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Rule

St Benedict of Nursia, tr. Hunter Blair, 1907

Chapter 11

ON Sunday let the brethren rise earlier for the Night-Office, which is to be arranged as follows. When six Psalms and a versicle have been sung (as already prescribed), all being seated in order in their stalls, let four lessons with their responsories be read from the book, as before: and to the last responsory only let the reader add a Gloria, all reverently rising as soon as he begins it. After the lessons let six more Psalms follow in order, with their antiphons and versicle as before; and then let four more lessons, with their responsories, be read in the same way as the former. Next let three canticles from the Prophets be said, as the Abbot shall appoint, which canticles are to be sung with an Alleluia. After the versicle, and the blessing given by the Abbot, let four more lessons from the New Testament be read as before; and at the end of the fourth responsory, let the Abbot begin the hymn, Te Deum laudamus. After the hymn, let the Abbot read the lesson from the Gospel, while all stand in awe and reverence. The Gospel being ended, let all answer Amen. Then let the Abbot go on with the hymn, Te decet laus; and after the blessing hath been given,¹ let them begin Lauds. This order for the Night-Office is always to be observed on Sunday, alike in summer and in winter, unless perchance (which God forbid) they rise too late, in which case the lessons or responsories must be somewhat shortened.² Let all care, however, be taken that this do not happen; but if it should, let him, through whose neglect it hath come to pass, make satisfaction for it in the oratory.

Notes

Note E (p. 62).—Data benedictione. The benedictio here referred to is the collect, or prayer of the day, said after the Gospel. The word benedictio is often used with the signification of prayer: e.g., in chaps. xxxv. and xxxviii., where the weekly reader and servers are directed to receive the blessing before entering on their offices. So, conversely, in ch. xlix., the word oratio is used in the sense of the blessing given by the Abbot: “Quod unusquisque offert, cum ejus fiat oratione et voluntate.”
Note F (p. 62).—Aliquid de lectionibus breviandum. Anciently the length of the lessons was not fixed as at present, but the signal for their conclusion was given by the Superior, who, when he thought fit, pronounced the words Tu autem Domine, the reader concluding miserere nobis. (Charlemagne, we are told, when presiding at the office in his private chapel, coughed (signum ex gutture faciebat) as a signal for the reader to cease. In some monasteries it was the custom for the cantor to mark previously with a drop of wax, or with his finger-nail, the point where the lessons were to conclude. The present discipline of the Church, which has not only fixed the length of the lessons, but binds every professed monk to the recitation of the Office in its integrity, has of course superseded the injunction here given by St. Benedict.