Strategies for learning the Latin of the Office...

Continuing on from my previous post on saying the Office in Latin, today I want to suggest some learning strategies for those who wish to say the Office in Latin. 

1.  Immersion is best: say or sing as much as possible in Latin

You pick up patterns and seeing and hearing them over and over again, so its best to start from the beginning trying to say or sing however much of the Office you say in Latin.   As you along, you will understand more and more, gradually penetrating into the meaning of the text.

So in order to get started, take a look at a pronunciation guide (and there are many others around the net).  And listen to a few recordings of key prayers or Scripture selections - for example from this useful collection.

2.  Say or sing out the psalms out loud

It is much easier to memorize things if you say them and hear them said out loud. 

There are a couple of sites with useful audio files of the Vulgate psalms read in Latin, the ones I know about being:

• Voce alta; and
• Boston Catholic

Once you've got a sense of how they should sound though, hear them sung at pace (and join in), for example through the recordings of the Benedictine hours of Lauds and Vespers (and occasionally Compline) made available by the monks of Norcia.

Similarly, when you are trying to learn individual words, say them out loud.

3.  Start with the general sense, then dig down

The best way to learn the psalms is to start with a general sense of what they are about, then look at the verse by verse translation, then the phrase by phrase, then the word by word.  Start, in other words, at the general level, and gradually dig deeper.

To help on this, I'll generally provide a short summary of what each psalm is about, then some general introductory material on it, and then more detailed notes.

4.  Repetition is crucial

I've seen some material on learning languages that suggests you need to see a word in a context that gives it a meaning (ie accompanied by a definition or other cue) around 72 times in order to lodge it permanently in the memory.

Some suggested tactics to help achieve that:

• try to learn the psalm verses, together with a sense of what they mean, by heart - at least so you can keep it in mind for a day, repeating it over to yourself;
• write it out verse by verse, phrase by phrase, or word by word on flashcards, one side Latin the other English;
• keep referring the verse or phrase back to the whole, and back to the summary of what the psalm is about;
• go back and refresh your memory on the verse the next day and at regular intervals until you are sure it is firmly lodged in your brain!

5.  Get an overview of how Latin grammar works

You don't need to start by learning Latin properly. 

The notes I plan to provide will give you a phrase by phrase literal translation which you can use to compare to the official translations and pick it up that way.

But you will pick up the language a lot faster if you have a general sense of how Latin works.  The key here is to know that while in English word order does a lot of the work of conveying different meanings, in Latin word order is mostly about emphasis: what changes the meaning is the endings of the words.

A very useful, basic introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin is the excellent Simplicissimus course, targeted specifically at the Latin of the Office and Mass.  Read through it first, and then go and back and work through it more carefully at your leisure! 

If you have a good grasp of traditional grammar, you might find one of the online parsing tools available to help work your way through the text.

Another excellent tool to decipher individual words is the Perseus Latin Word Tool.

Resources

I've put up a number of link to Latin resources and psalm commentaries in the right sidebar, so do take a look at them.  Study of the commentaries by the Fathers and Theologians is particularly important, in my view, in order to gain a proper understanding the text of the psalms.

I want to acknowledge though that my own notes also draw heavily on Dom Matthew Britt's Dictionary of the Psalter which can be downloaded for free - it is rather weighted towards the Masoretic Text version of the psalter, but is still a very comprehensive and helpful resource. 

Another older commentary I've used extensively is the two volume commentary by Msgr Patrick Boylan. 

Other more recent useful aids include David Ladouceur's The Latin Psalter, Introduction, Selected Text and Commentary (only does a few psalms, and similarly biased against the validity of the Septuagint text, but useful grammar notes) and Hugh Ballantyne's the Psalms and Canticles of the Divine Office Latin Text Edited with Vocabulary and Notes (but you have to start at Psalm 1 and work through in order, learning the vocab off by heart, as he doesn't include repetitions or a complete alphabetical listing of words). 

More soon...

Learning the Latin psalms of the Office; penetrating the meaning of the psalms

I want to start an intermittent series aimed firstly at those wishing to pray the Office in Latin, but whose Latin is non-existent or very rusty, but also providing some more general material on individual psalms to increase our understanding of them. 

The main focus of the series is understanding the Latin of the psalms in the context of the interpretations of them by the Fathers and Theologians.

And in doing so, I want to take as my starting point some of the General Audiences on prayer being given by Pope Benedict XVI at the moment.  So I do hope it will offer something for those whose Latin is fairly good, but want to dig a little deeper into the texts of the psalms.

First some explanation.

Why pray the Office in Latin?

Latin is the official liturgical language of the Church, and praying the Office in Latin offers a number of advantages: the ability to join in solidarity with those who have used this same language down the centuries; to use the traditional chants of the Office as well as the rich patrimony of polyphonic settings; and to share in the beauty of the Church's tradition.

More importantly perhaps, it is essential for those who wish to pray the older forms (ie 1962 rubrics) of the Office liturgically, since the Pope has only given permission for it to be said in that language (though that does not of course prevent the older form of the Office being said devotionally in English or another language by those who are not bound to say it).

Unfortunately Latin is little taught today, so saying the Office in that language presents some challenges to most people!

Do we need to understand the Latin to be able to pray in Latin?

Some people will object that it inappropriate to pray in a language such as Latin unless we actually understand what we are saying. 

I beg to differ!

In fact, St Thomas Aquinas addressed the important question of what is necessary in order to pray 'in spirit and in truth' and gain the merits that come from prayer in his Summa.  He argued (ST II-II 183 art 13) that there are three kinds of attention in prayer:

"It must be observed, however, that there are three kinds of attention that can be brought to vocal prayer: one which attends to the words, lest we say them wrong, another which attends to the sense of the words, and a third, which attends to the end of prayer, namely, God, and to the thing we are praying for. That last kind of attention is most necessary, and even idiots are capable of it. Moreover this attention, whereby the mind is fixed on God, is sometimes so strong that the mind forgets all other things, as Hugh of St. Victor states [De Modo Orandi ii]."

Immersion is the best approach...

So the problem is not really a new one!  While some religious and laypeople down the ages have enjoyed formal teaching in Latin from their childhood, many more have picked it up by immersion, from hearing and saying it themselves over and over.

People down the ages have gradually acquired some Latin by saying it and hearing it.  So I would encourage you to try and say the Office in Latin even if you don't actually understand Latin, because after a while, I think you will find you are understanding it, and in the meantime, you can still gain the benefits of prayer (and liturgical prayer its highest form) through proper attention on God. 

And of course that process of gaining understanding can be accelerated by some carefully targeted supplementary study.

I've previously provided some suggestions for tackling the Latin of the Office over at my Saints Will Arise blog.  I want to go somewhat further here, and provide some psalm by psalm/verse by verse notes to help those wanting to say the Office in Latin, and to gradually build a better understanding of just what it is they are saying.

There are two main groups of people I'm aiming my notes at - those who have no Latin at all, but want to gradually acquire an understanding of what they are saying, and those with some Latin, but which is mostly forgotten or at an early stage of being learnt, or who may have learnt classical Latin, and so aren't familiar with the vocabulary of the psalter.

Let me start with a disclaimer - I'm not a qualified teacher nor to I claim to be a great Latinist.  I'm just a student of languages who is still learning.  But I'm keen to share what I have learnt, and to learn from others' struggles with the same issues.  I do hope those more expert will jump in and correct anything I've got wrong, and others will jump in to seek clarification on anything unclear.

The notes

The notes I plan to provide (and their continuation will depend on the level of interest and reactions!) will basically consist of some generally introductory material for each psalm, and then look at a verse each day or so in more detail.

I'm proposing that the verse by verse notes include a phrase by phrase fairly literal translation of the Latin vulgate; vocabularly lists; brief notes on the text (differences between the Greek Septuagint/Vulgate and Hebrew Masoretic Text, imagery used, cultural context etc); and for comparative purposes, some standard translations (such as the updated Douay-Rheims, etc).  I'll also include a short extract from a patristic commentary or other material to aid the interpretation of the verse.  But please do let me know if there is something else or something different you would like included.

And since Pope Benedict XVI is currently giving a series of General Audiences on the psalms and their teaching on prayer, I thought I might start with the two of the psalms he has given Audiences on.

The first psalm the Pope has looked at in this current series is Psalm 3, so I propose to start there.  But before I do that, I'll put up a few notes over the next few days on strategies for learning the Latin of the psalms to help get you going.

Comments and suggestions welcome...

St Hilary of Poitiers on the psalms/2

Apologies for the gap in posting, I've been preoccupied with other things!  But I will hopefully, start get moving on this blog very shortly indeed.  In the meantime, a few notes on St Hilary's commentaries on the psalms.

St Hilary on the psalms

It is likely that St Hilary, like so many of the Fathers, wrote commentaries on most, if not all of the psalms.  Unfortunately though, only a few of these have survived, namely those on psalms 1,2,9,13,14,51-69, 91 and 118-150, available on Migne in the Patrologia Latina series. 

These have all been translated into French (in the Sources Chretienne series) but only psalms 1, 53 and 130 are available in English online.

What has come down to us, though, is well worth reading, not least because he often takes a slightly different view than many of the other Fathers.   On Psalm 1, for example, he disputes the standard view that the psalm provides a description of Our Lord, and argues instead that it provides instruction and encouragement for those trying to imitate him. 

By way of a taster, then, here is an extract from St Hilary's commentary on Psalm 1 dealing with the psalms as divine revelation, and how to interpret who the speaker is in them.

Interpreting the psalms as divine revelation

"The primary condition of knowledge for reading the Psalms is the ability to see as whose mouthpiece we are to regard the Psalmist as speaking, and who it is that he addresses. For they are not all of the same uniform character, but of different authorship and different types.

For we constantly find that the Person of God the Father is being set before us, as in that passage of the eighty-eighth Psalm: I have exalted one chosen out of My people, I have found David My servant, with My holy oil have I anointed him. He shall call Me, You are my Father and the upholder of my salvation. And I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth ; while in what we might call the majority of Psalms the Person of the Son is introduced, as in the seventeenth: A people whom I have not known has served Me ; and in the twenty-first: they parted My garments among them and cast lots upon My vesture.   But the contents of the first Psalm forbid us to understand it either of the Person of the Father or of the Son: But his will has been in the law of the Lord, and in His Law will he meditate day and night.

Now in the Psalm in which we said the Person of the Father is intended, the terms used are exactly appropriate, for instance: He shall call Me, You are my Father, my God and the upholder of my salvation; and in that one in which we hear the Son speaking, He proclaims Himself to be the author of the words by the very expressions He employs, saying, A people whom I have not known has served Me. That is to say, when the Father on the one hand says: He shall call Me; and the Son on the other hand says: a people has served Me, they show that it is They Themselves Who are speaking concerning Themselves. Here, however, where we have But his will has been in the Law of the Lord; obviously it is not the Person of the Lord speaking concerning Himself, but the person of another, extolling the happiness of that man whose will is in the Law of the Lord. Here, then, we are to recognise the person of the Prophet by whose lips the Holy Spirit speaks, raising us by the instrumentality of his lips to the knowledge of a spiritual mystery.


...The Holy Spirit made choice of this magnificent and noble introduction to the Psalter, in order to stir up weak man to a pure zeal for piety by the hope of happiness, to teach him the mystery of the Incarnate God, to promise him participation in heavenly glory, to declare the penalty of the Judgment, to proclaim the two-fold resurrection, to show forth the counsel of God as seen in His award. It is indeed after a faultless and mature design that He has laid the foundation of this great prophecy ; His will being that the hope connected with the happy man might allure weak humanity to zeal for the Faith; that the analogy of the happiness of the tree might be the pledge of a happy hope, that the declaration of His wrath against the ungodly might set the bounds of fear to the excesses of ungodliness, that difference in rank in the assemblies of the saints might mark difference in merit, that the standard appointed for judging the ways of the righteous might show forth the majesty of God.

Commentaries on the Psalms: St Hilary of Poitiers

Ordination of St Hilary, c14th

St Hilary of Poitiers (300-368) is one of the less known Western doctors of the Church, but like many of his near contemporaries, he seems to have written extensive commentaries on the psalms, only a few of which unfortunately, have survived, and fewer yet, as far as I can discover, are readily available either in Latin or in translation.

But first some background on the saint, from Pope Benedict XVI from a General Audience in 2007:

"Today, I would like to talk about a great Father of the Church of the West, St Hilary of Poitiers, one of the important Episcopal figures of the fourth century. In the controversy with the Arians, who considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but only human, Hilary devoted his whole life to defending faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God as the Father who generated him from eternity.

We have no reliable information on most of Hilary's life. Ancient sources say that he was born in Poitiers, probably in about the year 310 A.D. From a wealthy family, he received a solid literary education, which is clearly recognizable in his writings. It does not seem that he grew up in a Christian environment. He himself tells us of a quest for the truth which led him little by little to recognize God the Creator and the incarnate God who died to give us eternal life. Baptized in about 345, he was elected Bishop of his native city around 353-354. In the years that followed, Hilary wrote his first work, Commentary on St Matthew's Gospel. It is the oldest extant commentary in Latin on this Gospel. In 356, Hilary took part as a Bishop in the Synod of Béziers in the South of France, the "synod of false apostles", as he himself called it since the assembly was in the control of Philo-Arian Bishops who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. "These false apostles" asked the Emperor Constantius to have the Bishop of Poitiers sentenced to exile. Thus, in the summer of 356, Hilary was forced to leave Gaul.

Banished to Phrygia in present-day Turkey, Hilary found himself in contact with a religious context totally dominated by Arianism. Here too, his concern as a Pastor impelled him to work strenuously to re-establish the unity of the Church on the basis of right faith as formulated by the Council of Nicea. To this end he began to draft his own best-known and most important dogmatic work: De Trinitate (On the Trinity). Hilary explained in it his personal journey towards knowledge of God and took pains to show that not only in the New Testament but also in many Old Testament passages, in which Christ's mystery already appears, Scripture clearly testifies to the divinity of the Son and his equality with the Father. To the Arians he insisted on the truth of the names of Father and Son, and developed his entire Trinitarian theology based on the formula of Baptism given to us by the Lord himself: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".

The Father and the Son are of the same nature. And although several passages in the New Testament might make one think that the Son was inferior to the Father, Hilary offers precise rules to avoid misleading interpretations: some Scriptural texts speak of Jesus as God, others highlight instead his humanity. Some refer to him in his pre-existence with the Father; others take into consideration his state of emptying of self (kenosis), his descent to death; others, finally, contemplate him in the glory of the Resurrection. In the years of his exile, Hilary also wrote the Book of Synods in which, for his brother Bishops of Gaul, he reproduced confessions of faith and commented on them and on other documents of synods which met in the East in about the middle of the fourth century. Ever adamant in opposing the radical Arians, St Hilary showed a conciliatory spirit to those who agreed to confess that the Son was essentially similar to the Father, seeking of course to lead them to the true faith, according to which there is not only a likeness but a true equality of the Father and of the Son in divinity. This too seems to me to be characteristic: the spirit of reconciliation that seeks to understand those who have not yet arrived and helps them with great theological intelligence to reach full faith in the true divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 360 or 361, Hilary was finally able to return home from exile and immediately resumed pastoral activity in his Church, but the influence of his magisterium extended in fact far beyond its boundaries. A synod celebrated in Paris in 360 or 361 borrows the language of the Council of Nicea. Several ancient authors believe that this anti-Arian turning point of the Gaul episcopate was largely due to the fortitude and docility of the Bishop of Poitiers. This was precisely his gift: to combine strength in the faith and docility in interpersonal relations. In the last years of his life he also composed the Treatises on the Psalms, a commentary on 58 Psalms interpreted according to the principle highlighted in the introduction to the work: "There is no doubt that all the things that are said in the Psalms should be understood in accordance with Gospel proclamation, so that, whatever the voice with which the prophetic spirit has spoken, all may be referred nevertheless to the knowledge of the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnation, Passion and Kingdom, and to the power and glory of our resurrection" (Instructio Psalmorum, 5). He saw in all the Psalms this transparency of the mystery of Christ and of his Body which is the Church. Hilary met St Martin on various occasions: the future Bishop of Tours founded a monastery right by Poitiers, which still exists today. Hilary died in 367. His liturgical Memorial is celebrated on 13 January. In 1851 Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him a Doctor of the universal Church.

To sum up the essentials of his doctrine, I would like to say that Hilary found the starting point for his theological reflection in baptismal faith. In De Trinitate, Hilary writes: Jesus "has commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28: 19), that is, in the confession of the Author, of the Only-Begotten One and of the Gift. The Author of all things is one alone, for one alone is God the Father, from whom all things proceed. And one alone is Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist (cf. I Cor 8: 6), and one alone is the Spirit (cf. Eph 4: 4), a gift in all.... In nothing can be found to be lacking so great a fullness, in which the immensity in the Eternal One, the revelation in the Image, joy in the Gift, converge in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit" (De Trinitate 2, 1). God the Father, being wholly love, is able to communicate his divinity to his Son in its fullness. I find particularly beautiful the following formula of St Hilary: "God knows not how to be anything other than love, he knows not how to be anyone other than the Father. Those who love are not envious and the one who is the Father is so in his totality. This name admits no compromise, as if God were father in some aspects and not in others" (ibid., 9, 61).

For this reason the Son is fully God without any gaps or diminishment. "The One who comes from the perfect is perfect because he has all, he has given all" (ibid., 2, 8). Humanity finds salvation in Christ alone, Son of God and Son of man. In assuming our human nature, he has united himself with every man, "he has become the flesh of us all" (Tractatus super Psalmos 54, 9); "he took on himself the nature of all flesh and through it became true life, he has in himself the root of every vine shoot" (ibid., 51, 16). For this very reason the way to Christ is open to all - because he has drawn all into his being as a man -, even if personal conversion is always required: "Through the relationship with his flesh, access to Christ is open to all, on condition that they divest themselves of their former self (cf. Eph 4: 22), nailing it to the Cross (cf. Col 2: 14); provided we give up our former way of life and convert in order to be buried with him in his baptism, in view of life (cf. Col 1: 12; Rom 6: 4)" (ibid., 91, 9).

Fidelity to God is a gift of his grace. Therefore, St Hilary asks, at the end of his Treatise on the Trinity, to be able to remain ever faithful to the baptismal faith. It is a feature of this book: reflection is transformed into prayer and prayer returns to reflection. The whole book is a dialogue with God.

I would like to end today's Catechesis with one of these prayers, which thus becomes our prayer:

"Obtain, O Lord", St Hilary recites with inspiration, "that I may keep ever faithful to what I have professed in the symbol of my regeneration, when I was baptized in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. That I may worship you, our Father, and with you, your Son; that I may deserve your Holy Spirit, who proceeds from you through your Only Begotten Son... Amen" (De Trinitate 12, 57)."

Comparing Offices/5 - Vespers and Compline

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.

St Basil the Great/3 - The psalm commentaries



c15th from Mt Athos

In the last two posts on St Basil the Great, I've included some material on the saint's life and theology.  Now to his psalm commentaries!

The surviving commentaries take the form of sermons on Psalms 1, 7, 14, 28, 29, 32, 33, 44, 45, 48, 59, 61 and 114, and are available online in English (see the link below, or in the sidebar at the right).

On the value of the psalms

To give you a flavour of them, here is an extract from Homily 10, on the value of the psalms in the context of Psalm 1:

"ALL SCRIPTURE is INSPIRED by God and is useful, composed by the Spirit for this reason, namely, that we men, each and all of us, as if in a general hospital for souls, may select the remedy for his own condition. For, it says, 'care will make the greatest sin to cease.' Now, the prophets teach one thing, historians another, the law something else, and the form of advice found in the proverbs something different still. But, the Book of Psalms has taken over what is profitable from all. It foretells coming events; it recalls history; it frames laws for life; it suggests what must be done; and, in general, it is the common treasury of good doctrine, carefully finding what is suitable for each one. The old wounds of souls it cures completely, and to the recently wounded it brings speedy improvement; the diseased it treats, and the unharmed it preserves. On the whole, it effaces, as far as is possible, the passions, which subtly exercise dominion over souls during the lifetime of man, and it does this with a certain orderly persuasion and sweetness which produces sound thoughts.

When, indeed, the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was neglectful of an upright life, what did He do? The delight of melody He mingled with the doctrines so that by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard we might receive without perceiving it the benefit of the words, just as wise physicians who, when giving the fastidious rather bitter drugs to drink, frequently smear the cup with honey. Therefore, He devised for us these harmonious melodies of the psalms, that they who are children in age or, even those who are youthful in disposition might to all appearances chant but, in reality, become trained in soul For, never has any one of the many indifferent persons gone away easily holding in mind either an apostolic or prophetic message, but they do chant the words of the psalms, even in the home, and they spread them around in the market place, and, if perchance, someone becomes exceedingly wrathful, when he begins to be soothed by the psalm, he departs with the wrath of his soul immediately lulled to sleep by means of the melody.

A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him With whom he has uttered the same prayer to God? So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward unity, and joining the people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces also the greatest of blessings, charity. A psalm is a city of refuge from the demons; a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a rest from toils by day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the height of their vigor, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament for women. It peoples the solitudes; it rids the market place of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of the Church. It brightens the feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance with God. For, a psalm calls forth a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense.

Oh! the wise invention of the teacher who contrived that while we were singing we should at the same time learn something useful; by this means, too, the teachings are in a certain way impressed more deeply on our minds. Even a forceful lesson does not always endure, but what enters the mind with joy and pleasure somehow becomes more firmly impressed upon it. What, in fact, can you not learn from the psalms? Can you not learn the grandeur of courage? The exactness of justice? The nobility of self-control? The perfection of prudence? A manner of penance? The measure of patience? And whatever other good things you might mention? Therein is perfect theology, a prediction of the coming of Christ in the flesh, a threat of judgment, a hope of resurrection, a fear of punishment, promises of glory, an unveiling of mysteries; all things, as if in some great public treasury, are stored up in the Book of Psalms. To it, although there are many musical instruments, the prophet adapted the so-called harp, showing, as it seems to me, that the gift from the Spirit resounded in his ears from above. With the cithara and the lyre the bronze from beneath responds with sound to the plucking, but the harp has the source of its harmonic rhythms from above, in order that we may be careful to seek the things above and not be borne down by the sweetness of the melody to the passions of the flesh. And I believe this, namely, that the words of prophecy are made clear to us in a profound and wise manner through the structure of the instrument, because those who are orderly and harmonious in soul possess an easy path to the things above.

St Basil the Great/2 - theology



St Basil dictating his doctrine
de Herrera, 1639

Continuing on from yesterday's post on the life of St Basil the Great, today some background on his theological approach, from a second General Audience on the saint by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007:

"...The life and works of this great Saint are full of ideas for reflection and teachings that are also relevant for us today.

First of all is the reference to God's mystery, which is still the most meaningful and vital reference for human beings. The Father is "the principal of all things and the cause of being of all that exists, the root of the living" (Hom. 15, 2 de fide: PG 31, 465c); above all, he is "the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Anaphora Sancti Basilii). Ascending to God through his creatures, we "become aware of his goodness and wisdom" (Basil, Adversus Eunomium 1, 14: PG 29, 544b).

The Son is the "image of the Father's goodness and seal in the same form" (cf. Anaphora Sancti Basilii). With his obedience and his Passion, the Incarnate Word carried out his mission as Redeemer of man (cf. Basil, In Psalmum 48, 8; PG 29, 452ab; cf. also De Baptismo 1, 2: SC 357, 158).

Lastly, he spoke fully of the Holy Spirit, to whom he dedicated a whole book. He reveals to us that the Spirit enlivens the Church, fills her with his gifts and sanctifies her.

The resplendent light of the divine mystery is reflected in man, the image of God, and exalts his dignity. Looking at Christ, one fully understands human dignity.

Basil exclaims: "[Man], be mindful of your greatness, remembering the price paid for you: look at the price of your redemption and comprehend your dignity!" (In Psalmum 48, 8: PG 29, 452b).

Christians in particular, conforming their lives to the Gospel, recognize that all people are brothers and sisters; that life is a stewardship of the goods received from God, which is why each one is responsible for the other, and whoever is rich must be as it were an "executor of the orders of God the Benefactor" (Hom 6 de avaritia: PG 32, 1181-1196). We must all help one another and cooperate as members of one body (Ep 203, 3).

And on this point, he used courageous, strong words in his homilies. Indeed, anyone who desires to love his neighbour as himself, in accordance with God's commandment, "must possess no more than his neighbour" (Hom. in divites: PG 31, 281b).

In times of famine and disaster, the holy Bishop exhorted the faithful with passionate words "not to be more cruel than beasts... by taking over what people possess in common or by grabbing what belongs to all (Hom. tempore famis: PG 31, 325a).

Basil's profound thought stands out in this evocative sentence: "All the destitute look to our hands just as we look to those of God when we are in need".

Therefore, Gregory of Nazianzus' praise after Basil's death was well-deserved. He said: "Basil convinces us that since we are human beings, we must neither despise men nor offend Christ, the common Head of all, with our inhuman behaviour towards people; rather, we ourselves must benefit by learning from the misfortunes of others and must lend God our compassion, for we are in need of mercy" (Gregory Nazianzus, Orationes 43, 63; PG 36, 580b).

These words are very timely. We see that St Basil is truly one of the Fathers of the Church's social doctrine.

Furthermore, Basil reminds us that to keep alive our love for God and for men, we need the Eucharist, the appropriate food for the baptized, which can nourish the new energies that derive from Baptism (cf. De Baptismo 1, 3: SC 357, 192).

It is a cause of immense joy to be able to take part in the Eucharist (cf. Moralia 21, 3: PG 31, 741a), instituted "to preserve unceasingly the memory of the One who died and rose for us" (Moralia 80, 22: PG 31, 869b).

The Eucharist, an immense gift of God, preserves in each one of us the memory of the baptismal seal and makes it possible to live the grace of Baptism to the full and in fidelity.

For this reason, the holy Bishop recommended frequent, even daily, Communion: "Communicating even daily, receiving the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is good and useful; for he said clearly: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life' (Jn 6: 54). So who would doubt that communicating continuously with life were not living in fullness?" (Ep. 93: PG 32, 484b).

The Eucharist, in a word, is necessary for us if we are to welcome within us true life, eternal life (cf. Moralia 21, 1: PG 31, 737c).

Finally, Basil was of course also concerned with that chosen portion of the People of God, the youth, society's future. He addressed a Discourse to them on how to benefit from the pagan culture of that time.

He recognized with great balance and openness that examples of virtue can be found in classical Greek and Latin literature. Such examples of upright living can be helpful to young Christians in search of the truth and the correct way of living (cf. Ad Adolescentes 3).

Therefore, one must take from the texts by classical authors what is suitable and conforms with the truth: thus, with a critical and open approach - it is a question of true and proper "discernment"- young people grow in freedom.

With the famous image of bees that gather from flowers only what they need to make honey, Basil recommends: "Just as bees can take nectar from flowers, unlike other animals which limit themselves to enjoying their scent and colour, so also from these writings... one can draw some benefit for the spirit. We must use these books, following in all things the example of bees. They do not visit every flower without distinction, nor seek to remove all the nectar from the flowers on which they alight, but only draw from them what they need to make honey, and leave the rest. And if we are wise, we will take from those writings what is appropriate for us, and conforms to the truth, ignoring the rest" (Ad Adolescentes 4).

Basil recommended above all that young people grow in virtue, in the right way of living: "While the other goods... pass from one to the other as in playing dice, virtue alone is an inalienable good and endures throughout life and after death" (Ad Adolescentes 5).

Dear brothers and sisters, I think one can say that this Father from long ago also speaks to us and tells us important things.

In the first place, attentive, critical and creative participation in today's culture.

Then, social responsibility: this is an age in which, in a globalized world, even people who are physically distant are really our neighbours; therefore, friendship with Christ, the God with the human face.

And, lastly, knowledge and recognition of God the Creator, the Father of us all: only if we are open to this God, the common Father, can we build a more just and fraternal world."