The Rule of Saint Benedict

How Lauds are to be solemnized

AT Lauds on Sunday let the sixty-sixth Psalm be first said straight on and without an antiphon. After this the fiftieth is to be said with 4/e/uia, with the hundred and seventeenth and the sixty-second. Then follow the “Blessings” (or Benedicite) and the “Praises” (or Laudate psalms), a lesson from the Apocalypse, said by heart, a responsory and hymn, the versicle and the canticle from the Gospel (or Benedictus) with the litanies (or Kyrie), and so

conclude,

CHAPTER XIII How Lauds are to be celebrated on ordinary days On ordinary week-days let Lauds be celebrated as follows: the sixty-sixth Psalm is to be said, as on Sunday, straight on without any antiphon, and some-

what slowly, to allow of all being in their places for

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the fiftieth Psalm, which is to be said with an antiphon. After this come two other psalms according to custom : that is, on Monday, the fifth and thirtyfifth ; on Tuesday, the forty-second and fifty-sixth ; on Wednesday, the sixty-third and sixty-fourth ; on Thursday, the eighty-seventh and eighty-ninth ; on Friday, the seventy-fifth and ninety-first ; on Saturday, the hundred and forty-second and the Canticle of Deuteronomy, which must be divided into two Ghrias. But on other days let a canticle out of the Prophets be said, each on its proper day, according to the custom of the Roman Church. After these let the Praises (or Laudate Psalms) follow, then a lesson of the Apostle, said by heart, the responsory, hymn and versicle, the canticle from the Gospel (or Benedictus), the litanies (or Kyrie eleison), and the office is completed.

Lauds and Evensong are never to be finished without the Lord's prayer at the end. This is said by the prior (that is, the superior) aloud, so that all may

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hear, because of the thorns of scandal which are always cropping up: that the community, by reason of the pledge given in this prayer, in the words, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us, may purge themselves from this kind of vice. In saying the other Hours, however, the last part of the prayer only is said aloud that all may

answer, But deliver us from evil.