The Order of Psalmody for the Day Hours Being Thus Arranged
St. Benedict emphasizes the importance of completing the Psalter every week and living up to the monastic vow of devotion to Psalmody.
St. Benedict of Nursia emphasizes the importance of chanting the Psalms in the monastic community, urging for the full 150 Psalms to be sung every week and restarted each Sunday at the Night Office. He encourages flexibility in the distribution of Psalms among the seven Night Offices if the initial arrangement is unsatisfactory, as long as the full Psalter is maintained. St. Benedict highlights the dedication of the holy Fathers who completed the Psalms and canticles in a single day, contrasting it with the lukewarm commitment of some monastics who fail to fulfill this task within a week.
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The order of psalmody for the day Hours being thus arranged, let all the remaining Psalms be equally distributed among the seven Night Offices by dividing the longer Psalms among them and assigning twelve Psalms to each night.
We strongly recommend, however, that if this distribution of the Psalms is displeasing to anyone, she should arrange them otherwise, in whatever way she considers better, but taking care in any case that the Psalter with its full number of 150 Psalms be chanted every week and begun again every Sunday at the Night Office.
For those monastics show themselves too lazy in the service to which they are vowed, who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week, whereas we read that our holy Fathers strenuously fulfilled that task in a single day. May we, lukewarm that we are, perform it at least in a whole week!
Sermon Outline
- Importance of Psalmody
- Flexibility in Psalmody
- Monastic Obligation
- Lazy Monastics
- Holy Fathers' Example
Key Quotes
“For those monastics show themselves too lazy in the service to which they are vowed, who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week,” — St. Benedict of Nursia
Application Points
- Make a commitment to complete the Psalter every week as a way to deepen your devotion to Psalmody.
- Be mindful of your own laziness and strive to live up to the monastic vow of devotion to the service of Psalmody.
- Seek to emulate the example of our holy Fathers who strenuously fulfilled the task of completing the Psalter in a single day.