| Source; Gasquet, English Monastic Life |
On Sunday let the brethren
rise earlier for the Night Office…
Rule of St Benedict, ch 11
Before you can look at how to adapt Matins to your particular time constraints, or start making sure you are following the rubrics, it helps, I think to have a good idea of how Matins is structured. Accordingly, in this post I am going to provide a short overview of how the hour fits together.
An overview of the structure of Matins
Matins differs from the other hours of the Office in that its structure differs between Sundays and major feasts, and the other days of the week. It also has a summer and winter version for weekdays.
I've summarised the basic structure of the hour in the table below; the rest of the post takes you through it in a bit more detail.
Table 1: The structure of Matins
SECTION
|
|
OPENING (INVITATORY)
|
Same elements
everyday – opening prayer, Ps 3, Ps 94 (with verse), hymn
|
NOCTURN I
|
Six psalms
with antiphon(s)
Versicle, Our
Father, absolution
Blessing,
reading and responsory (1,3 or 4 sets)
|
NOCTURN II
|
Six psalms
with antiphon(s)
Versicle, Our Father, absolution
Blessing, reading and responsory *4
|
NOCTURN III
|
Sundays
and major feasts only:
Three OT
canticles under one antiphon
Versicle, Our Father, absolution
Blessing, reading and responsory *4
|
CONCLUDING
SECTION
|
Weekdays
and minor feasts: Chapter and versicle
|
CLOSING
PRAYERS
|
Collect only
or concluding prayers
|
The opening, or invitatory section
The opening section of Benedictine Matins is quite long, particularly if you sing it. But as we will see when we look at this section in more detail, it is also a very important set of prayers in terms of content, and the chants used for it are very beautiful.
The structure of the opening section of Matins is always the same, no matter the level of the day (the days of the Sacred Triduum excepted, when the Benedictine Office gives way to the Roman).
Matins starts each day with a prayer taken from Psalm 50, 'Domine labia mea aperies...', or 'O Lord open my lips, that my mouth may proclaim your praise'. In some versions, including many older breviaries, the prayer 'O Lord come to my aid' is added in before or after this, but it isn't in the 1963 breviary.
This is then followed by Psalm 3, said without antiphon), and Psalm 94, said with a verse particular to the day, season or feast.
The opening section concludes with a hymn, which varies with the day of the week, feast or season.
The Nocturns
The main section of Matins consists or either two or three Nocturns made up mainly of a mix of psalms or canticles, and readings and responsories.
Weekdays
On normal weekdays, Matins has two Nocturns, each consisting of six psalms with one more antiphons.
At the end of the first Nocturn, there is a versicle (verse and response), Pater Noster (Our Father) and an absolution. This followed by either one or three readings and responsories, each proceeded by a blessing of the reader, with the number depending on the time of the year.
The variation in the number of readings is a leftover from the time when the start time of Matins varied with the seasons - the nights were short in summer, so St Benedict shortened the length of Matins to match the shorter length of the hours.
The second Nocturn has essentially the same structure on weekdays as the first, but with two differences. First, for most of the year the six psalms are said under one antiphon, viz Alleluia. In Septuagesimatide and Lent though, three antiphons are used as in the First Nocturn. The other difference is that the Second Nocturn ends with the last antiphon.
Sundays and Major Feasts
On Sundays and major feasts, Matins has three Nocturns, each of which follow the basic structure of the First Nocturn on weekdays, but with four sets of blessings, readings and responsories in each.
The key difference is that the third Nocturn, instead of consisting of psalms, is made up of three Old Testament canticles.
Concluding section and concluding prayers
On weekdays the Second Nocturn is followed by a short chapter verse and versicle. On Sundays and major feasts, instead of the chapter, two hymns (the Te Deum and Te Decet Laus) are added, along with the reading of the Gospel.
The form of the concluding prayers depends on whether or not the hour is joined to Lauds.
The festal Office
The form of the Office used basically depends on the level of 'day' or feast in the Office. For the benefit of those already familiar with the 1962-3 calendar and attempting to adapt an older breviary to the 1963 rubrics, I've included the table below which summarises the basic principles. If you aren't familiar with the various levels of days and feasts however (either because you are familiar with the Novus Ordo Mass or one of the older divisions of feasts), don't worry, I will come back to this down the track.
Table 2: Days and
feasts
LEVEL OF DAY OR FEAST*
|
STRUCTURE OF MATINS
|
Class I &II Sundays
|
Sunday psalms with three Nocturns
|
Class I&II feasts
|
Three Nocturns with psalms for the feast
|
Class III feasts
|
Two Nocturns with hymn, a reading(s) and responsory of the
feast
|
Class I, II and III days (Ash Wednesday, Ember Days,
Advent and Lent days etc)
|
Two Nocturns, three readings and responsories
|
Class IV days
|
Two Nocturns with one or three readings and responsories
depending on time of year
|
One key point everyone should note though is that (though some argue otherwise, the evidence strongly suggests that) in St Benedict's original conception of this hour, the psalmody was always 'of the day of the week', with the psalms used each day those set out in the Rule On major feasts, his monks simply added more readings and an extra Nocturn with some appropriate Old Testament canticles. In the modern Office, though, special sets of psalms selected for their appropriateness to the feast being celebrated, or type of saint/occasion (the Commons) are used.
Quiz
Think you've got it down? Have a go at the quiz: Structure of Matins!
