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Rule
St Benedict of Nursia, tr. Hunter Blair, 1907
Chapter 13
ON week-days let Lauds be celebrated in manner following. Let the sixty-sixth Psalm be said without an antiphon, as on Sundays, and somewhat slowly, in order that all may be in time for the fiftieth, which is to be said with an antiphon. After this let two other Psalms be said according to custom; that is, on Monday, the fifth and thirty-fifth: on Tuesday, the forty-second and fifty-sixth: on Wednesday, the sixty-third and sixty-fourth: on Thursday, the eighty-seventh and eighty-ninth: on Friday, the seventy-fifth and ninety-first: and on Saturday, the hundred and forty-second and the Canticle from Deuteronomy, which must be divided into two Gloria’s. But on the other days let canticles from the prophets be said, each on its proper day, according to the practice of the Roman Church. Then let the psalms of praise follow, and after them a lesson from the Apostle, to be said by heart, a responsory, a hymn, a versicle, a canticle out of the Gospel, the Litany, and so conclude.
The office of Lauds and Vespers, however, must never conclude without the Lord’s Prayer being said aloud by the Superior, so that all may hear it, on account of the thorns of scandal1 which are wont to arise; so that the brethren, by the covenant which they make in that prayer when they say “Forgive us as we forgive,” may cleanse themselves of such faults. But at the other Offices let the last part only of the prayer be said aloud, so that all may answer: “But deliver us from evil.”
Notes
- Note H (p. 66).—Scandalorum spinas. In order to remind the brethren of the duty of mutual concord and charity, and the scandalous consequences of the opposite vices, St. Benedict here orders an exception to the general practice of saying the Lord’s Prayer in secret, which was part of the disciplina arcani of the early Church. The Prayer was considered too sacred to be used or even heard by those not fully initiated into the Faith; and hence the catechumens, who left the Church at the offertory of the Mass, would not be present at the solemn chanting of the Pater noster. In the Roman Office the Lord’s Prayer is still said in secret wherever it occurs, with very few exceptions.
The Litaniæ spoken of in this chapter are the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, &c., immediately preceding the Pater noster and Collect, with which the Office concludes.