We live in the midst of a dementia epidemic: a disease characterised by forgetfulness, of the loss of memory.
We tend to think of this as primarily an affliction of the elderly.
But the more insidious form of dementia is that which afflicts our society as a whole: the great forgetting of traditions; the rejection of history and our past; and the insistence on a simplistic, half-baked and childish version of what it means to be a Christian rather than the authentic faith.
The great forgetting
For those afflicted by the physical disease - a disease which becomes terminal when the body ultimately forgets how to carry out basic functions such as swallowing - memory loss and its replacement by a half-real, half-confected past is not a choice, but a symptom of the disease.
The more serious form of this epidemic, though, is a dementia deliberately chosen: we live in a society that is deliberately trying to forget a past which it rejects as incompatible with modern 'rights' and 'values'; we live in a church where many, particularly in high places, seem hell-bent (and I use those words deliberately) on rejecting the churches traditions and even its fundamental teachings.
At one level there is nothing new in this: so many of the psalms lament the fact that so many attempt to forget about God, living as if he doesn't exist, or isn't watching and judging what they are doing: forgetfulness is, of course, inherent in the human condition.
At another level though, it is entirely new: are there any periods in history where religious sensibility of any kind has been so thoroughly rejected by the mainstream of society and its institutions? And though the Church has had periods in the past when heresy has been widespread, and many of its popes, bishops and priests have been corrupt and depraved, has there ever been a time when they have tried to pretend that these things are perfectly normal and acceptable, even holy?
The antidote is repetition
Fortunately there is an antidote to this provided by St Benedict's arrangement of the psalter as set out in his Rule for the Divine Office.
For much of history, monks and nuns did not use Office books for the psalms, other than as a prompt to memory; instead they were required to learn the entire psalter by heart. Despite this, pretty much every form of the Office that we know of, even those that mostly used the psalter in its numerical order, included at least a few psalms, such as Psalm 50 (the Miserere, Have mercy on me...) and Psalm 148-150 (the Laudate, or praising, psalms) that were repeated every day at particular hours.
The tradition has always held, in other words, that even things we know thoroughly still need to be brought to the front of our minds and repeated, their message reinforced regularly to be effective.
St Benedict's key messages
In the case of the Benedictine Office, ten psalms are said daily - a quarter of those said each day in the full version of his Office - and another nine are said five days a week. That means that nearly half of the daily service, or 'pensum', is devoted to certain key themes and messages that St Benedict thought so important that we needed to be constantly reminded of them.
The psalms repeated daily in the Benedictine Office teach us to take to heart, amongst other propositions, that:
But it does seem to me that to do is a rejection of a key source of St Benedict's implicit teaching, for the specifics of St Benedict's Office are, I believe, integrally linked to the teachings of the Rule. It is also, I would suggest, deeply at odds with tradition, and the decision of most modern Benedictines to abandon the Office prescribed by St Benedict altogether has had dire consequences for the health of the charism and of individual monasteries in my view.
Connecting to tradition
Some of the repeated psalms seem to reflect St Benedict's own crafting of the Office. The clearest case is the use of the Gradual psalms at Terce to None on Tuesday to Friday, which both trace our ascent through humility, and end each hour with a reference to the peace and good things God offers to those who make this ascent. Similarly, Psalm 94, said as the invitatory at Matins each day, contains a reference to the Israelites' forty years in the desert. It is probably not an accident then, that St Benedict sets forty psalms to be said each day, a number suggestive of penance, and the path to our own potential entrance to the promised land of heaven in the little sleep of death each night.
But many of the psalms St Benedict mandates to be said daily reflect traditions ancient even in his time. The tradition of saying the Laudate psalms (Ps 148-150) each day, for example, is so universal that it is now thought to date back at least to the time of Jesus's earthly mission. Similarly, the abolition of the daily use of Psalm 50, the Miserere, another ancient tradition, has surely helped feed the heresy of universal salvation so prevalent in our time.
I have previously provided notes on eight of the ten psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office (as well as the further nine said five days a week), and you can find links to them here.
I thought though that it was past time that I came back and completed this set though, so over the next few weeks, I plan to post notes on the first psalm of Compline, Psalm 4, and hopefully in due course Psalm 90.
The psalms of Compline
In both the Benedictine and pre-1911 form of the Roman Office, the psalms of Compline are the same every day of the week, making them easy to memorize and so an excellent starting point for those starting out on the Office. And their use at this hour seems to be ancient indeed.
The first two psalms of Compline, Psalms 4 and 90, are both mentioned as the psalms to be said before bed by St Basil the Great, who was born around a century and a half before St Benedict. And the last psalm of the hour, Psalm 133, has clearly established roots in the Temple liturgy for the ancient great feasts.
The notes provided here are intended both to help those learning the Office with the Latin of the psalms; to provide some insights into why St Benedict assigned the psalm to a particular place in the Office and what he might have wanted us to take from it by reference to the Patristic tradition of their interpretation that he would have been familiar with; as well as to draw on the best of the tradition after him to provide fodder for our meditation.
I'm trying out a new format in the notes which follow, and so would very much appreciate feedback on it, as well as on the content of the commentary, or your own insights into these psalms.
And the first post in the series is an introduction to Psalm 4.
We tend to think of this as primarily an affliction of the elderly.
But the more insidious form of dementia is that which afflicts our society as a whole: the great forgetting of traditions; the rejection of history and our past; and the insistence on a simplistic, half-baked and childish version of what it means to be a Christian rather than the authentic faith.
The great forgetting
For those afflicted by the physical disease - a disease which becomes terminal when the body ultimately forgets how to carry out basic functions such as swallowing - memory loss and its replacement by a half-real, half-confected past is not a choice, but a symptom of the disease.
The more serious form of this epidemic, though, is a dementia deliberately chosen: we live in a society that is deliberately trying to forget a past which it rejects as incompatible with modern 'rights' and 'values'; we live in a church where many, particularly in high places, seem hell-bent (and I use those words deliberately) on rejecting the churches traditions and even its fundamental teachings.
At one level there is nothing new in this: so many of the psalms lament the fact that so many attempt to forget about God, living as if he doesn't exist, or isn't watching and judging what they are doing: forgetfulness is, of course, inherent in the human condition.
At another level though, it is entirely new: are there any periods in history where religious sensibility of any kind has been so thoroughly rejected by the mainstream of society and its institutions? And though the Church has had periods in the past when heresy has been widespread, and many of its popes, bishops and priests have been corrupt and depraved, has there ever been a time when they have tried to pretend that these things are perfectly normal and acceptable, even holy?
The antidote is repetition
Fortunately there is an antidote to this provided by St Benedict's arrangement of the psalter as set out in his Rule for the Divine Office.
For much of history, monks and nuns did not use Office books for the psalms, other than as a prompt to memory; instead they were required to learn the entire psalter by heart. Despite this, pretty much every form of the Office that we know of, even those that mostly used the psalter in its numerical order, included at least a few psalms, such as Psalm 50 (the Miserere, Have mercy on me...) and Psalm 148-150 (the Laudate, or praising, psalms) that were repeated every day at particular hours.
The tradition has always held, in other words, that even things we know thoroughly still need to be brought to the front of our minds and repeated, their message reinforced regularly to be effective.
St Benedict's key messages
In the case of the Benedictine Office, ten psalms are said daily - a quarter of those said each day in the full version of his Office - and another nine are said five days a week. That means that nearly half of the daily service, or 'pensum', is devoted to certain key themes and messages that St Benedict thought so important that we needed to be constantly reminded of them.
The psalms repeated daily in the Benedictine Office teach us to take to heart, amongst other propositions, that:
- God is our creator (Ps 94, 133, 148-150) and the one who sustains us and all life (Ps 3, 4, 90), and as such we owe a debt of praise to him (Psalms 50, 66, 133, 148-150);
- we are sinners, and must constantly repent our sins, and turn back to God (Ps 4, 50, 94);
- we are called to the spiritual battle, in which God will aid our fight (Ps 3, 90); and
- if we are faithful to him, God will bless us with the good things we need (Ps 4, 66, 133).
But it does seem to me that to do is a rejection of a key source of St Benedict's implicit teaching, for the specifics of St Benedict's Office are, I believe, integrally linked to the teachings of the Rule. It is also, I would suggest, deeply at odds with tradition, and the decision of most modern Benedictines to abandon the Office prescribed by St Benedict altogether has had dire consequences for the health of the charism and of individual monasteries in my view.
Connecting to tradition
Some of the repeated psalms seem to reflect St Benedict's own crafting of the Office. The clearest case is the use of the Gradual psalms at Terce to None on Tuesday to Friday, which both trace our ascent through humility, and end each hour with a reference to the peace and good things God offers to those who make this ascent. Similarly, Psalm 94, said as the invitatory at Matins each day, contains a reference to the Israelites' forty years in the desert. It is probably not an accident then, that St Benedict sets forty psalms to be said each day, a number suggestive of penance, and the path to our own potential entrance to the promised land of heaven in the little sleep of death each night.
But many of the psalms St Benedict mandates to be said daily reflect traditions ancient even in his time. The tradition of saying the Laudate psalms (Ps 148-150) each day, for example, is so universal that it is now thought to date back at least to the time of Jesus's earthly mission. Similarly, the abolition of the daily use of Psalm 50, the Miserere, another ancient tradition, has surely helped feed the heresy of universal salvation so prevalent in our time.
I have previously provided notes on eight of the ten psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office (as well as the further nine said five days a week), and you can find links to them here.
I thought though that it was past time that I came back and completed this set though, so over the next few weeks, I plan to post notes on the first psalm of Compline, Psalm 4, and hopefully in due course Psalm 90.
The psalms of Compline
In both the Benedictine and pre-1911 form of the Roman Office, the psalms of Compline are the same every day of the week, making them easy to memorize and so an excellent starting point for those starting out on the Office. And their use at this hour seems to be ancient indeed.
The first two psalms of Compline, Psalms 4 and 90, are both mentioned as the psalms to be said before bed by St Basil the Great, who was born around a century and a half before St Benedict. And the last psalm of the hour, Psalm 133, has clearly established roots in the Temple liturgy for the ancient great feasts.
The notes provided here are intended both to help those learning the Office with the Latin of the psalms; to provide some insights into why St Benedict assigned the psalm to a particular place in the Office and what he might have wanted us to take from it by reference to the Patristic tradition of their interpretation that he would have been familiar with; as well as to draw on the best of the tradition after him to provide fodder for our meditation.
I'm trying out a new format in the notes which follow, and so would very much appreciate feedback on it, as well as on the content of the commentary, or your own insights into these psalms.
And the first post in the series is an introduction to Psalm 4.
