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| Chapter III. How throughout all the East the services of Tierce, Sext, and None are ended with only three Psalms and prayers each; and the reason why these spiritual offices are assigned more particularly to those hours.
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Chapter III.
How throughout all the East the services of Tierce,
Sext, and None are ended with only three Psalms and prayers each; and
the reason why these spiritual offices are assigned more particularly
to those hours.
And so in the monasteries
of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East the services of the
above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three Psalms apiece, so
that constant prayers may be offered to God at the appointed times, and
yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due moderation, the
necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered with: for at
these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also poured forth
his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows
open.719
Nor is it without good reasons that these
times are more particularly assigned to religious offices, since at
them what completed the promises and summed up our salvation was
fulfilled. For we can show that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who
had been of old promised by the prophets, descended in the first
instance on the Apostles assembled together for prayer. For when in
their astonishment at the speaking with tongues, which proceeded from
them through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon them, the
unbelieving people of the Jews mocked and said that they were full of
new wine, then Peter, standing up in the midst of them, said:
“Men of Israel, and all ye who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be
known unto you, and consider my words. For these men are not, as ye
imagine, drunk, since it is the third hour of the day; but this is that
which was spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the
last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And indeed upon
my servants and my handmaids in those days I will pour out of my
Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”720
And
all of this was fulfilled at the third hour, when the Holy Spirit,
announced before by the prophets, came at that hour and abode upon the
Apostles. But at the sixth hour the spotless Sacrifice, our Lord and
Saviour, was offered up to the Father, and, ascending the cross for the
salvation of the whole world, made atonement for the sins of mankind,
and, despoiling principalities and powers, led them away openly; and
all of us who were liable to death and bound by the debt of the
handwriting that could not be paid, He freed, by taking it away out of
the midst and affixing it to His cross for a trophy.721
| 721 The whole passage is
alluding to Col. ii. 14,
15, which runs as follows in
the Vulgate: “Delens quad adversum nos erat chirograffum
decretis, quod erat contrarium nobis, et ipse tulit de medio, affigens
illud cruci, expolians principatus et potestates traduxit confidenter,
palam triumphans illos in semet ipso.” | At the same hour, too, to Peter, in an
ecstasy of mind, there was divinely revealed both the calling of the
Gentiles by the letting down of the Gospel vessel from heaven, and also
the cleansing of all the living creatures contained in it, when a voice
came to him and said to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and
eat;”722
which vessel, let
down from heaven by the four corners, is plainly seen to signify
nothing else than the Gospel. For although, as it is divided by the
fourfold narrative of the Evangelists, it seems to have “four
corners” (or beginnings), yet the body of the Gospel is but one;
embracing, as it does, the birth as well as the Godhead, and the
miracles as well as the passion of one and the same Christ.
Excellently, too, it says not “of linen” but
“as if of linen.” For linen signifies death. Since,
then, our Lord’s death and passion were not undergone by the law
of human nature, but of His own free will, it says “as if of
linen.” For when dead according to the flesh He was not dead
according to the spirit, because “His soul was not left in hell,
neither
did His flesh
see corruption.”723
And again He
says: “No man taketh My life from Me but I lay it down of Myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again.”724
And so in this
vessel of the Gospels let down from heaven, that is written by the Holy
Ghost, all the nations which were formerly outside the observance of
the law and reckoned as unclean now flow together through belief in the
faith that they may to their salvation be turned away from the worship
of idols and be serviceable for health-giving food, and are brought to
Peter and cleansed by the voice of the Lord. But at the ninth hour,
penetrating to hades, He there by the brightness of His splendour
extinguished the indescribable darkness of hell, and, bursting its
brazen gates and breaking the iron bars brought away with Him to the
skies the captive band of saints which was there shut up and detained
in the darkness of inexorable hell,725
| 725 The belief that
by the descent into hell our Lord released some who were there detained
was almost, if not quite, universal in the early ages, and is
recognized by a large number of the Fathers. It is alluded to by so
early a writer as Ignatius (Ad Magn. ix.), and appears in
Irenæus (IV. c. xlii.) as a tradition of those who had seen the
Apostles. See also Tertullian, De Anima, c. lv., and a
host of later writers. | and, by
taking away the fiery sword, restored to paradise its original
inhabitants by his pious confession. At the same hour, too, Cornelius,
the centurion, continuing with his customary devotion in his prayers,
is made aware through the converse of the angel with him that his
prayers and alms are remembered before the Lord, and at the ninth hour
the mystery726
| 726 Sacramentum.
This word is used by Cassian, as by other Latin writers, as the regular
equivalent of the Greek, μυστήριον, and as such is applied to sacred truths equally with sacred
rites. See Book V. xxxiv.: “Sacramenta
scriptorum;” Conferences IX. xxxiv.: “Sacramentum
resurrectionis Dominicæ.” And again and again the word is
used of the mystery of the Incarnation in the books against
Nestorius. | of the calling of
the Gentiles is clearly shown to him, which had been revealed to Peter
in his ecstasy of mind at the sixth hour. In another passage, too, in
the Acts of the Apostles, we are told as follows about the same time:
“But Peter and John went up into the temple at the hour of
prayer, the ninth hour.”727
And by these
notices it is clearly proved that these hours were not without good
reason consecrated with religious services by holy and apostolic men,
and ought to be observed in like manner by us, who, unless we are
compelled, as it were, by some rule to discharge these pious offices at
least at stated times, either through sloth or through forgetfulness,
or being absorbed in business, spend the whole day without engaging in
prayer. But concerning the evening sacrifices what is to be said, since
even in the Old Testament these are ordered to be offered continually
by the law of Moses? For that the morning whole-burnt offerings and
evening sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple,
although with figurative offerings, we can show from that which is sung
by David: “Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight as the
incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening
sacrifice,”728
in which place
we can understand it in a still higher sense of that true evening
sacrifice which was given by the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the
Apostles at the Supper, when He instituted the holy mysteries of the
Church, and of that evening sacrifice which He Himself, on the
following day, in the end of the ages, offered up to the Father by the
lifting up of His hands for the salvation of the whole world; which
spreading forth of His hands on the Cross is quite correctly called a
“lifting up.” For when we were all lying in hades He raised
us to heaven, according to the word of His own promise when He says:
“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto
Me.”729
But concerning
Mattins, that also teaches us which it is customary every day to sing
at it: “O God, my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day;”
and “I will meditate on Thee in the morning;” and “I
prevented the dawning of the day and cried;” and again,
“Mine eyes to Thee have prevented the morning, that I might
meditate on Thy words.”730
| 730 Pss. lxii. (lxiii.) 2, 7; cxviii. (cxix.)
147, 8. In both East and West
Ps.
lxii. (lxiii.) has from very
early times been used as a morning hymn. See the Apost. Constitutions
II. lix., VIII. xxxvii. In the East it is still one of the fixed Psalms
at Lauds, as it is also in the West, according to the Roman use. But in
Cassian’s time it had apparently been transferred from Lauds to
Prime. See below, c. vi. | At these hours too
that householder in the Gospel hired labourers into his vineyard. For
thus also is he described as having hired them in the early morning,
which time denotes the Mattin office; then at the third hour; then at
the sixth; after this, at the ninth; and last of all, at the
eleventh,731
by which the hour
of the lamps732
| 732 Lucernaris
hora; i e., the hour for Vespers, which is sometimes called
lucernarium or lucernalis. S. Jerome in Ps. cxix. S.
Augustine, Sermo i ad fratres in er. | is
denoted.733
| 733 It will be noticed
that in this chapter Cassian alludes to five offices: (1) A morning
office; (2) the third hour; (3) the sixth; (4) the ninth; and (5)
Vespers; and gives the grounds for their observance. Similar grounds
are given by Cyprian, De Orat. Dominica sub fine:
“For upon the disciples, at the third hour, the Holy Spirit
descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord’s promise.
Moreover at the sixth hour, Peter, going up to the housetop, was
instructed as well by the sign as by the word of God, admonishing him
to receive all to the grace of salvation, whereas he was previously
doubtful of the receiving of the Gentiles to baptism. And from the
sixth hour to the ninth the Lord, being crucified, washed away our sins
by His blood; and that He might redeem and quicken us, He then
accomplished His victory by His passion. But for us, beloved brethren
besides the hours of prayer observed of old, both the times and the
sacraments have now increased in number. For we must also pray in the
morning, that the Lord’s resurrection may be celebrated by
morning prayer.…Also at the sun-setting and decline of day we
must pray again. For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as
the worldly sun and day depart, when we pray and ask that light may
return to us again, we pray for the advent of Christ, which shall give
us the grace of everlasting light.” Cf. also S. Basil, The
Greater Monastic Rules, Q. xxxvii., where the same subject is
discussed, and Apost. Const. Book VIII. c. xxxiv. In later times
the Seven Canonical Hours were all connected with the events of our
Lord’s Passion, and supposed to commemorate His sufferings, as
the following stanzas show:—
At Mattins bound, at
Prime reviled,
Condemned to death at
Tierce,
Nailed to the Cross at Sext,
at Nones
His blessed side they pierce.
They take Him down at
Vesper-tide,
In grave at Compline
lay;
Who thenceforth bids His Church
observe
Her sevenfold hours alway. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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