Nocturns/4 - The readings: how important are they really?

Codex Amiatinus

The books to be read at Matins shall be the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and also the commentaries on them which have been made by well-known and orthodox Catholic Fathers.

Rule of St Benedict chapter 9

I want to turn now to the readings at Matins.

In St Benedict's Office, the readings are treated as far less important than the psalms.

St Benedict decrees, for example, that the lessons be dropped altogether for summer on weekdays, and in relation to Sundays, he notes that if necessary they are to be cut short in order to start Lauds on time.  This probably reflects the fact that monks have a lot of time set aside for lectio divina, as well as hearing readings at meals and in the evening in his timetable.

The content of the readings - temporal cycle

In St Benedict's time, the readings at Matins were probably not fixed (though this is not certain), but rather set by the abbot.  Over time, however, a fixed cycle was established.  The Sunday Gospel cycle and annual Scriptural cycle in the Office (which is essentially the same as that of the Roman Office) can be traced back to the early seventh century, though the 'ordines Romani' concerned may attest to an earlier tradition.  The cycle has really only been modified at the margins since then.  The Patristic readings have their origins in a selection made by Paul the Deacon in the eighth century.

Certainly the readings in the 1963 breviary have not substantially changed, as far as I can see, since at least the time of the (post Council of Trent) Breviary of Pope Paul V (1615), a few new or changed feasts aside.  The basic cycle works like this (feasts aside).  On Sundays:

• the first Nocturn readings are on a seasonal/monthly Scriptural cycle; 
• Second Nocturn readings are usually Patristic commentaries on the first nocturn Scriptural readings; and 
• the third Nocturn readings are generally Patristic commentaries on the Gospel of the (EF) Mass of the day.

On weekdays, the readings are generally from Scripture, filling in (some of the) gaps between the Sundays, save in Lent, when the readings are mostly Patristic commentaries (on the Gospel of the day).

You can find a listing of the Scriptural cycle (Sunday first Nocturns and weekdays) here.

Readings for feasts

On feasts, some or all of the readings are selected to match the type of saint (from the Common) or feast being celebrated.  On third class feasts, usually only the third reading is of the feast, and is on the saint in question's life.  On higher level feasts, the Second Nocturn readings will usually relate specifically to the feast.

Latin or English?

I will come books containing the readings in a post or two, but it is worth noting here that if you are praying the Office devotionally, you can of course, do the readings in English.

For the reasons I have previously set out in relation to the psalms, doing the readings in Latin is preferable, in my view, if at all possible.  One approach you could consider, that I've encountered in some monasteries is to do the readings in Latin in the Office, but then read them in the vernacular at a meal.  Alternatively you could prepare them in advance (or read the English afterwards).

That said, don't let the perfect get in the way of the good - doing them in English devotionally is better then not doing them at all!  In addition, it is, I suppose possible that a case can probably be made for the use of the vernacular for the readings even for liturgical use of the Office - Universae Ecclesiae after all, gives such permission in relation to the Mass.

Set your own cycle?

The other area of possible flexibility, at least in the devotional use of the Office, relates to the cycle of readings.

The Scriptural cycle

First, the readings at Matins do not cover the entire Bible.   The lack of summer weekday readings aside, some books are not read at all, or get only one or two readings (generally for feasts).  The books of the Pentateuch other than Genesis, Chronicles (Parahelion), Acts, and Revelations in particular get short shrift in my view, and even those books that are notionally included in the cycle can be omitted depending on the number of weeks after Epiphany and Pentecost.

In addition, the readings typically select out a few verses from the opening chapters of many books, they don't cover the full chapter or book.

Moreover, some receive, on the face of it, quite a quite disproportionate amount of time (Maccabees for example, compared to the Wisdom books).

That said, there is an underlying logic to the schedule of books read in the first Nocturn (and weekdays) that relates to the liturgical seasons, so I wouldn't lightly discard it.  But it is true that some monasteries have reverted to setting their own readings cycle in recent times, or working from the continuous lectionary used in the Ordinary Form.  And there are a few websites around that will help you with this.

Patristic readings

The second issue relates to the Patristic readings.  Personally, I find I am still getting something out of the Patristic readings even after reading the same texts for several years now and am happy enough to fill these out with other sources as part of my lectio divina program.  But if you did want more variety in the Office itself, it would be easy to rotate at least the third Nocturn readings on Sundays, by using the 'Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers' volumes, which generally provide several sermons keyed to the Sunday Gospels (in the EF).

Keep in mind though, that these kinds of changes are only permissible if you are praying the Office devotionally - while monasteries have permission under the 1977 guidelines to do this (within specified limits), individuals are not monasteries and so do not hold the required delegation to design their own (liturgical) office.