Thus then we secure stedfastness in our soul, by asking God to prosper our work in every undertaking, rendering thanksgiving to Him Who gave the power to work, and observing the aim of pleasing Him, as we said before. For, unless these are our methods, how can we make what was said by the apostle consistent: “Pray without ceasing” and “working night and day”? However, we must not imagine that because giving of thanks at every season has been commanded by the law and has been shown to be necessary to our life both by nature and reason, the formal times of prayer should be neglected in the brotherhoods, times which we have necessarily chosen because each has its own special memorial of blessings received from God. These are the times:
To begin with, dawn, so that the first movements of the soul and mind may be dedicated to God and nothing taken into consideration before we are gladdened by thoughts of God, as it is written: “I remembered God and was gladdened”; and so that we do not stir the body to work before doing what is said: “Unto thee will I pray, O Lord. In the morning thou shalt hear my voice: in the morning I shall stand before thee, and I shall see thee.”
Again at the third hour we must rise to prayer and collect the brotherhood, should they happen to be scattered to their various occupations and, remembering the gift of the Spirit given to the apostles at the third hour, we must worship all together that we too may become worthy to receive sanctification, at the same time asking that He may guide us and teach us what is expedient, after the fashion of him that said: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish me with thy guiding spirit.” And elsewhere: “Thy good spirit shall lead me into a straight land.” And then we resume our work again.
Should some find themselves at a distance owing to the nature of the work or the locality, they must of necessity observe the common ordinances there without any hesitation, “for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” In the sixth hour we conclude prayer is necessary after the pattern of the Saints who said: “Evening and morning and noonday will I speak and declare and he shall hear my voice” and, that we may be delivered from mishap and the noonday demon, at the same time the ninetieth psalm is also said. The ninth hour is handed down to us as necessary for prayer by the apostles themselves in the Acts, which tell how Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. When the day is finished let us give thanks for what has been given us during the day and for what we have done rightly, and let us confess what we have left undone, every sin whether voluntary or involuntary, or perhaps unknown to us, either in word or deed or in the heart itself, beseeching God’s mercy for all in our prayers. For to review the past day is a great safeguard against falling into the like again. Wherefore it says: “What ye say in your hearts, feel compunction for upon your beds.” Again at the beginning of the night we ask that our rest may be offenceless and free from phantasies, and we recite again of necessity the ninetieth psalm.
And midnight Paul and Silas have handed down to us as a necessary time for prayer, so the story of the Acts proclaims: “But about midnight Paul and Silas were singing hymns to God.” And the Psalmist too, saying: “At midnight I rose to give thanks to thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.”
And again we must rise for prayer preventing the dawn so that we are not caught by the day sleeping in bed, according to him who said: “Mine eyes prevented the dawn, that I might meditate on thy words.”
None of these times must be neglected by those who have chosen to live watchfully to the glory of God and His Christ. But I think it advantageous to have diversity and variety in the prayers and psalms at the fixed hours, because when there is monotony, the soul often gets weary and is a prey to distraction; but when the psalms and readings of each hour change, and are variable, the desire of the soul is renewed, and attention is restored.
1 Mt. v. 23 xat éxet for xdxet K; 24.
2 This answer is of great importance in the history of the Divine Office. See Morison St. Basil and us Rule p. 58f. for an excellent discussion of the problems.
SMe. x. 10. 4 Eph. iv. 28 ¥.
5 2 Cor. xi. 27 meptacotépmc for morrdcutc**.
§ Acts xx. 35. 7 Eph. iv. 28 eynte for éyy**.
ut Mtoxxv. 32; 35: 2 See 2 Thess. iii. 10.
8° Prov. Xxxinaa: 4 2 Thess. 11. 8. 5. Mt. xxv. 367:
® Prov. vi. 6 Bas. (6. with B*XA?1, Sw.’s (B) text to6r.
? Lk. xl. 48 drauthoovow for aitnoovow.
8 Kecl. ili. 1 xaupdg 7 navel medyport with B*’~AC (Sw. B omit 76).
1 1 Thess. v. 17 f, 2 Thess. ii. 8 T.
2 Ps. xxvil. 3 yopedvOny with T, Sw.’s (B) text cdepdvOny.
3 Ps.v. 2,3. This is clearly Prime, unless B. with great carelessness mentions the early morning office twice, at the beginning and end of the list, which is unlikely. Cassian Inst. ii. 4 is therefore mistaken, in saying that Prime was first introduced in his time at the monastery of Bethlehem, to prevent the monks from sleeping too long after the night office. Cf. B. 43, 44; and Hp. 11.2 “ What state can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the choruses of angels? to begin the day with prayer, and honour our Maker with hymns and songs? ”
4 Terce. The reference to the gift of the Holy Spirit would be specially congenial to B., who wrote On the Holy Spirit, but it was usual to support prayer at the third hour thus; ef. Cypr. De Orat. Dom. 34; Cass. Inst. iii. 3. Can. Hipp. 27 bases it on the Crucifixion.
5 Pg. li. 10-12.
6 Ps. cxliii. 10 1d d&ya06v with R*RT, Sw.’s (B) text 1d &yrov, év v7 e00ete with ART, Sw.’s (B) text év tH cd0etq.
1 Cf. F. 39, B. 154. The offices were by origin private prayers, so that absence from the rest of the brotherhood could not affect the obligation to recite them. Cf. Duchesne, Christian Worship, p. 448. °
5 Cass. Inst. iii. 3 has the expected reference to the Crucifixion as the justification for Sext.