The ‘Sample Week’ in the Medieval Latin Divine Office

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 78-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Pfaff
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Divine Office ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Rule Of Benedict ◽  
Ordinary Time ◽  
The Individual

One of the apparent pillars of consistency in the medieval Latin liturgy is the divine, alias daily, office. Although scholars convincingly postulate forms of the office that both antedate the specific provisions for it which bulk large in the Rule of Benedict and reflect an urban secular (the so-called cathedral office) rather than a monastic context, in terms of actual books out of which the office was performed, not a great deal survives until roughly the eleventh century. By that time, if not before, thought is clearly being given as to how to present the contents of the office - given that much of it consists in the recitation of psalms - in a way that, while clear, minimizes repetition. This can most readily be done in the long stretch of the weeks after Pentecost and the shorter stretch (sometimes very short indeed, depending on when Easter falls) of the weeks between the octave of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent or pre-Lent (that is, from Septuagesima on). Although the structure of the office in this, to use the current phrase, ‘ordinary time’, remains the same as in the more exciting seasons of Advent, Christmastide, Lent, and Eastertide (plus, of course, the individual feasts of the Proper of Saints), the content of the various services is not driven by a particular time or saint, and so there is a somewhat abstract quality about it quite lacking from the great seasons and occasions of the liturgical year.

Theological Texts

2020 ◽  
pp. 905-923
Author(s):  
Lesley Smith
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Academic Study

This chapter surveys manuscripts of medieval Latin theology from the late eleventh century to the late thirteenth, and discusses the shift from monastic study of theology to its more academic study by scholars and mendicant friars. The changed needs of the new readers led to significant alterations in the layout, size, shape, and contents of theological manuscripts, most of the changes reflecting the need for quick reference rather than meditation.

scholarly journals Time to Live: Christian Formation through the Christian Year

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Matthew Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Formation ◽  
Christian Formation ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Average Work ◽  
Time Structures ◽  
Local Congregations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

This article examines the role of the Christian, or liturgical, year as one of the simplest yet most powerful ways of spiritually forming people, both individually and corporately, to become more like Jesus. Many Christians and churches are subtly shaped more by the time structures of the average work week or cultural holidays than the life of Christ or the church. The tendency to address individual spiritual formation focuses largely on cognitivist approaches to change or individual formative practices. However, the author explores several ways in which the Christian year offers a wholistic approach to life formation through the steady, time-bound patterns of the Christian year. Engaging both the conscious and unconscious self in cognitive practices and steady habits, both the individual Christian and local congregations are trained toward Christlikeness.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
James Howard-Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Literature And Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

The fundamental structures of Byzantium in the eleventh century have not been subjected to close and sustained scrutiny since the 1970s: it was during the eleventh century that Byzantium reached its apogee, in terms of power, prestige, and territorial extension, only to then plunge into steep political decline in the second half of the century. It is therefore well worth taking a thorough look at the social order in this age of change, to see how it was affected by economic growth and political expansion, and what were the consequences of the social changes which occurred. The Introduction sets out the origins of the volume in a workshop on the social order in eleventh-century Byzantium held in Oxford in May 2011, the third in a series of workshops funded by the British Academy on The Transformation of Byzantium: Law, Literature and Society in the Eleventh Century. It provides brief abstracts of the individual chapters, summarizing the approaches of their authors, in addition to a longer outline of the paper given by Mark Whittow on the Feudal Revolution at the workshop in 2011.

scholarly journals Niebo na ziemi. Próba charakterystyki liturgii wschodniej

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Przemysław Nowakowski
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Divine Office ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Arts ◽  
External Point ◽  
The Hours ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The main aim of this article is the general presentation and description of the eastern liturgy by emphasizing some of its characteristics different from the Latin one. The subject of the analysis was the Slavonic version of Byzantine rite which is better known in Poland and neighboring countries. The worship plays the leading role in the life of Eastern Churches. The liturgy is closely connected with teaching of the Church and it is also the source of theology. The East has never known the separation of spirituality, theology and ecclesiology from liturgy. The article presents some essential information about the Eucharist (called in the east the Divine Liturgy), the liturgy of the hours (the Divine Office), liturgical year and shows some differences in the celebration of the sacraments in comparison with the Latin practice. More important features of the eastern worship are the epiphanic, doxological, dynamic, anamnetical and eschatological ones. What strikes you about Eastern worship from the sociological point of view is its intimate union with culture and history of the lo- cal, national Church. From an external point of view the eastern liturgy is a synthesis of the arts and demonstrates a particular beauty. The liturgical action is not just a ceremony.  It   is an object of contemplation, an awesome vision, full of mystery. It is our participation in the liturgy of heaven, the implementation of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Therefore, the actual purpose of the liturgy is our communing with God.

The Sacrificium

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-41
Author(s):  
Rebecca Maloy
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Textual Structure ◽  
Liturgical Year

This chapter introduces the Old Hispanic offertory chant, called the sacrificium, as a prelude to the closer analysis presented in subsequent chapters. The author considers the musical and textual structure of the genre, its performance, and the thematic shape of the repertory as a whole. The genre connects thematically to Isidore of Seville’s description of the genre. Although the genre is likely to have emerged in the sixth century, a handful of sacrificia are probabe additions from the tenth or eleventh century. The use of different biblical versions suggests that these chants were created a different times, rather than being the product of a single effort. The texts develop the theme of sacrifice, themes associated with each part of the liturgical year, and with general characteristics of sainthood. The creators of the repertory used and adapted scripture to enhance these themes, sometimes in ways that were typical of the genre.

Medieval Christian Liturgy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne M. Pierce
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Gregorian Chant ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Divine Office ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Initiation Sequence

The liturgy of the medieval Christian West (ca. 600–1500) provided the structure around which life in Western Europe was structured for almost a thousand years. Rooted in Christian antiquity, in the early central liturgical structures of Initiation and Eucharist, the private and public observance of daily prayer, and the development of a liturgical year, the long medieval period that followed saw a broadening elaboration and expansion of the liturgical life of Christians in many different directions. By the year 1200, theologians had defined seven of the Church’s liturgical rites as primary sacraments: Baptism and Confirmation (from the ancient initiation sequence); Eucharist; Penance (with the emphasis on private confession of sins); Ordination (through various minor orders to the three major orders of deacon, presbyter, and bishop); Extreme Unction (anointing of the sick, now reserved for the gravely ill); and Matrimony (as the liturgical rites for the originally domestic rituals of marriage become more elaborate and set in the church rather than the home). A more fulsome cycle of the liturgical year developed around the ancient feasts of Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, and Epiphany, augmented by an elaborate calendar of commemorations and feasts of saints. Monastic influence resulted in a daily round of liturgical prayer, the Divine Office, in which various “hours” of prayer during the day and night were marked by liturgical “offices” of psalmody and scripture—some longer, others more brief. One of the major ways this liturgical growth and diversity can be studied is through an examination of the various liturgical books compiled and used during these medieval centuries, books used for the celebration of the Eucharist (the Mass), for the Divine Office, and for other liturgical rites. In addition to the volumes containing rubrics and prayers for liturgical celebrations, a separate cluster of books contained music to be used during these rites, in a style known as chant; Gregorian chant became the dominant form. The full impact of medieval liturgy as it was experienced in the Western Europe, however, extended far beyond the “bare bones” contained in these books, intertwined as it was with the development of art and architecture, law and commerce, and the political/socio-economic developments that would take Christian society and religion from the twilight of late antiquity to the dawn of early modernity.

Crossroads and Crises in the Religious Life of the Later Eleventh Century

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Derek Baker
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
The West ◽  
General Sense ◽  
The Individual

It is fifty years since Germain Morin, in an article in the Revue Bénédictine articulated discussion of the tensions and developments in eleventh and early twelfth-century regular, and para-regular, life around a central ‘crisis of cenobitism’, and twenty years since Leclercq stabilised the debate in a wide ranging article which has become the basis of all subsequent comment. This crisis in the cenobitic life is now a commonplace, expressed in Leclercq’s terms as ‘the crisis of prosperity’ and answered by the resurgence of rural monasticism, eremitical in character, in reaction to the elaborate structures and relationships of an established monasticism resident in the urban centres of population and influence. The individual austerities and renunciations of Romuald stand at the beginning of a proliferating development in western Christendom, and may, in a general sense, be taken to characterise these new initiatives. The direct influence of Romualdine ideas and practices, whether through his foundations or through his self-proclaimed spiritual heir Damian, which is sometimes alleged is difficult to prove, but there is an obvious consonance between the Italian experiments and those elsewhere in the west, a compatibility of outlook and attitude between Romuald and Damian, and men like Bruno, Stephen Harding, Robert of Arbrissel.

A New Collection of English Recusant Manuscript Poetry from the Late-Sixteenth Century: Extraordinary Devotion in the Liturgical Season of ‘Ordinary Time’

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-318
Author(s):  
Michael F. Suarez
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Major Portion ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Rare Book ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
Ordinary Time

At Yale University, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library's James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection has recently acquired a fascinating manuscript of late sixteenth-century Roman Catholic devotional verse in English (Osborn Shelves a30). Following the liturgical year from Trinity Sunday to the feast of Saint Catherine on November 25th, these fifty-eight poems celebrate the solemnities, feasts, and memorials of the Roman liturgical calendar throughout the approximately twenty-six weeks comprising the major portion of ‘ordinary time’. Presumably, this collection would have had a companion volume, now lost, covering the period from Advent to Pentecost which includes the principal solemnities and great seasons of the liturgical year.

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