolates (such as parish or educational work), or in other specific community circumstances (for example a very small and elderly community). This is all spelled out in the General Instructions of the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours.

2nd Q: The current Monastic psalter and the Monastic Antiphonaries of 1934 and 2005 are available on-line through the bookstore of the Abbey of Solesmes (www.solesmes.com), as is the hymnal which is for both the LOTH and the MLOTH. However, very awkward to use. The other schemas would have to be built from the psalter, the only books I know for Schema B are in French and long out of print.

3d Q: Not applicable, see above.

4th Q: The Monastic Psalter, hymnal and antiphonary for the current Monastic Office are all in Latin and noted for Gregorian chant. For the current LOTH, the first volume of the Antiphonale Romanum was published in 2009; also available from the Solesmes bookstore. It covers 1st and 2nd Vespers of the 4-week LOTH for all Sundays of the year, and for feasts and solemnities. There is also Les Heures Grégoriennes by the community of St. Martin in France, published in 2008, allowing one to chant all the daytime hours of the current LOTH in Latin Gregorian chant (alongside French; there is not yet a Latin-English version); while intended for St. Martin’s use, it has a “Concordat cum originali” and is thus licit for others to use who want to chant the Office. There’s also the 4-week Liturgia Horarum (our current LOTH) in Latin but without musical notation. Most abbeys, incidentally, chant Vigils recto-tono (monotone plainchant) which does not require a musical score. I use Les Heures in my private chanting of the LOTH as it is extremely well-designed and convivial to use (everything you need to chant an Hour is in one book, whereas the antiphonary requires flipping books, not just pages).

5th Q: The Rule of St. Benedict specifically allows communities to adopt a different arrangement if it suits them better provided all 150 psalms are read in a week. Your quote of the rule spells this out, and Schema B was born of this requirement. That said, like any ancient Rule one has to look at the context of the times, and understand the traps of reading the letter, rather than the spirit, of the rule (especially for us oblates who are supposed to be inspired by the Rule, not obey it word-for-word). In St. Benedict’s time:

-There was no daily Mass
-If the community was small, they would omit the antiphons and pray the psalms directly
-If not, what music there was, as well as the liturgical gestures, was much simpler.

As the music got more elaborate, by the time of Cluny, monks were divided into choir monks obligated to the Office only, and lay brothers (usually illiterate) who did the manual labour, weren’t obligated to choir, and had their own little Offices. However St. Benedict intended that all monks be equal, and that priestly duties only distinguish them at the altar. As clericalism crept in, by the time of Trent and until Vatican II, Benedictine life resembled little what St. Benedict intended. Vatican II restored the equality of monks, and lay brothers became fully professed monastics (but not, obviously, priests). The realities of monastic life had also changed though, with more external apostolates, daily Mass, more elaborate liturgy, etc. So Canon Law now allows Benedictines, if their abbot sees fit, to adapt a 2-week psalter. There area also hybrids out there (for example 4-week Matins and mid-day prayer, 1-week Vespers an Compline; it’s a very small community with most of its monks spread out in parishes and only about a dozen or so showing up in Choir). Benedictines are independent. Each house or congregation can organize its own affairs including the Divine Office.

One has to learn the spirit of St. Benedict’s thinking and recognize that he was very human and did allow for much flexibility in the context of his own times, therefore it is not against the spirit of the Rule to adapt it to modern circumstances that he could not have foreseen.

Of course as laity (and even as oblates) we are held to none of that, regarding the Divine Office. Our Oblate Statues freely allow us to use the same breviary as our abbey, or the 4-week LOTH, in totality or in part.

 

[Tonaw]

Answers:

1st question: it depends. There are currently 4 main schemas for the Divine Office. Schema A is the traditional Office as laid out by St. Benedict; it has the option of abolishing Prime, and redistributing its psalms, or keeping Prime. Of the other two, Schema A does all 150 psalms in a week (with licit options to divide it in two weeks). Schemas C and D are over two weeks. Canonically, Benedictines are now only held to a 2 week psalter, but it is permitted for them to use the 4-week LOTH under certain circumstances: when traveling, when engaged in external apostolates (such as parish or educational work), or in other specific community circumstances (for example a very small and elderly community). This is all spelled out in the General Instructions of the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours.

2nd Q: The current Monastic psalter and the Monastic Antiphonaries of 1934 and 2005 are available on-line through the bookstore of the Abbey of Solesmes (www.solesmes.com), as is the hymnal which is for both the LOTH and the MLOTH. However, very awkward to use. The other schemas would have to be built from the psalter, the only books I know for Schema B are in French and long out of print.
.

Thanks! Very thorough!

So in brief summary.

Monastic LOTH

• Monastic Schema A: 150 psalms per week (2 week option)
• Monastic Schema B: Rare. French. How many weeks for 150 psalms?
• Monastic Schema C: 150 psalms per two weeks
• Monastic Schema D: 150 psalms per two weeks (What’s the difference of C and D?)

Ok so if I have all 4 LOTH books what else would i need to get to:

1. • Pray 150 psalms in one week
   • Pray 150 psalms in two weeks
   Thanks so much for all the info.

 

[OraLabora]

Thanks! Very thorough!

So in brief summary.

Monastic LOTH

• Monastic Schema A: 150 psalms per week (2 week option)
• Monastic Schema B: Rare. French. How many weeks for 150 psalms?
• Monastic Schema C: 150 psalms per two weeks
• Monastic Schema D: 150 psalms per two weeks (What’s the difference of C and D?)

Ok so if I have all 4 LOTH books what else would i need to get to:

1. • Pray 150 psalms in one week
   • Pray 150 psalms in two weeks
   Thanks so much for all the info.

1. 
   Schema A: 250 psalms in 1 week with much repetition. Prime optional, otherwise there are two ways to distribute the psalms of Prime into other hours.
   
   Schema B B: 150 psalms in 1 week, a 2 week option possible. Not so rare, in fact it is the most popular psalm schema in the Benedictine Confederation, it’s just the books that are rare. Our abbey does it in Latin for Lauds and Vespers, in French for the other hours, and uses in-house books.
   
   C and D: this page has links to the psalm distributions of all the schemas plus the LOTH, pre and post-Vatican II.
   
   Psalter Schemas
   
   You COULD use the LOTH books for the other schemas but it would be highly impractical, much back-and-forth. Moreover, the current Benedictine calendar differs from that of the LOTH. Not with regards to the seasons, but for the saints. And the antiphons are not always the same.
   
   As a Benedictine Oblate though, my suggestion (if you’re looking to pray the hours as laity): stick with the LOTH and learn to recognize and celebrate the monastic elements and licit options to make it even more so, built-into it. I can show where if interested. The Benedictine Office is meant for monks and their lifestyle. I’ve tried the heavy Monastic Offices and one gets too caught up into the mechanics of the Office and it loses its notion of prayer as a result. One can also fall into scrupulosity and be miserable when one misses and Office and missing an Office will happen very, very frequently when life gets in the way of all 7 or 8 canonical hours, as life will.
   
   From a practical standpoint, if you pray part of the Office (say only the Diurnal) you won’t be getting all 150 psalms in a week anyway. If you pray the entire monastic cursus Vigils included, well, trust me as laity and without the support of a community it’s difficult, it quickly becomes no longer prayer, one gets discouraged, and thus it doesn’t lead to the office being made into a prayer habit.
   
   The LOTH is easy to master on the other hand, was designed with busy people in mind, can be chanted in Latin if one desires and has the extra time (and not insubstantial sum to buy the books but this applies to any chanted Office, monastic or otherwise), and can easily lead into a good prayer habit. Been there, done that. Most monks use the 4-week LOTH when away from the abbey for whatever reason (or the schema of another abbey if that’s where they’re visiting).

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

Fascinating (as always).

My monastery (well sort of–it’s a longish story) uses a different version (I think). The invitatory psalm is different for each day of the week, for example.

I use the LOTH and pray Lauds and Vespers, FWIW.

 

[OraLabora]

Fascinating (as always).

My monastery (well sort of–it’s a longish story) uses a different version (I think). The invitatory psalm is different for each day of the week, for example.

I use the LOTH and pray Lauds and Vespers, FWIW.

Schema B and C have a different invitatory for each day of the week, but also one of the schemas to redistribute Prime does that too so it’s hard to tell which schema they use without knowing how the other psalms are distributed.

As our new oblate director says, the LOTH was designed for secular use

He highly encourages us to use it and he himself prays it privately in his cell in addition to the Office he prays in choir.

 

[Magdalen2013]

I will admit to changing the Invitatory Psalm from season to season – 24 for Advent, 100 for Christmas, Easter and Feasts in Ordinary Time, 95 during Lent, and 67 for Ordinary Time.

Probably not licit, but they make more sense to me done this way.

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

I will admit to changing the Invitatory Psalm from season to season – 24 for Advent, 100 for Christmas, Easter and Feasts in Ordinary Time, 95 during Lent, and 67 for Ordinary Time.

Probably not licit, but they make more sense to me done this way.

I would say that it is absolutely licit. You are given a choice, after all.

I use Psalm 67, as it was the one St Benedict used (I believe).

 

[OraLabora]

I will admit to changing the Invitatory Psalm from season to season – 24 for Advent, 100 for Christmas, Easter and Feasts in Ordinary Time, 95 during Lent, and 67 for Ordinary Time.

Probably not licit, but they make more sense to me done this way.

It’s entirely licit to do what you’re doing. The LOTH allows all 4 of those psalms as invitatory. The reasons for selecting one or the other is entirely left up to the individual. The only rubric is that if the psalm you normally use is already in one of the Offices for that day, you select another for the invitatory so as to not repeat it. Others will use a different one for each week of the psalter.

I use 66(67) myself on weekdays, and 94(95) on Sundays, feasts and solemnities. My reason for using 67 is simple, in the traditional Benedictine Office, it was always the psalm that opens Lauds (chanted in directum without antiphon, followed almost always by Psalm 51). Although I pray the Office of Readings very early in the morning as Vigils, before Lauds. I reserve 95 for Sundays as it has always been the “traditional” invitatory psalm (though Benedictines have a sort of “pre-invitatory” psalm, psalm 3, prayed before the invitatory).

(mea culpa: earlier I said that in the Schema A, the invitatory changes when redistributing the psalms of Prime but it’s the pre-invitatory psalm that changes, the invitatory is always 94(95) )

 

[Tonaw]

Psalter Schemas

As a Benedictine Oblate though, my suggestion (if you’re looking to pray the hours as laity): stick with the LOTH and learn to recognize and celebrate the monastic elements and licit options to make it even more so, built-into it. I can show where if interested. The Benedictine Office is meant for monks and their lifestyle. I’ve tried the heavy Monastic Offices and one gets too caught up into the mechanics of the Office and it loses its notion of prayer as a result. One can also fall into scrupulosity and be miserable when one misses and Office and missing an Office will happen very, very frequently when life gets in the way of all 7 or 8 canonical hours, as life will.

Yeah Schema B sounds good. C seems a little lighter than D.

“celebrate the monastic elements and licit options to make it even more so, built-into it. I can show where if interested.” built into it? Monastic elements specifically? what are the options?

Well I might be going to a Monastery in Italy soon. It’s a new Benedictine community starting out called the Benedictine Monks of the Divine Will. I kinda just wanted to brush up on this in case I go and the LOTH is way different. So all Benedictines in the Monastery are required to at least do the two-week psalter right? unless they travel or they are extremely busy or something crazy happens, then they could pray the 4 week? If the abbot wanted to could he have the 4 week psalter all the time, or would that go against Canon Law?

 

[OraLabora]

Yeah Schema B sounds good. C seems a little lighter than D.

“celebrate the monastic elements and licit options to make it even more so, built-into it. I can show where if interested.” built into it? Monastic elements specifically? what are the options?

Well I might be going to a Monastery in Italy soon. It’s a new Benedictine community starting out called the Benedictine Monks of the Divine Will. I kinda just wanted to brush up on this in case I go and the LOTH is way different. So all Benedictines in the Monastery are required to at least do the two-week psalter right? unless they travel or they are extremely busy or something crazy happens, then they could pray the 4 week? If the abbot wanted to could he have the 4 week psalter all the time, or would that go against Canon Law?

For the Liturgy of the Hours, here are the monastic elements that are either built-in or optional:

1. Traditional placement of some psalms especially those of Sunday Lauds and Vespers (built-in).
2. The option to use psalms 4, 90 and 133 every day at Compline.
3. The option to do two other minor hours from the “complementary psalter”, using the Gradual Psalms which traditionally are used by Benedictines at the minor hours.
4. Ability to use psalm 66 at the Invitatory, the traditional Benedictine first psalm of Lauds; if you chant Lauds as your first Office, you can use this at Lauds of Fridays and thus be in the Benedictine tradition of starting Lauds with Psalms 66 and 50.
5. Adding traditional invocations for the souls of the deceased and absent brothers at the end of the Hours (optional).
6. Ability to use the Office of Readings as Monastic Vigils (anticipated previous evening, in the night or very early in the morning); built in as the OOR can be said at any time.
7. In the part of the 3d and the 4th week of the cycle, all of the Vespers psalms are from Monastic cursus (though distributed a bit differently) (built-in).
8. Retention and repetition of psalm 50 at Lauds at least every Friday (in the Monastic it’s every day), which is the penitential day par excellence (built-in).
9. The ability to spread the psalter of the Office of Readings (Vigils) over two weeks; when doing that you can divide Vigils into two nocturnes, the traditional formula (plus a third for Sundays, feasts and solemnities taken from the Vigils canticles in the appendix of the LOTH), with the first (biblical reading) after the first nocturne, and the second patristic reading, after the second nocturne (I sometimes do this; I combine the psalms from week I & III the fist week and third weeks, and II and IV the second and fourth weeks (except Thursday which is Ps. 43 on both weeks II and IV, that gives me a little break); in fact the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours recommends this for monastics using the 4-week LOTH (optional).

Those are the main ones.

As for what your new monastery may or may not do, it’s a new foundation, not sure if it’s being founded by another monastery or totally new, but it will likely be a priory at first, so I’m not sure which abbot and monastery will have jurisdiction over it (a priory will have an abbot at another monastery).

Here is what the General Instructions of the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours said (translated from French) about using the 4-week:

5.d)“In establishing the cursus of the psalmody, one should be careful to say at least 75 psalms per week. Psalms which due to their proper meaning are particularly suited to an Hour, may be said several times during the same week, but it is advised that the entire psalter should be recited within 4 weeks”. (my note: the 4-week LOTH comes very close to it, with about 70 or so psalms per week depending on how they’re divided, and the entire psalter in 4 weeks; throw in the complementary minor hours and this will be met with the LOTH).

1. “If a community, for particular reasons, wishes to adopt the Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite, it is recommended to chant the entirety of the principal hours (Lauds and Vespers), and to distribute the psalms of Vigils over two weeks, as the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship has recommended to contemplatives.”
2. “For the private recitation of the Office, monks who habitually have a pastoral assignment can use the Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite or according to another schema approved by their Abbot. The same applies to those who are traveling, or for particular reasons and with the consent of their Abbot, cannot be present in choir”.

So you can see that Abbots have considerable flexibility to adjust the Divine Office according to the needs of their community, within some fairly wide confines.

As for your new community, they might in fact be quite busy as they try to establish themselves and moreover may not yet have been able to acquire all the choir books they need for a more properly Benedictine schema. They will still have to stick to the Benedictine calendar though.

 

[Tonaw]

For the Liturgy of the Hours, here are the monastic elements that are either built-in or optional:

1. Traditional placement of some psalms especially those of Sunday Lauds and Vespers (built-in).
2. The option to use psalms 4, 90 and 133 every day at Compline.
3. The option to do two other minor hours from the “complementary psalter”, using the Gradual Psalms which traditionally are used by Benedictines at the minor hours.
4. Ability to use psalm 66 at the Invitatory, the traditional Benedictine first psalm of Lauds; if you chant Lauds as your first Office, you can use this at Lauds of Fridays and thus be in the Benedictine tradition of starting Lauds with Psalms 66 and 50.
5. Adding traditional invocations for the souls of the deceased and absent brothers at the end of the Hours (optional).
6. Ability to use the Office of Readings as Monastic Vigils (anticipated previous evening, in the night or very early in the morning); built in as the OOR can be said at any time.
7. In the part of the 3d and the 4th week of the cycle, all of the Vespers psalms are from Monastic cursus (though distributed a bit differently) (built-in).
8. Retention and repetition of psalm 50 at Lauds at least every Friday (in the Monastic it’s every day), which is the penitential day par excellence (built-in).
9. The ability to spread the psalter of the Office of Readings (Vigils) over two weeks; when doing that you can divide Vigils into two nocturnes, the traditional formula (plus a third for Sundays, feasts and solemnities taken from the Vigils canticles in the appendix of the LOTH), with the first (biblical reading) after the first nocturne, and the second patristic reading, after the second nocturne (I sometimes do this; I combine the psalms from week I & III the fist week and third weeks, and II and IV the second and fourth weeks (except Thursday which is Ps. 43 on both weeks II and IV, that gives me a little break); in fact the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours recommends this for monastics using the 4-week LOTH (optional).

Those are the main ones.

As for what your new monastery may or may not do, it’s a new foundation, not sure if it’s being founded by another monastery or totally new, but it will likely be a priory at first, so I’m not sure which abbot and monastery will have jurisdiction over it (a priory will have an abbot at another monastery).

Here is what the General Instructions of the Monastic Liturgy of the Hours said (translated from French) about using the 4-week:

5.d)“In establishing the cursus of the psalmody, one should be careful to say at least 75 psalms per week. Psalms which due to their proper meaning are particularly suited to an Hour, may be said several times during the same week, but it is advised that the entire psalter should be recited within 4 weeks”. (my note: the 4-week LOTH comes very close to it, with about 70 or so psalms per week depending on how they’re divided, and the entire psalter in 4 weeks; throw in the complementary minor hours and this will be met with the LOTH).

1. “If a community, for particular reasons, wishes to adopt the Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite, it is recommended to chant the entirety of the principal hours (Lauds and Vespers), and to distribute the psalms of Vigils over two weeks, as the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship has recommended to contemplatives.”
2. “For the private recitation of the Office, monks who habitually have a pastoral assignment can use the Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite or according to another schema approved by their Abbot. The same applies to those who are traveling, or for particular reasons and with the consent of their Abbot, cannot be present in choir”.

So you can see that Abbots have considerable flexibility to adjust the Divine Office according to the needs of their community, within some fairly wide confines.

As for your new community, they might in fact be quite busy as they try to establish themselves and moreover may not yet have been able to acquire all the choir books they need for a more properly Benedictine schema. They will still have to stick to the Benedictine calendar though.

Awesome, ok so what does “built-in” exactly mean? Like it’s in the normal LOTH, you just gotta find it? Optional I understand though lol. So could I implement 1 or 2 of those changes? just like that? and still be technically praying the Divine Office?

Also what if a community did the normal LOTH and then just added 5 extra psalms each week. Would that be licit?

Is there a good Benedictine Calendar I could print out or something?

Thanks again!

 

[OraLabora]

Awesome, ok so what does “built-in” exactly mean? Like it’s in the normal LOTH, you just gotta find it? Optional I understand though lol. So could I implement 1 or 2 of those changes? just like that? and still be technically praying the Divine Office?

Also what if a community did the normal LOTH and then just added 5 extra psalms each week. Would that be licit?

Is there a good Benedictine Calendar I could print out or something?

Thanks again!

Yes, built-in means it’s part of the normal LOTH, and is due to the Benedictine influences during the design of the LOTH. Options 2-4, 6 are completely licit options within the rubrics and General Instructions of the LOTH. Option 5 is technically after the final blessing, thus outside the liturgy itself. Option 9 would be licit for a Benedictine community whose abbot directs that this option be used for his community.

Here’ s a calendar I found; it’s only the feasts proper to Benedictines, and in addition to those on the Roman Calendar, though on the full Benedictine calendar, some Roman memorials drop to optional memorials:

osb.org/gen/saints/osbcal.html

Technically, a Benedictine community can design its own psalm schema; most tend to stick to already developed formulae, either one of the 4 main schemas, a hybrid, or another that I’ve seen in a couple of abbeys, a hybrid 4-week psalter for Matins (Vigils + Lauds combined), and the mid-day prayer, then the 1-week cursus for Vespers from the Antiphonale Romanum.

It would not necessarily be licit for us as laity to do it, but an abbot has more latitude, though the LOTH does have some latitude for substitution of psalms as long as the structure of the Office is respected and certain rules respected.

Another option I forgot to mention was to say the Kyrie Eleison and Pater in secret just before the collect of the minor hours and Compline, and say the Kyrie Eleison before the Pater at Lauds and Vespers. While it isn’t in the General Instructions, it is in the Rule of St. Benedict, and thus licit for those living according to the Rule (Kyrie Eleison-Christe Eleison-Kyrie Eleison). Again we can’t just do as we please, but oblates live according the Rule and our abbey does use the Kyrie as noted above (our abbey uses Schema B).

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

Always bummed me out that osb dot org calendar doesn’t include Francesca Romana (whose feast is today).

 

[Tonaw]

Yes, built-in means it’s part of the normal LOTH, and is due to the Benedictine influences during the design of the LOTH. Options 2-4, 6 are completely licit options within the rubrics and General Instructions of the LOTH. Option 5 is technically after the final blessing, thus outside the liturgy itself. Option 9 would be licit for a Benedictine community whose abbot directs that this option be used for his community.

For the Liturgy of the Hours, here are the monastic elements that are either built-in or optional:

1. The option to use psalms 4, 90 and 133 every day at Compline.
2. The option to do two other minor hours from the “complementary psalter”, using the Gradual Psalms which traditionally are used by Benedictines at the minor hours.
3. Ability to use psalm 66 at the Invitatory, the traditional Benedictine first psalm of Lauds; if you chant Lauds as your first Office, you can use this at Lauds of Fridays and thus be in the Benedictine tradition of starting Lauds with Psalms 66 and 50.
4. Ability to use the Office of Readings as Monastic Vigils (anticipated previous evening, in the night or very early in the morning); built in as the OOR can be said at any time.

Ok so could I just use pray psalm 4, 90 and 133 any compline I want? and I could pray 3 psalms from Psalms 119-133 (Gradual Psalms)? for 2/3 or Terce, Sext and Non? Does Psalm 50 come after or before 66? and I can just pray 66 instead of 67, 100, 24, or 95? How is vigils divided?

Also I know you can combine the office of readings with any of the hours (omited ending prayer for the first and glory of the next) but lets say you combined terce and non? would you just do the same thing? Or what if you woke up late and combined the Office of Readings, Morning prayer and Terce? like around 1030 or something

 

[OraLabora]

Ok so could I just use pray psalm 4, 90 and 133 any compline I want? and I could pray 3 psalms from Psalms 119-133 (Gradual Psalms)? for 2/3 or Terce, Sext and Non? Does Psalm 50 come after or before 66? and I can just pray 66 instead of 67, 100, 24, or 95? How is vigils divided?

Also I know you can combine the office of readings with any of the hours (omited ending prayer for the first and glory of the next) but lets say you combined terce and non? would you just do the same thing? Or what if you woke up late and combined the Office of Readings, Morning prayer and Terce? like around 1030 or something

First, we need to clear up our understanding of the psalm numbering: I use the Vulgate numbering and you appear to be using the Hebrew numbering. What I call psalms 50, 66, 90 and 133 are for you 51, 67, 91 and 134.

Now to your questions: for the Gradual psalms, you can use them for 2 out of 3 of Terce, Sext or None, as assigned in the complementary psalter. For one out of the 3 you use mid-day prayer from the main psalter.

For psalm 50(51), and 66(67), in the Benedictine Office 66(67) is always first at Lauds.

Using the Office of Readings as Vigils on Sundays, feasts and solemnities, you would say the Invitatory (if first Office of the day), hymn, psalmody, verse, first reading and response, second reading and response, the OT canticles from the appendix in the LOTH, the Gospel reading, a homily (optional), the Te Deum (if applicable) and the collect and conclusion. For the homily the lectionary I use has optional homilies from Church fathers for years A, B and C, so I can read those if I wish.

You cannot combine Terce and None. The rubrics require that you respect the verity of the hour. Only the Office of Readings is “mobile”. You can combine the OOR with the minor hours, following the rubrics:

1. If the office of readings comes immediately before another hour of the office, then the appropriate hymn for that hour may be sung at the beginning of the office of readings. At the end of the office of readings the prayer and conclusion are omitted and in the hour following the introductory verse with the Glory to the Father is omitted.

Personally, I find that the OOR combines well with Lauds; in that case we are returning somewhat to a tradition where in fact Lauds was simply the end of Vigils when the three psalms of praise (148-149-150) were said (until 1910 when that tradition was broken); sometimes this was called “Matins” although later Matins came to be a synonym for Vigils.

 

[OraLabora]

Always bummed me out that osb dot org calendar doesn’t include Francesca Romana (whose feast is today).

I did a bit of digging on this and what I came up with is this: it’s a mandatory memorial on the Benedictine calendar. The problem is that the latest possible date on which Ash Wednesday can fall is March 10, which doesn’t happen very often. On those years, St. Francesca is celebrated as a memorial. The next time this will happen, is in 2038. I’ll be 80 years old if God grants that I make it that far…

However all mandatory memorials become optional memorials during Lent. The way to celebrate an optional memorial in Lent, in the LOTH: you celebrate the normal lenten day until the collect of the day. Then you recite the gospel canticle antiphon (either proper or from the common, as the case may be) without the gospel canticle, followed by the collect of the saint, and then you conclude the Office in the normal manner.

BTW I visited St. Francesca’s remains in Rome last November at her church.

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

I did a bit of digging on this and what I came up with is this: it’s a mandatory memorial on the Benedictine calendar. The problem is that the latest possible date on which Ash Wednesday can fall is March 10, which doesn’t happen very often. On those years, St. Francesca is celebrated as a memorial. The next time this will happen, is in 2038. I’ll be 80 years old if God grants that I make it that far…

However all mandatory memorials become optional memorials during Lent. The way to celebrate an optional memorial in Lent, in the LOTH: you celebrate the normal lenten day until the collect of the day. Then you recite the gospel canticle antiphon (either proper or from the common, as the case may be) without the gospel canticle, followed by the collect of the saint, and then you conclude the Office in the normal manner.

BTW I visited St. Francesca’s remains in Rome last November at her church.

Just saw this

Yeah. She was a heckuva woman.

My dream is to do that.

 

[Benedictine15]

PAX!

I am new to the forum but having been reading the threads on the LOH and Benedictines for some time. I am an Oblate Novice affiliated with St. Vincent’s Archabbey. I am from the Philadelphia, PA area.

OraLabora…thank you so much for your suggestions in making adjustments to the current LOH. I use iBreviary but will be getting the 4-volume LOH soon and wanted to put a bit of a Benedictine flavor in there.

Also, how do you keep track of the Benedictine Saints’ Feast Days? What Proper would you use on those days?

Thank you in advance.

Blessings,
Theresa