01.27.09
Attempting to Correct Tradition
The way the prayer most commonly known as the Prayer of St Francis became association with St Francis is a good example of how popular tradition is created and how hard it is to break. The Vatican is making it known again this week, that there is no evidence what so ever that this prayer was associated with St Francis of Assisi or the Franciscans. It first appeared anonymously in a French Catholic magazine in 1912. According to the Vatican’s statement this week, Pope Benedict XV had it printed in 1916 in the midst of World War I as a prayer for peace. It was apparently still printed anonymously at this point.
France and Italy have long been the global centers of Catholic religious merchandise, though France seems to have decreased in the second half of the 20th century. Holy cards were among the most popular products produced in large quantities and shipped globally. Holy cards were especially popular because they have always been very inexpensive and are easy to use, stuck in a prayer book, bible, or missle. With the ability to print cards rapidly, they were quickly adapted for Catholic funeral cards. Holy cards usually have a color print of a religious painting on one side and text on the reverse. At some point early in the 20th century, the prayer in question was printed on the back of a holy card with a picture of St Francis of Assisi on the other side. They were wildly popular. The most popular saint of the day with one of the most popular prayers, so fitting for two successive generations that had known world-wide war. Recall that World War I was popularly known as the War to End All Wars, and yet it was only followed by an even greater war in World War II. The generation that named the War to End All Wars would have found this peace prayer irresistible, as we still do.
These holy cards were so successful that the common people assumed so strongly that the prayer was written by St Francis that it was eventually assumed to be so. As the prayer originally appeared anonymously there was no real push to correct it. Besides, it felt right. So even though the Franciscans never claimed authorship, it was accepted until its popularity attracted the attention of scholars, who couldn’t find it in the Franciscan canon. Franciscans had known it all along, but it is a nice prayer to be credited to your patron/founder saint, so they didn’t made a fuss to correct it.
Attribution of this prayer to St Francis is an example of popular religious tradition that was generated by the laity and eventually adopted by the upper levels of the Roman Catholic church because they knew they couldn’t change it. Associating the prayer with St Francis, also accelerated its wide acceptance because it gave the prayer a veneer of tradition. Yet breaking the link with St Francis may make it more acceptable to Protestants, who have recognized its iffy attribution for some time. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer reprints it under the title “A prayer attributed to St Francis” and more recently it is often just entitled A Peace Prayer. Somehow the generic peace prayer title is unsatisfying. Ironically, at nearly a century old, it is now old enough to be accepted by most Catholics (and Protestants) as traditional without the Franciscan link. Despite the Vatican’s press release this week, you can bet it will continue to be called the prayer of St. Francis for generations to come. Perhaps this is just as well, considering that it has been so well integrated into Franciscan spirituality. Perhaps we should just call it a Franciscan Peace prayer.
Modern prayer card from Bridge Building.
05.06.08
A Guidebook to Daily Prayer
Christopher L Webber. A User’s Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: Morning and Evening Prayer. Morehouse, 2005. $8 on Amazon.com.
This is a very handy little book. It is designed for people who know nothing about daily prayer, and so takes nothing for granted. This is a good thing! Webber has reprinted the pages of morning and evening prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), going so far as leaving the same page numbers, and then provides facing page commentary.
The Introduction overs a wide variety of information. One of the primary concerns here is the difference between Rite I and Rite II. Webber provides a discussion of how Rite I differs from Rite II, but all further discussion uses Rite II. He also discusses the differences between the 1928 and 1979 BCP.
The real value of the book comes when we get to the actual offices. Set up in facing page style, each section has a general description of its purpose, history, and the sources of the actual words. One of the obvious things that comes out of the discussion is changes to the canticles in the 1979 BCP. I have to say I like the additional canticles and I would be happy if there were even more of them. It always surprises me that so much from the apocrypha is included when there are so many canticles in scripture that are omitted (Jonah, Song of Songs, Hannah’s song etc). He goes on to give the sources and authors of the collects included with the offices. The bit about the Phos hilaron was considered a cherished old hymn by St Basil in 379 is interesting. I also thought it was interesting that Webber noted that the Magnificant can be used for morning prayer and that any morning canticle can be used for evening prayer. That is very good to know because always using it for evening prayer is a little too rigid for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but it doesn’t always seem like the best canticle to go with the other selections. The book rounds off short discussions of the prayers and a short glossary.
As I said from the beginning, its a handy book. Its not groundbreaking scholarship or comprehensive analysis, but it suits its purpose: to introduce new people to morning and evening prayer. I think it does that quite well.
04.21.08
A Modern Book of Hours
Hour by Hour
Forward Movement Publications, 2007. ISBN 0-88028-240-1, 128 pages. $17.95
Well, it may have taken me a while, but I seem to have found a modern book of hours. Its not quite a medieval style Book of Hours, but its a nice compromise.
Hour by Hour contains the four hours of daily prayer available in the Book of Common Prayer — Morning prayer, Noon, Evening prayer, and Compline– for one week. This means that there are seven sets of prayers. To make it more seasonal and applicable for daily life there are a collection of prayers at the end for the church seasons and major feasts, and for life events (births, sickness, anxiety, thanksgiving, death etc). These prayers can be added to any hour as needed. Because these seven sets of prayers are repeated every week the lessons are good for all seasons.
What it is not is a breviary. Monastic offices aim to be comprehensive, to cover the entire psalter every x days and to read scripture in a systematic way. Books of Hours make no attempt to do this. Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, for medieval people their Book of Hours was the only book they owned so it was not complimented by a bible. I have been using Hour by Hour for a couple of weeks so far and I really don’t mind the repeating weekly. Having a full week’s worth is enough variation. That is not to say that I may not make the same choices, but that I don’t mind repeating. If I really like an office, I wouldn’t mind repeating it even more often. I like it when an office gels together well so that the lessons, psalms, and prayers all reinforce each other. This is something that the daily office doesn’t achieve for me.
Choices for readings etc brings me to another key topic in Books of Hours — they were very personal. I might make some different choices if I were to design one week’s worth of offices. I know I would choose some different prayers for the optional prayers in the back. I’ve already pasted two onto the back flyleaves of Hour by Hour. I also really miss the calendar and one that I could have added my own dates to. Hour by Hour comes completely from the Book of Common Prayer, filling in bible selections for the lessons.
Differences between Hour by Hour and medieval Books of Hours are significant. In some ways this book has more to offer. It has different offices for seven days. Medieval books of hours did not . They had two or three specialized sets of offices: The Little Office of the Virgin (seven psalms of accent), an Office of the Dead (seven penitential psalms), and sometimes another office also more themed. Late medieval Books of Hours and Breviaries had seven daily hours; the Book of Common Prayer calls for four offices daily. Books of Hours always began with a calendar to which owners could add their special memorial days (births, deaths etc); this one lacks a calendar. The earliest Books of Hours were very specialized for their patrons at least in their illustrations and in their extra content.
With all this being said, Hour by Hour is still the best book of hours I have found to date. It would be a excellent book to travel with, whether that is commuting or vacations.
04.19.08
Office Glossary
Antiphon: Antiphon means responsive sound. A short sentence from scripture that proceeds or follows the psalms or canticles in the daily office, and should be a key to interpreting the psalm or canticle. To sing antiphonally is for two groups to alternative verses. This alternation can occur in a variety of ways.
Canticle: A canticle is poetry, sometimes a song, within scripture. Canticles used in liturgy are often short stretches of longer poems or songs that occur in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Canticles are found in the OT books of Exodus, Isaiah, Jonah, Song of Songs (Canticum Canticorum), and others. In the NT, the Gospel of Luke contains the most canticles. Two canticles used in today’s office come from Revelations. Occasionally poetry from the ancient church or favorite saints like Julian of Norwich are used in daily prayer as a canticle.
Collect: A collect is a prayer that collects the thoughts and petitions of the office. Collects should have three parts: an invocation, petition, and ascription. There are a variety of sources for collects. The Book of Common Prayer has collects for every Sunday, all major feast days, and several for special occasions. Lesser Feasts and Fasts contains collects for saints’ feast days. I will be posting some new collects here periodically.
Creed: A creed is a statement of belief. Two common creeds found in daily prayer are the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Other creeds or a personal creed could replace one of these in daily prayer.
Gloria Patri/Glory be: There are a couple of translations of this common ascription which goes back to at least the time of Origen (d. 264). A few years ago I found it on the end of a sermon by Origen on John 20. The traditional version is: “Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” The modern Anglican version in the Book of Common Prayer reads “Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen”. To significant changes, it removes the “be” out of the Glory Be and drops off “world without end” (which was included in Origen’s 3rd century version). This is one place where I still deviate from the BCP to use the more familiar older version (at least older and more familiar to me).
Gloria in excelsis: An early Christian hymn used as a canticle in the Office. It is an expansion of the song sung by the angels at the Nativity of Christ.
Hymns: Hymns are the songs and poems of the Christian church. While we can debate what Paul means by hymns, in today’s church they are the songs of the Christians.
Jubilate: Psalm 100 is a traditional part of morning prayer. It is one of the optional psalms for today’s morning office.
Lesson: Readings from scripture used during the office. Usually one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Sometimes on feast days other readings from the writings of saints or accounts of their lives might be used as an additional lesson.
Office: Derived from the latin word from “duty” refers to the monastic duty to pray the hours. Following Old Testament references to pray seven times a day Christian monastics prayed on a schedule of seven times a day. These prayers can also be called simply ‘hours’ or praying the hours. Offices contain a collection of psalms, canticles/hymns, lessons, and prayers. While clergy may be instructed by their bishop to pray the daily office (morning and evening prayer) according to the Book of Common Prayer (or another approved monastic book), the laity have the latitude to alter the hours as they see fit in private prayer.
Phos hilaron (O Gracious Light): The Phos hilaron is an ancient Christian hymn used in the evening office. It was considered a venerable tradition by St Basil in 379 CE.
Psalms: A psalm is another name for a hymn. The Book of Psalms are the ancient hymnal of the Jews. When speaking of scripture, the word psalm refers to the Book of Psalms.
Prayers: A variety of prayers can be added to the office. The Lord’s Prayer being the most common addition. A variety of other prayers can be added after the collect to meet the needs of the day.
References: Christopher Webber. A User’s Guide to Morning and Evening Prayer. Morehouse, 2005.
