In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said
Feb. 21—June 22—Oct. 22
Let this verse be said: “Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste
to help me,” and the “Glory be to the Father”; then the hymn proper to
each Hour.
Then at Prime on Sunday four sections of Psalm 118 are to be said; and
at each of the remaining Hours, that is Terce, Sext and None, three
sections of the same Psalm 118.
At Prime on Monday let three Psalms be said, namely Psalms 1, 2 and 6.
And so each day at Prime until Sunday let three Psalms be said in
numerical order, to Psalm 19, but with Psalms 9 and 17 each divided into
two parts. Thus it comes about that the Night Office on Sunday always
begins with Psalm 20.
Feb. 22—June 23—Oct. 23
At Terce, Sext and None on Monday let the nine remaining sections of
Psalm 118 be said, three at each of these Hours.
Psalm 118 having been completed, therefore, on two days, Sunday and
Monday, let the nine Psalms from Psalm 119 to Psalm 127 be said at
Terce, Sext and None, three at each Hour, beginning with Tuesday. And
let these same Psalms be repeated every day until Sunday at the same
Hours, while the arrangement of hymns, lessons and verses is kept the
same on all days; and thus Prime on Sunday will always begin with Psalm
118.
Feb. 23—June 24—Oct. 24
Vespers are to be sung with four Psalms every day. These shall begin
with Psalm 109 and go on to Psalm 147, omitting those which are set
apart for other Hours; that is to say that with the exception of Psalms
117 to 127 and Psalms 133 and 142, all the rest of these are to be said
at Vespers. And since there are three Psalms too few, let the longer
ones of the above number be divided, namely Psalms 138, 143 and 144. But
let Psalm 116 because of its brevity be joined to Psalm 115.
The order of the Vesper Psalms being thus settled, let the rest of the
Hour—lesson, responsory, hymn, verse and canticle—be carried out as we
prescribed above.
At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day, namely Psalms
4, 90 and 133.
(Feb. 24 in leap year; otherwise added to the preceding)—June 25—Oct. 25
The order of psalmody for the day Hours being thus arranged, let all the
remaining Psalms be equally distributed among the seven Night Offices by
dividing the longer Psalms among them and assigning twelve Psalms to
each night.
We strongly recommend, however, that if this distribution of the Psalms
is displeasing to anyone, he should arrange them otherwise, in whatever
way he considers better, but taking care in any case that the Psalter
with its full number of 150 Psalms be chanted every week and begun again
every Sunday at the Night Office. For those monks show themselves too
lazy in the service to which they are vowed, who chant less than the
Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week, whereas we
read that our holy Fathers strenuously fulfilled that task in a single
day. May we, lukewarm that we are, perform it at least in a whole week!