Today I want to finish off this set of notes on the structure of each of the hours in the various forms of the Office with a look at the last two hours of the day, Vespers and Compline. The main issue with these hours in the different forms of the Office goes to the spread of the workload over the day.
Vespers in the Benedictine and Roman Offices
In particular, the traditional Benedictine Office, for example, is heavily 'front-end loaded' - most of the work is done in the early morning, with both Vespers and Compline shorter than the Roman models St Benedict seems to have started from. This makes sense given the emphasis on the monastic nature of the Vigil hour.
Vespers in the Benedictine schema uses basically the same set of psalms as the original Roman hour (109-150 skipping over one or two), save for the first nine gradual psalms (119-127) shifted to be said during the day. But it has only four psalms each night (technically five on Monday, but one is the two verse Psalm 116, and it is said under the same Gloria Patri as Psalm 115) compared to five in the Roman version. St Benedict also split three psalms (Psalms 138, 143 and 144), further shortening the hour compared to the Roman Vespers of his time. In total, the Benedictine schema set 26 psalms for Vespers each week.
By contrast, the Roman Office traditionally spread the workload of the psalms much more evenly through the day. In the oldest version of the Roman Office, Vespers had five psalms, taken in order from Psalm 109, and skipping over only a few psalms said at other hours (Psalms 117, 118, 133 and 142). All of the psalms were said in whole, thus 34 psalms were said at Vespers each week.
It might have been logical, given the shift in the pattern of human activity over the last few centuries to the evening over the morning, courtesy of the invention of electricity, to beef up the evening hours at the expense of the morning ones.
But in fact, the 1911 revamp of the Office retained the five psalms concept, but split three psalms in parts (more or less following the practice of the Benedictine Office, see below). The biggest substantive change resulted from the need to accommodate the psalm divisions: instead of Saturday Vespers ending on Psalm 147, it stops at Psalm 144, with several of the psalms traditionally said at Vespers (Psalms 116, 134, 145, 146 and 147) reassigned to Lauds. The end result was a reduction in the number of psalms said to 31 a week.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the modern Liturgy of the Hours, rather than seeking to rebalance the workload towards the evening, is shorter again, with only two psalms said each night, many of them actually one psalm split in two. Nor does the Liturgy of the Hours restrict itself to the traditional 'Vespers' psalms, instead drawing on psalms from all books of the psalter.
Compline
The most radical differences between the Offices though relate to Compline.
In the older Roman Office and the Benedictine, Compline was the same every night. The Benedictine Office always uses Psalms 4, 90 and 133; the pre-1911 Office also added Psalm 30 (which St Benedict assigned to Matins instead). In many monasteries, the Compline was memorized and said in darkness, the familiarity of the verses providing a gentle wind-down towards sleep.
Pope St Pius X's revisions of the breviary instead made the three psalms of Compline variable each day, with Sunday mirroring the Benedictine schema. The psalms selected are all thematically appropriate to the hour, expressing similar sentiments perhaps to those of the traditional version of the hour. Still, there is clearly much more effort involved in saying a different set of psalms each night, particularly given that unlike the Benedictine version of Compline, the psalms come with antiphons, and thus can vary psalm tones depending on feasts and the liturgical season.
And the Liturgy of the Hours of course reduces the length of the hour again, to one or two psalms a night depending on their length.
Intellectual workload and time involved
In summation, the differences in these hours goes primarily to the level of intellectual effort required and time to say them.
The oldest form of the Roman Office was the longest at both Vespers and Compline by a significant margin, and got through around 25% of the 150 psalms at these hours.
The Pius X reforms shortened the hours somewhat, but increased the intellectual workload required at Compline in particular, with these hours now getting through 46 of the week's psalms, nearly a third of the 150 psalms.
By contrast, the traditional Benedictine schema uses only 29 different psalms for the evening hours, or 19% of the total, and both hours are significantly shorter than either the pre or post 1911 Roman forms. Not as light a load as the modern Liturgy of the Hours of course, which only manages to get through 21 psalms a week or less at these hours.
Vespers in the Benedictine and Roman Offices
In particular, the traditional Benedictine Office, for example, is heavily 'front-end loaded' - most of the work is done in the early morning, with both Vespers and Compline shorter than the Roman models St Benedict seems to have started from. This makes sense given the emphasis on the monastic nature of the Vigil hour.
Vespers in the Benedictine schema uses basically the same set of psalms as the original Roman hour (109-150 skipping over one or two), save for the first nine gradual psalms (119-127) shifted to be said during the day. But it has only four psalms each night (technically five on Monday, but one is the two verse Psalm 116, and it is said under the same Gloria Patri as Psalm 115) compared to five in the Roman version. St Benedict also split three psalms (Psalms 138, 143 and 144), further shortening the hour compared to the Roman Vespers of his time. In total, the Benedictine schema set 26 psalms for Vespers each week.
By contrast, the Roman Office traditionally spread the workload of the psalms much more evenly through the day. In the oldest version of the Roman Office, Vespers had five psalms, taken in order from Psalm 109, and skipping over only a few psalms said at other hours (Psalms 117, 118, 133 and 142). All of the psalms were said in whole, thus 34 psalms were said at Vespers each week.
It might have been logical, given the shift in the pattern of human activity over the last few centuries to the evening over the morning, courtesy of the invention of electricity, to beef up the evening hours at the expense of the morning ones.
But in fact, the 1911 revamp of the Office retained the five psalms concept, but split three psalms in parts (more or less following the practice of the Benedictine Office, see below). The biggest substantive change resulted from the need to accommodate the psalm divisions: instead of Saturday Vespers ending on Psalm 147, it stops at Psalm 144, with several of the psalms traditionally said at Vespers (Psalms 116, 134, 145, 146 and 147) reassigned to Lauds. The end result was a reduction in the number of psalms said to 31 a week.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the modern Liturgy of the Hours, rather than seeking to rebalance the workload towards the evening, is shorter again, with only two psalms said each night, many of them actually one psalm split in two. Nor does the Liturgy of the Hours restrict itself to the traditional 'Vespers' psalms, instead drawing on psalms from all books of the psalter.
Compline
The most radical differences between the Offices though relate to Compline.
In the older Roman Office and the Benedictine, Compline was the same every night. The Benedictine Office always uses Psalms 4, 90 and 133; the pre-1911 Office also added Psalm 30 (which St Benedict assigned to Matins instead). In many monasteries, the Compline was memorized and said in darkness, the familiarity of the verses providing a gentle wind-down towards sleep.
Pope St Pius X's revisions of the breviary instead made the three psalms of Compline variable each day, with Sunday mirroring the Benedictine schema. The psalms selected are all thematically appropriate to the hour, expressing similar sentiments perhaps to those of the traditional version of the hour. Still, there is clearly much more effort involved in saying a different set of psalms each night, particularly given that unlike the Benedictine version of Compline, the psalms come with antiphons, and thus can vary psalm tones depending on feasts and the liturgical season.
And the Liturgy of the Hours of course reduces the length of the hour again, to one or two psalms a night depending on their length.
Intellectual workload and time involved
In summation, the differences in these hours goes primarily to the level of intellectual effort required and time to say them.
The oldest form of the Roman Office was the longest at both Vespers and Compline by a significant margin, and got through around 25% of the 150 psalms at these hours.
The Pius X reforms shortened the hours somewhat, but increased the intellectual workload required at Compline in particular, with these hours now getting through 46 of the week's psalms, nearly a third of the 150 psalms.
By contrast, the traditional Benedictine schema uses only 29 different psalms for the evening hours, or 19% of the total, and both hours are significantly shorter than either the pre or post 1911 Roman forms. Not as light a load as the modern Liturgy of the Hours of course, which only manages to get through 21 psalms a week or less at these hours.
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