Matins and Lauds with Mass

[Catholic4Christ]

Matins and Lauds may be combined. In the Novus Ordo, Lauds may also be combined with morning Mass. Anybody know if all three (Matins, Lauds, and Mass) may be combined into one longer service, like when Orthros precedes the Sunday Divine Liturgy in the East?

ie Processional hymn (perhaps the proper hymn from Lauds), Invitatory and psalms from Matins, the proper scripture and patristic readings from Matins with responsories, Te Deum when the feast calls for it, psalms from Lauds (which replace the penitential rite) followed by the day’s collect, and Mass continues as normal but with the Benedictus after the communion rite.

This would make for a service with four readings (five on Sundays and Solemnities), lots of psalms, and a heavier lay participation in the Church liturgy. Though I suppose the obligation to attend on Sundays and holy days wouldn’t be until the “Mass part” starts, I feel like if more churches did this (especially on Sunday mornings) it would encourage a lot of people to increase their attention to the liturgy and to start participating in the Office on their own, as well. Plus, churches are encouraged to offer public hours of the Office (especially Sunday Vespers, though this is unfortunately rare in my experience), and this seems like a good way to get more people involved in that. Anybody have thoughts on the merits of this (or the downsides)? Can it be done?

I do suppose that the essentials of this could be done by just having the liturgies technically separate but immediately following one another (Matins followed my Lauds+Mass, or Matins+Lauds followed by Mass), but I’m still interested to know if they can be combined into a single liturgy.

 

[Usige]

The General Instructions for the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH) chapter II-VII talks about combining the Office of Readings (formerly Matins) with the Mass in section 98. It says that normally Matins should not be combined with the Mass except on Christmas Eve. If the two must, “by way of exception”, be joined then the concluding prayer and acclamation are skipped and the entrance, greeting and penitential act are skip from the order of Mass. That implies that it is not envisioned to join Matins then Lauds then the Mass. It also seems to make clear that the joining of the office of readings and Mass should be an exception, not a regular practice. Combined with the concluding sentence of section 93, “(c)are must be taken, however, that this does not result in harm to pastoral work, especially on Sundays,” it would appear that regularly joining those three things would be problematic.

On a personal note, I don’t think you would find many people participating. If I do both Matins and Lauds together. It can be a good 35-40 minutes. Having people show up in time for Mass means that most of Lauds would involve people shuffling in preparation for Mass. You would be better off having those two offices done an hour before Mass and then conclude Lauds 15 to 20 minutes before the first Mass.

 

[bardegaulois]

The General Instructions for the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH) chapter II-VII talks about combining the Office of Readings (formerly Matins) with the Mass in section 98. It says that normally Matins should not be combined with the Mass except on Christmas Eve. If the two must, “by way of exception”, be joined then the concluding prayer and acclamation are skipped and the entrance, greeting and penitential act are skip from the order of Mass. That implies that it is not envisioned to join Matins then Lauds then the Mass. It also seems to make clear that the joining of the office of readings and Mass should be an exception, not a regular practice. Combined with the concluding sentence of section 93, “(c)are must be taken, however, that this does not result in harm to pastoral work, especially on Sundays,” it would appear that regularly joining those three things would be problematic.

On a personal note, I don’t think you would find many people participating. If I do both Matins and Lauds together. It can be a good 35-40 minutes. Having people show up in time for Mass means that most of Lauds would involve people shuffling in preparation for Mass. You would be better off having those two offices done an hour before Mass and then conclude Lauds 15 to 20 minutes before the first Mass.

What you note at the end is much the same as I’ve seen in most monasteries I’ve visited. In a parish, however, those long offices in addition to a Mass will probably tire out your choir, and perhaps anyone in the pews as well–that is presuming that anyone in the parish even knows what the Divine Office is and how to pray it. I would certainly love to see more priests celebrating public hours, but the best way to start that is likely through reviving the once common practice of Sunday Vespers at the parish.