Frequently asked questions no 3: When do you use the festal canticles of Lauds?

Most Office books generally provide two sets of canticles for Lauds on weekdays - the ferial ('of the day of the week') set, and 'festal' canticles. The ferial canticles for each day of the week are the set specified by St Benedict in his Rule, and St Benedict states that they were already traditional ones in Rome by his time.  The festal were introduced into the Benedictine Office, on a purely optional basis, following the reform of the Roman Office in 1913.

 Accordingly, the default option is to ignore the festal canticles and instead use the ‘ferial’ canticles for each day of the week, except where as feast has its own antiphons (ie Class IIII feasts with antiphons of the feast, and Class I&II feasts), in which case the ‘Benedicite canticle’ (ie the Sunday canticle) is used instead, in conjunction with the ‘festal’ psalms (92&99) of Lauds.

 If you wish to use the festal canticles, there are two systems.  The first is to use the festal canticles on all days except penitential days (Advent, Lent and Ember days), when the ferial canticles are used, and (higher level) feasts when the Benedicite is used.  The second system is to use the festal canticles for Class III feasts (without proper antiphons) and for the Office of Our Lady on Saturday.

Frequently Asked Questions 2: When do you and don’t you use a doxology (Gloria Patri…/Glory be to the Father…) with a psalm or canticle?

 A two verse doxology (the verses Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum Amen, or ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen’) is normally added to the end of each psalm, part of a psalm, and canticle in the Benedictine Office, regardless of whether an antiphon is said before or after the psalm or not. 

This means that each of the individual stanzas of Psalm 118 said at the hours of Prime to None on Sunday and Monday have a doxology, as do psalms split in two and usually marked divisio. 

There are however a number of exceptions to this practice that are clearly indicated in the rubrics in most Office books, namely: 

• at Lauds the doxologies for Psalms 148, 149 each day are omitted, so that all three psalms are said under one doxology (after Psalm 150) ;
• at Vespers on Monday Psalms 115 and 116 are said under one doxology; 
• at Lauds on Sunday and feasts, the canticle Benedicite does not have a doxology (as one is incorporated into the text); and 
• during the Sacred Triduum all doxologies are omitted.

When the Office is said in choir, it is usual to stand for the doxology, and bow for the first verse of it.