Holy week and the Benedictine Office pt 3 - Thursday and the Triduum in the Benedictine Office

 In my last post, I pointed to the first three psalms of Sunday Matins as recapitulations of the events of the Triduum, with Psalm 20 pointing us to the Last Supper.

Today I'd like to expand a little on the Thursday Office more generally as part of a 'mini-Triduum' each week.

Many of the psalms of the day arguably go the agony in the Garden, most notably Psalm 87 at Lauds (in the Benedictine, but not Roman Office), often thought to be the darkest of all the psalms, and Psalm 138 at Vespers.

But there is also a strong Eucharistic theme, most notably in Psalm 140 at Vespers, and in the psalms of Matins.

Matins psalms

In the Roman Office, Thursday Matins each week - and hence the Triduum Office - starts at Psalm 68.  

In the Benedictine Office, however, the variable psalms start with Psalm 73, and go up to 84 (Psalm 75 is omitted in the Benedictine sequence as it is used at Friday Lauds, and Psalm 77 is divided in two).

And Psalm 73 opens with a lament for the destruction of the Temple, which can be interpreted as a reference to Christ's prophesy that the temple will be destroyed, then rebuilt in three days, as Cassiodorus' commentary on the psalm points out:

"In this psalm there is lamentation for the destruction of the city, so that the Jews' extreme hardness of heart should at least feel fear at the disasters to their city. The good Physician has done all he could, if the sick man wished to recover his health. Let us remember, however, that the authority of the Church relates that Jerusalem was ravaged in the days when the most cruel people of the Jews crucified Christ the Lord, so that there can be no doubt what temporal evil that obstinate transgression sustained."

Psalm 74, the second psalm of Matins, takes us to the events of Jesus' arrest.  

The psalm starts its narrative with a reminder that we are God's people, members of his flock, and pleads for God to convert us, to rise up and save us:  above all, for the Messiah to come and 'visit' the 'vineyard' he brought out of Egypt:

9  Víneam de Ægypto transtulísti: * ejecísti Gentes, et plantásti eam.	9 You have brought a vineyard out of Egypt: you have cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
10  Dux itíneris fuísti in conspéctu ejus: * plantásti radíces ejus, et implévit terram.	10 You were the guide of its journey in its sight: you planted the roots thereof, and it filled the land...
15  Deus virtútum, convértere: * réspice de cælo, et vide, et vísita víneam istam.	15 Turn again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard:

The parable of the wicked servants of the owner of the vineyard, who murder first the servants, and then the son of the vineyard owner, points to these verses.  And the allusion is reinforced by the psalm's ending, which takes us to the saving role of the Son, whose name we know, and whose face we have seen:

16  Et pérfice eam, quam plantávit déxtera tua: * et super fílium hóminis, quem confirmásti tibi.	16 And perfect the same which your right hand has planted: and upon the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself.
18  Fiat manus tua super virum déxteræ tuæ: * et super fílium hóminis quem confirmásti tibi.	18 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand: and upon the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself
19  Et non discédimus a te, vivificábis nos: * et nomen tuum invocábimus.	19 And we depart not from you, you shall quicken us: and we will call upon your name.
20  Dómine, Deus virtútum, convérte nos: * et osténde fáciem tuam, et salvi érimus.	20 O Lord God of hosts, convert us and show your face, and we shall be saved

Psalm 77

The key to the day, though, is arguably the festal canticle at Lauds, the Song of Moses, which celebrates the passing of the people through the Red Sea.  

The events of the Passover, and their eucharistic connotations, are alluded to in several of the psalms set for the day, above all in Psalm 77, the second longest psalm of the psalter, which is common to the Roman ferial Office, but doesn't appear in the Triduum Office because it stops after the first nine psalms.

Let me just highlight a few of the key verses for you:

16  Interrúpit mare, et perdúxit eos: * et státuit aquas quasi in utre.	13 He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.
17  Et dedúxit eos in nube diéi: * et tota nocte in illuminatióne ignis.	14 And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire.
18  Interrúpit petram in erémo: * et adaquávit eos velut in abysso multa.	15 He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.

22  Et male locúti sunt de Deo: * dixérunt: Numquid póterit Deus paráre mensam in desérto?	19 And they spoke ill of God: they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
23  Quóniam percússit petram, et fluxérunt aquæ: * et torréntes inundavérunt.	20 Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.
24  Numquid et panem póterit dare, * aut paráre mensam pópulo suo?	Can he also give bread, or provide a table for his people?
25  Ideo audívit Dóminus, et dístulit: * et ignis accénsus est in Jacob, et ira ascéndit in Israël.	21 Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.
26  Quia non credidérunt in Deo: * nec speravérunt in salutári ejus :	22 Because they believed not in God: and trusted not in his salvation.
27  Et mandávit núbibus désuper: * et jánuas cæli apéruit.	23 And he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven.
28  Et pluit illis manna ad manducándum: * et panem cæli dedit eis.	24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven.
29  Panem Angelórum manducávit homo, * cibária misit eis in abundántia.	25 Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.

May we, unlike those wanderers in the desert, always be grateful for the great gifts God has given us through Christ, as we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday.

Holy week and the Benedictine Office pt 1

I thought I might complete this Lent series on the psalms of the Benedictine Office with a few notes on on the events of Holy Week in the Benedictine Office.

The Triduum Office

From Thursday, of course, the monastic breviary adopts the Roman Office of the Triduum in its entirety, rather than following the order set out in the Rule.  

The psalms used during the Triduum, as I've previously argued, are very carefully selected for their relevance to the events of Holy Week.

But those themes - and indeed many of those same psalms - in the Benedictine Office to create a mini-Triduum in the Office each week, and for the next few days I want to briefly point to a few of those particular features.

Before I do that though, I want to say something briefly about the history of the Office of the Triduum itself, and particularly to the question of how far back the adoption of the Roman Office in this period by the Benedictines goes.

The Origin of the Roman Triduum Office

The Roman Triduum itself can be traced back to at least the ninth century, but like the rest of the Roman Office for which evidence is sparse before the ninth century, it almost certainly predates that.

Just how far it predates it by though, is impossible to say.

Some, for example, claim that its lack of hymns, chapters and doxologies are indications of its antiquity; of its origins at a time when the Roman Office had none of those things, and preserved as such because of the antiquity of the Office of these days.  

But as Amalarius and other medieval commentators pointed out, all of those features arguably have particular theological rationales - and the Office of the Dead after all, similarly omits all these elements, but almost certainly dates from no earlier than the eighth century.

Moreover, while silence is not absolute evidence, it is at least suggestive that a mid seventh century papal decree instructing the Benedictines to follow Roman practices such as the omission of  the alleluia in Septuagesimatide and the use of the Roman Easter octave, does not mention the Triduum.

When did the Benedictines adopt the Roman Triduum?

Assuming then, that the Office of the Triduum as we know dates from perhaps the late seventh or more likely first half of the eighth centuries, at what point the Benedictines decided to follow the Roman rather than their own Office for these days?  

In the late eighth and early centuries, the early Carolingian Benedictines strongly criticized the Roman influenced practices of Monte Cassino and others, including for not respecting the Rules insistence on saying all of the psalms each week.  One commentary specifically mentions the truncated (three psalm) Roman Easter octave Office in this regard, but none of the sources of criticism mention the Triduum.

But if the Benedictine Office was still followed during the Triduum (at least in most places) at this time, that certainly didn't last, as virtually all of the surviving manuscripts for the Office, which date from the tenth century onwards, show the Benedictines as following the Roman Office for these days. 

The one exception I'm aware of (Cistercian influenced monasteries aside, on which see below, is a tenth century manuscript from Limoges, early a centre of Benedictine influence, which provides twelve responsories, rather than nine, for Maundy Thursday, but then contracts down to the Roman nine for Friday and Saturday.

But even that evidence is ambiguous - while it may preserve a remnant of an earlier practice of twelve responsories for each of these days; but it equally it might just be because the addition of Thursday to the Roman Triduum was itself a relatively late event (since it uses the psalms of the day rather than special sets as for the other two days).

The Cistercians

The one point of resistance to the Roman Triduum came with the Cistercians, who, instead of adding three extra readings and responsories to make up the usual Benedictine three Nocturn Office (which would have been straightforward to do, there are several variant responsories in the repertoire of the time), instead made the three days of the Triduum ferial days, with only three readings and responsories, in order, they claimed to be consistent with the Rule.

They were heavily criticized for this, though, and in the period not long before Trent, finally adopted the Roman practice, only reverting to their original ferial Office in 1959.

The twentieth century

The other key changes to the Triduum Office came in the twentieth century, with Pius X's psalter revisions leading to changes to the psalms used at Lauds in particular, and then the trimming out of Psalm 50 from each hour in 1960.

The mini-Triduum in the weekly Office

Tenebrae is a wonderfully evocative feature of Holy Week, a tradition to be treasured and savoured.

Still, it is worth considering how we can maintain the remembrance of this special Office throughout the year in our practice, and so more on that in my next post.