Chapter Forty-Seven
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God
LET IT BE the Abbot’s care that the time for the Work of God be announced both by day and by night. He is either to announce it himself, or to entrust this charge to a careful brother that everything may be done at the proper time.
Let those who have been ordered, intone the psalms or the antiphons according to rank after the Abbot. No one, however, should presume to sing or read unless he is able so to perform this office so that those listening may be edified; and let it be done with humility, gravity, and reverence by the one whom the Abbot ordered.