Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XI. Of the system according to which the Psalms are said among the Egyptians.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XI.
Of the system according to which the Psalms are said
among the Egyptians.
And, therefore, they do
not even attempt to finish the Psalms, which they sing in the service,
by an unbroken and continuous recitation. But they repeat them
separately and bit by bit, divided into two or three sections,
according to the number of verses, with prayers in between.700
| 700 This plan of
dividing some of the longer Psalms (as is still done with the 119th in
the English Psalter) was adopted sometimes in the West also. Cf. the
Rule of S. Benedict, c. xviii., and the Third Council of Narbonne
(a.d. 589), Canon 2: “Ut in
psallendis ordinibus per quemque Psalmum Gloria dicatur
Omnipotenti Deo, per majores vero Psalmos, prout fuerint prolixius,
pausationes fiant, et per quamque pausationem Gloria
Trinitatis Domino decantetur.” Further, the rule
that prayers should be intermingled with Psalms which was perhaps
introduced into the West by Cassian, was widely adopted both in Gaul
and in Spain. | For they do not care about the quantity of
verses, but about the intelligence of the mind; aiming with all their
might at this: “I will sing with the spirit: I will sing also
with the understanding.”701
And so they consider
it better for ten verses to be sung with understanding and
thought702
| 702 Cum rationabili
assignatione. | than for a whole Psalm to be poured forth
with a bewildered mind. And this is sometimes caused by the hurry of
the speaker, when, thinking of the character and number of the
remaining Psalms to be sung, he takes no pains to make the meaning
clear to his hearers, but hastens on to get to the end of the service.
Lastly, if any of the younger monks, either through fervour of spirit
or because he has not yet been properly
taught, goes beyond the proper limit of
what is to be sung, the one who is singing the Psalm is stopped by the
senior clapping his hands where he sits in his stall, and making them
all rise for prayer. Thus they take every possible care that no
weariness may creep in among them as they sit through the length of the
Psalms, as thereby not only would the singer himself lose the fruits of
understanding, but also loss would be incurred by those whom he made to
feel the service a weariness by going on so long. They also observe
this with the greatest care; viz., that no Psalm should be said with
the response of Alleluia except those which are marked with the
inscription of Alleluia in their title.703
| 703 Viz.: Ps. civ.,
cv., cvi., cx., cxi., cxii., cxiii., cxiv., cxv., cxvi., cxvii.,
cxviii., cxxxiv., cxxxv., cxlv., cxlvi., cxlvii., cxlviii., cxlix.,
cl., in the LXX. and the Latin. |
But the aforesaid number of twelve Psalms they divide in such a way
that, if there are two brethren they each sing six; if there are three,
then four; and if four, three each. A smaller number than this they
never sing in the congregation, and accordingly, however large a
congregation is assembled, not more than four brethren sing in the
service.704
| 704 This arrangement
by which the Psalm was sung by a single voice, while the rest of the
congregation listened, is that which was afterwards known by the name
of Tractus. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
