Vespers is celebrated every day, at or near the end of the workday/sundown. In the LOTH is has come to be called “Evening Prayer”, but it is still Vespers.
Benediction can follow Vespers. At the Benedictine abbey I am affiliated with Benediction follows Vespers on the First Friday of every month, and, with adoration after, on Sundays and solemnities.
The use of incense, or not, is tied to the degree of the day, and depends on the usage of the community where it is celebrated (never necessary in private recitation). At our abbey for instance, it is uses at the Benedictus or Magnificat on Sundays and feasts.
So how exactly it is celebrated (chanted vs. recited, incense, etc, presider in chasuble, etc.) depends on the community. The General Instructions only state that it is fitting to make the degree of ornamentation fit the degree of the day. For example Vespers may be chanted recto-tono or recited on regular weekdays, but chanted in Gregorian chant on Sundays and feasts. At our abbey Vespers is always chanted in Latin, but the degree of the celebration will dictate the use of incense, the vestments of the presider, the tones for some parts such as responsories, the Gospel canticles, etc., the playing of an organ piece during the exit procession, etc.
The order of the service is set by the rubrics of the Liturgy of the Hours but in short, in the current Roman usage (monastic usages will vary):
Opening verse
Hymn
Psalmody (2 psalms or psalm sections with antiphon, and a NT canticle with antiphon)
Short reading
Responsory
Magnificat with antiphon
Intercessions
Pater noster
Collect
Conclusion (varies dependent on whether a priest or deacon is present or not)
The sad thing is that in parish use Vespers have tended to fall by the wayside and that’s a great pity.
