Psalm 34:Overview

The opening verses of Psalm 34 are a cry for God to defend the psalmist, and they include a plea for the defeat of his enemies that resound throughout the psalms of Monday.

St Alphonus Liguori summarises this  psalm as follows:

This psalm is suitable to the just man who, seeing himself exposed here below to the temptations of the devil and to bad treatment on the part of impious men, seeks help from God.  This psalm is admirably suited to Jesus Christ, the Just by excellence. 

In the Benedictine Office

The placement of Psalm 34 at Monday Matins in the Benedictine Office seems to be important, because some of its key themes are picked up in several other psalms of the day.  

The content of verses 4&5 are recapitulated first of all in verses 29&30:

34: 4  Confundántur et revereántur,  * quæréntes ánimam meam.	4 Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul.
5  Avertántur retrórsum, et confundántur * cogitántes mihi mala.	Let them be turned back and be confounded that devise evil against me.

34: 29  Erubéscant et revereántur simul, * qui gratulántur malis meis.	26 Let them blush: and be ashamed together, who rejoice at my evils.
30  Induántur confusióne et reveréntia * qui magna loquúntur super me.	Let them be clothed with confusion and shame, who speak great things against me.

But the words of verses 4&5 reappear in virtually identical form in Psalm 39 at Matins:

39: 19 confundántur et revereántur simul, qui quærunt ánimam meam, * ut áuferant eam.		15 Let them be confounded and ashamed together, that seek after my soul to take it away.
20  convertántur retrórsum et revereántur: * qui volunt mihi mala.	15 Let them be confounded and ashamed together, that seek after my soul to take it away.

The sentiments are also echoed at Prime in Psalm 6:

6: 10  Erubéscant, et conturbéntur veheménter omnes inimíci mei : * convertántur et erubéscant valde velóciter.

Let all my enemies be ashamed, and be very much troubled: let them be turned back, and be ashamed very speedily.

And at Vespers in Psalm 128:

128: 4  Dóminus justus concídit cervíces peccatórum: * confundántur et convertántur retrórsum omnes, qui odérunt Sion.

4 The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners: 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.

The dust  imagery of verse 6 is echoed at Prime in Psalm 1:

34: 6  Fiant tamquam pulvis ante fáciem venti: * et Angelus Dómini coárctans eos.

5 Let them become as dust before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord straiten them.

6: 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.

The text of the psalm

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Ipsi David	For David himself
Júdica, Dómine, nocéntes me, * expúgna impugnántes me.	Judge, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me.
Apprehénde arma et scutum: * et exsúrge in adjutórium mihi.	Take hold of arms and shield: and rise up to help me.
Effúnde frámeam, et conclúde advérsus eos, qui persequúntur me: * dic ánimæ meæ: Salus tua ego sum.	Bring out the sword, and shut up the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul: I am your salvation.
Confundántur et revereántur,  * quæréntes ánimam meam.	Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul.
Avertántur retrórsum, et confundántur * cogitántes mihi mala.	Let them be turned back and be confounded that devise evil against me.
Fiant tamquam pulvis ante fáciem venti: * et Angelus Dómini coárctans eos.	Let them become as dust before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord straiten them.
Fiat via illórum ténebræ et lúbricum: * et Angelus Dómini pérsequens eos.	Let their way become dark and slippery; and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.
Quóniam gratis abscondérunt mihi intéritum láquei sui: * supervácue exprobravérunt ánimam meam.	For without cause they have hidden their net for me unto destruction: without cause they have upbraided my soul
Véniat illi láqueus, quem ignórat: et cáptio, quam abscóndit, apprehéndat eum: * et in láqueum cadat in ipsum.	Let the snare which he knows not come upon him: and let the net which he has hidden catch him: and into that very snare let them fall.
Anima autem mea exsultábit in Dómino: * et delectábitur super salutári suo.	But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; and shall be delighted in his salvation.
Omnia ossa mea dicent: * Dómine, quis símilis tibi?	All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like to you?
Erípiens ínopem de manu fortiórum ejus: * egénum et páuperem a diripiéntibus eum.	Who delivers the poor from the hand of them that are stronger than he; the needy and the poor from them that strip him.
Surgéntes testes iníqui, * quæ ignorábam interrogábant me.	Unjust witnesses rising up have asked me things I knew not.
Retribuébant mihi mala pro bonis: * sterilitátem ánimæ meæ.	They repaid me evil for good: to the depriving me of my soul.
Ego autem cum mihi molésti essent, * induébar cilício.	But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, I was clothed with haircloth.
Humiliábam in jejúnio ánimam meam: * et orátio mea in sinu meo convertétur.	I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom.
Quasi próximum, et quasi fratrem nostrum, sic complacébam: * quasi lugens et contristátus, sic humiliábar.	As a neighbour and as an own brother, so did I please: as one mourning and sorrowful so was I humbled.
Et advérsum me lætáti sunt, et convenérunt: * congregáta sunt super me flagélla, et ignorávi.	But they rejoiced against me, and came together: scourges were gathered together upon me, and I knew not.
Dissipati sunt, nec compúncti, tentavérunt me, subsannavérunt me subsannatióne: * frenduérunt super me déntibus suis.	They were separated, and repented not: they tempted me, they scoffed at me with scorn: they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
Dómine, quando respícies? * restítue ánimam meam a malignitáte eórum, a leónibus únicam meam.	Lord, when will you look upon me? Rescue my soul from their malice: my only one from the lions.
Confitébor tibi in ecclésia magna, * in pópulo gravi laudábo te.	I will give thanks to you in a great church; I will praise you in a strong people.
Non supergáudeant mihi qui adversántur mihi iníque: * qui odérunt me gratis et ánnuunt óculis.	Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: who have hated me without cause, and wink with the eyes.
Quóniam mihi quidem pacífice loquebántur: * et in iracúndia terræ loquéntes, dolos cogitábant.	For they spoke indeed peaceably to me; and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.
Et dilatavérunt super me os suum: * dixérunt: Euge, euge, vidérunt óculi nostri.	And they opened their mouth wide against me; they said: Well done, well done, our eyes have seen it.
Vidísti, Dómine, ne síleas: * Dómine, ne discédas a me.	You have seen, O Lord, be not silent: O Lord, depart not from me.
Exsúrge et inténde judício meo: * Deus meus, et Dóminus meus in causam meam.	Arise, and be attentive to my judgment: to my cause, my God, and my Lord.
Júdica me secúndum justítiam tuam, Dómine, Deus meus, * et non supergáudeant mihi.	Judge me, O Lord my God according to your justice, and let them not rejoice over me.
Non dicant in córdibus suis: Euge, euge, ánimæ nostræ: * nec dicant: Devorávimus eum.	Let them not say in their hearts: It is well, it is well, to our mind: neither let them say: We have swallowed him up.
Erubéscant et revereántur simul, * qui gratulántur malis meis.	Let them blush: and be ashamed together, who rejoice at my evils.
Induántur confusióne et reveréntia * qui magna loquúntur super me.	Let them be clothed with confusion and shame, who speak great things against me.
Exsúltent et læténtur qui volunt justítiam meam: * et dicant semper: Magnificétur Dóminus qui volunt pacem servi ejus.	Let them rejoice and be glad, who are well pleased with my justice, and let them say always: The Lord be magnified, who delights in the peace of his servant.
Et lingua mea meditábitur justítiam tuam, * tota die laudem tuam.	And my tongue shall meditate your justice, your praise all the day long.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rom 1:9, 1 Thess 5:1-3 (9); Lk 1:46 (10); Mt 26:59ff (11); Jn 10:32 (14); Jn 15:25 (22); Jn 20:28 (26)
RB cursus	Monday I, 3
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc
Roman pre 1911	Monday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Tuesday Matins  . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Passion Friday GR (23, 25); Holy Monday, IN (1-3), GR (3, 26), CO (29); Holy Tuesday, GR (1-2, 15)

Psalm 25: Overview

Psalm 25 is said on Sundays at Matins in the Benedictine Office., but its most familiar verse comes from the use of verses 6-12 in the Ordinary of the Mass, at the lavabo.

St Alphonsus Liguori summarised it as follows:

This psalm teaches all those that are unjustly persecuted what virtues they should practise during their trial. Moreover, it makes and explains in detail what are the dispositions with which we should approach the altar, whether to communicate or to offer the holy Sacrifice.

 Psalm 25

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm for David
Júdica me, Dómine, quóniam ego in innocéntia mea ingréssus sum: * et in Dómino sperans non infirmábor	Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence: and I have put my trust in the Lord, and shall not be weakened.
Proba me, Dómine, et tenta me: * ure renes meos et cor meum.	Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart.
Quóniam misericórdia tua ante óculos meos est: * et complácui in veritáte tua.	For your mercy is before my eyes; and I am well pleased with your truth.
Non sedi cum concílio vanitátis: * et cum iníqua geréntibus non introíbo.	I have not sat with the council of vanity: neither will I go in with the doers of unjust things.
Odívi ecclésiam malignántium: * et cum ímpiis non sedébo.	I have hated the assembly of the malignant; and with the wicked I will not sit.
Lavábo inter innocéntes manus meas: * et circúmdabo altáre tuum, Dómine.	I will wash my hands among the innocent; and will compass your altar, O Lord:
Ut áudiam vocem laudis: * et enárrem univérsa mirabília tua.	That I may hear the voice of your praise: and tell of all your wondrous works.
Dómine, diléxi decórem domus tuæ: * et locum habitatiónis glóriæ tuæ.	I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of your house; and the place where your glory dwells.
Ne perdas cum ímpiis, Deus, ánimam meam, * et cum viris sánguinum vitam meam.	Take not away my soul, O God, with the wicked: nor my life with bloody men:
In quorum mánibus iniquitátes sunt: * déxtera eórum repléta est munéribus.	In whose hands are iniquities: their right hand is filled with gifts.
Ego autem in innocéntia mea ingréssus sum: * rédime me, et miserére mei.	But as for me, I have walked in my innocence: redeem me, and have mercy on me.
Pes meus stetit in dirécto: * in ecclésiis benedícam te, Dómine	My foot has stood in the direct way: in the churches I will bless you, O Lord.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Mt 27:34 (6)
RB cursus	Sunday Matins
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	Sunday Matins (Post Tridentine: Wednesday Prime)
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Wednesday Prime . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Ordinary of the Mass (6-12); Lent 2 Monday, IN (1, 11-12); Passion Wednesday, CO (6-7)

Praying the psalms with St Benedict 8 - Approaches to interpreting the psalms**

In the last post in this series on praying the psalms with St Benedict, I suggested that the key focus of St Benedict in his Office as in the Rule, is the period of preparation for Easter: the monk 's life is essentially a perpetual Lent.

Rather than assuming we already incapable of sin, and can immediately imitate the angels, as some contemporary schools of monastic thought proposed, St Benedict emphasised the process of our gradual transformation through grace.

And he presents, I think, the psalms as a means to that end.

The psalms as a means to spiritual progress

One of the most intriguing Patristic discussions on the use of the psalms as a means of spiritual progress comes in St Basil the Great's brother, St Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on the psalm titles, or inscriptions. [1]

St Gregory argues that mankind was once truly part of the angelic chorus ever praising God, but through the Fall, was expelled from it.  But we can be lead by the psalms, to progress in the spiritual life through five stages, that open ourselves to resonate to the music of the universe, and can thus rejoin to the heavenly choir, and thus defeat evil and gain the blessings promised to us by God:

The divine book of the psalms wonderfully shows us the way [to blessedness] by a systematic, natural order presenting the various means for man to attain blessedness both by a simplicity which is evident and a teaching which is plain...The psalms' sublime teaching points out to us a way to blessedness which constantly leads persons progressing in the exalted life of virtue until they attain that measure of blessedness where the mind subjects transcendental reality neither to circumstantial evidence nor to opinions... 

The first words of the [first] psalm are a gate or entrance into blessedness and open up to us the destruction of evil...When all creation above and below will join to form one dance, the pleasant sound from our symphony will complete what has been sundered, for sin now divides the spiritual creation which resembles a cymbal. When our humanity will be united to the angels and when the divine battle-order lifts it out of the present turmoil, it will sing a victorious song of triumph at the bloody defeat of the enemy.  [2] 

A beginners rule

St Benedict claims his Rule is one for beginners, sinners motivated at first by fear of hell, who need time to cultivate good habits, and hopefully eventually arrive at that happy where all is done for love of God. [3]

Each day in the Benedictine Office, for example, we are reminded of that period of preparation for entering the Promised Land, and invited to apply that typology to ourselves and our community in the forty psalms said each day, and in the verses of the invitatory Psalm 94.

But perhaps the most important way, I want to suggest, that St Benedict teaches us how to 'progress in the monastic life and in faith' (Prologue to the Rule) is, I think the programmatic aspects of the weekly psalm cycle.

Notes

[1] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Inscriptions on the Psalms,  Casimir McCanbley (trans), Hellenic College Press trans, 1995.

[2] ibid, Part I, 3, 12.

[3] See especially the Prologue, RB 4, RB 7, RB 73.

Praying the psalms with St Benedict/7 - Time and the Work of God

So far in this series I've looked briefly at some of the key purposes of the Office - purgation and penance; adoration and intercession.

In the next section of the series, I plan to focus in on the seven day cycles - around creation, salvation history, the life of Christ and that of our own spiritual development (among others) that I think are embedded within the Office through the psalm cursus.

The sanctification of time

Before we do that, though, by way of bridge, I want to look at one more dimension of the Office, namely the relationship between the Office and time.

The Divine Office is, by its nature, deeply connected with the idea of the sanctification of time.

Some of the connections in the Benedictine version of the Office are reasonably obvious. The spacing of the hours through the day, for example, gave it an equivalent to one of the old watches (of three hours), as well as a Trinitarian meaning attested to by St Cyprian. [1]  Similarly, the use of twelve psalms (one for each hour) mirrors the number of hours of the day and night, that is Prime to None, and Matins. [2]

Some perhaps are a little less obvious - the use of seven psalms in the twilight hours (Lauds, Vespers+Compline) to symbolise completeness, for example.

But there is one aspect of the sanctification of time that I have not seen explored in the literature, and which I think is perhaps best understood by consideration of the three alternative Office models I've been looking at from the first half of the sixth century, and that is the way that different forms of the Office focus those singing or hearing it on different points in salvation history.

Different forms of the Office, I want to suggest, can reflect very different conceptions of sacred time, which in turn reflect different conceptions of the exactly the 'Work' of the Office is intended to accomplish.

Sacred time and the liturgy

The Office, of course, as liturgy, connects us to the liturgy of heaven: we pray, at the very least, 'in the presence of the angels' (Psalm 137); more, we are joined through it to the angelic choir. [3]

But that is not the same thing as connecting us to the eternity of God, whose eternity stands outside of time and space.

Instead, as creatures, whether in heaven or on earth, our prayers have a before and after, and thus a temporal dimension.

In heaven - at least before the coming of the new heaven and earth - the progress of that time may be different to that we experience on earth.  Without bodies, after all, and the needs associated with them, we may indeed gain the ability to literally pray without ceasing!

But for us here on earth, our progress through time is reflected in the Office in the temporal and sanctoral calendars of the year; in the 'hours' of the Office each day; and in the cycle the hours repeat over.

Agaune's perpetual liturgy and making heaven visible

Consider for example the case of Agaune's perpetual liturgy.

St Alexander the Sleepless, we saw earlier in this series, in the first half of the fifth century, developed a form of the liturgy which almost certainly either directly inspired, or was outright copied by Agaune in the early sixth century, inspired by the model of God's ordering of creation into the twelve hours of day and night.

But St Alexander also seems to have had in mind imitation of the perpetual liturgy of the angels, an idea which fit well with Agaune's history as a shrine of soldier-saints, the martyrs of the Theban legion, whose legend depicted soldiers who refused (an immoral order) to fight, soldiers who laid down their arms and allowed themselves to be slaughtered rather than turn on, as the Emperor ordered, their fellow Christians. By this action, so the early fifth century version of their legend asserted, they were transformed into members of the heavenly choir: “Thus", says Eucherius of Lyon, "that whole angelic legion was murdered, which now, we believe, joins with legions of angels in heaven in always praising together the Lord God Sabaoth.” [4]

And it was this choir to which the earthly members of the monastery were portrayed as literally being members of, transported effectively to heaven now, to that time after the descent of the new Jerusalem described in Revelations, or at least so the early literature surrounding the monastery asserted. St Gregory of Tours, for example, told the story of an Agaune monk who died very young before he could make profession, to the great distress of his mother, who then spent her days weeping in the Church.  Happily, St Maurice appeared to her and assured her that her son was still part of the chorus made up not just of the still living monks, but the dead among their number as well as the Theban legion itself.  To prove this, he invited her to return the next morning at Lauds, and every subsequent day that she so desired for the rest of her life, so that she could hear his voice joining that of the other (still living) monks. [5]

The sermon given by Bishop Avitus of Vienne for the dedication of the new basilica on September 22, 515 similarly made considerable play on the idea of the monks as livers of the angelic life, since, he claimed, they had no possibility of committing any sins, for all their time was consumed now with the work of heaven:

..but when it has come to the present psalmody…you have surpassed even your own works.  For…that glorious custom has been instituted, in which the Christian always pours forth sound, Christ is always present, the onlooker is always heard, the hearer always seen.  You who are about to dwell here…labour in this world invites to the hope of perpetual rest, and all the time for sinning is cut off from those occupied in happy action...May death renew rather than end this action [6]

His sermon also invoked the imagery, as I have previously noted, that seems to me to be an allusion to the description of the New Jerusalem that will descend after the last judgment in Apocalypse 21, a jewel encrusted city in which there is no night:

Whose entry is not shut at night, because it has no night, whose doors are always wide open to the just, but inaccessible to the impious…Christ is its foundation, faith its frame, a wall its crown, a pearl its gates, gold its street, a lamb its light, its chorus the church [7]

Agaune's Office, with a psalm cursus that almost certainly repeated each day, rather than carrying over several as most other Offices did, was surely meant to signal this new age, this eighth day fully realised.

The nuns of Arles and the accumulation of merit

If Agaune and its Office attempted to anticipate the blessed life to come, the life that will come after the Second Coming, the Rule of Caesarius of Arles, I would suggest, portrays his nuns as living a step back in salvation time from that.

In particular, his Rule focuses above all on waiting for the Second Coming and judgment, the time of the coming of the bridegroom to the wedding feast.

Watchers for the second coming

In the Rule, St Caesarius tells his nuns to pray assiduously for the coming of the Son, and to be watchers for it, quoting St Luke:

Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man.  [8]

The nuns then, unlike the monks of Agaune, are not yet living the angelic life, bur rather are looking out in this world, for the signs of Christ's return.

In fact the key image he invokes throughout the rule is that of the wise and foolish virgins in the parable of the bridegroom, who are drowsing while waiting, prepared or otherwise, for the coming of bridegroom; with the wise preparing by cultivating the oil of good works. [9] Indeed the image of the drowsing virgin must have been particularly close to their hearts given the long hours they spent in vigils in the church, for St John of Arles employed a model where the number of psalms said in the Night Office lengthened and shortened with the seasons as the length of time of darkness changed.

An Easter people!

But there is also some important symbolism, I think, in the fact that Caesarius barely mentions Lent (beyond a brief reference to fasting rules) or repentance at all in his Rule; instead he provides a symbolic starting point for the Office, not with Matins and Lauds, as St Benedict does, but rather Terce of Easter Day. [10]

St Benedict, in chapter 8 of the Rule, insisted on Lauds each day being timed to start at daybreak, symbolically the time of the rising of Christ.

Caesarius, however, in chapter 66 of the Rule for Nuns, jumps forward two hours, over Lauds and Prime, and starts the whole of his discussion of the Office from the third hour of Easter Day, linking it to the literal completion of three days after the crucifixion, not least through the particular hymn he specified be used at it, Iam surgit hora tertia, which provides a nice counter to the image of the drowsing virgins fighting off sleep as they keep their vigil:

This hour at which He ends our time Of stupor from that first bad crime, Destroys the world's guilt with His blood; Washed out death's kingdom with its flood…[11]

Terce on ‘the third day’ (after Good Friday), in other words, completes the work of redemption, and inaugurates the ‘third age’ of grace in St Augustine’s schema of before the law/under the law/under grace in which we are now living.

But Easter Day is just the start of the liturgical year in this description of the Office: it is the eschatologically charged season of Epiphany, the showing out of Christ to the gentiles, that is its end.  And these two key seasons are linked by a series of all-night vigils each Friday from Easter to Pentecost, and again in the lead up to Epiphany; Vigils which start from ‘third hour of the night’. [12]

The task of the nun, then, is to accumulate grace  - that good oil - through her prayer and vigils, which can then be applied not only to herself but to others, stretching out to aid the conversion of the world.

St Benedict's Lenten monk

St Benedict's Rule, I want to suggest, takes us back another step in salvation time, to Lent.

Lent barely rates a mention in the Rule of Caesarius, and then only in relation to fasting, not the liturgy proper. [13]

In the Benedictine Rule, by contrast, Lent is the only liturgical season mentioned by name, and the saint explicitly tells us that the life of a monk should always be Lenten in nature. [14]

St Benedict reinforces this, I think, by starting his liturgical prescriptions not with the bright light of the festive celebration of the risen Lord, but rather with a discussion of the hour for rising in the dark in the long nights of his winter season (November to Easter). [15]

His focus is on monks still unreformed, yet to open their eyes to the ‘deifying light’; asking still for  'our lives to be lengthened and a respite allowed...that we may amend our evil ways' (Prologue), for far from living the angelic life themselves, monks need to be wary because that their actions are constantly being scrutinized and reported to God by the angels. [16]

There are no all night Vigils in St Benedict's Office, and his priority is clearly not Matins, whose readings can be cut if necessary, but rather Lauds, which he makes a daily celebration of the Resurrection (symbolized by the rising of the Son/sun).  

The rising

Instead, in St Benedict's theology, the imagery of the Resurrection as the pattern for the monk is not just the starting point, but the dominating theme: in the Prologue, he urges, ‘Exsurgamus ergo’ (let us therefore arise); in chapter 7 he argues that we ascend to heaven through humility.

In the liturgy he parallels these ideas by starting the Night Office with Psalm 3, which is usually interpreted, in Patristic texts, as speaking of the Resurrection (Ego dormivi…), through the use of the ‘psalms of ascent’. 

Above all, each week the Office starts again from Sunday, with its three Nocturn Matins in particular a celebration of the Resurrection.

To fear the day of judgment...

St Benedict’s Rule, does, it is true, allude to the common monastic meme of acting as watchers for the Second Coming in their Night Vigils.

His discussion of sleeping arrangements for the monks in RB 22, for example, is actually mainly about ensuring their readiness for the Night Office, and in doing so paraphrases the instructions of Luke 12:

A lamp shall burn constantly in the cell until morning. Let them sleep clothed and girded with cinctures or cords…Being thus always ready…’ [17]

And awareness of the coming judgment is certainly a key theme of the Rule.

But it is a day to be feared (RB 4), rather perhaps than prayed for, lest our process of reform be incomplete.

Indeed, I started this series pointing to the connection between Lent and the forty psalms said in the Benedictine Office each day, and our necessary preparation for entering heaven.  It is instructive, I think, to read Caesarius of Arles' explanation of the significance of forty in a sermon on David and Goliath, which interprets it to mean our entire earthly life:

The children of Israel faced their enemies for forty days. These forty days, by reason of the four seasons of the year, and of the four continents of the globe, are a figure of this present life, during which the Christian world does not cease to be arrayed in battle against the devil and his angels, as it were against Goliath and the army of the Philistines. [18]

And it is to emphasize this process of reform, that the Benedictine psalm cursus, I want to suggest, traces the path of creation, salvation and redemption history from its beginning, and towards its ultimate destiny each week, encouraging us to reform ourselves, with the aid of grade, in line with it.

But more on that in the next post.


Notes

[1] St Cyprian, Treatise 4, On Prayer: "And in discharging the duties of prayer, we find that the three children with Daniel, being strong in faith and victorious in captivity, observed the third, sixth, and ninth hour, as it were, for a sacrament of the Trinity, which in the last times had to be manifested. For both the first hour in its progress to the third shows forth the consummated number of the Trinity, and also the fourth proceeding to the sixth declares another Trinity; and when from the seventh the ninth is completed, the perfect Trinity is numbered every three hours, which spaces of hours the worshippers of God in time past having spiritually decided on, made use of for determined and lawful times for prayer."

[2] St Benedict directs our attention to the number of psalms said at the various hours in his chapter headings to chapter 9 (Quanti psalmi dicendi sunt nocturnis horis) and 17 (Quot psalmi per easdem horas dicendi sunt) and the discussion in these chapters.  Chapter 17 in particular effectively provides three groupings of hours: Matins and Lauds; Prime to None; Vespers and Compline.  Unfortunately he does not discuss the rationale for the various numbers of psalms, assuming, presumably, that the reader would already be familiar with the discussions of the topic to be foound in the earlier literature such as Cassian, Cyprian and Basil.

[3] RB 19: Ubique credimus divinam esse praesentiam et oculos Domini in omni loco speculari bonos et malos, [2] maxime tamen hoc sine aliqua dubitatione credamus cum ad opus divinum assistimus. [3] Ideo semper memores simus quod ait propheta: Servite Domino in timore, [4] et iterum: Psallite sapienter, [5] et: In conspectu angelorum psallam tibi.

[4] Eucherius of Lyons, The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaune (translation in the appendix of Tim Vivian, Kim Vivian and Jeffrey Russell trans, The Life of the Jura Fathers The Life of the Holy Fathers Romanus, Lupicinus , and Eugendus, Abbots of the Monasteries in the Jura Mountains...,  Cistercian Studies Series no 178, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, 1999,  Studies Series 178); for the latin text see Passio Acaunensium martyrum, BHL-5737.

[5] Gregory of Tours, Liber in gloria martyrum, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2: Gregorii Turonensis Opera. Teil 2: Miracula et opera minora. Editio nova lucisope expressa (Hanover, 1885), pp. 34–111 (at c. 74-75). Trans Raymond van Dam, LUP, 1988, pp 69-71

[6] Danuta Shanzer and Ian Wood (ed and trans), Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose, LUP, 2002.

[7] ibid.

[8] RC 21

[9] See especially RC 1, 63.

[10] RC 66

[11] For techniques to stay awake during the Night vigils, see RC 15; the Latin of the hymn can be found here and a translation of the hymn here.

[12] RC 68

[13] RC 71.

[14] RB15, 48.

[15] RB 8

[16] RB 7

[17] (RB 22)

[18] Caesarius of Arles, Sermon,

Praying the psalms with St Benedict 6C - The intercessory components of the Office

In the last two posts in this series I have argued from contextual material that at least in the three groups of monasteries considered here (Agaune, Arles and those of St Benedict) the whole Office was viewed as intercessory in character, given for the salvation of the whole world, and most particularly to those closest to the religious - including their fellow religious, family, friends, benefactors and wider community - in late antiquity.

Later periods would add specific prayers and psalms to the Office: these, I would suggest, simply made explicit and specific what had always been implicit, rather than representing a fundamental change in the orientation of monastic life: the key difference, perhaps was that the interests of Church and State were more obviously firmly aligned from the early middle ages onwards.

But even in late antiquity there were already a number of specific features of the Office that would have signalled its intercessory intent to those who said and heard it.

The angelic salutation

I have previously pointed to the use of the angelic salutation from St Luke 2:12 (Glory to God in the highest; peace and good will to men on earth) in the liturgy of the Sleepless monks. If we assume that Agaune's liturgy was either directly or indirectly influenced by that of the Sleepless monks, as suggested earlier in the series, it probably did include explicit intercessory components.

In particular, the liturgy of the Sleepless Monks, according to the late fifth century life of St Alexander Aketemoi, raised petitions to God on behalf of their fellow Christians by singing the angelic salutation and making seventy-seven genuflections each day. [1] It is worth noting that this canticle was also used in the Office of Arles, at Lauds on Sundays. [2]

The Pater Noster

The use of the Our Father (Pater Noster) at each hour of the Benedictine Office may have been intended to play a similar function. [3]

St Benedict specifically gives the abbot's recitation of the prayer aloud at Lauds and Vespers an interpretation directed at the internal operation of the monastery:

The purpose of this is the removal of those thorns of scandal, or mutual offence, which are wont to arise in communities.  For, being warned by the covenant which they make in that prayer, when they say Forgive us as we forgive, the brethren will cleanse their souls of such faults. [4] 

This sevenfold recitation of the prayer each day, then, echoes the same Scriptural injunction to forgive others seventy times seven claimed for St Alexander's use of the angelic salutation and genuflection, albeit within the community rather than more broadly.

 But St Benedict surely also had in mind the broader interpretation of the prayer as well, since it was at the core of virtually every patristic exposition on prayer. In particular, its opening petition – thy kingdom come – surely perfectly expresses what the religious is meant to pray for. Caesarius of Arles, for example, instructed his nuns:

That, with the help of God, you may be able to keep them as you abide unceasingly in your monastery cell, implore by assiduous prayer [assiduis orationibus] the visitation of the Son of God…[5]

St Benedict would surely have found this perfectly in tune with his own take on the prayer, not least since his favourite Church Father, Cyprian makes it clear that the reference to Our Father is a reminder that the prayer is intended to be collective, made on behalf of all Christians:

Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not My Father, which art in heaven, nor Give me this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. [6]

Capitella, litanies and collects

I also noted earlier that the Arles Office included 'capitella', psalm verses collected together to cover particular intentions.

St Benedict doesn't include either collects (perhaps because of his Office's lay character) or capitella, but he does include the short litany 'Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy' as a conclusion to each hour. [7]

Towards heaven

The clearest signal (at least to Patristic eyes) of the intercessory nature of St Benedict’s Office though, is arguably embedded in number symbolism, programmed into its fundamental design.  

Modern eyes tend to be oblivious to the symbolism of the numbers included in Scripture and the liturgy.  Patristic writers, however, all saw deep meaning in the numbers mentioned in Scripture, and St Augustine in particular devoted extensive exegesis to it.

That St Benedict put considerable stock on this symbolism is suggested in the Rule and Office both explicitly, for example in his allusion to the 'sacred number seven' in his discussion of the number of day hours; and implicitly, for example in his discussion of the core of his spiritual theology in the first seven chapters of the Rule, and then description of the Office in the next twelve. [8]  

At the start of this series  I discussed one piece of symbolism employed by St Benedict, in the forty psalms said each day in the Office, a number that can be seen as symbolising our preparation for entering heaven.

A second important piece of number symbolism that I want to touch briefly on here is that associated with his insistence on saying all 150 psalms each week. [9]

Variable and fixed numbers of psalms in the Office

Although, as we saw earlier in the series, Cassian had insisted that the proper form of the monastic Office involved a fixed number of psalms each day (viz twelve at Vespers and Matins, and three at the little hours), in reality the more common form of the early Office, at least in the West, did not necessarily say the same number of psalms each day throughout the year.

Instead, the length of the Night office in particular varied with the seasons, and the number at the day hours could differ on Sundays and feasts.  The Office described by St Augustine's Rule (which may have reflected the practice of Rome in his time) took this form, as did that of Arles, that of the Master, and the Roman secular office described in the Liber Diurnis and used by suburbican bishops and in the tituli. [10] The logical consequence of the variable psalmody model was of course that the entire psalter was not said within any fixed period of time in the Office itself (though it may have been in private recitation).

It is unclear whether the Office Cassian advocated involved saying all of the psalms in the context of the Office itself in a particular period: the Egyptian and Palestinian Offices he described more likely used only a fixed selection of psalms said each day, with the remainder being said privately by the monk in his cell. [11]

In contrast, St Benedict's Rule (which may or may not reflect a recent contemporaneous change in the Roman basilican Office) provides us with the first documented insistence that all the psalms be said within a particular time period, viz a week. [12]

The sacred number 150

Patristic era writers supply several several explanations for the significance of the number of psalms, a favourite being it representing the Old creation/covenant (ie the seven days of creation) plus the eighth day of the New, and the link to the fifteen steps of the inner temple, which in turn symbolised the ascent to heaven in the corresponding Gradual Psalms. 

St Augustine, for example, specifically christened 150 as sacred, by dint of the number of psalms. In his commentary on the '70 or 80 years of life' to which man can aspire (on Psalm 89), he drew a number of important connections:

Moreover, seventy and eighty years equal a hundred and fifty; a number which the Psalms clearly insinuate to be a sacred one. One hundred and fifty have the same relative signification as fifteen, the latter number being composed of seven and eight together: the first of which points to the Old Testament through the observation of the Sabbath; the latter to the New, referring to the resurrection of our Lord. Hence the fifteen steps in the Temple. Hence in the Psalms, fifteen songs of degrees. Hence the waters of the deluge overtopped the highest mountains by fifteen cubits: and many other instances of the same nature. [13]

But it is probably significant that it is one of St Benedict’s contemporaries, Cassiodorus, who expands on the link St Augustine made between the number of psalms and the Great Flood:

."..we have observed that through the Lord's generosity the earth was cleansed of its sins after one hundred and fifty days, when the flood covered the earth.  So the spiritual depth of the psalms with their perennial cleansing purifies the hearts of men until Judgment Day; and from this we experience a saving flood which washes clean our minds befouled with sins." [14]

The monk’s daily and weekly ‘pensum’ of psalms then, can be seen as penance done on behalf of the people to purge them of their sins, so that, as Psalm 94 daily reminded the monk, all might hear and respond to God’s call, and thus enter the promised land of heaven.

And perhaps there is another implicit link which I will come back to in due course, in the spreading of the psalms over seven days, to the idea best articulated by St John Chrysostom and recently highlighted by Benedict Anderson, that the liturgy is about effecting the repair of creation, damaged by the Fall. [15]

And you can find the next post in this series here.

Notes

[1] Daniel Caner's Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, University of California Press, 2002, pp 267.


[2] (RC 69).

[3] RB 13 12-14 - Plane agenda matutina vel vespertina non transeat aliquando, nisi in ultimo per ordinem oratio dominica, omnibus audientibus, dicatur a priore..., [14] Ceteris vero agendis, ultima pars eius orationis dicatur, ut ab omnibus respondeatur: Sed libera nos a malo.

[4] Propter scandalorum spinas quae oriri solent, [13] ut conventi per ipsius orationis sponsionem qua dicunt: Dimitte nobis sicut et nos dimittimus, purgent se ab huiusmodi vitio. 

[5] RC 1: Ch 1, trans McCarthy, in La Corte and McMillan ed Regular Life, Monastic, Canonical and Mendicant Rules, pp 58-9).

[6]  Cyprian, Treatise IV, Robert Ernest Wallis (trans), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.

[7] RB 9: [10] Post hos, lectio apostoli sequatur, ex corde recitanda, et versus, et supplicatio litaniae, id est Kyrie eleison.   Similarly, see RB 12, 13, 17.

[8] Due to their reflection of the pattern of creation, both seven and twelve were interpreted as meaning completeness, fulfillment or universality, with twelve having a governmental connotation (due tothe twelve tribes of Israel/number of apostles, etc).  The start of the Office material in chpater 8 is symbolically important too, given its association with the eighth day and thus ushering in of the era of the new creation: and St Benedict reinforces the importance of the number by having his monks rise at the eighth hour of the night, and concluding the chapter with a reference to Lauds, which he makes an explicit celebration of the Resurrection each day.

[9] RB 18:[22] Hoc praecipue commonentes ut, si cui forte haec distributio psalmorum displicuerit, ordinet si melius aliter iudicaverit, [23] dum omnimodis id adtendat ut omni hebdomada psalterium ex integro numero centum quinquaginta psalmorum psallantur, et dominico die semper a caput reprehendatur ad vigilias. [24] Quia nimis inertem devotionis suae servitium ostendunt monachi qui minus a psalterio cum canticis consuetudinariis per septimanae circulum psallunt, [25] dum quando legamus sanctos patres nostros uno die hoc strenue implesse, quod nos tepidi utinam septimana integra persolvamus.

[10] Augustine's, Ordo Monasterii gives a number of psalms for the Night Office that varies between 12, 15 and 18 psalms; the Rule of the Master specifies 12 to 16; the Cautio Episcopi (in the Liber Diurnis), 3 or 4 on weekdays, and nine on Sundays.

[11] For a discussion of the evidence see Armand Veilleux, La Liturgie Dans Le Cenobitisme Pachomien Au Quatrieme Siecle,  (Studia Anselmiana 57); Herder, Rome 1968 and Stig Simeon R. Frøyshov, The Cathedral–Monastic Distinction Revisited Part I: Was Egyptian Desert Liturgy a Pure Monastic Office?, Studia Liturgica 37 (2007), 198-216.

[12]  The liturgist's case for a shift to a fixed weekly psalm cursus of the Roman prior to St Benedict (rather than being a product of St Gregory's revamp) largely hangs on the claim that the 'de psalmiis' responsories, a set of psalm based responsories used in Epiphanytide, were selected to reflect the psalms used each day of the week at Matins, and were originally used throughout the year.  However, as the earliest evidence for the set dates from the seventh century (and the earliest listing of them as a set from the eighth), the strength of the case must be assessed as thin at the best.  But thisis a topic on which I plan t write more elsewhere!

[13] St Augustine's commentary on Psalm 89.  See also St Gregory the Great on Job chapter 35: "For by the number seven he expressed the present time, ‘which is passed by periods of seven days. But by the number ‘eight’ he designated eternal life, which the Lord made known to us by His resurrection...Hence it is, that the Temple is ascended with fifteen steps, in order that it may be learned by its very ascent that by seven and eight our worldly doings may be carefully discharged, and an eternal dwelling may be providently sought for. Hence also it is that, by increasing a unit to ten, the Prophet uttered a hundred and fifty Psalms."

[14]  Cassiodorus, commentary on Psalm 150, P. G. Walsh (trans), Explanations of the Psalms, vol 3, Ancient Christian Writers Series, Paulist Press, 1991, pp 466.

[15] Benedict Anderson, Et erant semper in templo: The Divine Office as Priestly Temple Service,  paper was originally delivered at the Fota XI International Liturgical Conference, July 7-9, 2018. 

Praying the Psalms with St Benedict 6B - St Benedict's Office as intercession

In the previous post I looked briefly at the intercessory context of late antique monasticism, including in relation to the monasteries of Agaune and Arles.  In this post I want to look more particularly at  the intercessory context for St Benedict's Rule and Office; in the next part I plan to look at the explicitly intercessory features of St Benedict's Office.

St Benedict and intercessory prayer

The Benedictine Rule makes clear that intercessory prayer is important.  

There are several references to prayers with the objective of the mutual support for the brethren of the monastery. [1]

And chapter 20 of the Rule, entitled on reverence in prayer (De reverentia orationis) which immediately follows the section on the liturgy, opens with key instructions on how to petition God:

If we wish to prefer a petition to men of high station, we do not presume to do it without humility and respect; how much more ought we to supplicate the Lord God of all things with all humility and pure devotion...[2]

But are these references all to prayer outside the Office, as some have argued, or do they also refer to the Office itself as a whole? [3]

The cultural and theological context we have already examined lends at least some support to the claim that at the very least, intercession was an important component of the Office and monastic life more generally.

Nor was this unique to Gaul and the East: there are numerous contemporary references for Rome and the surrounding regions that make it clear the intercessory function was an important consideration at the time, not least in justifying child oblation (or the near equivalent  consecration of girls as virgins, for example, for which there is an interesting contemporary literature on the value to family and state of this offering). [4]

Soldiers for Christ

Perhaps the most important cue to St Benedict's intercessory orientation though, lies in his depiction of prayer as the battlefield, and the monk as a soldier: the soldier, after all, fights not just for himself, but in an army, to defend the people. [5]

Rene Choi in particular has drawn out the way in which St Benedict depicts prayer as a battle against the ancient enemy, with the monks drawing support from each other, arrayed in choir as if lined up in ranks on the battlefield. [6]

And St Bede the Venerable later devoted considerable attention to drawing out the dual image of soldier and worker so integral to the Rule in his exposition of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, where the workforce alternated between guarding the walls of Jerusalem (and those within) and rebuilding them. [7]

The service of monks

There is one other important image in the Rule though, that is worth considering here, and that is the priestly, or ministerial role of the monk.

St Benedict makes several allusions to the ministerial role of monks - and he is clearly not referring to the ministerial priesthood since he makes it clear that only a few of the monks were expected to be priests in his time (RB 62).

There are, however, repeated references to the monk's service (servitutis) in the house of God starting from the Prologue, but especially in chapter 16, when talking about the hours of the Office.  He also warns the abbot, for example, of the terrible fate of Heli, priest of Silo (1 Samuel 2), for his failure to stop the corruption of his sons (RB 2).

Perhaps the most important, though, is in the very opening words of the Rule contain several important allusions to the book of Sirach, and introduce the important word servitutis, which St Benedict several times uses in relation to the Office:

Rule: Ausculta o fili,  praecepta magistri,  et  inclina aurem cordis tui et admonitionem pii patris libenter excipe et efficaciter comple; ut ad eum per obedientiae laborem redeas, a quo per inobedientiae desidiam recesseras.

Sirach: Fili, accedens ad servitutem Dei sta in justitia et timore, et præpara animam tuam ad tentationem. 2  Deprime cor tuum, et sustine: inclina aurem tuam, et suscipe verba intellectus: et ne festines in tempore obductionis. [8]

'Servitutis' is most often used, in Scripture to refer to slave, or hard labour, especially the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt, from which they were freed under Moses.  Only twice in the Old Testament, is it used in a more positive sense to mean ministry or service: aside from in Sirach, it is used in the book of Wisdom to Aaron's urgent intercessory prayer at Moses' urging, on behalf of the people in the face of God's killing anger.  In the Rule, though, St Benedict mostly uses the word consistently in the way it is used in Sirach and Wisdom, to mean the service of God. [9]

St Benedict and Bede on the efficacy of prayer

I noted above that it is sometimes argued that Chapter 20 of the Rule, on reverence in prayer, is about prayer outside of the Divine Office rather than including it.

That chapter argues that it is fervour - that is, humility, purity of heart and tears of compunction - not the length of the prayer or words that are important.  St Benedict argues that 'Our prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure'.

While it is certainly possible that St Benedict is talking only about prayer outside the Office, the context of the two other, much longer, monastic offices I've been discussing in this series at the very least suggest that the chapter can also be read as a defence of his much shorter Office. [10]

That the issue was still live two centuries later is suggested by an interesting commentary of St Bede the Venerable on the Epistle of James. In particular, St James 5:16-18 points to the value of the 'assiduous' or continuous prayer, and gives the example of the trial by liturgical prayer between Elijah and the priests of Baal (3 Kings 18), where both set up sacrifices to their respective gods, but only Elijah is able to call up fire so that the holocaust is effected, and the drought is broken.

St Bede, in his commentary on the epistle, drew out the contrast between the long, loud and continuous - but ultimately fruitless - prayer of the priests of Baal, and Elijah's own short sharp prayers which gave instant results:

He illustrates by an appropriate example how much the unremitting prayer of the righteous person can accomplish, when Elijah by praying only once closed up the heavens for such a long time, kept showers away from the earth, denied fruits to mortals, and again, when he wished, when he ascertained that it was time...he prayed only once and restored the fruits of water which he had denied to the earth. [11]

It is worth noting, too, that Bede was obviously aware that the aftermath of the divinely given fire that effects the holocaust, Elijah instructed the King to go up the hill and watch for rain seven times, echoing the number of day hours - and on the seventh he sees the cloud heralding the saving rain.

May our prayers in this current crisis of pestilence be equally fervent and effective!

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

Notes

[1] St Benedict, for example, insists on prayers for those making profession; the weekly servers and readers; those travelling outside the monastery; and monks who have been excommunicated for example (RB 28, 35, 38, 58, 67).  And as Choi has pointed out, the description of the cenobite in chapter one of the Rule is predicated on the mutual support necessary for prayer: Monachorum quattuor esse genera manifestum est.  Primum coenobitarum, hoc est monasteriale, militans sub regula vel abbate. Deinde secundum genus est anachoritarum, id est eremitarum, horum qui non conversationis fervore novicio, sed monasterii probatione diuturna, qui didicerunt contra diabolum multorum solacio iam docti pugnare,  et bene exstructi fraterna ex acie ad singularem pugnam eremi, securi iam sine consolatione alterius, sola manu vel brachio contra vitia carnis vel cogitationum, Deo auxiliante, pugnare sufficiunt.

[2] RB 20.1-2: Si, cum hominibus potentibus volumus aliqua suggerere, non praesumimus nisi cum humilitate et reverentia, quanto magis Domino Deo universorum cum omni humilitate et puritatis devotione supplicandum est.

[3]  See for example Terrance Kardong, Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary, Liturgical Press, 1996, largely following De Vogue.

[4] RB 59.  See Kim Bowes, Private worship, public values, and religious change in late antiquity, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

[5] Prologue .3: Ad te ergo nunc mihi sermo dirigitur, quisquis abrenuntians propriis voluntatibus, Domino Christo vero regi militaturus, oboedientiae fortissima atque praeclara arma sumis.

[6] Renie Choi, Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms, Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).  Choi points particularly to the implications of St Benedict's discussion of the distinction between hermits and coenobites in chapter 1 of the Rule, with its description of the battleline of brothers.

[7] Bede, On Ezra and Nehemiah, trans Scott deGregorio, Liverpool University Press, 2012.


[8] Prologue to the Rule: Hearken, my son, to the precepts of the master and incline the ear of thy heart; freely accept and faithfully fulfil the instructions of a loving father, that by the labour of obedience thou mayest return to him from whom thou hast strayed by the sloth of disobedience. To thee are my words now addressed, whosoever thou mayest be that renouncing thine own will to fight for the true King, Christ, dost take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience.

Sirach 2: Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.  [Humble] thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds [calamity/disaster].  Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end.  Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.  For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein (Douay-Rheims translation).

[9] The word occurs in Pr 45 (ergo nobis dominici schola servitii), 2:18 ( Non convertenti ex servitio praeponatur ingenuus, nisi), RB2:20 (sub uno Domino aequalem servitutis militiam baiulamus), 5:3 (  Propter servitium sanctum quod professi sunt) in relation to monastic life more generally; and in 16:2, 18:24, 49:4, 50:4 in relation to the Office.

[10] St Benedict himself contrasts his Office with that 'of our holy fathers [who] strenuously fulfilled in a single day what I pray that we lukewarm monks may perform in a whole week'. (RB 18).

[11] David Hurst (trans), Bede the Venerable: Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, Cistercian Publications, 1985.