CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER NINE
How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office
DURING the winter season, after the essential opening words—Deus, in adjutorium meum intende; Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina—there is next to be said three times, Domine, labia mea aperies, et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. (Ps. 50:17; 51:17, Vulg.). To this the 3rd psalm and the Gloria are to be added. After this the 94th psalm is to be chanted with its antiphon, or at least chanted. Next let a hymn follow, and after that six psalms with antiphons. After these and the versicle have been said, let the Abbot give the blessing. Once everyone is seated on the benches, let three lessons be read alternately by the brethren from the book on the lectern. Between lessons let three responsories be said. Let two of the responsories be said without the Gloria, but after the third lesson, let the cantor intone the Gloria. When the cantor begins to sing it, let all rise at once from their seats in honor of and with reverence for the Blessed Trinity.
Let the divinely inspired books of both the Old and the New Testaments be read at the night Offices, as well as the expositions of them which have been written by the most eminent orthodox and Catholic Fathers.
After these three lessons with their responsories, let six more psalms follow, to be sung with Alleluia. After these let the lessons from the Apostle be said by heart, then the verse, the petition of the litany, that is, Kyrie eleison. And so let the night Office come to an end.