The Divine Office | Page 4

those seven evil spirits which are apt
to return to the exorcised soul, more wicked than he who has been
driven out of it; and it was a fit remedy of those successive falls which,
scripture says, happen to the 'just man' daily." (Tracts for the Times, No.
75. "On the Roman Breviary.")
"Matutina ligat Christum qui crimina purgat, Prima replet sputis.
Causam dat Tertia mortis. Sexta cruci nectit. Latus ejus Nona bipertit.
Vespera deponit. Tumulo completa reponit. Haec sunt septenis propter
quae psallimus horas."
"At Matins bound; at Prime reviled; Condemned to death at Tierce;
Nailed to the Cross at Sext; at None His blessed Side they pierce. They

take him down at Vesper-tide; In grave at Compline lay, Who
thenceforth bids His Church observe The sevenfold hours alway."
(_Gloss. Cap. I. De Missa_)
Thus, this old author connects the seven hours with the scenes of the
Passion. Another author finds in the hours a reminder and a warning
that we should devote every stage of our lives to God. For the seven
canonical hours, he writes, bear a striking resemblance to the seven
ages of man.
Matins, the night office, typifies the pre-natal stage of life. Lauds, the
office of dawn, seems to resemble the beginnings of childhood. Prime
recalls to him youth. Terce, recited when the sun is high in the heavens
shedding brilliant light, symbolises early manhood with its strength and
glory. Sext typifies mature age. None, recited when the sun is declining,
suggests man in his middle age. Vespers reminds all of decrepit age
gliding gently down to the grave. Compline, night prayer said before
sleep, should remind us of the great night, death.
CHAPTER II.
SHORT HISTORY OF DIVINE PRAISE IN GENERAL AND OF
THE BREVIARY IN PARTICULAR.
From all eternity the Godhead was praised with ineffable praise by the
Trinity--the three divine Persons. The angels from the first moment of
the creation sang God's praises. _Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus
Deus, Sabaoth. Plena est omnis terra gloria ejus_ (Isaias vi. 3).
Cardinal Bona writes that Adam and Eve blessed and praised God, their
Creator. For God created the first human beings, and "created in them
the knowledge of the Spirit of God that they might praise the name
which He has sanctified and glory in His wondrous acts"
(Ecclesiasticus xvii. 6-8), Every page of the Old Testament tells how
the chosen race worshipped God. We read of the sacrifices of Cain,
Abel, Enoch, Noe; of the familiar intercourse which the great patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob had with God. Recorded, too, are the solemn

songs and prayers of Moses thanking God for His guidance in the
freedom from the slavery of Egypt (Exodus xv.). David, under God's
inspiration, composed those noble songs of praise, the Psalms, and
organised choirs for their rendering. He sings "Evening and morning
and at noon I will speak and declare and He shall hear my voice"
(Psalm 54, v. 18); "I rose at midnight to give praise to Thee" (Psalm
118, v. 162); "Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee" (Psalm
118, v. 164).
The Prophet Daniel, a captive in Babylon, prayed thrice daily, his face
turned to Jerusalem. The Israelites, captives in Babylon with Nehemias,
"rose up and read in the book of the Law of the Lord their God, four
times in the day, and four times they confessed and adored the Lord
their God" (II. Esdras ix. 3). Hence, the Jewish day, made up as it was
with sacrifices, libations, oblations, purifications, and public and
private prayer, was a day of prayer. In these public meetings they sang
God's praises, sang of His glory and of His mercy. Sometimes they
spoke with loving familiarity, sometimes they prayed on bended knee,
sometimes they stood and pleaded with outstretched hands, pouring out
the prayers inspired by God Himself.
In the New Law our Saviour is the model of prayer, the true adorer of
His Father. He alone can worthily adore and praise because He alone
has the necessary perfection. Night and day He set example to His
followers. He warned them to watch and pray; He taught them how to
pray; He gave them a form of prayer; He prayed in life and at death.
His apostles, trained in the practices of the synagogue, were perfected
by the example and the exhortations of Christ. This teaching and
example are shown in effect when the assembled apostles were "at the
third hour of the day" praying (Acts ii. 15); when about the sixth hour
Peter went to pray (Acts x. 9). In the Acts of Apostles we see how Peter
and John went at the ninth hour to the temple to pray. St. Paul in prison
sang God's praises at midnight, and he insists on his converts singing in