7/2/2023 0 Comments Divine office chanted![]() Similarly, the Magnificat, the “Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is sung each day at Vespers. Like Vespers, the Office of Lauds has a Gospel canticle, the Benedictus, the “Canticle of Zechariah,” from Saint Luke’s Gospel, prayed while standing, as is customary for a text from the Gospels. Each day at Lauds an Old Testament Canticle, also in a poetic, psalm-like structure is used before the Laudate Psalms (that is, Psalms 148, 149, 150). Other psalms too are linked with Lauds, for example Psalms 5, 35, 42, 56, 62, 63, 64, 87, 89, 117, 142, (Greek Septuagint numbering), all of them with some reference to daybreak, a new day, a new beginning. ![]() In the office according to Saint Benedict’s Rule, these five psalms are repeated each day at Lauds. The psalms most often associated with Lauds include Psalm 66 (“Let your face shed its light upon us”) Psalm 50 (“Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness”) and Psalms 148-150. Like private prayer and nighttime vigils, the idea of a morning office probably extends back much earlier in the Church, but a precise date cannot be assigned to its origin.Įarly Christian monks adopted the custom of meeting at daybreak, as well as in the predawn, and associated the office at dawn especially with our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. According to John Cassian, this Office of praising Christ as the new light appears on the horizon, was being prayed around the year 360 in Bethlehem, the place of our Lord’s birth. Today we call this office Lauds, meaning praise, to be associated especially with the repetition each day of Psalms 148, 149, 150 at the end of the psalmody, before the short lesson, response, hymn and canticle of the Gospel, the Benedictus are prayed. The Office prayed at sunrise, in the past called “Matutini,” (from the word for morning time) has always been a part of the monastic tradition. ![]()
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