Coming soon - A Lenten series on Thursday Vespers in the Benedictine Office

Source: Coro alto, Sé de Braga Portugal; author - Joseolgon, Wiki Commons.

This Lent I intend to resume my long neglected effort to provide verse by verse notes on the psalms set for Vespers in the Benedictine Office. I have previously provided notes for the psalms for the hour up to and including Psalm 138..

Accordingly, this Lent I plan to look primarily at Psalms 139 and 140, that is the second half of Vespers on Thursday in the Benedictine Office, whose themes are, I think, particularly appropriate for Lent.  

As in the past, the notes on individual verses will generally include four components:

• a crib for the Latin, so that those with little or no knowledge of the language can understand what they are praying, in order support those who wish to pray the Office in Latin;
• notes on the different text traditions represented primarily by the Hebrew Masoretic Text (the main basis for Protestant translations of the Bible, as well as the Neo-Vulgate published in 1979 by the Vatican) and the Greek Septuagint text;
• a compilation of different translations of the verse, to help get a feel for the different possibilities the Hebrew/Greek/Latin presents; 
• notes on the psalm in the context of Benedicitne spirituality in particular, and drawing on the commentaries of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church more broadly.

If I can, I will also provide some more general notes on St Benedict's design of Vespers, focusing on Thursday, as an act of Scriptural interpretation.

You can find the first part of the series here.