"At midnight I rose to give praise to thee."
Psalm 118: 62, quoted in the Rule of St Benedict, ch 16
About Matins...
By way of an introduction to Benedictine Matins, I thought it would be useful to start by summarising a few key things you need to be aware of about Matins upfront
I'll expand on some of these points in posts over the rest of this week, and as the series goes along.
1. Matins is one of the eight 'hours' that are said each day in the traditional form of the Benedictine Office.
The Benedictine Office consists of eight 'hours', spread through the day and night: St Benedict described it as seven day hours, and prayer again in the night; later commentators divided it, in order to line up with Nehemiah 9:3, into four night hours (Vespers, Compline, Matins and Lauds) and four day hours.
The eight hours of the Benedictine Office
Hour
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Indicative time of day that it is said
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Psalms used at it*
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Matins
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In darkness, very early morning
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Psalms 3, 94; 20-108 less those used at other hours
(mostly Lauds)
|
Lauds
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First light to dawn
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Ps 66, 50, 148-150; 5, 35, 42, 56, 62, 63, 64, 87, 89, 75,
91, [92, 99] 117, 142
|
Prime
|
Before starting work
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Ps 1-2, 6-19; 118
|
Terce
|
Mid-morning
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Ps 118; 119-121
|
Sext
|
Lunchtime/noon
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Ps 118; 122-124
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None
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Mid-afternoon
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Ps 118; 125-127
|
Vespers
|
Sunset/early evening
|
Ps 109-147 less those used in other hours
|
Compline
|
Before bed
|
Ps 3, 90, 133
|
Note: I will be using the Septuagint/Vulgate psalm numbering throughout; if you are using the 'Monastic Breviary Matins' book you will need to convert the numbers to align with this.
2. The basic structure and content of Benedictine Matins is set out in the Rule of St Benedict
Like all of the Benedictine Office, the basic structure of the hour in the 1963 version of the Office was established in St Benedict's Rule, written in the first half of the sixth century. The relevant chapters devoted to it directly are 8-11, and 12, but several other chapters of the Rule also touch on it, including chapter 22, on sleeping arrangements.
Over the centuries the hour has developed to some degree - instead of the readings being decided by the abbot, the breviary sets out an annual cycle for example (though many modern monasteries have reverted to the ancient practice of choosing their own). Many more feasts have been added to the calendar. And some prayers have been added to the hour. But the basic structure and content remain unchanged.
3. Matins is not actually called Matins in the Rule of St Benedict
In the Rule, Matins is actually the term used to denote the hour we now call Lauds.
St Benedict actually uses a variety of terms for the hour, including the night praises, vigil(s), nocturns, and combinations of these words (such as viligiliae nocturnae, nocturnis horis, nocturna laus, vigiliae [dominicis], nocturnos/is and nocturnis vigilios).
But over the centuries, what St Benedict called Matins came to be called Lauds in honour of the Laudate psalms it concludes with, and the term Matins came to be applied to the Night Office.
4. Benedictines Matins is quite different to Matins in the older forms of the Roman Office or the modern 'Office of Readings'.
Benedictine Matins is not the equivalent of the modern 'Office of Readings' - it has a fixed place in the Order of the hours, and it is based around psalms, not readings.
It is also quite different in structure to either the pre- or post-1911 Roman forms of Matins. In particular it generally contains more psalms, canticles, hymns and readings. On Sundays (and major feasts) in particular it is typically much longer than the Roman Office.
5. Benedictine Matins is said at night - properly, the early morning before first light.
St Benedict pointed to the verse 'At midnight I rose to praise you' as the rationale for the hour, and instructed his monks to rise at the 'eighth hour of the night' (which translates to around 3-4.30am depending on the time of year and latitude you are at).
The 1963 rules do actually allow Matins to be 'anticipated' (said the afternoon or evening before), for 'good reason'. In the past many women's monasteries said Matins before bed rather than rising early in the morning to say it, for example.
Still, if you want to follow the 1963 rubrics, you should be aware that, unlike the modern Office of Readings, it cannot be said at any time of day or night, it must be said sometime after 2pm and maintaining the proper order of the hours, with the exception of Compline which can still be said as the last hour of the day (in which case the first Pater Noster is omitted in favour of a longer examination of conscience).
Of course if you saying it devotionally (ie as a private prayer, rather than as part of the public prayer of the Church) you can say it whenever suits you!
6. Matins is the work horse of the Benedictine Office, easily the longest 'hour' of the day.
The length of this hour can vary quite significantly, both because on some days the psalms are longer than others, and because on Sundays and major feasts extra readings and canticles are added.
Accordingly, if you are going to say this hour at all, you might want to consider cutting down the number of psalms you say each night to three or six.
7. Matins includes a lot of different elements.
Although everyone who says some of the Office should know a little about Matins, it is not an hour for beginners to try and say, as it is made up of a lot of different elements, each of which has its own rules for how it is said - if you are new to the Office you would be much better off starting with Compline and Prime.
In particular, Matins includes pretty much all of these elements used in the various other hours - like Compline, it has blessings before its readings; like Lauds it has psalms said with and without antiphons; it includes hymns, chapter verses, versicles and more. It also includes some elements unique to the hour, including the use of a responsorial psalm (the Invitatory), and the Gospel on Sundays and major feasts.
8. Matins has three different forms, differing in the number of 'Nocturns' (two or three) and readings (twelve, three or one)
When it comes to the day hours, the basic structure of the hours doesn't really change; just the psalms and other texts used. Matins, however, is structurally different on Sundays and major feasts, adding an extra 'Nocturn' of Old Testament Canticles, as well as two extra hymns (the Te Deum and Te decet laus) and Gospel of the day. In addition, the number of readings said each day can depend on the day of the week, level of the day, and season.
9. The Benedictine form of Matins does not always have (long) readings
For a good part of the year there are no readings at all in the Benedictine Office on weekdays. Instead, just a short chapter verse is used.
When the Benedictine Office does include readings, they are mostly (but not always) the same as for the 1962 Roman Office aside from where the calendars differ. The Benedictine Office though, splits the texts on Sundays and major feasts into twelve rather than the Roman nine, and these extra readings each come with their own 'responsories'.
10. There are no official versions of Matins approved for liturgical use that provide a Latin-English parallel text.
The only book that contains all of the texts for Matins is the Latin-only monastic breviary. Older breviaries can readily be adapted to the 1963 rubrics; the older your breviary is though, the more feasts that will be missing or moved to different dates though. The chants for Matins, unfortunately, are scattered through several different books and places.
There are, however, quite a few English translations of parts of Matins around, as well as books that can be used to say Matins on most days, or used as aids if your Latin is not quite up to the task of saying Matins in Latin from the start.
As we go through I'll point out the pros and cons of the various options.
