St Augustine on the Psalms/2

van Wassenhove, c1474

St Augustine had a great attachment to the psalms: he discovered them in the period between his conversion and his baptism while on retreat, and his enthusiasm continued right up until the end of his life: as he lay dying, he read the penitential psalms, which he had requested be written out in large writing and put on the wall of his room.

The psalm commentaries

St Augustine's Commentary on the Psalms is one of his major works, taking up to five volumes in modern editions, and were written over a period of thirty years starting from just after his ordination, between 390 and 422. 

They were originally given as sermons, as many of the comments in them make clear.  Pope Benedict XVI talked about it in his General Audience on the saint of 20 February 2008:

"The mass of homilies that he would often deliver "off the cuff", transcribed by tachygraphers during his preaching and immediately circulated, had a special importance in this production destined for a wider public. The very beautiful Enarrationes in Psalmos, read widely in the Middle Ages, stand out among them. The practice of publishing Augustine's thousands of homilies - often without the author's control - precisely explains their dissemination and later dispersion but also their vitality. In fact, because of the author's fame, the Bishop of Hippo's sermons became very sought after texts and, adapted to ever new contexts, also served as models for other Bishops and priests."

Old Latin translation of the Septuagint

St Augustine famously exchanged a rather heated correspondence with St Jerome (well, he was hardly unique in this, St Jerome was a man of strong opinions, unafraid of stating them forcefully indeed!) over whether to translate the Bible into Latin (amongst other topics) from the Septuagint or the Hebrew text of the time - St Jerome of course favoured the Hebrew, St Augustine the Greek.  St Jerome got his way for most of the Old Testament - but not in the case of the psalms.  St Augustine's commentaries of course, are not based on either of the Jerome translations, but from an older Latin translation of the Septuagint. 

The Christological focus of the psalms

The two greatest strengths of St Augustine's Commentary, in my view, are its strong Christological focus and their practicality.

His Commentary on Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, for example states firmly that:

This is to be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Man. For He came indeed in the way of sinners, by being born as sinners are; but He "stood" not therein, for that the enticements of the world held Him not. He willed not an earthly kingdom, with pride, which is well taken for "the seat of pestilence;" for that there is hardly any one who is free from the love of rule, and craves not human glory... "the seat of pestilence" may be more appropriately understood of hurtful doctrine; "whose word spreadeth as a canker...

St Augustine does not over stretch the Christological interpretation of the psalms, and always grounds his interpretations in the original historical context of the psalm where this is clear.  But he draws out their meaning in the context of the whole of Scripture in a way that should serve as a model for our approach to the psalms today. 

A practical guide

Above all, though, his expositions are not just empty theology, but provide a deeply practical guide to the spiritual life.  Psalm 56, said at Lauds on Tuesday in the Benedictine Office, for example, is treated as a psalm on the Passion.  And saint's message is that it is intended to teach us how to pray.

On verse 1, for example,"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me: for my soul trusts in you" he says:

"Christ in the Passion says, Have pity on Me, O God. To God, God says, Have pity on Me! He that with the Father has pity on you, in you cries, Have pity on Me. For that part of Him which is crying, Have pity on Me, is yours: from you this He received, for the sake of you, that you should be delivered, with Flesh He was clothed. The flesh itself cries: Have pity on Me, O God, have pity on me: Man himself, soul and flesh. For whole Man did the Word take upon Him, and whole Man the Word became. Let it not therefore be thought that there Soul was not, because the Evangelist thus says: The Word was made flesh, and dwelled in us. John 1:14 For man is called flesh, as in another place says the Scripture, And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Shall anywise flesh alone see, and shall Soul not be there?...You hear the Master praying, learn thou to pray. For to this end He prayed, in order that He might teach how to pray: because to this end He suffered, in order that He might teach how to suffer; to this end He rose again, in order that He might teach how to hope for rising again."

St Augustine is essential reading for anyone studying the psalms.

Commentaries on the psalms: St Augustine/1



c6th fresco, the Lateran

I want to continue my series providing some background on the key commentaries on the psalms by the Fathers, Saints and Theologians, by turning now to perhaps the greatest of them all, St Augustine of Hippo, whose feast day is this coming Sunday (though the celebration itself is displaced by the Sunday).

St Augustine's Psalm Commentaries

Of all the surviving traditional psalm commentaries around, St Augustine's remain, I would suggest, by far the most influential.  Substantial key extracts from St Augustine's extended Expositions on the Psalms are available in several places, including the wonderful New Advent site.  And there are also several modern translations of them available in print. 

But first, some background on the great Doctor of the Church.  Pope Benedict XVI gave several General Audiences on the saint in 2008.  Here is the first.

Life of St Augustine

"....I would like to return to the meditations on the Fathers of the Church and speak today of the greatest Father of the Latin Church, St Augustine. This man of passion and faith, of the highest intelligence and tireless in his pastoral care, a great Saint and Doctor of the Church is often known, at least by hearsay, even by those who ignore Christianity or who are not familiar with it, because he left a very deep mark on the cultural life of the West and on the whole world. Because of his special importance St Augustine's influence was widespread. It could be said on the one hand that all the roads of Latin Christian literature led to Hippo (today Annaba, on the coast of Algeria), the place where he was Bishop from 395 to his death in 430, and, on the other, that from this city of Roman Africa, many other roads of later Christianity and of Western culture itself branched out.

A civilization has seldom encountered such a great spirit who was able to assimilate Christianity's values and exalt its intrinsic wealth, inventing ideas and forms that were to nourish the future generations, as Paul VI also stressed: "It may be said that all the thought-currents of the past meet in his works and form the source which provides the whole doctrinal tradition of succeeding ages" (Inaugural Address at the Patristic Institute of the "Augustinianum", 4 May 1970; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 21 May 1970, p. 8). Augustine is also the Father of the Church who left the greatest number of works. Possidius, his biographer, said that it seemed impossible that one man could have written so many things in his lifetime. We shall speak of these different works at one of our meetings soon. Today, we shall focus on his life, which is easy to reconstruct from his writings, in particular the Confessions, his extraordinary spiritual autobiography written in praise of God. This is his most famous work; and rightly so, since it is precisely Augustine's Confessions, with their focus on interiority and psychology, that constitute a unique model in Western (and not only Western) literature—including non-religious literature—up to modern times. This attention to the spiritual life, to the mystery of the "I", to the mystery of God who is concealed in the "I", is something quite extraordinary, without precedent, and remains for ever, as it were, a spiritual "peak".

But to come back to his life: Augustine was born in Tagaste in the Roman Province of Numidia, Africa, on 13 November 354 to Patricius, a pagan who later became a catechumen, and Monica, a fervent Christian. This passionate woman, venerated as a saint, exercised an enormous influence on her son and raised him in the Christian faith. Augustine had also received the salt, a sign of acceptance in the catechumenate, and was always fascinated by the figure of Jesus Christ; indeed, he said that he had always loved Jesus but had drifted further and further away from ecclesial faith and practice, as also happens to many young people today.

St Augustine at the school of Tagast,
Gozzoli, c15th

Augustine also had a brother, Navigius, and a sister whose name is unknown to us and who, after being widowed subsequently became the head of a monastery for women. As a boy with a very keen intelligence, Augustine received a good education although he was not always an exemplary student. However, he learned grammar well, first in his native town and then in Madaura, and from 370, he studied rhetoric in Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa. He mastered Latin perfectly but was not quite as successful with Greek and did not learn Punic, spoken by his contemporaries. It was in Carthage itself that for the first time Augustine read the Hortensius, a writing by Cicero later lost, an event that can be placed at the beginning of his journey towards conversion. In fact, Cicero's text awoke within him love for wisdom, as, by then a Bishop, he was to write in his Confessions: "The book changed my feelings", to the extent that "every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardour in my heart" (III, 4, 7).

However, since he was convinced that without Jesus the truth cannot be said effectively to have been found and since Jesus' Name was not mentioned in this book, immediately after he read it he began to read Scripture, the Bible. But it disappointed him. This was not only because the Latin style of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures was inadequate but also because to him their content itself did not seem satisfying. In the scriptural narratives of wars and other human vicissitudes, he discovered neither the loftiness of philosophy nor the splendour of the search for the truth which is part of it. Yet he did not want to live without God and thus sought a religion which corresponded to his desire for the truth and also with his desire to draw close to Jesus. Thus, he fell into the net of the Manicheans, who presented themselves as Christians and promised a totally rational religion. They said that the world was divided into two principles: good and evil. And in this way the whole complexity of human history can be explained. Their dualistic morals also pleased St Augustine, because it included a very high morality for the elect: and those like him who adhered to it could live a life better suited to the situation of the time, especially for a young man. He therefore became a Manichean, convinced at that time that he had found the synthesis between rationality and the search for the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Manicheanism also offered him a concrete advantage in life: joining the Manicheans facilitated the prospects of a career. By belonging to that religion, which included so many influential figures, he was able to continue his relationship with a woman and to advance in his career. By this woman he had a son, Adeodatus, who was very dear to him and very intelligent, who was later to be present during the preparation for Baptism near Lake Como, taking part in those "Dialogues" which St Augustine has passed down to us. The boy unfortunately died prematurely. Having been a grammar teacher since his twenties in the city of his birth, he soon returned to Carthage, where he became a brilliant and famous teacher of rhetoric. However, with time Augustine began to distance himself from the faith of the Manicheans. They disappointed him precisely from the intellectual viewpoint since they proved incapable of dispelling his doubts. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where the imperial court resided at that time and where he obtained a prestigious post through the good offices and recommendations of the Prefect of Rome, Symmacus, a pagan hostile to St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

In Milan, Augustine acquired the habit of listening - at first for the purpose of enriching his rhetorical baggage - to the eloquent preaching of Bishop Ambrose, who had been a representative of the Emperor for Northern Italy. The African rhetorician was fascinated by the words of the great Milanese Prelate; and not only by his rhetoric. It was above all the content that increasingly touched Augustine's heart. The great difficulty with the Old Testament, because of its lack of rhetorical beauty and lofty philosophy was resolved in St Ambrose's preaching through his typological interpretation of the Old Testament: Augustine realized that the whole of the Old Testament was a journey toward Jesus Christ. Thus, he found the key to understanding the beauty and even the philosophical depth of the Old Testament and grasped the whole unity of the mystery of Christ in history, as well as the synthesis between philosophy, rationality and faith in the Logos, in Christ, the Eternal Word who was made flesh.

Augustine soon realized that the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the Neo-Platonic philosophy practised by the Bishop of Milan enabled him to solve the intellectual difficulties which, when he was younger during his first approach to the biblical texts, had seemed insurmountable to him.

Thus, Augustine followed his reading of the philosophers' writings by reading Scripture anew, especially the Pauline Letters. His conversion to Christianity on 15 August 386 therefore came at the end of a long and tormented inner journey - of which we shall speak in another catechesis -, and the African moved to the countryside, north of Milan by Lake Como - with his mother Monica, his son Adeodatus and a small group of friends - to prepare himself for Baptism. So it was that at the age of 32 Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan on 24 April 387, during the Easter Vigil.

Baptism of St Augustine
Louis de Boulogne, 1702

After his Baptism, Augustine decided to return to Africa with his friends, with the idea of living a community life of the monastic kind at the service of God. However, while awaiting their departure in Ostia, his mother fell ill unexpectedly and died shortly afterwards, breaking her son's heart. Having returned to his homeland at last, the convert settled in Hippo for the very purpose of founding a monastery. In this city on the African coast he was ordained a priest in 391, despite his reticence, and with a few companions began the monastic life which had long been in his mind, dividing his time between prayer, study and preaching. All he wanted was to be at the service of the truth. He did not feel he had a vocation to pastoral life but realized later that God was calling him to be a pastor among others and thus to offer people the gift of the truth. He was ordained a Bishop in Hippo four years later, in 395. Augustine continued to deepen his study of Scripture and of the texts of the Christian tradition and was an exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral commitment: he preached several times a week to his faithful, supported the poor and orphans, supervised the formation of the clergy and the organization of mens' and womens' monasteries. In short, the former rhetorician asserted himself as one of the most important exponents of Christianity of that time. He was very active in the government of his Diocese - with remarkable, even civil, implications - in the more than 35 years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of Hippo actually exercised a vast influence in his guidance of the Catholic Church in Roman Africa and, more generally, in the Christianity of his time, coping with religious tendencies and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in the one God, rich in mercy.

And Augustine entrusted himself to God every day until the very end of his life: smitten by fever, while for almost three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal invaders, the Bishop - his friend Possidius recounts in his Vita Augustini - asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large characters, "and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant hot tears" (31, 2). This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life. He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet 76. We will devote our next encounters to his work, his message and his inner experience. "

Simone Martini, c1320-5

Comparing the Offices/2: why the psalms in a week?

I want to continue my series comparing the various orderings of the psalms used in the Divine Office with a look at how frequently they are said in the various psalm schemas.

And I want to suggest with a fairly controversial proposition: that the idea that all of the psalms should be said once a week (and as far as possible, only once a week), is essentially a twentieth century invention, at least so far as the Western Church is concerned. 

The more traditional idea, I would argue is for a much more repetitive and, contemplative monks aside, selective psalter scheme.

Origins: psalms in scriptural order

The question of how frequently the psalms should be said, and how a one week distributions of the psalms came to be standard in the Church, has not, as far as I can find, unduly preoccupied modern liturgists, who have been more intent on attempting to generate rationalisations for spreading the psalms over as long a period as possible, such as the current four week schema for the liturgy of the hours.

Nonetheless, they are right I think in suggesting that in the earliest forms of the Office, the idea of a one week distribution of the psalms was not the norm.  Instead the assumption was that monks would say the psalms much more frequently than once a week - even up to once a day in extreme cases, as St Benedict suggests in his Rule - while clerics and the laity would say a much smaller selection of nearly the same psalms everyday. 

The typical monastic pattern, even after St Benedict, was to start at Psalm 1, say the psalms in order, and keep going until you reached the end then start again, regardless of what day of the week it was.  The times of prayer and number of responsories and other prayers might be fixed, but the number of psalms and/or which day they were said was not.

Allocating psalms to particular hours

By contrast to the Scriptural 'running cursus' system, in the fourth century and later 'cathedral' Offices, for example, the psalms used at the day hours started to become relatively fixed.  In the old Roman Office, for example, which St Benedict in turn adapted in his Office, Psalms 1-108 were allocated to the night Vigil and morning hours, and psalms 109-147 to the day and evening hours.  In addition, particular groupings of psalms, such as the last three 'Laudate' psalms became associated with particular hours, in the case of Psalms 148-150, Lauds.

The two competing traditions - the monastic and the Cathedral - reflect differing principles of selection.  Monks, who said all of the psalms frequently, could be expected to pause and ponder the more important psalms as they needed to.  Those who had less time to allocate to the task had to focus on the more important psalms: for while all Scripture is preserved for our benefit, not all Scripture is equally important for our spiritual life.  Moreover, many of the psalms deal with similar themes, and duplicate verses or even whole sections of the text.

For these reasons, there doesn't seem to have been a presumption, at least until the middle ages, that anyone other than monks could or would say all of the psalms over some particular period.  In the early Roman cathedral office for example:

• Lauds had only one variable psalm and canticle each day (the Benedictine Office added an extra variable psalm in);
• Prime consisted of Psalm 53 and sections of Psalm 118 each day except Sunday (when Psalm 117 was substituted in), whereas in the Benedictine Office Prime works through psalms 1-19;
• Terce to None were the same each day, with sections of Psalm 118 (St Benedict spreads Psalm 118 over Sunday and Monday, then substitutes in the first nine of the gradual psalms for the remaining days); and
• Compline was always Psalms 4,90 and 133, as for the Benedictine Office. 

Clerics and the laity did join in with the variable Office of Vespers, but according to contemporary reports, the remaining psalms were said only by the monks and/or nuns who maintained the night vigil on behalf of all. 

And in fact, even once psalm schemas became standardized, this pattern persisted in diluted form through much of the Middle Ages.  Although the Benedictine Office, for example, is arranged on a one week cycle, it has many repetitions so that in fact the monk or nun traditionally says some 247 psalms each week.  But the laity typically used much shorter Offices, participating in the day hours of the Roman Office (Lauds and Vespers had variable psalms, but Prime to None and Compline were the mostly the same each day), or short Offices such as the Little Office of Our Lady and the Office of the Dead, both of which use the same psalms for the day hours everyday, with a three day rotation of psalms for Matins.

The Benedictine Revolution

St Benedict's (480-547) one week schema for the Office, set out in his Rule, is thought to have borrowed heavily from the Office used by both clerics and religious in Rome in his time (indeed, rather than listing out the canticles to be used at Lauds, he simply specifies the one's customary in the Roman Church).

St Benedict's schema, though it clearly did have early fans, seems to have taken a long time to become widely accepted in monastic practice: most of the surviving evidence for the continuation of his Rule in the period immediately after his death is for 'mixed-rule' monasteries, where his general prescriptions were combined with a much more intensive liturgical regime.  Indeed, St Columbanus (540-615) was positively scathing about monks who said a mere twelve psalms, as St Benedict prescribed, at the night vigil: his own rule prescribed 36 at night on weekdays, increasing to 75 on Saturdays and Sundays in winter! 

Even after the Benedictine Rule's provisions became the monastic norm in the West as a result of the Carolingian reforms, monks were expected to say many extra psalms in the additional devotional offices that became the norm.

No wonder then that St Benedict's throwaway line in his Rule allowing for alternative distributions of the psalter, providing that all of the psalms are said at least once a week, gained no traction at all until the nineteenth century. 

Offices of the saints

The other complicating factor to keep in mind is the development of special Offices for feasts and the saints.  St Benedict's Rule actually prescribes that on saints days the structure of the Office should be as for Sunday (ie an extended Vigil), but the actual psalms to be said those of the day of the week.  But in fact in both the Roman and Benedictine Offices the psalms of the day came increasingly to be displaced by specific sets of psalms appropriate to the feast, or from the 'Commons' for particular types of saints or classes of feast, which in practice drastically reducing the variety of psalms said, even for those nominally saying the full Office, rather than one of the abbreviated versions such as the Office of Our Lady. 

Indeed, one of the primary aims of  Pope Pius X's 1911 reforms of the Breviary was to drastically prune back the displacement of the regular psalter by feasts.

So where did the idea of a one-week distribution come from?

Throughout the Middle Ages a number of different psalm schemas competed, including the short one, two and three day devotional Offices, as well as the two week schema of Milan. Still, the two dominant ones were the one week distributions of St Benedict and the Roman Office.

Professor Dobszay, in his reflections on the Bugnini reforms of the psalter, has suggested that the reason for settling on a week rotation is the tie in with the seven days of creation.  It is certainly true that several of the modern Vespers hymns do contain allusions to the respective days of creation, but the allocation of these hymns to the particular days are actually a (relatively) recent development.  None of the recent histories of the Office point to any patristic or medieval discussions of this link as far as I could find (though do point me to them if they exist!) though. Nor is there any obvious allocation of psalms pertinent to each day of creation to particular days of week in the older Roman Office at least. 

Nonetheless, the idea is certainly plausible, and in fact, I do think at least some allusions to the days of creation can be found in the ordering of the Benedictine Office, albeit 'Christianized' so that Sunday rather than Saturday becomes the day of rest, when we reflect on the goodness of creation; Monday focuses on the first day of creation, including of light, opening with Psalm 32 on the role of the Word in creation, and in Psalm 35 which St Benedict added to Lauds, in the section of Psalm 118 that starts at Terce (Lucerna...); on Tuesday there is a strong focus on the city of Jerusalem (the day starts with the first of the 'songs of Sion', Psalm 45, and features the Gradual Psalms during the day and at Vespers), a focus on heaven, created on the second day; and so forth. 

Still, even if there is such a tie in, it doesn't really explain why all the psalms should be said in the course of a week.  Though perhaps there was thought to be a link to the mystical function of liturgy in the maintenance of the cosmos, and the book of Psalms. 

Practical reasons?

In reality one can't help suspecting that the real origin of weekly psalter schemas is both practically and spiritually based: psalms said every day are easy to memorize and keep in mind.  At a week's remove it is still possible to say them from memory without too many errors creeping in, though having a large proportion of the psalms repeated within the week makes this easier.  A weekly psalter serves to both emphasize the importance of the messages contained in the repeated psalms by keeping them top of mind, and reduces the memory workload on the brain! And in age where books were scarce and extremely expensive, these were important considerations. 

At a month's remove however, as for the Liturgy of the Hours, the chances of memorizing and keeping key psalm messages top of mind must surely greatly diminish, if not become all but impossible.

The beginning of the wreckovations?

In fact the psalter schemas that are designed around the idea of saying all of the psalms once a week, only once a week, one quickly suppressed sixteenth century experiment aside, in fact mostly date from the nineteenth century onwards. 

In 1842 the Hungarian Maurist Congregation took up the opt-out clause in St Benedict's Rule and designed a one week psalter that eliminated most repetitions.   The 1979 Benedictine 'Thesauris' similarly offers a one week arrangement that differs from St Benedict's as an option, and number of monasteries have adopted it in order to follow the Roman Rite suppression of the hour of Prime.

The most drastic and dramatic reorganization of the traditional psalter prior to Vatican II though, that set the precedent for the 1971 Liturgy of the Hours, was the thoroughly anti-traditional reform of Pope Pius X in 1910, reflected still in the Roman 1962 breviary.  

The governing principle of Pope Pius X's reform was to say each of the psalms at least once a week, and to reduce the overall load on those bound to say the Office.  The objective was perhaps noble.  In the process though, his breviary jettisoned the traditional allocations of psalms to morning and day; implied that all of the psalms were equally important (or unimportant as the case may be!); largely destroyed the particular character of many of the hours, particularly the Resurrection focus of Lauds and the short and sharp focus of the little hours; and completely revamped Compline by giving it variable psalms. 

And in the wake of Pope Pius X's reforms, further innovations occurred, most notably revamps of the Little Office of Our Lady occurred to allow (or require) religious sisters who had previously said a much more limited selection of psalms of that Office to say the whole 150 over two weeks.  And thus was the path set to Vatican II's wholesale wreckovation of the psalter.  But I'll come back to these issues in due course...

Notes:  For my discussion I'm primarily drawing on the following sources, though my ultimate conclusions do differ significantly from the authors in some cases:

Paul Bradshaw, Daily Prayer in the Early Church A Study of the Origin and Early Development of the Divine Office, Wipf and Stock: Eugene, Oregon, 1981, republished 2008

Laszlo Dobszay, “Critical Reflections on the Bugnini Liturgy: The Divine Office”, 1983 PDF available from http://musicasacra.com/literature/

Marilyn Dunn, “Mastering Benedict: Monastic Rules and Their Authors in the Early Medieval West”, English Historical Review 105 No. 416 (1990): 567-594 and “The Master and St Benedict: A Rejoinder”, English Historical Review, 107 No. 422 (1992): 104-111.

Theo Keller, "Short" Breviaries of 2oth and 21st Century America, keller book

Ruben M Leikam, “The Liturgy of the Hours in the Roman Rite”,  in Handbook for Liturgical Studies Liturgical Times and Space, Anscar J Chupungco ed, A Pueblo Book, Liturgical Press: Collegeville, 2000.

Alcuin Reid in The Organic Development of the Liturgy The Principles of Liturgical Reform and their Relation to the Twentieth Century Liturgical Movement Prior to the Second Vatican Council, St Michael’s Abbey Press: Farnborough, 2004.

Robert Taft, The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today, Second Revised Edition, 1993, The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, Minnesota, Second Revised Edition 1993

Adalbert de Vogüé, OSB, The Rule of Saint Benedict A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary, trans John Baptist Hasbrouck, Cistercian Publications: Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1983.

Lectio notes on the Propers: Psalm 24 (25), Offertory

St Albans Psalter, c12th

Today's meditation notes focus on the Offertory for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Ad te Domine levavi.

This text actually gets several runs at Mass during the liturgical year: as an Offertory it is also used on the first Sunday of Advent, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, on Wednesday during the second week of Lent; the text also gets a few runs as an Introit and in a tract.

A paradoxical text

The opening verse of the Offertory, 'Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam', or 'To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul', actually seems at first blush an odd choice to go with a Gospel that honours keeping one's eyes looking at the ground, as St Benedict instructs in his Rule, to show one's humility, in contrast to the over-bold Pharisee.

But in fact the line reflects the idea that the just man lifts up his soul, conscious of his sinfulness, rather than thinking, as some protestant sects do, that once saved always saved!

The text then goes on to make the connection to the Gospel clearer, pointing to the fact that though the Pharisee may sneer at the publican now, in the future, when our hope is realized in heaven things will be different: 'Deus meus, in te confido' (My God, I put my trust), non erubescam, neque irrideant me inimici mei (let me not be ashamed, neither let my enemies laugh at me), etenim universi, qui te expectant non confundentur (for none of them that wait on you will be confounded). Our faith, in other words, may bring forth derision now, but we must persevere in the hope of ultimate vindication.

The verses of the Offertory point to the whole psalm...

The longer setting of the Offertory in the Offertoriale Triplex offers a few extra thoughts to consider: first a plea for God to direct us in truth and teach us (Dírige me in veritáte tua, et doce me: quia tu es, Deus, salutaris meus, et te sustínui tota die), and secondly to look down upon us and have mercy (réspice in me, et miserére mei Domine...).

The really key verse of this psalm though in the context of today's Gospel is one not actually included in the chant setting, namely, 'Vide humilitátem meam, et labórem meum: et dimítte univérsa delícta mea', or 'See my abjection and my labour; and forgive me all my sins'.

The message of today's Gospel, and of this psalm, is that the difference between the just and unjust man is acknowledgement of our continuing sinful state, and willingness to keep trying to do better. St Robert Bellarmine commented:

"...For, though a soul fearing God may be grievously afflicted, and take great pains in resisting concupiscence, still the just man falls seven times; and yet, from his fall, he may be proved to be just; because, at once, by his tears, his prayers, and his contrition, he quickly wipes away the filth and dirt into which he had incautiously fallen..."

Other Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Lk 6:35(9); Mt 22:16 (10); Lk 18:13 (12); Jn 1:17(11); Jn 6:45 (15)
RB cursus	Sunday Matins
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	All Souls/Office of Dead, II, 2;
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins (post Tridentine, Prime Tuesday)
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Prime Tuesday.
Mass propers (EF)	Advent I, OF (1-2); Thurs after Ash Wed, OF (1-2); Lent Ember Wed IN (1-2, 6, 23), GR (18-19); TR (18-19, 1-3); Lent Ember Friday, IN (18-19,1); Lent 2 Wednesday, OF (1-2), Lent 3 Sunday, IN (1, 16-17); Passion Tuesday, CO (23); Sacred Heart, GR (9-10); PP3, IN (17-18, 1); PP10, OF (1-2)

Psalm 24

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.
Ad te, Dómine, levávi ánimam meam: * Deus meus, in te confído, non erubéscam.	O you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In you, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.
Neque irrídeant me inimíci mei: *  étenim univérsi, qui sústinent te, non confundentur.	Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on you shall be confounded.
Confundántur omnes iníqua agéntes * supervácue.	Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause.
Vias tuas, Dómine, demónstra mihi * et sémitas tuas édoce me.	Show, O Lord, your ways to me, and teach me your paths.
Dírige me in veritáte tua, et doce me: * quia tu es, Deus, Salvátor meus, et te sustínui tota die.	Direct me in your truth, and teach me; for you are God my Saviour; and on you have I waited all the day long
Reminíscere miseratiónum tuárum, Dómine, * et misericordiárum tuárum, quæ a sæculo sunt.	Remember, O Lord, your bowels of compassion; and your mercies that are from the beginning of the world.
Delícta juventútis meæ, * et ignorántias meas ne memíneris.	The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember.
Secúndum misericórdiam tuam meménto mei tu, * propter bonitátem tuam, Dómine.	According to your mercy remember me: for your goodness' sake, O Lord.
Dulcis et rectus Dóminus: * propter hoc legem dabit delinquéntibus in via.	The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way.
10Diriget mansuétos in judício: * docébit mites vias suas.	He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways.
Univérsæ viæ Dómini, misericórdia et véritas, * requiréntibus testaméntum ejus et testimónia ejus.	All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, to them that seek after his covenant and his testimonies.
Propter nomen tuum, Dómine, propitiáberis peccáto meo: * multum est enim.	For your name's sake, O Lord, you will pardon my sin: for it is great.
Quis est homo qui timet Dóminum? * legem státuit ei in via, quam elégit.	Who is the man that fears the Lord? He has appointed him a law in the way he has chosen.
Anima ejus in bonis demorábitur: * et semen ejus hereditábit terram.	His soul shall dwell in good things: and his seed shall inherit the land
Firmaméntum est Dóminus timéntibus eum: * et testaméntum ipsíus ut manifestétur illis.	The Lord is a firmament to them that fear him: and his covenant shall be made manifest to them.
Oculi mei semper ad Dóminum: * quóniam ipse evéllet de láqueo pedes meos.	My eyes are ever towards the Lord: for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare.
Réspice in me, et miserére mei: * quia únicus et pauper sum ego.	Look upon me, and have mercy on me; for I am alone and poor.
Tribulatiónes cordis mei multiplicátæ sunt: * de necessitátibus meis érue me.	The troubles of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities.
Vide humilitátem meam, et labórem meum: * et dimítte univérsa delícta mea.	See my abjection and my labour; and forgive me all my sins.
Réspice inimícos meos quóniam multiplicáti sunt: * et ódio iníquo odérunt me.	Consider my enemies for they are multiplied, and have hated me with an unjust hatred.
Custódi ánimam meam, et érue me: * non erubéscam quóniam sperávi in te.	Deepen my soul, and deliver me: I shall not be ashamed, for I have hoped in you.
Innocéntes et recti adhæsérunt mihi: * quia sustínui te.	The innocent and the upright have adhered to me: because I have waited on you.
Líbera, Deus, Israël: * ex ómnibus tribulatiónibus suis.	Deliver Israel, O God, from all his tribulations.

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Comparing Offices/1

I've been planning to make some comments about 'psalm cursus' or the running order of the psalms for various purposes, particularly in the Divine Office, and I've seen as couple of requests for psalter comparisons recently, so I've been spurred into action!

Psalm schemas and their effects

My primary interest is the construction of the traditional Benedictine Office (so please do jump in and comment, especially if you are more familiar with other forms of the office or disagree with my comments, questions and conclusions).  My premise is that the way the psalms are arranged so that we hear and/or say them clearly affects how we interpret them, and thus how they affect us.  So my starting point is that the differing arrangements of the psalter affect our spirituality.

The practice of rearranging the psalms into particular groupings and orders is ancient.

In Scripture itself, there are both distinct groupings of psalms arising from their use for particular purposes (such as the 'Gradual Psalms' and 'Hallel Psalms' which both had a place in traditional Jewish liturgy), and an overall ordering which arguably reflects one or more editorial programs.  In addition, some of the ancient titles to the psalms include notes as to the particular day of the week they are associated with, presumably for liturgical purposes.

In the EF Mass the selected psalm verses have generally serve to reinforce or help interpret the messages implicit or explicit to a particular Sunday or feast.

In the Divine Office the number, length, content of particular allocated psalms can give that hour and day a distinctive character.  Indeed, many would suggest that the particular orderings of psalms, choice of repeated psalms and other such features contribute to the distinctive spirituality for the group using them, for example, peculiar to the various religious orders.

Some comparisons

In this series I plan make comparisons between five main orderings of the psalter (though I will make comments about others), namely:

• the ancient Roman Psalter. And here I will primarily rely on the (speculative) reconstruction of the c5-6th century psalter included in Robert Taft's The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, pp136;
• the Monastic schema as set out in the Rule of St Benedict.  This schema is used in the 'traditional' Benedictine Office for weekdays, although over the centuries the Benedictine Office has adopted additional psalm schemas for feasts;
• the pre-1911 Roman Psalter  used from the Council of Trent to 1911;
• the Pius X psalter that forms the basis of the 1962 Roman Office; and
• the 1971 Liturgy of the Hours.

So what are the nature of the differences?

I want to work through this rather systematically, so this series will stretch over several parts, but let me start by giving a bit of an overview.

Psalm schemas, it seems to me, differ in:

• the timeframe in which the selected psalms are said - the Liturgy of the Hours (LOOH) is spread over four weeks, whereas the major pre-Vatican II schemas listed above rotate on a one week system;
• how many 'hours' (sets of prayers) are said a day -  the pre-Vatican II norm was eight hours; Vatican II abolished the hour of Prime, and requires only one of Terce, Sext or None to be said;
• which psalms are said - the Benedictine and older Roman forms of the Office use all 150 psalms from the Book of Psalms plus a number of additional 'canticles' (ie psalms from other books of the Bible).  The LOOH omits some psalms and many verses considered 'too hard' for modern readers, but adds in additional 'canticles';
• whether psalms are divided or not - the pre-1911 Roman Office kept all psalms together regardless of length, whereas the Benedictine and other later Offices divided psalms for length and thematic reasons;
• the number and length of psalms said at particular hours - Terce, Sext, None and Vespers in the Benedictine Office for example are much shorter than any of the older Roman variants, while Matins is much longer;
• the extent to which psalms are repeated.  The older forms of the Office all included a number of repeated psalms.  The Benedictine Office for example actually involves saying 247 psalms (plus an additional 24 canticles) each week, not 150.  The various revisions of the Roman psalter have gradually reduced, and in the LOOH all but much eliminated, these repetitions;
• the extent to which the days of the Office and/or particular hours have an underlying theme or program to them. 

What impact do these differing dimensions have on us?  Part 2 in this series can be found here.

Propers for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost/21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, the 'propers' are not optional, they must be said or sung audibly.  In the Ordinary Form, though they notionally exist, they are generally omitted, drowned out by hymns.   Some are trying to change this however, so from this week I will include the psalms set for both forms of the Mass to assist in your preparation for Sunday Mass.

Propers for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

c11th German

Readings: Is 22:19-23; Ps 138; Rm 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20 (St Peter acknowledges Our Lord and is promised the keys)

Introit: Ps 85:1-4 (Inclina) Incline your ear to me, 0 Lord, and hear me; 0 God, save your servant who trusts in you; have mercy on me, 0 Lord, for unto you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for unto you, 0 Lord, have I lifted up my soul.

Gradual:  Ps 91:2, 3 (Bonum est): It is good to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing in honour of your name, 0 Most High. To show forth your mercy in the morning, and your fidelity in the night.

Alleluia: Jn 6:64

Offertory: Ps 39: 2, 3, 4 (Expectans expectavi): With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he has cast his look upon me; he has heard my supplication and he has put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God.

Communio: Ps 103:13-15 (De fructu): The earth will be satisfied by the work of your hands, 0 Lord, as you bring forth bread from the land and wine to gladden the heart of man; oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart.

Propers for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: 1 Corinthians 12:2-11; Luke 18:9-14 (pride of the pharisee vs the humility of the publican)

Introit: Ps. 54: 17, 18, 20, 23, 2

Cum clamárem ad Dóminum, exaudívit vocem meam, ab his qui appropinquant mihi: et humiliávit eos, qui est ante saecula: et manet in ætérnum: jacta cogitátum tuum in Dómino, et ipse te enútriet. Exáudi, Deus, oratiónem meam, et ne despéxeris deprecatiónem meam: intende mihi, et exaudi me.

When I cried to the Lord He heard my voice, from them that draw near to me: and He humbled them, who is before all ages, and remains for ever: cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication be attentive to me and hear me.

Gradual: Ps. 16: 8,2

Custódi me, Dómine, ut pupíllam óculi: sub umbra alárum tuárum protégé me. De vulto tuo judícium meum pródeat: óculi tui vídeant æquitátem.

Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of Thine eye: protect me under the shadow of Thy wings. Let my judgment come forth from Thy countenance: let Thine eyes behold the thing that is equitable.

Alleluia: Ps 64:2

Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion: et tibi reddétur votum in Jerúsalem
A hymn, O God, becometh Thee in Sion: and a vow shall be paid to Thee in Jerusalem.

Offertory: Ps 24:1-3

Ad te, Dómine, levávi ánimam meam: Deus meus, in te confído, non erubéscam: neque irrédeant me inimíci mei: étenim univérsi qui te exspéctant, non confundéntur.

To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall, be confounded.

Communio: Ps 50: 51, 21

Acceptábis sacrifícium justítiæ, oblatiónes et holocáusta super altáre tuum, Dómine.

Thou wilt accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and holocausts, upon Thine altar, O Lord.

St Robert Bellarmine's Commentary on the Psalter/2

Yesterday I posted some material on the life of St Robert Bellarmine.  Today I want to give a few samples of his Commentary on the Psalms, from the translation by the Ven.  John O'Sullivan.

St Robert Bellarmine's Commentary is particularly helpful, I find, because it is firmly grounded in the tradition of the Church up to his time.  He frequently cites St Augustine and other patristic sources, is conscious of both the Vulgate/Septuagint traditions, but also of the Hebrew text variants.  Yet at the same time it has a distinctly more modern and engaging character than some of the medieval expositions.  Above all, St Robert provides a verse by verse exegesis that gets straight down to the juice to be squeezed out of the text for our spiritual advancement.

A contemplative

Though St Robert was a Jesuit, his commentary, though practical in orientation, is deeply contemplative in tone, something that helps make it extremely attractive to readers today.  Consider, for example, this take on the opening verse of Psalm 41 (42), 'As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God':

"Love is a fiery affection, and, therefore, cannot be restrained, but breaks forth in words and sighs. To express his love somehow, David compares himself to a thirsty stag, say­ing, "As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters;" a most happy and expressive simile.

The stag is noted for four pecu­liarities. It is a deadly enemy to serpents, and constantly at war with them. When it is pursued by the hunters, it betakes itself to the highest mountains as quickly as possible. By some nat­ural instinct, they singularly carry out the advice of the apostle, "Bear ye each other's burdens;" for, according to St. Augustine, when they move in a body, or swim across a lake, the weaker ones rest their heads on the stronger, and are thus helped along. Finally, when they are tired after a combat with serpents, or a flight to the mountain, or from helping each other along, they seek to refresh themselves by copious droughts of water, from which they cannot be tempted or deterred.

Such is a most per­fect idea of the true lover of God. He has to wage a continued war against the serpents of his evil desires. When he is nigh overcome by temptation, or by persecutions, he flies away to the mount of contemplation, bears his neighbor's infirmities with the greatest patience, and, above all, thirsts ardently for God, from whom he will not be held back by any earthly hap­piness or trouble. Such was David, though a soldier; so was Paul, Peter, and the other apostles and martyrs; such were all who felt they were, while here below, in exile, and, through good and evil days, never lost sight of that country, the supreme object of their wishes."

A God who guides us individually

St Robert advocates an active role for the laity, most especially the cultivation of a deeply personal relationship with God through the sacraments, reading of Scripture, prayer and good works.  In his commentary on Psalm 94, said daily at Matins in the older forms of the Roman and Benedictine Offices, for example, he discusses the sources of guidance God provides for each of us individually in relation to the verse, 'If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts'.  He points to the conventional injunction to obey the commandments:

"...the Prophet exhorts God's people to praise God, not only by word of mouth, but also by their works. Now, the most agreeable sacrifice we can offer to God is the observance of his commandments, according to 1 Kings 15, "Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed?"

But he points to other important sources of guidance as well:

"The word "if" seems to mean that God does not speak to us every moment, but that he advises in fitting time and place, either through his teachers, or through the reading of the Scriptures, or in some other mode to make his will known to us."

A counter to clericalism

One of the more notable features of the work is that throughout the text, the saint offers careful correctives to the excesses of clericalist authoritarianism.  In his remarks on the verse in the same psalm 'we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture', for example, on the one hand he stresses the importance of the pastors of the Church, but on the other he is conscious of the only too contemporary problem of false and unworthy priests, and stresses that God guides us each individually as well:

"...the Lord not only made us, but he governs us by a special providence, as a shepherd would the flock that belonged to himself....are not sheep devoid of reason, that need to be driven with a staff; and they are called the sheep of his hand, either because he made them, or because he guides them with his hand; for though God's people have shepherds and teachers to feed and to direct them, still he has a peculiar care for them, and does not let them suffer from the negligence or the ignorance, or even the malice of the pastors. Whence we infer that God's people should put great confidence in God, their supreme Pastor, and have recourse to him, through prayer, when they fall in with an unworthy pastor, for God himself says, "I will feed my sheep," Ezech. 34."

I hope this little taster will encourage you to acquire and read more of this great work.