The Rule of St Benedict Chapter 18
In what order the psalms are to be said
Text
First, at the day hours, let this verse always be said: O God come to my aid, O Lord, make haste to help me, and the glory be. Then the hymn proper to each hour.
In primis, semper diurnis horis dicatur versus: Deus in adiutorium meum intende, Domine ad adiuvandum me festina, et gloris. Inde hymnus uniuscuiusque horae.
At prime on Sunday, the first four sections of the 118th psalm are to be said. For the rest of the hours; that is, terce, sext and none, three sections of the aforementioned 118th psalm are to be said.
Deinde prima hora, Dominica, dicenda sunt quatuor capitula psalmi centesima octavi decimi. Reliquis vero horis, id est, tertia, sexta, et nona, terna capitula supradicti psalmi centesimi octavi decimi dicantur.
At prime on Monday three psalms are to be said, that is, the first, second and sixth. And so on each day at prime until Sunday let three psalms be said at prime in order, up to the 19th; however the 9th and 17th are to be divided into two glory bes. And so Vigils of Sunday will always begin with the 20th psalm.
Ad primam autem secundae feriae dicantur tres psalmi, id est, primus, secundus et sextus. Et ita per singulos dies ad primam, usque ad Dominicam dicantur per ordinem terni psalmi, usque ad nonum decimum psalmum; ita sane, ut nonus psalmus et septimus decimus partiantur in binas glorias. Et sic fiat, ut ad vigilias Dominica semper a vegesimo incipiatur.
At terce, sext and none on Monday, the nine remaining sections of the 118th psalm are to be said, three sections at each hour. This psalm then having been said in two days, that is, Sunday and Monday, on Tuesday at terce, sext and none let the nine psalms from the 119th to 127th be said, three at each hour. These psalms are to be repeated at these hours every day until Sunday (the hymns, lessons and verses being arranged the same every day), and thus Sunday will always begin with the 119th psalm.
Ad tertiam vero, et sextam, et nonam secundae feriae novem capitula, quae residua sunt de centesimo octavo psalmo, ipsa terna capitula per easdem horas dicantur. Expenso igitur psalmo centesimo octavo decimo duobus diebus, id est, Dominica et secunda feria, tertia feria iam ad tertiam, sextam, vel nonam psallantur terni psalmi, a centesimo nono decimo usque ad centesimum vigesimum septimum, id est, psalmi novem. Quique psalmi semper usque ad Dominicam per easdem horas itidem repetantur (hymnorum nihilominus, lectionum vel versuum dispositione uniformi cunctis diebus servata), et ita scilicet, ut semper Dominica a centesimo octavo decimo incipiatur.
Vespers are to be sung every day with four psalms. And let these psalms begin with the 109th, and go on to the 147th, omitting those which are set apart for other hours, that is, from the 117th to the 127th, the 133rd, and the 142nd. All the rest are to be said at Vespers. And as they are three psalms short, let those psalms mentioned above which are quite long be divided: that is, the 188th, the 143rd and the 144th. As the 116th is short, let it be joined to the 115th. The order of psalms at vespers being thus arranged, let the rest, that is, the lessons, responsories, hymns, verses and canticles, be carried out as we have set out above.
Vespera autem quotidie quatuor psalmorum modulatione canatur. Qui psalmi incipiantur a centesimo nono usque ad centesimum quadragesimum septimum: exceptis iis qui in diversis horis ex eis sequestrantur, id est, a centesimo decimo septimo, usque ad centesimum vigesimum septimum, et centesimo trigesimo tertio, et centesimo quadragesimo secondo. Reliqui omnes in vespera dicendi sunt. Et quia minus veniunt tres psalmi, ideo dividendi sunt qui in numero superscripto fortiores inveniuntur: id est, centesimus trigesimus octavus, et centesimus quadragesimus tertius, et centesimus quadragesimus quartus. Centesimus vero sextus decimus, quia parvus est, cum centesimo quinto decimo coniungatur. Digesto ergo ordine psalmorum verpertinorum, reliqua, id est, lectiones, responsoria, hymni, versus, vel cantica, sicut supra taxavimus, impleantur.
At Compline the same psalms are repeated every day; that is, the 4th, 19th and 133rd.
Ad completorium vero quotidie iidem psalmi repetantur; id est quartus, nonagesimus, et centesimus trigesimus tertius.
The order of psalmody of the day hours having been arranged, the rest of the psalms which are left over should be equally distributed in the seven night vigils, by dividing the longer psalms, and assigning 12 to each night.
Disposito ordine psalmodiae diurnae, reliqui omnes psalmi, qui supersunt, aequaliter dividantur in septem noctium vigilias, partiendo scilicet qui inter eos prolixiores sunt psalmi, et duodecim per unamquamque constituantur noctem.
Above all we recommend that if this distribution of psalms should displease anyone, he may order it differently, if he judge it better, but he should take care that all 150 psalms are recited every week, and begin again on Sunday. For those monks show themselves to be indolent in their service of devotion who say less than the whole psalter and the usual canticles in a week; for we read that our holy fathers energetically fulfilled in one day what we tepid monks achieve in a whole week.
Hoc praecipua commonentes, ut si cui forte haec distributio psalmorum displicuerit, ordinet, si melius aliter iudicaverit, dum omnimodis id attendatur, ut omni hebdomada psalterium ex integer numero centum quinquaginta psalmorum psallatur, et Dominico die semper a capite repetatur ad vigilias: quia nimis iners devotionis suae servitium ostendunt monachi, qui minus psalterio, cum canticis consuetudinariis, per septimanae circulum psallunt; cum legamus sanctos patres nostros uno die hoc strenue implevisse, quod nos tepidi utinam septimana integra persolvamus.
Comment
It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae here. Dom Delatte summarises it by saying that most of the first 19 psalms are given to Prime, the 20th to 108th to the night/dawn offices of Vigils and Lauds, with the rest going to Vespers and the Little Hours (Terce, Sext, None).
The 118th psalm is spread over 2 days by St Benedict. We don’t know why he made this arrangement – the Roman Breviary (early 20th century version) covers the whole psalm on Sunday by making the sections longer so he could have chosen to do this.
For the remainder of the week, the same psalms are said at the Little Hours every day. This may be for a practical reason; if a monk is working some distance from the oratory, it wouldn’t be practical to return for the Office, so he could simply say the Office there. These short psalms are easy to memorise and say every day. These psalms, together with psalm 118, are called the “Gradual” psalms as they were believed to be chanted by pilgrims ascending to the temple in Jersualem.
He sets the same psalms for Compline every day as well; not only is their content well suited to the hour, but they could likewise be recited from memory and avoid the need to use candles for reading.
The final paragraph shows St Benedict’s characteristic humility; his arrangement is doubtless borne of his great experience, but he clearly foresees that others may think differently. The one thing he insists on is that the whole psalter should be recited every week. This doesn’t, of course, take account of feast days, where special psalms may be substituted for the normal ones. Monks don’t have to recite the ones they miss at those times. It’s the principle here.
Dom Delatte reminds us of the use of the Psalms in history:
The psalter was created by God himself to be for ever the authentic formulary of prayer. With its thoughts and in its language God has willed to be praised and honoured. The psalms express the deepest, most varied, and most delicate sentiments of the human heart, and answer all its needs. They served the saints of the Old Testament; the have served the Apostles and the saints of all ages. And their words have been uttered by other and more august lips: for they were said again by Our Lady and Our Lord. In the pilgrimages to Jerusalem Our Lord and his Mother and St Joseph chanted the gradual psalms. Some authors have thought that Our Lord used to recite the psalter every day, and that he was only continuing his prayer when in his Passion, raised aloft on the cross, he said: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and again “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”
At the time of writing, we are in holy week and one interesting practice occurs in the triduum between Thursday and Saturday. In the traditional Office, all the extra bits are dropped from the Office; hymns, responsories, lessons. The offices start with either the antiphon for the first psalm or directly with the psalm itself. There are no glory bes at the end. The Office is shorn and reduced to the basics – the psalms. In essence, what we do in holy week is pray in the Old Testament way; reciting the psalms as we travel through the momentous events of the triduum.
Great article. In the old Roman Office (before Pius X) Psalm 118 was recited in its entirety at the little hours every day of the year. I suspect it may have been that way in Saint Benedict's time as well. He seems to have been in the early sixth century constructing his Ordo of the Psalms as an edited version of something that resembles the pre-1911 Roman Psalter which is why he had to drop the number of Vespers Psalms to four because he took nine of them out of the Vespers cycle to cover the day hours from Tuesday through Saturday.