This Lent I plan to provide some commentaries on the Benedictine Office, and particularly the psalm cursus.
While this topic isn't explicitly Lenten in focus, there is, I think, a Lenten connection, in that one of St Benedict's key themes, both in the Rule and the Office, is on the process of conversion of our way of life, of turning away from evil, and cultivating the good. [1]
And this process of progressive transformation, I want to suggest, is something St Benedict explicitly and implicitly connects to the symbolism of the forty days of Lent, not least through the number of psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office (viz forty; see the appendix below for a discussion of how the number is made up).
Lent in the Rule
St Benedict in his Rule gives particular attention to Lent: it is the only liturgical season he discusses, devoting an entire chapter to its character, and making mentions of the disciplines that apply during this period in several others.
But perhaps one of his most important comments on the subject is this: the character of the monk's life ought always be Lenten in character. [2]
One particular way that he builds this dictum into the life of the monk, I would suggest, is the Office, for each day the monk's daily 'pensum' (weight or measure), or in this context obligation, consists of saying forty psalms in total. [3]
The number is surely not random.
Forty
Lent may not have been strictly forty days in St Benedict's time (just when it became so is hotly contested).
But the symbolism of forty psalms each day is, I think, made clear not only by the various Biblical forty day fasts (Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Our Lord), but also the periods of purgation represented by the forty days of rain in the Great Flood, and the forty years the Israelites spent in the wilderness before being allowed to enter the promised land.
St Augustine, for example, commented in a sermon now used at Matins of Ember Friday in Lent in the 1962 Benedictine and Roman breviaries:
The monastic day, then, I would suggest, symbolically traces the path of the Israelites in the desert each day, the path of our life in this world: we have come out of Egypt, and are learning how to serve God; at the end of the day, in the last Psalm 133, we hope to stand at last within the Promised Land, in its very heart, the heavenly Jerusalem.
The psalms, in this context, act as a means of purgation both personally and for the world, one for each year in the desert.
Indeed, St Augustine's sermon quoted earlier may well be the source for two key memes in the Benedictine Rule, namely the idea that our lives ought always to be Lenten in character, and to our hoped for reward as labourers in the vineyard:
I don't want to suggest by this that laypeople should attempt to say all forty of the psalms the Rule specifies for each day - most laypeople have too many other demands on their time, and other, proper duties associated with their state of life, to fulfil that must take higher priority.
Rather, and I hope to come back to this point later in this series, I would argue (unfashionable though this idea is) that one of the key functions of religious is that they say them in part on our behalf; the point for us is to be aware of this function, and do what we can, financially and otherwise, to support their work.
Nonetheless, one possible Lenten practice might be to add just one extra psalm each day to our normal Office, and thus reach the number 40 by the end of Lent?
That way, we too can seek to purify ourselves afresh, and to support and build the community of like souls who travel with us, hoping that we too, may eventually be found worthy to enter the promised Land; that we too might dwell in the halls of the heavenly Jerusalem described in Psalm 133 at the end of the day, at Compline.
You can find the next part in this series here.
Appendix: How many psalms are said in the Office each day?
Some authors suggest that the number of psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office is 38, since the Laudate psalms are said under one doxology and should therefore only be counted as one.
I would suggest firstly that this is being overly literal, and it is far more likely that St Benedict had in mind the symbolism of forty given his attention to other key Biblical and other numbers throughout the Rule. First, although St Benedict specifies that Laudate psalms should be said at Lauds each day, he doesn't actually specify that they should be said under one doxology. Indeed, the problems of divided psalms aside, St Benedict actually varied the number of psalms said at a few hours on different days:
Matins: 14 (ps 3, Ps 94 + 12 variable psalms or parts of psalms of the day)
Lauds: 5 or 7 psalms depending on how Laudates are counted; one less on Saturday
Prime: 3 psalms or parts of psalms, 4 on Sundays
Terce, Sext None: 9 psalms or parts of Psalms
Vespers: 4 psalms or parts of psalms, with 5 on Mondays (but generally counted as one as Psalm 115 and 116 under one doxology)
Compline: 3 psalms
The custom of doing so, I would suggest, could well be a later shortening of the Office imported from the (later) Roman version of the hour, since most liturgists seem to agree that the Roman Office of St Benedict's time didn't actually have doxologies, but adopted the custom later in the sixth century.
And at least in the form we know them, both the Roman and Benedictine Offices maintain a certain symmetry (albeit in different ways) in the number of psalms said in the morning and evening:
Roman Lauds: 5 psalms if Laudates treated as one
Roman Vespers: 5 psalms
Benedictine Lauds: 7 psalms (if Laudates counted as three)
Benedictine Vespers: 4 psalms + 3 Compline = 7
Perhaps even more compellingly, St Augustine's Tract 17, quoted further above, on John provides a commentary on the number 38 that associates that number with weakness:
Notes
[1] See for example the conclusion of the Prologue ll. 49: Processu verso conversationis et fidei, dilato corde, inerrabili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via mandatorum Dei...All English translations of the Rule come from Justin McCann ed and trans), The Rule of Saint Benedict in English and Latin, Burns Oates, 1952; for the Latin see the Latin Intratext Edition, 2007.
[2] RB 49.1: Licet omni tempore vita monachi Quadragesimae debet observationem habere...
[3] See RB 49 &50.
[4] Augustine, Tract 17.4 on the Gospel of John, translation from the Maquis de Bute translation of the Roman Breviary: Quadragenarius numerus sacratus nobis in quadam perfectione commendatur. Notum esse arbitror Caritati vestrae: testantur saepissime divinae Scripturae. Ieiunium hoc numero consecratum est: bene nostis. Nam et Moyses quadraginta diebus ieiunavit, et Elias totidem 6 ipse Dominus noster et salvator Iesus Christus hunc ieiunii numerum implevit. Per Moysen significatur Lex, per Eliam significantur Prophetae, per Dominum significatur Evangelium.
[5] ibid: In hoc ergo saeculo quasi Quadragesimam abstinentiae celebramus, cum bene vivimus, cum ab iniquitatibus et ab illicitis voluptatibus abstinemus. Sed quia haec abstinentia sine mercede non erit, exspectamus beatam illam spem, et revelationem gloriae magni Dei, et salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi. In illa spe, cum fuerit de spe facta res, accepturi sumus mercedem denarium. Ipsa enim merces redditur operariis in vinea laborantibus... For the labourer image, see especial Prologue to the Rule 14: Et quaerens Dominus in multitudine populi cui haec clamat operarium suum, iterum dicit...
[6] ibid: Videamus ergo quid voluerit significare in illo uno, quem etiam ipse servans unitatis mysterium, sicut praelocutus sum, de tot languentibus unum sanare dignatus est. Invenit in annis eius numerum quemdam languoris: Triginta octo annos habebat in infirmitate. Hic numerus quomodo magis ad languorem pertineat, quam ad sanitatem, paulo diligentius exponendum est...Caritatis praecepta duo sunt a Domino commendata: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua; et: Diliges proximum tuum tamquam teipsum. In his duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et Prophetae. Merito et illa vidua omnes facultates suas, duo minuta misit in dona Dei: merito et pro illo languido a latronibus sauciato, stabularius duos nummos accepit unde sanaretur: merito apud Samaritanos biduum fecit Iesus, ut eos caritate firmaret. Binario ergo isto numero cum aliquid boni significatur maxime bipartita caritas commendatur. Si ergo quadragenarius numerus habet perfectionem legis et Lex non impletur nisi in gemino praecepto caritatis; quid miraris quia languebat qui ad quadraginta, duo minus habebat?
While this topic isn't explicitly Lenten in focus, there is, I think, a Lenten connection, in that one of St Benedict's key themes, both in the Rule and the Office, is on the process of conversion of our way of life, of turning away from evil, and cultivating the good. [1]
And this process of progressive transformation, I want to suggest, is something St Benedict explicitly and implicitly connects to the symbolism of the forty days of Lent, not least through the number of psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office (viz forty; see the appendix below for a discussion of how the number is made up).
Lent in the Rule
St Benedict in his Rule gives particular attention to Lent: it is the only liturgical season he discusses, devoting an entire chapter to its character, and making mentions of the disciplines that apply during this period in several others.
But perhaps one of his most important comments on the subject is this: the character of the monk's life ought always be Lenten in character. [2]
One particular way that he builds this dictum into the life of the monk, I would suggest, is the Office, for each day the monk's daily 'pensum' (weight or measure), or in this context obligation, consists of saying forty psalms in total. [3]
The number is surely not random.
Forty
Lent may not have been strictly forty days in St Benedict's time (just when it became so is hotly contested).
But the symbolism of forty psalms each day is, I think, made clear not only by the various Biblical forty day fasts (Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Our Lord), but also the periods of purgation represented by the forty days of rain in the Great Flood, and the forty years the Israelites spent in the wilderness before being allowed to enter the promised land.
St Augustine, for example, commented in a sermon now used at Matins of Ember Friday in Lent in the 1962 Benedictine and Roman breviaries:
The number forty is put before us as hallowed, and, in a way, perfect. I think that your love knoweth this God's Scriptures often and; often witness it. Ye well know that a Fast of this number of days is hallowed. Moses fasted forty days. Elias did the same. And our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself fasted this number of days complete...Love is the fulfilling of the law; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty. [4]And it is the forty years in the desert that we are daily reminded of in the Benedictine office if we say Matins, with the invitatory psalm (Psalm 94), and particularly its verse:
Quadragínta
annis próximus fui generatióni huic, et dixi: Semper hi errant corde; ipsi vero non cognovérunt
vias meas: quibus jurávi in ira mea: Si introíbunt in réquiem meam.
|
Forty years long was I offended with that
generation, and I said: These always err in heart. And these men have not
known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
|
The monastic day, then, I would suggest, symbolically traces the path of the Israelites in the desert each day, the path of our life in this world: we have come out of Egypt, and are learning how to serve God; at the end of the day, in the last Psalm 133, we hope to stand at last within the Promised Land, in its very heart, the heavenly Jerusalem.
The psalms, in this context, act as a means of purgation both personally and for the world, one for each year in the desert.
Indeed, St Augustine's sermon quoted earlier may well be the source for two key memes in the Benedictine Rule, namely the idea that our lives ought always to be Lenten in character, and to our hoped for reward as labourers in the vineyard:
We, then, make our pilgrimage in this world a Lent, by living good lives, and abstaining from her iniquities and her forbidden pleasures. But at the end of this life-long Lent there will be an Easter indeed. We look for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ When that hope is realised, when that faith is swallowed up in knowledge, then indeed shall we receive every man a penny. In good sooth, it is true that every labourer in the vineyard will get his wages... [5]Monks and laypeople
I don't want to suggest by this that laypeople should attempt to say all forty of the psalms the Rule specifies for each day - most laypeople have too many other demands on their time, and other, proper duties associated with their state of life, to fulfil that must take higher priority.
Rather, and I hope to come back to this point later in this series, I would argue (unfashionable though this idea is) that one of the key functions of religious is that they say them in part on our behalf; the point for us is to be aware of this function, and do what we can, financially and otherwise, to support their work.
Nonetheless, one possible Lenten practice might be to add just one extra psalm each day to our normal Office, and thus reach the number 40 by the end of Lent?
That way, we too can seek to purify ourselves afresh, and to support and build the community of like souls who travel with us, hoping that we too, may eventually be found worthy to enter the promised Land; that we too might dwell in the halls of the heavenly Jerusalem described in Psalm 133 at the end of the day, at Compline.
You can find the next part in this series here.
Appendix: How many psalms are said in the Office each day?
Some authors suggest that the number of psalms said each day in the Benedictine Office is 38, since the Laudate psalms are said under one doxology and should therefore only be counted as one.
I would suggest firstly that this is being overly literal, and it is far more likely that St Benedict had in mind the symbolism of forty given his attention to other key Biblical and other numbers throughout the Rule. First, although St Benedict specifies that Laudate psalms should be said at Lauds each day, he doesn't actually specify that they should be said under one doxology. Indeed, the problems of divided psalms aside, St Benedict actually varied the number of psalms said at a few hours on different days:
Matins: 14 (ps 3, Ps 94 + 12 variable psalms or parts of psalms of the day)
Lauds: 5 or 7 psalms depending on how Laudates are counted; one less on Saturday
Prime: 3 psalms or parts of psalms, 4 on Sundays
Terce, Sext None: 9 psalms or parts of Psalms
Vespers: 4 psalms or parts of psalms, with 5 on Mondays (but generally counted as one as Psalm 115 and 116 under one doxology)
Compline: 3 psalms
The custom of doing so, I would suggest, could well be a later shortening of the Office imported from the (later) Roman version of the hour, since most liturgists seem to agree that the Roman Office of St Benedict's time didn't actually have doxologies, but adopted the custom later in the sixth century.
And at least in the form we know them, both the Roman and Benedictine Offices maintain a certain symmetry (albeit in different ways) in the number of psalms said in the morning and evening:
Roman Lauds: 5 psalms if Laudates treated as one
Roman Vespers: 5 psalms
Benedictine Lauds: 7 psalms (if Laudates counted as three)
Benedictine Vespers: 4 psalms + 3 Compline = 7
Perhaps even more compellingly, St Augustine's Tract 17, quoted further above, on John provides a commentary on the number 38 that associates that number with weakness:
...the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. I wish to explain why this number of thirty-eight is proper rather to weakness than to health. Love is the fulfilling of the law; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty...
But in love we have given us two precepts: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. When the widow gave all she had for an offering to God she gave two mites; the inn-keeper received two pence wherewith to cure him that had fallen among thieves Jesus abode for two days among the Samaritans, that He might establish them in love.
When, then, anything good is spoken of as two, the two great divisions of love are the chief mystic interpretation. If, then, the law is fulfilled in the number forty, and it is not fulfilled if there be lacking the two precepts of love, what wonder is it that he was infirm who lacked two of forty? [6]And you can find the next part in this series here.
Notes
[1] See for example the conclusion of the Prologue ll. 49: Processu verso conversationis et fidei, dilato corde, inerrabili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via mandatorum Dei...All English translations of the Rule come from Justin McCann ed and trans), The Rule of Saint Benedict in English and Latin, Burns Oates, 1952; for the Latin see the Latin Intratext Edition, 2007.
[2] RB 49.1: Licet omni tempore vita monachi Quadragesimae debet observationem habere...
[3] See RB 49 &50.
[4] Augustine, Tract 17.4 on the Gospel of John, translation from the Maquis de Bute translation of the Roman Breviary: Quadragenarius numerus sacratus nobis in quadam perfectione commendatur. Notum esse arbitror Caritati vestrae: testantur saepissime divinae Scripturae. Ieiunium hoc numero consecratum est: bene nostis. Nam et Moyses quadraginta diebus ieiunavit, et Elias totidem 6 ipse Dominus noster et salvator Iesus Christus hunc ieiunii numerum implevit. Per Moysen significatur Lex, per Eliam significantur Prophetae, per Dominum significatur Evangelium.
[5] ibid: In hoc ergo saeculo quasi Quadragesimam abstinentiae celebramus, cum bene vivimus, cum ab iniquitatibus et ab illicitis voluptatibus abstinemus. Sed quia haec abstinentia sine mercede non erit, exspectamus beatam illam spem, et revelationem gloriae magni Dei, et salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi. In illa spe, cum fuerit de spe facta res, accepturi sumus mercedem denarium. Ipsa enim merces redditur operariis in vinea laborantibus... For the labourer image, see especial Prologue to the Rule 14: Et quaerens Dominus in multitudine populi cui haec clamat operarium suum, iterum dicit...
[6] ibid: Videamus ergo quid voluerit significare in illo uno, quem etiam ipse servans unitatis mysterium, sicut praelocutus sum, de tot languentibus unum sanare dignatus est. Invenit in annis eius numerum quemdam languoris: Triginta octo annos habebat in infirmitate. Hic numerus quomodo magis ad languorem pertineat, quam ad sanitatem, paulo diligentius exponendum est...Caritatis praecepta duo sunt a Domino commendata: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua; et: Diliges proximum tuum tamquam teipsum. In his duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et Prophetae. Merito et illa vidua omnes facultates suas, duo minuta misit in dona Dei: merito et pro illo languido a latronibus sauciato, stabularius duos nummos accepit unde sanaretur: merito apud Samaritanos biduum fecit Iesus, ut eos caritate firmaret. Binario ergo isto numero cum aliquid boni significatur maxime bipartita caritas commendatur. Si ergo quadragenarius numerus habet perfectionem legis et Lex non impletur nisi in gemino praecepto caritatis; quid miraris quia languebat qui ad quadraginta, duo minus habebat?
