The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds - Pt 2: The theology of Lauds

In my last post I spoke a little about the deliberateness in St Benedict's choice of the psalms for this hour, and that is what I want to focus on in this series.  Before getting down to that, however, I want to take a brief look at the context for those choices.

Building on the tradition - Old Testament sources

Much of what St Benedict does with Lauds drew on an existing tradition.  There are numerous other references to early morning prayer in Scripture though, many of them cited by the Fathers and other key sources of the monastic tradition, which St Benedict could reasonably presume his readers were familiar with.

The only Scriptural citations St Benedict included in the Rule to justify the eight hours of his Office come from Psalm 118.  He in effect adds several more references through the psalms set for each of the hours, not least at Lauds where several of the psalms contain references to prayer at first light and/or dawn.

Still, he undoubtedly assumed his readers were familiar with the ancient roots of this time for prayer.  In Exodus, for example, God instructs that:

Aaron, when he trims the lamps each morning, shall burn fragrant incense on it, and again when he lights them at evening he shall burn incense in the Lord’s presence; a custom you are to preserve age after age (30:7-8).

The non-canonical Book of Jubilees suggests that this tradition is even more ancient:

And on that day on which Adam went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame (3:27).

In terms of later Jewish practice, another key source for later commentators on the Office was the book of Ezra, which records eight  hours of prayers, four for the night and four for the day, which later Christian commentators following Bede applied to the Office, Lauds being counted amongst the night hours with Vespers, Compline and Matins:

And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times [in the night] they confessed, and adored the Lord their God.

The Fathers and the monastic tradition

St Benedict's selection of some of the variable psalms for the hour also draws on earlier thinking about the theology of the hour, with Origen, Cyprian and Basil amongst others variously pointing to Psalms 5 and 62 in relation to the hour.  St Basil, for example, in his longer Rule, says:

Prayers are recited early In the morning so that the first movements of the soul and the mind may be consecrated to God and that we may take up no other consideration before we have been cheered and heartened by the thought of God, as it is written: 'I remembered God and was delighted, and that the body may not busy itself with tasks before we have fulfilled the words: To thee will I pray, O Lord; in the morning thou shalt hear my, voice. In the morning I will stand before thee and will see.' 

Similarly Cassian mentions Psalm 50 in relation to morning prayer, as well as the three 'Laudate' psalms (Psalm 148, 149 and 150) that close the psalmody of the hour.

The Resurrection and early Christian practice

One of the most important features of St Benedict's Lauds, though, is insistence that it be started at first light.  I  chapter 8 of the Rule he says:

the morning office (Lauds), which is to be said at the break of day

In the chapter 11 on Matins, he notes that in the unfortunate event that the monks sleep in, the lessons and responsories might need to be shortened in order to start Lauds at the proper time.

The symbolism is that the rising son symbolises the rising on the Son.

Whatever the Old Testament origins of the hour (and the sources vary on the antiquity and origins of the custom of Lauds), the idea that prayer at first light is a celebration of the Resurrection is a very early feature of the Christian tradition.  Clement of Rome's letter to the Corinthians, for example, comments:

Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from the dead. Let us contemplate, beloved, the resurrection which is at all times taking place. Day and night declare to us a resurrection.

The night sinks to sleep, and the day arises; the day [again] departs, and the night comes on. Let us behold the fruits [of the earth], how the sowing of grain takes place.

The sower goes forth, and casts it into the ground, and the seed being thus scattered, though dry and naked when it fell upon the earth, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its dissolution the mighty power of the providence of the Lord raises it up again, and from one seed many arise and bring forth fruit. (ch 24)

 Building on this, the fourth century Apostolic Constitutions, says:

Likewise, at the hour of the cock-crow, rise and pray. Because at this hour, with the cock-crow, the children of Israel refused Christ, who we know through faith, hoping daily in the hope of eternal light in the resurrection of the dead.

The very first psalm of Lauds, then, Psalm 66, draws us to this theme with its request for God to shine his light upon us:

1 Deus misereátur nostri, et benedícat nobis: * illúminet vultum suum super nos, et misereátur nostri.

May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.

And for the next part in this series, go here.

St Benedict's liturgical genius and the design of Lauds - Part I

Frescos in St. Michael the Archangel Church in Lesnovo, Macedonia, c14th

Over the next few weeks I plan to take a look at the psalms and canticles of Lauds, and today I want to provide a brief overview of where I am coming from on this topic.

On the ordering of St Benedict's psalm cursus

One of the staples of current orthodoxy about the Benedictine Office, courtesy largely of the work of Dom Adalbert de Vogue, is that the allocation of psalms to particular hours by St Benedict has no particular rationale other than keeping the hours relatively short.

The prevailing consensus is that St Benedict largely took the Roman Office of his time (and/or perhaps that of  'the Master'), and tweaked it a bit to make the day hours a bit shorter and more varied: the reasoning for his redistribution of psalms is essentially 'mechanistic'.

This view continues to be propagated through the work of Paul Bradshaw and others, who argued, for example, that St Benedict's Prime was simply as place to dump the unneeded psalms of Matins freed up by the alleged reduction in the length of the Night Office compared to that of the Master's (Daily Prayer in the Church, 1981, pg 148).

There are several problems with this position, which I won't go into here.  Suffice it to say for the moment that our knowledge of the details of Roman Church's Office at this time is pretty much entirely speculation: the first full description of it dates from around 850 AD.  In my view the numerous tables of reconstructed Roman Offices so popular in twentieth century and current liturgical studies reflect the same mentality as attempts to construct the mythological 'Q' source text for the synoptic Gospels.  And just as the consensus around that theory is now happily collapsing, sooner or later the current orthodoxy around the Office will surely follow.

But what should replace it?

The content of the psalms

The biggest problem with virtually all of the modern commentaries on the Office seems to me to be that they pay only superficial attention to comments by the Fathers and monastic writers on the content and meaning of the psalms, and largely ignore the symbolism embedded in some of the features of the Office.

This isn't terribly surprising.  Given that the modern Office has entirely abandoned the traditional eight hour structure, one wouldn't expect a lot of emphasis on the symbolism that underlies that number for example.  And when it comes to the psalms themselves, the Christological meaning of the psalms that was so central to the Fathers has largely been lost in recent centuries, replaced by historico-critical preoccupation with the development of the texts and their literal sense that renders them largely devoid of modern relevance.

My view is that by learning to walk 'in the steps of the Fathers', and understand the way they approached the psalms (and the symbolism of the Office more generally), I think we can arrive at a much richer understanding of the Divine Office.

St Benedict's liturgical genius

Fr Cassian Folsom, in his series of conferences on monastic prayer a few years back, for example argued that when St Benedict, in the Rule, says put nothing before the Office, he is implicitly saying put nothing before Christ (who we can find in the Office).  He noted that understanding the Christological content of the psalms is essential to this end.

One way in which St Benedict uses these Christological means, in my view is through a certain 'vertical' unity in the Office, with the psalms chosen for each day effectively providing a meditation on key events in the life of Christ.  Lauds is key to this program, since my theory is that St Benedict started from the ferial canticles he took from Roman practice, and developed his Office around the program they set up.  My recent series on the first psalms of Matins each day suggested that these psalms were specifically chosen to give effect to this program, and I've previously looked at the variable psalms of Lauds in this context.

I've also suggested that St Benedict gives the individual hours of his Office a certain 'horizontal unity'.

Prime, for example, far from being a mere dumping ground for some psalms surplus to requirements as some have suggested, I would argue is very carefully designed indeed, focusing on the kingship (including the judicial power) of Christ.

And I'm not alone in thinking that the themes of Prime are very closely connected to the Benedictine Rule: the Rule's very opening lines invite us to renounce our own will and take up arms under Christ our true King; and mindfulness of God's scrutiny of our actions and the coming judgement is a key theme of both the Prologue and the spiritual teaching of the Rule.

Where Lauds fits

In this series I want to focus primarily on another key theme of the Prologue to the Rule, namely that Christ is calling us into his kingdom, inviting us to be dwellers in heaven, and pointing to the way to enter.  It is this theme, centred on the priesthood of Christ, that I think is the key focus for Lauds.

The key Scriptural text for the priesthood of Christ is the book of Hebrews, which draws out the idea of Christ's sacrifice on the cross as playing out the role of the High Priest, who on the feast of the Atonement each year offered a sacrifice and then brought the blood into the holy of holies, the innermost sanctum of the temple and the microcosm of heaven.  Through his death he offers the perfect sacrifice for our sins; through his Resurrection he enters with his blood into the holy of holies, allowing us 'to follow him to glory' (RB Prologue).

The second Matins invitatory, Psalm 94, which is given an extensive exposition in Hebrews, perhaps invites us to reflect on the twelve tribes of Israel wondering in the desert for forty years, unable to enter the Promised Land.

Lauds in St Benedict's conception, I think, moves us to the happy resolution of this piece of salvation history, with Christ reopening the way to the true promised land for those who respond to his call.

Above all, Lauds is a celebration of the Resurrection, an hour at which Christ continuously calls us into the kingdom, and invites us to enter the gates of heaven, to become dwellers in his tabernacle through faith and good works.

Click here for the next part in this series.

Psalm 1 verse 7 - God knows us

The final verse of Psalm 1 takes us back to God's care for us.

7.	V/NV/JH/OR	Quoniam novit dominus viam iustorum; et iter impiorum peribit.
		ὅτι γινώσκει κύριος ὁδὸν δικαίων καὶ ὁδὸς ἀσεβῶν ἀπολεῖται

Quoniam (for) novit (he knows, perfect tense) Dominus (the Lord) viam (the way) iustorum (of the just); et (and) iter (the way) impiorum (of the wicked) peribit (it will perish).

  

nosco, novi, notum, ere 3 to know, to be acquainted with; to know, regard with approbation; approve

iter, ltineris, n., way, journey:

pereo, li, ltum, ire, to perish, come to naught, be lost; to stray, be lost.

DR	For the Lord knows the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.
Brenton	For the Lord knows the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
MD	For the Lord knoweth the way of the just, but the way of the wicked shall end in ruin.
RSV	for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Cover	But the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; and the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Knox	They walk, the just, under the Lord’s protection; the path of the wicked, how soon is it lost to sight!
Grail	for the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

The idea of God 'knowing' the righteous is an important one, alluded in several other psalms. It is not, of course, that God does not see the evil-doer.

Several of the Fathers, including St Hilary, see this verse as alluding to the contrasting treatment by God of Adam and Abraham:

...For it was said to Adam when he had sinned: Adam, where are you? Not because God knew not that the man whom He still had in the garden was there still, but to show, by his being asked where he was, that he was unworthy of God's knowledge by the fact of having sinned. 

But Abraham, after being for a long time unknown— the word of God came to him when he was seventy years of age— was, upon his proving himself faithful to the Lord, admitted to intimacy with God by the following act of high condescension: Now I know that you fear the Lord your God, and for My sake you have not spared your dearly loved son...

In essence, then, God knowing the ways of the just means that he recognises and approves of their actions.

The verse though, is not (just) a statement of approbation for the just and condemnation of the wicked, but rather a call to repentance, as St Augustine's New Testament spin on it makes clear:

 As it is said, medicine knows health, but knows not disease, and yet disease is recognised by the art of medicine. In like manner can it be said that "the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous," but the way of the ungodly He knoweth not. Not that the Lord is ignorant of anything, and yet He says to sinners, "I never knew you." 

Vulgate	Douay Rheims translation
Beátus vir, qui non ábiit in consílio impiórum, et in via peccatórum non stetit, * et in cáthedra pestiléntiæ non sedit	Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence:
2  Sed in lege Dómini volúntas ejus, * et in lege ejus meditábitur die ac nocte.	But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
3  Et erit tamquam lignum, quod plantátum est secus decúrsus aquárum, * quod fructum suum dabit in témpore suo:	And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
4  Et fólium ejus non défluet: * et ómnia quæcúmque fáciet, prosperabúntur.	And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.
5  Non sic ímpii, non sic: * sed tamquam pulvis, quem prójicit ventus a fácie terræ.	Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth.
6  Ideo non resúrgent ímpii in judício: * neque peccatóres in concílio justórum.	Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.
7  Quóniam novit Dóminus viam justórum: * et iter impiórum períbit.	For the Lord knows the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

 

 

 

Psalm 1 Verse 6 - Rising up in judgment

Hans Melling, 

The text

6.	V/OR	Ideo non resurgent impii in iudicio, neque peccatores  in consilio iustorum
	NV	Ideo non consurgent impii in iudicio, neque peccatores in concilio iustorum.
	JH	Propterea non resurgunt impii in iudicio, neque peccatores  in congregatione iustorum.
		διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀναστήσονται ἀσεβεῖς ἐν κρίσει οὐδὲ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἐν βουλῇ δικαίων

 Ideo (therefore) non (not) resurgent (they shall rise up) impii (the wicked) in iudicio (in judgment), neque (neither/nor) peccatores (sinners) in consilio (in the council) iustorum (of the just).

ideo, adv., therefore, on that account.

resurgo, surrexi, surrectum, ere 3,  rise again; to rise, rise up, stand, i.e., to prevail, triumph.

justus, a, um just; a just man, the just.

DR	Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.
Brenton	Therefore the ungodly shall not rise in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just.
MD	Therefore the wicked shall not stand firm in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the just.
RSV	Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
Cover	Therefore the ungodly shall not be able to stand in the judgement, neither the sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Knox	Not for the wicked, when judgement comes, to rise up and plead their cause; sinners will have no part in the reunion of the just.
Grail	When the wicked are judged they shall not stand, nor find room among those who are just;

‘Resurgent in judicio’ has an obvious eschatological sense here, of the wicked not enjoying the resurrection at the Last Judgement.  Accordingly, the neo-Vulgate’s change of resurgo  to consurgo seems an unfortunate choice.  

Cassiodorus explains that the phrase 'rising again for judgment' means that:

  ...the individual renders an account for his deeds, they are rightly said not to rise again for judgment, for God’s sentence has already condemned them beyond doubt.

Or to draw on St Liguori's rather pithier summary on the verse:

...the wicked will not rise again to be judged because they are already condemned to punishment. 

St Jerome argues that the psalms points us to three categories of people.  On the one side we have the outright wicked; at the other the perfect man, Christ and the saints.  In the middle though, stands the sinner, a quasi-atheist for a time, who will be judged:

 In the Gospel according to John, we read: He who believes in me is not judged; but he who does not believe in me is already judged…Let us reflect upon the one who stands between the believer and the non-believer, the one that is to be judged.  Now he who believes will not be judged; he who believes according to truth does not sin; he who has true faith does not sin.  Actually, when we commit sin, it is because our mind is wavering in faith.  When we are giving way to anger, when we are detracting from the reputation of another, when we are committing murder, when we are yielding to fornication, just where then is our faith?...Who then is to be judged?  The one who indeed believes and yet yields to sin; he who has goodness, but has evil too; he who performs good acts at the time when he believes, but commits sin when his faith is weak…. 

Cassiodorus builds on this idea, pointing to the grace of confession:

The wicked are those who with harshness of mind utterly refuse to confess the holy Trinity, who do not consent to obey the rules of the Old and New Testaments, or who in Paul’s words profess God in words, but in their works deny him.  They do not rise in judgment because they have already been condemned through their unbelief…

Sinners are those who proclaim themselves Christians, but are subject to lesser sins.  To them is addressed the Lord’s prayer that they deliver themselves from evils.  But the wicked are those who do not know their maker and are polluted by various sins, for example blasphemers, those unwilling to repent, worshippers of idols, and persons fast-bound to the chief vices.  

So there are two classes of sinners: the first, who remain in their sins without making any placating satisfaction, and the second, those whose sins are forgiven through the grace of confession...Among these are the saints, because no man is without sin…

  

Vulgate	Douay Rheims translation
Beátus vir, qui non ábiit in consílio impiórum, et in via peccatórum non stetit, * et in cáthedra pestiléntiæ non sedit	Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence:
2  Sed in lege Dómini volúntas ejus, * et in lege ejus meditábitur die ac nocte.	But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
3  Et erit tamquam lignum, quod plantátum est secus decúrsus aquárum, * quod fructum suum dabit in témpore suo:	And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
4  Et fólium ejus non défluet: * et ómnia quæcúmque fáciet, prosperabúntur.	And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.
5  Non sic ímpii, non sic: * sed tamquam pulvis, quem prójicit ventus a fácie terræ.	Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth.
6  Ideo non resúrgent ímpii in judício: * neque peccatóres in concílio justórum.	Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.
7  Quóniam novit Dóminus viam justórum: * et iter impiórum períbit.	For the Lord knows the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

 

And for the final post in this series, continue on here.  

Psalm 1 verse 5 - The wicked man as dust blown about in the wind

The Ozymandias Colossus, inspiration for Shelley's poem 

The second section of Psalm 1 contrasts the happy state of the blessed man with that of the wicked man who rejects God, and refuses to repent: first we are instructed on the rewards that come from following Christ, then warned of the perils of failing to do so.  We are invited, as St Jerome says, to to 'meditate on the future life and on eternity'.

5.	V/OR	Non sic impii, non sic; sed tamquam pulvis quem proiicit ventus a facie terrae.
	NV	Non sic impii, non sic, sed tamquam pulvis, quem proicit ventus.
	JH	Non sic impii; sed tamquam puluis quem proicit uentus.
		οὐχ οὕτως οἱ ἀσεβεῖς οὐχ οὕτως ἀλλ' ἢ ὡς ὁ χνοῦς ὃν ἐκριπτεῖ ὁ ἄνεμος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς

Non (not) sic (like/so) impii (the wicked) non (not) sic (like); sed (but) tamquam (like) pulvis (the dust) quem (that) proiicit (it sweeps away) ventus (the wind) a facie (from the face) terrae (of the earth).

sic, adv., so, thus, in this manner, in such a manner

impius, ii, m. sinners, the wicked, the godless

tamquam adv. of comparison,  as, just as, like, as it were.

pulvis, eris, m., dust.

projicio, jeci, jectum, ere 3  to cast, cast away, off, down or forth, cast;  cast upon, i.e., commit to the care of;  drive away, scatter, or sweep away, as wind does dust, reject.

ventus, i, m., the wind

facies, ei,  face, countenance, appearance; presence; from, from before, from one's presence, sight, eyes, etc. (a) because of.

DR	Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth.
Brenton	Not so the ungodly; not so: but rather as the chaff which the wind scatters away from the face of the earth.
NETS	Not so the impious not so!  Rather they are like the dust that the wind flings from off the land.
MD	Not so the wicked not so.  They are like the chaff that the wind sweepeth from the earth.
RSV	The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Cover	As for the ungodly, it is not so with them; but they are like the chaff, which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth.
Knox	Not such, not such the wicked; the wicked are like chaff the wind sweeps away.
Grail	Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind.

The wicked vs the sinner

St Jerome draws an important distinction in this section of the psalm, between the wicked and the sinner:

The psalmist did not say, not so the sinners, for if he had said sinners we would all then be excluded from reward…There is a difference between the wicked and sinners.  The wicked deny God altogether; the sinner acknowledges God and in spite of his acknowledgement commits sin…

The objective of this section of the psalm is to encourage us to turn away from sin, and avoid joining the company of the atheist.

Dust

The Septuagint and Vulgate use the word dust (pulvis), which Britt notes in his Dictionary of the Psalter has a number of figurative meanings in Scripture, including as a symbol of a low and wretched condition; to denote that which is unstable, a symbol of the wicked and of their works; the dead; and the dust, from which frail mortal man is made. Certainly, the Fathers made great use of the  
The promises offered to the just  are now contrasted with the fate of those who fail to heed the call to conversion, as St Robert Bellarmine explains:

…the wicked, wanting the divine grace, dry and barren, like the finest dust scattered by the wind, leave no trace of themselves, and not only lose glory, wealth, and pleasure – but even themselves, in the bargain, for all eternity.

St Thomas Aquinas explains the significance of the comparison to dust further: 

They are compared properly to dust, because dust has three things that are said of the just man; that dust does not stick to the earth, but it is on the surface, but a planted tree has roots. Again a tree is held together in itself, and it is moist; but dust is divided, dry and arid; through this we have a sign that good men are united like a tree by charity. Again, good men cling as with roots in spiritual things and divine goods, but evil men are sustained in exterior goods. Again, they are without the water of grace, "For dust thou art" etc And so all their malice flows away.

Cassiodorus offers a slightly different take on the image, seeing it as the wicked man storm tossed by his vices:

Dust is loosened earth, and the earthly man when puffed up with the seductive wind of pride is cast away like dust from the solid land of the living.  Because he could not maintain his stance on the firm ground of the commandments through lack of weight, the wicked man is rightly called dust, for like a thin substance he is tossed in the air by the blasts of vices…

Either way, the Hebrew Masoretic Text offers a different image, that of the chaff separated from the wheat by the action of the winds.

 

Vulgate	Douay Rheims translation
Beátus vir, qui non ábiit in consílio impiórum, et in via peccatórum non stetit, * et in cáthedra pestiléntiæ non sedit	Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence:
2  Sed in lege Dómini volúntas ejus, * et in lege ejus meditábitur die ac nocte.	But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
3  Et erit tamquam lignum, quod plantátum est secus decúrsus aquárum, * quod fructum suum dabit in témpore suo:	And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
4  Et fólium ejus non défluet: * et ómnia quæcúmque fáciet, prosperabúntur.	And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.
5 Non sic ímpii, non sic: * sed tamquam pulvis, quem prójicit ventus a fácie terræ.	Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind drives from the face of the earth.
6 Ideo non resúrgent ímpii in judício: * neque peccatóres in concílio justórum.	Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.
7  Quóniam novit Dóminus viam justórum: * et iter impiórum períbit.	For the Lord knows the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

 And for the next part of this series, continue on here.