The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform - MusicaSacra

sality and spiritual meaning of this practice. The difference between the
rites was the length of the period within which the entire Psalter had to be
prayed through. In the Roman rite the entire Psalter had to be prayed fully
in one week. St. Benedict regarded one week as optimal: it is a period of
suitable length without the burden of a "full Psalter each day" as it was the
custom with the severe desert Fathers. At the same time, the regimen of
a weekly Psalter was deemed sufficient to defend monks from sinking into
laxity.
The second component of the Office is the observance of the holy Hours of
the day. For man, confined by time and subjected to its inevitable erosion,
the set hours of a day, the observation of fixed hours is really a healing.
Since the time when man first turned to God, morning and evening have always
been regarded as most compelling, as it were, obligatory hours for
prayer. There is nothing else that makes us more conscious of the frailty of
our existence and dependence on our Creator than the birth and fall of the
daylight. These hours were the hinges of the liturgical day for the Old Testament
as well. Its observance might vary according to different conditions
and the zeal of individuals, but the Church as a whole keeps with a common
obligation at least the preparatory vigils before greater feasts and — according
to an old tradition - the vigils in memory of the dead.
The third component came from the desire to keep the rule of "ceaseless
praying" ("sine intermissione orate" 1 Thess. 5:17.) also during the
course of daily work. When we turn to God periodically, even if for a short
time, we raise all our actions and our entire life into the sphere of God's
power. "To pray ceaselessly equals with keeping the fixed hours" — as the
masters of the first centuries taught.
The Office Hours celebrated with the participation of the lay people
differed from the continuous psalmody in three respects:
i. Instead of praying the entire Psalter, certain psalms were selected to
fit the occasion, and they remained more or less stable. Such psalms are e.g.
50, 62, 148-150, and the canticle Benedicite for the morning, or psalm 118 for
the daytime; psalm 140 was regarded as the best for sunset; psalms 4, 90
and 133 for the night. The essence of the Hour was to recite these selected
psalms.
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