Kategorie: NLM, History of the Roman Breviary

Warum soll man zum Nachgebet der Matutin aufstehen? Hauptsache, um den Teufel auszutricksen, der als Macht der Finsternis in der Finsternis buchstäblich mehr Macht hat. Sehr viele besessene oder umsessene Menschen berichten, dass sie gerade gegen 3 Uhr oder genau um 3 Uhr Somme-oder Winterzeit aufwachen und von Alpträumen geplagt nicht aufwachen können. Warum gerade dann? Weil es die diabolische Verkehrung der Sterbestunde Christi ist. Deswegen, um dem Vorzubeugen, hielten schon die Wüstenväter Nachtwachen oder standen um 3 Uhr auf.  Es ist auch die praktische Möglichkeit alle 150 Psalmen am Tag zu beten oder den schwierigeren Teil bei einer absoluten Ungestörtheit zu beten.  Sollten Sie manchmal um diese Zeit aufstehen, so werden Sie merken, dass Sie wirklich hellwach sind und für eine kurze Zeit über eine sehr hohe Konzentration verfügen. Deswegen wachten manche Orden für die Matutin auf und legten sich dann schlafen, andere wachten frühmorgens auf und beteten mit der Matutin auch die Laudes. Auch heute wird es so gehandhabt. Es ist das ungestörte Gebet für die Welt, welche meistens gerades in der Nacht sündigt. Die Matutin mit ihren drei Nokturen im Tridentinischen Brevier stellt das zeitlich umfangreichste Gebet dar. Sie dauert zwischen 40 Minuten und 60 Minuten beim zügigen Beten ohne Gesang. Gerade dort gibt es die schönsten Lesungen und die wervollsten Kommentare der Kirchenväter. Diese Texte bleiben auch länger hängen, weil sie zuerst gebetet werden. Denn dann kommt der Tag mit seinen Zerstreungen und Eile. Daher die Matutin in der Nacht oder frühmorgens beten. Part 3.2: 1529 versus 1568 Matins readings of the pre-Tridentine Breviary In the Breviary of 1529, as in other medieval Breviaries, the readings are arranged in various ways according to the various liturgical days and seasons. On Sundays, the readings of the first nocturn are taken from the Sacred Scriptures; the order in which the books are read (Isaiah in Advent, St. Paul after Epiphany, etc.) dates back to the 7th century. In Advent and Lent, the second nocturn has readings from the Church Fathers appropriate to the season, but on most Sundays, the Scriptures of the first nocturn continue into the second. In the third nocturn, a homily from the Fathers is read on the Gospel of the day. On the ferias, the office of Matins has only one nocturn, and the readings are taken from the same Scriptural book (or group of books) that was read on the preceding Sunday. The exception to this is Lent, when every day of the week has its own proper Mass and Gospel; each of the Lenten Gospels has its own homily at Matins, and therefore, no Scriptural readings are provided for the weekdays of Lent. On most feasts of the Lord, on the other hand, there is no Scripture in any of the nocturns. Instead, a sermon on the feast is begun in the first nocturn, and continued in the second, followed by a homily on the day’s Gospel in the third. In the Breviary of 1529, only Christmas and Epiphany are exceptions, having readings from Isaiah in the first nocturn. The octave of Epiphany, and the other feasts of the Temporale, (Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity and Corpus Christi, as well as their octaves) all have sermons and homilies, without any Biblical readings at all at Matins. Some major feasts of the Saints, such as the Assumption, follow the same arrangement as the feasts of the Lord, with a sermon in the first and second nocturn, and a homily in the third. On most of them, however, the life of the Saint usually provides all three readings of a minor feast, and at least the first six (out of nine) on a more important feast. If there are six such readings from the life of a Saint, a homily on the Gospel of the feast is read in the third nocturn, but in very many cases, the life of the Saint occupies all nine of the readings at Matins. If the feast has an octave, the same pattern is generally observed on all eight days of the feast. The office of the Nativity of Mary is a very unusual exception; on the feast itself and each day of its octave, the Canticle of Canticles is read in the first nocturn. Since the practical effect of this is that the Scriptures are rarely read at Matins at all, being displaced by sermons and the lives of the Saints, the 1529 Roman breviary provides very few readings from the Scriptures. For example, only one reading from the book of Isaiah is given for the ferias of the first week of Advent, and only one for the second; more readings are provided for the third and fourth week, since there are far fewer Saints to impede the ferial office. From Christmas Day to the octave of the...

Auch das Tridentinische Konzil führte eine Liturgiereform durch. Sie war aber sehr behutsam und diente der Bewahrung und nicht der Zerstörung. Warum? Weil man den Wert der Routine kannte. Deswegen erlaubte das Konzil alle westlichen Messriten, die älter als 200 Jahre waren und somit nichts mit Protestantismus gemein haben konnten. Ebenso die monastischen Breviere vieler Orden. Nichts wurde zerstört, sondern vieles bewahrt. Es ist unwahrscheinlich, dass der Schreiber dieser Zeilen in den Erwerb eines monastischen vortridentinischen Breviers kommen wird, da es sich hierbei um extrem wertvolle Altdrucke handeln würde. Aber der Vergleich zwischen tridentinisch und vortridentinisch lässt sich bei divinum officium einsehen. Vortridentinisch ist zwar mehr, aber auch nicht viel anders. Warum sind die Reformen des Tridentinischen Konzils weitgehend gelungen? Weil es davon ausging der Kirche mehr Heiligkeit zu geben und nicht sich der Welt anzugleichen, wie das letzte Konzil. Die tridentinischen Konzilsväter würden sich doch im Grabe umdrehen, wenn sie von der deuterovatikanischen Prämisse hörten die Kirche „der Mentalität des modernen Menschen anzugleichen“. Die Mentalität eines jeden Weltmenschen ist sündig, da gibt es nicht anzugleichen! Der Mensch wird durch die Welt verformt und von Gott ferngehalten: ein wenig anders in der Antike, ein wenig anders im Mittelalter, ein wenig anders in der Neuzeit etc. Aber die menschliche Natur ist diegleiche, Gott ist dergleiche und die Dämonen sind diegleichen. Es ändert sich also nichts! Verstanden?! Part 3.1: 1529 versus 1568 The Breviary reformed in the wake of the Council of Trent was promulgated by the authority of Pope Saint Pius V in 1568, and is for this reason often referred to as the Pian Breviary. The history of how and why the Tridentine reform came about is not the subject of this particular article; those who wish to read about such matters in greater detail should consult the interesting book of Msgr. Pierre Batiffol, The History of the Roman Breviary. (Translated from the French by Atwell Baylay; Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1912) My concern here is simply to compare the Breviary of 1568 with its immediate predecessor, the Breviary of the Roman Curia of 1529, and explain the changes made by the Pian reform. The 1568 reform is, unsurprisingly, a very conservative reform indeed in almost every respect. In comparing the two breviaries, one sees immediately that nearly the entire body of material which has proper musical notation, namely, the invitatories, hymns, antiphons, and responsories, has been carried over from the earlier Breviary into the Pian. The same holds true for most of the chapters, versicles and prayers, parts which have no proper notation. The exceptions are mostly instances where the entire Office of a particularly feast day has been replaced with a different Office. Such is the case on the feast of the Holy Trinity, where a 13th century office Sedenti super solium, (named for its first antiphon) is replaced with the much earlier Office Gloria tibi Trinitas. In the case of the Visitation, the proper Office granted to the whole of the Western Church in 1389 by Pope Urban VI was suppressed; in its place, the Office of Our Lady’s Nativity was to be said, replacing the word ‘Nativitas’ with ‘Visitatio’, and with proper readings at Matins. However, a new office with many new propers was soon granted for this feast by Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605). A number of minor adjustments are made, but few genuinely notable changes. The unusually lengthy psalmody of Sunday Prime is redistributed though the days of the week, the first time the distribution of the psalms was changed since the days of Pope St. Gregory the Great. In the preces of Lauds, psalm 50, which is already said at the beginning of the hour, is replaced in the Pian Breviary by psalm 129; the preces of Terce, Sext and None are reduced to a new form which retains only very end of the preces of Lauds. The obligation to recite the Little Office of Our Lady, the Office of the Dead, and the Gradual and Penitential Psalms is mitigated, although not to the prejudice of local customs. The rubrics throughout are made much shorter and infinitely clearer; for example, the bizarrely complicated rubric of the 1529 Breviary which governs the end of Advent, and which occupies 3 and a half pages, is reduced to a mere twenty lines. A new general rubric, succinct and well-organized, is placed at the beginning of the book; in the original edition of 1568, it occupies only seven pages. There are a few significant changes made to the Calendar of Saints. Perhaps most noteworthy is the suppression of the Presentation of the Virgin (November 21), and the feasts of both Saint Anne and Saint Joachim; this was done because the history of the Virgin’s parents and Her early life is not recorded in the canonical Gospels, but...

Im Tridentinischen Brevier und den vortridentinischen Brevieren ist wirklich alles durchstrukturiert und jeder Unterschied in der Rangordnung der Feste wir liturgisch angegeben durch die Unterscheidung zwischen den Simplex, Semi-Duplex und Duplex festen. Es geht darum, ob man vor dem Psalm eine ganze Antiphon oder eine halbe betet. Warum? Damit der Beter unterscheiden und ein wenig Abwechslung haben kann. Wenn man betet, lebt man in einem ganz anderen Kalender als die Welt. Die Hierarchie der Duplex oder Simplex-Feste, die Oktaven, die Vigilien und Quatembertage geben den Rhythmus an. Warum? Weil die Kirche nicht von dieser Welt ist und im himmlichen Rhythmus lebt oder es wenigstens bis zum letzten Konzil und seiner unseligen Kalenderreform tat.  Die Menschen feiern dies und das, wir aber begehen bsw. den dritten Oktavtag von Fronleichnam. Ist das nicht schön? Denn was ist das Ziel unseres irdischen Lebens? Uns dermaßen Christus anzugleichen, damit wir im Himmel mit anderen Heiligen ihn anbeten können. Also je himmlischer man hier lebt, umso leichter der Übergang und kürzer das Fegefeuer. Je irdischer, desto schlimmer. Compendium of the Reforms of the Roman Breviary, 1568-1961 by Gregory DiPippo for publication on the New Liturgical Movement Part 2: Some Further Observations on the Medieval Office Apart from the readings of Matins, which will be discussed in detail in the following article, the most variable part of the Office is the corpus of antiphons which are sung with the psalms of the various hours. At the minor hours (Prime, Terce, Sext, None and Compline), the psalms are all sung under a single antiphon. In the office of Sunday and on feast days, the psalms of Matins are sung with nine antiphons, and on ferias, with six, two psalms per antiphon. At Lauds and Vespers, each psalm usually has its own antiphon, but Lauds of Sunday often has only three. On feast days, the antiphons of Lauds are often said also at the minor hours and Vespers; but some feasts have one set of antiphons for Vespers, and another for Lauds, while a few, such as Christmas, have one set of antiphons for first Vespers, another for Lauds, and yet another for second Vespers. The antiphons vary greatly from season to season and feast to feast, and their texts come from many different sources, both Biblical and non-Biblical. Many derive from the psalm or psalms with which they are sung at a particular hour, or from the life of a Saint; many others are ‘ecclesiastical compositions’, such this antiphon from the Office of the Assumption: “Assumpta est Maria in caelum: gaudent Angeli, laudantes benedicunt Dominum.” (Mary has been taken up into heaven; the Angels rejoice, with praise they bless the Lord.) In Eastertide, the psalms of each nocturn are usually sung with only one antiphon, the exceptions being Easter itself, the Ascension and Pentecost, with their octaves. The Roman classification of feasts is much simpler than that of other usages; feasts are called duplex, (double, the highest grade), semiduplex (semidouble) or simplex (simple), a system which refers to the doubling or non-doubling of the antiphons. ‘Doubling’ the antiphons means that the antiphons are sung in full before and after the psalm or canticle to which they belong; ‘semidoubling’ means that only the beginning of the antiphon is sung before the psalm or canticle, and the full antiphon after it. On a duplex feast, all of the antiphons are doubled at Matins, Lauds, and both Vespers (never at the other hours); at Matins there are three nocturns. A semiduplex office (which includes all the Sundays), also has three nocturns, but none of the antiphons are doubled. On a simplex day (which includes all ferias), the office has only one nocturn, and likewise, none of the antiphons are doubled. Compared to other usages of the Western Rite, the Roman Office is unusually generous in the matter of doubling the antiphons. In most other usages, (e.g. that of Sarum) the normal practice is to double only the antiphons of the Magnificat and Benedictus, and only on the most important feasts. In some usages, such as that of the Cistercian Order, doubling the antiphons is simply never done. In the Middle Ages, the Divine Office was everywhere supplemented by a series of other prayers, which were regarded as no less a part of it than the principal office, (also called ‘canonical’ office.) The oldest of these is the Office of the Dead, which had only three of the hours; Vespers of the Dead was said after the canonical Vespers, Matins and Lauds after the canonical Lauds. The great devotion to the Virgin Mary which was so universally present in the Middle Ages also lead to the creation of a daily Office in Her honor, now generally called the Little Office of the Virgin Mary. It has each of the eight (or...