A big thank you to all of those who have completed the reader survey or contacted me offline. I've had seventeen responses so far, and your input is extremely helpful.
And if you haven't filled it in yet, it isn't too late - I will leave the survey open so you can do it at any time, as your perspective and needs might be different to that of others, or lend weight to those who have already replied.
In this post, I thought it would be helpful to summarise the results so far. then in the next post we will get going on Matins itself.
Time constraints?
I will try and provide a mix of notes on books, rubrics and contextual material, so that I cater to the diverse interests and needs of readers, and let people pick and choose what they are interested in.
Overall, the materials will aim to:
And if you haven't filled it in yet, it isn't too late - I will leave the survey open so you can do it at any time, as your perspective and needs might be different to that of others, or lend weight to those who have already replied.
In this post, I thought it would be helpful to summarise the results so far. then in the next post we will get going on Matins itself.
Time constraints?
The responses I've received so far suggest that those interested in Matins are overwhelmingly men (78%), aged 30-64 (72%) and engaged in some form of full-time occupation (72%).
I have to say that those results suggest to me that some form of adapted/abbreviated Matins is going to be necessary for most people: Matins is a very substantial undertaking, overall as long as the other hours put together. Around 38% of respondents indicated an interest in that topic.
Related knowledge and skills
I asked about which Mass people attend because the Benedictines Matins version I'm using is pretty closely linked to the 1962-3 calendar and Sunday lectionary. Around half of respondents attend the EF Mass (and apologies for my survey question design fail on this one; I should perhaps have said Mass 'or other Sunday service' in the question!).
I also asked about Latin, because most of the books (and all of those for liturgical use) use it - around half of survey respondents (eight) say that they have studied Latin; four are planning on saying it in English. To the person who indicate they pray in Spanish - just to let you know I won't be able to help you on books on this one, I'm not aware of any (though they may well exist).
Similarly, I asked about knowledge of chant since the Benedictine Office in particular is meant to be sung (even if just on one note), even though this won't always be feasible. Just over half can sing simple or more advanced chants.
Two-thirds of those who did the survey said they were somewhat or very familiar with Matins - but that means a significant number of people are not so familiar with it, so please do bear with me where I include some more background material for those coming to it for the first time.
How much Office do you say now, and how much do you want to say?
Those who did the survey basically fell into three groups.
Around a third are interested in the Divine Office generally, or in the psalms. Most of this group are currently praying two or three hours a day.
Another third are currently praying most of the hours each day apart from Matins (though Prime was the least said hour), and want to add Benedictine Matins into their horarium.
And a third of the group are currently saying most or all of the Office now, and want to check that they are getting Matins right, find books for it, or understand it more deeply.
Key priorities
I've summarised the results for the topics people favoured in the table below.
Books for Matins was the single most popular topic, closely followed by rubrics.
|
Finding books for Matins
|
12
|
|
Learning the rubrics
|
10
|
|
Adapting Matins to the time available
|
8
|
|
Learning how to use a
breviary to say Matins with (including adapting pre-1963 editions to 1963
rules)
|
6
|
|
Learning what Matins is and why it is said
|
5
|
|
Learning about the meaning of the various texts that make up Matins
|
4
|
|
Learning the chants for Matins
|
4
|
|
The readings
|
2
|
Proposed approach
Rather than dumping out an intimidating amount of material en masse (as I've been known to do in the past!), I'm planning just to put up one post each weekday here on average, on some aspect of Matins. In most cases I will only put up one post, but I may put up more if I'm reposting background material from my other blogs that some people may have seem previously.
Ideally I'd like each post to stimulate a bit of discussion either in the comments section of the blog, or in the facebook group I've created, so please do feel free to disagree with me, or otherwise have your say.
I will try and provide a mix of notes on books, rubrics and contextual material, so that I cater to the diverse interests and needs of readers, and let people pick and choose what they are interested in.
Overall, the materials will aim to:
- give some general background on the hour of Matins, so you can understand its place in the Benedictine Office;
- set out the 1963 rubrics for Matins;
- provide a guide to the available resources for Matins, including chant books;
- help you navigate a Latin breviary (1963 or earlier) so you can eventually pray it liturgically if you wish;
- introduce you to the content of the hour, including its psalms and hymns; and
- suggest strategies for learning to say and sing the hour, and adapt it to your own available time and circumstances;
I plan to start this week with some introductory material on the hour, then look at the rubrics and books for the introductory section of Matins.
As I've said previously, unless you already have one, I'd hold off buying any major book purchases for this hour for the moment and try and use the Divinum Officium website or Clear Creek booklet as much as possible, but I'll come back to this topic later this week.
Key question
Is there anything I've missed in terms of things you want covered, or any issues around the proposed approach you would like to raise?
