The Divine Office Through the Years
We are continuing the article originally published in the Feb-March 1922 edition of the Rosary Pilgrim, later republished many times, entitled “Life Within the Cloister.” Thus far, we have read about the chapel, parlor, and choir (posted here). The last bit left us in choir, with the Office about to begin. This is the final section of the article, and describes the Divine Office.
The Sisters are all kneeling in deep recollection in their respective places in the stalls. The Prioress begins the “O Sacrum” and is joined therein by the community. To help you appreciate the sweetness of these prayers and those which follow, you have been given an English translation: “O sacred banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of His passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.”
The choir rises and the canonical hour begins. It is chanted, accompanied by the devotional strains of the organ, and truly it seems to you that you are a participant of a little part of heaven. The Sisters, in their Dominican habits, now standing, now in profound inclination, now turned toward the altar, now rising and sitting, right and left choir alternately chanting all the while – all presents to you a celestial picture, one that will linger with you long after you have left the scene. (…)
After Compline, the beautiful antiphon, “Salve Regina” (“Hail, Holy Queen”) is sung in procession, two of the Sisters bearing lighted candles as they lead. This is a Dominican custom, almost as old as the Order itself. The “O Lumen,” an antiphon to St. Dominic, is added, while the Sisters return processionally to their respective stalls.
In the past 100 years, a fair bit has changed in how we pray the office. The essence remains the same – as it has since St. Dominic founded his contemplative nuns in 1206 – but certain external details such as what language we pray the psalms and what time of day we pray them at have changed over the years. When the updated version of the Liturgy of the Hours was published following the Second Vatican Council, it was translated into the vernacular just as the Mass was. A few other changes were made as well. The Liturgy of the Hours provides a structure in which the entire day of a religious is sanctified by prayer and praise of God. Each of the hours of the office corresponds to a particular hour of the day – for example, Terce is the third hour, None the ninth. However, over the centuries, the actual time that the various offices were said at began to drift away from their intended time. Vespers – meant to be the evening prayer – was being said usually around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and Compline – the night office – was being prayed by our community at 5:30pm. Then the “morning” office was said before retiring. The Second Vatican Council restored the hours to their originally intended times, including reinstating Lauds and Vespers as morning and evening prayer, the “two hinges” of the day. Our community now prays Compline at 8:40pm, the last thing we do before we retire for the night.
As is Dominican custom, every hour of Office prayed in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is begun with the prayer, “O Sacred Banquet”, which the sisters translated above - a slightly different translation than the one we now use. Of course, now we say the prayer in English, so there is no need for you to follow a translation!
While the hours vary somewhat from one to another, the basic structure of each is the same. We begin by facing the altar together, and asking for God to help us to pray. Most hours begin with the hebdomadarian (the sister who leads the prayers for the week) intoning, “O God, come to my assistance.” The choir responds, “Lord, make haste to help me.” Then, as the choir chants the Glory Be, the sisters turn and face choir-to-choir and make a profound bow as the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are sung. After singing a hymn, a chantress (who leads the singing) intones the antiphon and the first line of the psalm. Her side of choir joins her, and the psalm continues with the right and left sides of choir alternating stanzas. There are usually three psalms prayed at each hour of Office.
The psalms are followed by a reading from Scripture and a chanted responsory, the length determined by the hour. At Lauds and Vespers, the hour concludes with intercessions followed by the Our Father, while the minor hours conclude more simply with a short prayer.
At Compline, after the hour concludes the Salve Regina and O Lumen are sung, according to Dominican custom. On Saturday nights, we process with lighted candles as described in the article above, now to the statue of Our Lady which sits at the head of the refectory; the other nights of the week we sing the antiphons in choir. Having closed the day with prayer, we head off to bed, asking that the “all powerful Lord will grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” (from the blessing which concludes Compline)
