12/27/2023 0 Comments Divine office night prayer for today![]() We know prayer in the night to have been an apostolic practice. ![]() Such was the experience of the royal prophet: "I thought upon the days of old, and I had in my mind the eternal years, and I meditated in the night with my own heart, and I was exercised, and I swept my spirit" (Ps. It is when we are freed from the vexatious cares of the day, when the garish light of this world no longer dazzles our vision, that we begin to understand the true value of life and to interpret its many riddles. In effect, the silent hours of the night are eminently favorable to quiet thought and deep reflection. In Homer one of the Greek heroes is told that it becomes a leader of the people to sleep through the night, seeing that the welfare of so many people is committed to his keeping >em> (Iliad II). Even pagan philosophers understood the spiritual value of the night-watches. "Fire does not more efficaciously burn the rust from off iron, than prayer in the night consumes the rust of our sins: in the night-time our souls are refreshed with heavenly dew, even as the plants are, and that which is dried up by the heat of the day is refreshed during the night" (St. The early Fathers are eloquent in their praise of nocturnal prayer. At all times of the year Lauds are to be said at break of day, hence, during the short summer nights, there is but the briefest of intervals between the night-Office and Matins, which we now call Lauds: "parvissimo intervallo custodito, mox Matutini, qui incipiente luce agendi sunt, subsequantur" (Regula, cap. Lauds are separated from the night Office by a fairly long interval, during which, far from retiring to rest, the monks are to give themselves to private prayer and to the study of the psalms. ![]() The Patriarch of Western Monachism ordains that during the winter months, when the nights are longest, his monks should rise at about the eighth hour of the night: ut modice amplius de media nocte pausetur. Benedict is a faithful mirror of that which constituted the practice both of clerics and of monks during about the latter half of the fifth century. To this night Office, properly so called, Lauds were immediately subjoined, at least during the summer months. However, already in the fifth century there was but one meeting for prayer and praise, at about the middle of the night. 3.5).Īll the faithful, as a body, were wont to observe, as a matter of course, the great Vigil before the feasts of Easter and Pentecost and, possibly, of some of the greater solemnities, such as the Epiphany. Our divine Lord also warns us, and exhorts us, to watch during the hours of the night, for we know not the time of His coming "Watch ye, therefore, for you know not when the lord of the house cometh at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning" (Mark xiii. The ministers of the Temple are commanded to praise the Lord in the night-watches: Qui statis in domo Domini: in atriis Dei nostri In noctibus extollite manus vestras in sancta: et benedicite Dominum! (Ps. An inspired writer in the Old Testament tells us that such was his custom: Media nocte surgebam ad confitendum tibi (Ps. Prayer during the hours of darkness and silence has ever been one of the favorite practices of the saints of all ages. But there is no doubt whatever that the practice of rising at about the middle of the night, for the purpose of prayer, is as old as the Church herself. Such a proceeding would have made the ordinary avocations of a work-a-day life all but impossible. It is, of course, impossible to prove categorically that the same set of persons assembled in church, at three different intervals, each consecutive night. Hence we get the designation Nocturn, or Vigil. It would appear that there was even more than one nocturnal meeting, and that the assemblies of the faithful corresponded to the night-watches of the Roman army. The early Christians generally and the clergy and monks in particular were wont to sanctify the silent hours of the night by the solemn and corporate praise of God. Its primitive name was Vigilae the night-watches. As the word itself indicates, the name Matins Matutinum designated originally the Office which was said at break of day and which we now call Lauds. The Office of Matins is the longest, and by far the most important section of our liturgical worship. ![]() Free eBook: Liturgical Year 2022-2023, Vol. ![]()
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