Part Three · Sources and Rationale of the Offices

Chapter VI

MORNING AND
EVENING PRAYER

§ 1

“Common Prayers”

The orders for Morning and Evening Prayer represent the Church's provision for devotional services which do not include the celebration of the Sacraments. They are called the “Choir Offices” precisely because they are not performed at the Altar. They are “Common Prayer”—social public worship—in the strict meaning of the term. The rubrics allude to them as “Divine Service” in a special sense, implying that their purpose is to offer the aspirations of the participants to God, rather than to confer some specified benefit upon a recipient.

Such “general” services exist in all religions, and consist of the same inevitable elements—hymns, lessons, instructions, and prayers. There is no necessary sequence of these constituents,1 although there are inherent principles of rhythm and climax which govern all forms, from the services of the ancient Hebrew Synagogue to the present-day “Morning Worship” of the “Free Churches.”

All such services in any particular Church constitute an Order rather than a Rite: that is, while their congregational character requires an agreed framework, virtually every part may vary with the occasion within that framework. Hence they have never displayed such fixed ritual forms as those which in the case of the eucharistic liturgy furnish so many historical landmarks through quotations by contemporary authors. The whole question of the origin and development of the “Hours of Prayer” is therefore obscure; and it is possible only to give an account of the present state of opinion as to their probable evolution.

§ 2

The Development of the Hours

The ultimate inspiration of these services was the already established custom of private devotions among the Jews. Prayers morning, afternoon, and evening were fundamental and have so remained throughout the history of Judaism. No specified hours were set for these prayers, but the third, sixth, and ninth—especially the last—were particularly favored.2 Prayer at midnight3 or seven times a day (Psalm 119:62, 164) was most unusual among the Jews but—perhaps under the influence of Psalm 119—soon became a Christian rule. The Didaché, to be sure, contented itself with the Jewish custom,4 but the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus definitely commanded the observance of the seven-fold schedule as of obligation upon all Christians individually.5 It is also indicated that a morning assembly for instruction in the church was held on occasion.6 A passage in the Ethiopic version speaking of a daily meeting of the congregation for the Agapé and vesper prayers seems to be an early addition to Hippolytus' text.7

This “Church Order” was very widely circulated, and enjoyed a profound influence throughout the Church. It is very probable that as a result of this influence at least the larger congregations everywhere increasingly came to observe some of the “Hours of Prayer” together and in common. Certainly by the middle of the fourth century the latest “Church Order,” the Apostolic Constitutions, shows the evolution complete, with daily Morning and Evening Prayer, and with other Hours also observed in church.8

This rereading of the evidence in the light of the recently identified Apostolic Tradition removes the old accusation that the Hours were “invented by the monks”; it now appears that they were rather a legitimate growth in the Church as a whole. It is true however that from the time that the ascetics banded together in communities, they held a leading place in the observance and development of this form of worship.

Even in monastic use, the morning and evening services always held a place of primary importance. The Egyptian monks of the fourth century had no other services. Those of Palestine however added a midnight service and the three Day Hours to form a cycle of six. John Cassian at Bethlehem (ca. 388) saw the introduction of the new dawn office of Prime—perhaps following St. Basil (†379), whose “Rule” for the monks of Pontus and Cappadocia had added Prime and Compline to the Palestinian six to form the schedule of eight Hours which the Eastern Church still observes.

In the West, there is no clear evidence for any public offices in the fourth century except the Vigil services—expanded forms of the Pro-Anaphora used on the eves of the great days to usher in solemn celebrations of the Eucharist after midnight. This custom began with Easter, and soon spread to other Sundays and festivals.9

By the beginning of the sixth century however the Roman Church seems to have acquired the six hours which had already been in use in Jerusalem in the time of Ætheria (ca. 385), i.e. the Vigil or Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, Nones, and Vespers. Of these however the Day Hours were used only on Sundays and festivals.

The plan and material of this Roman “secular” use, embodying the weekly recitation of the Psalter, seem to have been the basis of the monastic Rule of St. Benedict, composed ca. 530. Benedict required Terce, Sext, and Nones every day, and filled up the Eastern cycle of eight Hours by adding Prime and Compline on a mutually parallel plan, designed respectively for the daily Chapter or business-meeting of the monks, and for the hour of retiring. Lauds and Vespers were still Benedict's principal services, again on a homologous basis.

The subsequent history of the Hours is of action and reaction between monastic and secular uses, and Roman and “Gallican” spheres of influence. The Benedictine cycle was adopted by the Roman clergy, and provided with a systematic musical setting of the Gregorian chant. Thanks largely to the excellence of this music, the Roman use spread over western Europe, combining with the simpler forms already in use there, and undergoing considerable abbreviation in the process. The Gallican shortening of the services in turn made its way to Rome. In the eleventh century the first attempts were made to gather the whole services, formerly in many books for the various participants, into a single volume, the first Breviary. By the twelfth century, the Roman clergy, under the pressure of administrative duties, instituted a further curtailment, especially of the Lessons, in what was known as the modernum officium.

The active order of the Franciscans in 1223 adopted this Modern Office. Their revision of 1241 saw a still further shortening; and finally in 1277 a Franciscan pope, Nicholas III, established this ultimate recension for the Roman court, and imposed its use on the Roman obedience throughout the world.10

In the resulting form of the Hours before the Reformation, the Psalter was—in theory—rehearsed every week, the Psalms being sung in course from day to day at Nocturns and Vespers, but being invariable at all other Hours. However, the course was continually broken into by the multiplied “double” festivals and their octaves. The Holy Scriptures were still read systematically at Nocturns; in the other hours the lesson, though still called a “Chapter,” had been reduced to a single text, usually taken from the Epistle of the mass for the day. Prime and Compline had a fixed “Chapter,” and a fixed Collect.

The principal hours11 were alike in that most of their substance was devoted to the Psalter, rising to the climax of the service in a proper Canticle—the Te Deum at Matins, Benedictus at Lauds, Quicunque Vult at Prime, Magnificat at Vespers, and Nunc Dimittis at Compline. Lauds and Vespers displayed their primordial and central character in that on weekdays, when the most ancient form of these offices was preserved, they concluded with Preces or petitionary responsive versicles of a special and historic type, constituting nothing less than an extended litany of general intercession. The likeness is striking with the morning and evening prayers of the Apostolic Constitutions;12 which in turn undoubtedly represent a separate use of the Pro-Anaphora of the Liturgy.

By the time of the Reformation in England, the principal hours were accumulated and recited continuously at two periods of the day: the Nocturns of Matins, together with Lauds and Prime, in the morning, and Vespers and Compline in the evening. These two services were actually attended to a considerable extent by the laity, and were popularly called “Matins” and “Evensong.” The formation of the two Anglican offices from the existing materials thus offered no innovation in fact, or even in name.

§ 3

The First Prayer Book of 1549

The dominant objectives of Archbishop Cranmer in dealing with the voluminous and complicated matter of the medieval Breviary were these: to set forth services which should be the common possession of all the people, instead of a monopoly of the monks and clergy; to preserve the two public services to which the people were accustomed; to restore the systematic singing of the Psalter and reading of the Scriptures, by assigning the Psalms in sequence to the days of the month, and the whole Bible in course to the dates of the civil year; to shorten and simplify the elaborate and lengthy “accumulated” services by eliminating an infinity of minute details varying with the occasion; and to retain the most outstanding and inspiring features of the old services.

Hence in consolidating the old offices of Matins, Lauds, and Prime to form the new order of “Mattins,” and of Vespers and Compline to make “Evensong,” the following elements were omitted: the concluding passages of Matins and Vespers; the introduction, Psalms, and conclusion, of Lauds, Prime, and Compline; the Invitatories which had been used in a complicated manner to interpolate the Venite; all Antiphons of Psalms and Canticles; all Blessings and Responds of Lessons; and the proper Office Hymns in each Hour. The remaining materials were combined, or rather interwoven, as follows:

§ 4

The Second Prayer Book of 1552

In the Second Prayer Book, the titles “Mattins” and “Evensong” were changed to Morning and Evening Prayer, except in the Lectionary, where the old designations remain in the Prayer Book of the Church of England to this day.

In this book, the penitential introduction to the two services now appeared, consisting of one of eleven penitential Sentences,16 followed by the Exhortation, General Confession and Absolution.

A mutual confession and absolution had occurred amid the Preces toward the end of Prime and Compline in the Sarum service. Both versions of Cardinal Quiñones' revised Roman Breviary removed them from that place, and inserted them at the beginning of Matins only. Cranmer undoubtedly had this precedent in mind; but it is probable that he was also influenced by the Liturgia Sacra of Valérand Pullain,17 whose structure of Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution was identical with that now adopted.

The text of these forms represents a fusing and recasting of material from many devotional sources—Pullain, Laski, and Hermann on the Protestant side; and on the Catholic, St. Florus of Lyons, St. Avitus of Vienne, and the staunchly orthodox manuals, the “Bishop's Book” or Institution of a Christian Man of 1537, and the “King's Book” or Necessary Doctrine of 1543.18

The Alleluia in Paschal Time, and the restriction of the Benedicite to an alternative in Lent, now disappear from this and all subsequent Anglican books. After all, there is nothing distinctively penitential about the Benedicite—its Sarum use was festal;—and on the other hand, the exclusively festal use of the Te Deum was a very late development: in monasteries, preserving the most ancient uses, it was sung the year round; and Quiñones assigned it to all feasts, even in Advent and Lent.

As the Puritans objected to the use of the Gospel Canticles, Psalm 100, Jubilate Deo, Psalm 98, Cantate Domino, and Psalm 76, Deus misereatur, were offered as alternatives to the Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis respectively.

The place following the Benedictus which the Quicunque Vult or “Athanasian Creed” occupied on the six festivals when it was used, as well perhaps as the analogy of the Communion Office, were responsible for rescuing the Apostles' Creed from its awkward position after the Kyries in 1549, where it had been said kneeling together with the Lord's Prayer, and placing it after the Benedictus, to be said standing. The minister was directed to stand up for the Collect of the day, with its preceding preces and following memorials—i.e. to take the same posture as at the Collect in the Communion, to which this was a sort of liturgical reference.

Evening Prayer was further assimilated to the morning office by adding the Versicle, “O Lord, open thou our lips,” formerly peculiar to Matins.19

The rubric to the Quicunque Vult added eight Saints' Days to the occasions on which it was to be used, ensuring that it would be repeated practically every month in the year.

§ 5

The Revision of 1662

Most of the changes in 1662 were adopted from the Scottish book of 1637. These were the addition of the scriptural doxology to the introductory Lord's Prayer, and of the response, “The Lord's name be praised,” after “Praise ye the Lord”; rubrics requiring the Priest to stand at the Absolution, and for all to stand at the first Gloria Patri; and the major feature of rounding out Morning and Evening Prayer as complete services of worship by appending the so-called “Five Prayers”—for the King, the Royal Family, the Clergy and People, the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, and the Grace—after the Third Collect, with permission to intercalate an Anthem before them: all to be used when the Litany was not said after Morning Prayer, and always at Evening Prayer.20

The suggestion for this last addition lay in the petitionary Preces or Suffrages after the Creed;21 its effect was to bring the Offices into line with their primitive form in the early Church,22 by supplying a sort of General Intercession logically indispensable to the Church's Common Prayers.23

The book of 1662 further extended the scheme of this Intercession with the Prayer for All Conditions,24 which was printed in the section of Special Prayers, with a rubric indicating it was “to be used” when the Litany was not said. This rubric, probably meaning “which may be used at discretion,” has in fact been interpreted as mandatory. The prayer is modeled upon the Prayer for the Church in the Communion, omitting matters already covered in the “Five Prayers,” giving a special turn to the supplication for the Peace of the Church in view of the unreconciled elements of Dissent which the Church of the Restoration had inherited from the recent days of the Commonwealth, and supplementing the formal petitions of the “Five Prayers” with some intimate and touching supplications for those in distress of whatever sort.

A corresponding General Thanksgiving in the section of Special Thanksgivings,25 with no special rubric, also made its way into general use as providing a distinctively eucharistic note, and satisfying a religious instinct that no order of worship is complete without this highest, purest, and most acceptable form of prayer.

Beside these major matters, there was a good deal of dotting of i's and crossing of t's in the rubrics—some of it more meticulous than intelligent. And Bishop Wren was responsible for a tiny but mischievous change in the last sentence of the Absolution. Originally this had read with reference to what preceded: “He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent. … Wherefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance,” etc. But Wren's “Wherefore let us beseech him,” etc., seems to point forward, as if to some further and future action: which unhappily is apparently supplied by the first Lord's Prayer, which follows here, but which originally began the service, said by the officiant alone, in as purely private and purely prefatory a use as the corresponding prayer in the Communion. Bishop Cosin seems to have taken Wren's alteration in this sense, for he sponsored the rubric directing the people to repeat the first Lord's Prayer with the minister.

The effect of this upon the structure of the Church of England service was perhaps too slight to be perceptible. The real consequence ensued in the next century, when the makers of the first American Prayer Book wished to eliminate one of the two occurrences of the Lord's Prayer: and because the first one seemed to them so anchored in its context, they sacrificed the second from its central and climactic place at the heart of the concluding prayers.

§ 6

The First American Prayer Book of 1789

The abortive English draft of 1689 contributed these features to the Daily Offices of the first American book a century later: the use of the Gloria Patri at the end of the whole portion of Psalms instead of after each Psalm; the substituting of Psalms for the Canticles at Evening Prayer; and the printing of the Psalm Jubilate before the Benedictus.

The equally fruitless American experiment of 1785 proposed the following, also incorporated in our first national rite: Proper Second Lessons for Sundays and Holydays; the principle of Selections of Psalms; “general” Sentences prefixed to the penitential list; the Gloria Patri or the Gloria in Excelsis at the end of the whole portion of Psalms; an evasion of the “hell” clause in the Apostles' Creed; shortening of the Suffrages after the Creed, and elimination of the Lesser Litany and the Lord's Prayer at this point; and an avoidance of repeating the Collect for the day twice in combined Morning Prayer and Holy Communion.

The Prayer Book of 1789 displayed a number of alterations of the parent English book of 1662. The most obvious of these, and the ostensible reason for an American book, was the prayer for civil rulers. In this prayer, which, as in the English service, was the same at both Morning and Evening Prayer, “the President of the United States, and all others in authority,” was substituted for the King; with some little toning down of “royal” epithets.

Incidentally, the rubric directing the omission of the concluding prayers if the Litany was to follow, was put after this prayer instead of before, in Morning Prayer. It is said that at this time George Washington, who lived eight miles from a church, did not attend evening service; and the Litany being habitual after Morning Prayer, it was in response to his expressed desire to hear the Prayer for the President read that the rubric was given this position: so that until 1928 this irregularity in the morning service bore witness to the fact that the first President of the country was a Churchman.

Further alterations were made of phrases in the Te Deum, the Third Collect in both services, and the prayers for Clergy and People, and for All Conditions. With few exceptions, these were judicious and demonstrable improvements.

Throughout the rubrics of both services, “Minister” was substituted for “Priest” wherever it occurred, save at the Absolution, to permit the recitation of the services by a Deacon or Lay-Reader, with the exception of this one sacerdotal element.

The Venite was amended from Psalm 95 to Psalm 95:1–7 and 96:9 and 13. On Easter, and six other occasions, it was to be supplanted by proper Anthems.26

The “hell” clause in the Apostles' Creed might either be omitted, or supplanted by the paraphrase “He went into the place of departed spirits,” if “any Churches” desired to do so. While canonists are of the opinion that the latter expression means not any local congregations, but a unit not less than a diocese, the mere existence of the explanation and permission was enough to quiet objection, as was the case with the Sign of the Cross in Baptism; and the matter seems never to have been tested.

There were also a number of omissions: of the introductory versicles, “O God, make speed to save us. ℟ O Lord, make haste to help us”;27 of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and of all but the first four verses of the Benedictus; of all Suffrages after the Creed except the first and last, in both services; of the Anthem after the Third Collect; of the interpolation for special intercessions in the prayer for All Conditions and the General Thanksgiving; and of the Lesser Litany and Lord's Prayer after the Creed. This last was a somewhat serious liturgical blunder: it omitted the proper congregational Lord's Prayer from its central and climactic place, such as it occupies in all other prayerbook offices, in order to retain the form which was and is merely prefatory. It was, however, the logical sequel of the mistakes made by Wren and Cosin in 1662.

On the other hand, the book offered several additions and alternatives. Three “general” Sentences were prefixed to the exclusively penitential group. The germ of the present Proper Sentences for the Christian Seasons appeared under the Thanksgiving-Day service. The shorter Absolution from the Communion was given as an alternative to the one already in the offices; and the Nicene Creed to the Apostles'.28 Psalm 92:1–4, Bonum Est, was supplied for choice instead of the Cantate, to make up for the excision of the Magnificat, and Psalm 103:1–4 and 20–22, Benedic, Anima Mea, was similarly added to the Deus Misereatur, in lieu of the Nunc Dimittis. The prayer for All Conditions, and the General Thanksgiving, were transferred from the Special Prayers and Thanksgivings, and added to both services.

Further flexibility in combination with other services was introduced by rubrics providing for the omission of the Collect for the day from Morning Prayer, and of the introductory Lord's Prayer and the Creed from the Communion, when the two services were used together.

§ 7

The Prayer Book of 1892

Although it was a desire to bring the daily offices into harmony with the needs of the modern age which was in the forefront of the objectives of the revision sponsored by Dr. Huntington, the actual changes in these services effected in 1892 were few and conservative.

The only new matter adopted was the system of “Proper” Sentences for festivals and seasons at the beginning of both services—carrying out the idea of those supplied for Thanksgiving Day in 1789;—and a new Prayer for the President29 at Evening Prayer.

There were however several enrichments in the form of restorations of matter eliminated in 1789 from the English original. The Benedictus was again printed in full, but with provision for omitting all but the first four verses except upon the Sundays in Advent, and once more followed, not preceded, by its alternative, the Jubilate; and at Evening Prayer the Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and the Suffrages after the Creed,30 were restored, as was the original form of the Third Collect, and the permission for an Anthem after it. The permission to omit the “hell” clause in the Creed was dropped. The optional commemorations were reinstated in the prayer for All Conditions and the General Thanksgiving.

The principle of flexibility was much extended. At Morning Prayer, when the Holy Communion was to follow, the minister might omit the Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, passing directly from the Sentences to the Lord's Prayer, intercalating “The Lord be with you. ℟ And with thy spirit. Let us pray.” On any weekday, the new short Invitation, “Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God,” might be substituted for the Exhortation; and the service might end with the Grace after the Third Collect. At Evening Prayer, the Invitation might be used instead of the Exhortation on any day; and on weekdays the Invitation, Confession, and Absolution might be omitted; and at any time the service could be concluded after the Third Collect with any “Prayer or Prayers taken out of this Book.”

Further proposals of this revision which failed of adoption in 1892, but were successful in 1928, include the short alternative Absolution at Evening Prayer; the permission to omit the Venite on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; the Benedictus es, Domine as an alternative to Te Deum or Benedicite; and the change of the break in Morning Prayer to the place after the Third Collect instead of after the prayer for the President.

§ 8

The Revision of 1928

At our last revision, a careful recension was made of the opening Sentences of both Morning and Evening Prayer. Nine of these were omitted, eight added, and five transferred. The scheme of Proper Sentences adapted to the Christian Seasons, adopted in 1892,31 was carried to its logical conclusion by reducing the ten penitential Sentences which had survived in 1892 to three each in Morning and Evening Prayer, and absorbing them under the season of Lent; and those in the service for Thanksgiving Day, which, as we have seen, pioneered in this development, were now transferred to this portion of Morning Prayer.

The Seasons may now be further emphasized by the optional use of Invitatories32 prefixed to the Venite.

The Canticle Benedictus es, Domine,33 is offered as a further alternative after the First Lesson. There is still nothing penitential at this point; but its simplicity makes it an excellent substitute at any time for the length of the Benedicite and the musical difficulty of many settings of the Te Deum.

At Morning Prayer, a new Prayer for the President is given as an alternative to the old slightly altered Collect for the King, in which the Church prays for the temporal and eternal welfare of the President in personal terms still reminiscent of royalism. The Prayer Book Commission proposed this prayer as a substitute, not an alternative; but it is understood that the sympathies aroused by the tragic collapse of President Wilson, which had occurred shortly before the time this portion was before General Convention for action, influenced the Convention to retain the old prayer, precisely because it was personal.

At Evening Prayer, in lieu of the old alternative borrowed from the Communion, a new Absolution is given from the Sarum rite.34 Perhaps by contrast with Cranmer's fulness, it seems somewhat abrupt, especially in its conclusion. This might be remedied by appending “through Jesus Christ our Lord,” to elicit the people's Amen.

There were also a number of alterations in the rubrics affecting the details of the services.

The Venite may now be omitted on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, to which its joyful note is not appropriate.35 Psalm 95 may be used instead of the Venite at any time, instead of “when it is used in the course of the Psalms, on the 19th day of the month.” The “course of the Psalms” having fallen into tacit desuetude in many quarters as the base of the Sunday services, it is nevertheless desirable to substitute Psalm 95 for the Venite whenever it is followed by Psalm 96, two of whose verses it borrows. Psalm 95 may also be used to provide a penitential ending for the Venite in Lent, as the Book Annexed of 1886 proposed.

The rubric before the Suffrages after the Creed has been changed to read “the People [instead of all] devoutly kneeling.” This legalizes the following of the custom of the Church of England, where the Suffrages and the Three Collects are said by the priest standing.

The change of the break in Morning Prayer from after the Prayer for the President to after the Third Collect, brings Morning Prayer into symmetry with Evensong, and into conformity with the services of the rest of the Anglican Communion, at the sacrifice of that interesting peculiarity of the First American Prayer Book,36 whose value, however, was apologetic rather than liturgical.

The rubric permitting the congregation to say the General Thanksgiving with the minister was a concession to an already established and increasing parochial custom.37 It was a hopeful sign that the people desired to take a corporate vocal part in this “eucharistic” element of the service, in the same manner in which they had been required to participate in the “penitential” portions. The principle of self-activity in a truly congregational service, in which all have their share, which had been so nearly eliminated by the use of a dead language, and almost extinguished in the days of the “duet of parson and clerk,” is again a living influence in this spontaneous initiative of a devout and intelligent laity.

But the most important changes in 1928 were in the general rubrics, whereby the offices were made far more flexible, and adaptable to particular purposes. At Morning Prayer, the Exhortation may be replaced by the short Invitation at any time, instead of only on weekdays. The outright omission of Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, formerly permitted when the Communion was to follow, is now extended to use when the Litany follows, and also, without these restrictions, to “any day, save a Day of Fasting or Abstinence.”38

Under the last-named conditions, an entirely new option is introduced, of going absolutely from the Sentences to “O Lord, open thou our lips”; it being provided that the Lord's Prayer, thus eliminated here, is to be inserted in the Suffrages after the Creed; or may be completely omitted from Morning Prayer, if the Litany follows.

The salient point of this option is more than a shortened service: it is a tentative and experimental approach at the discretion of the minister toward undoing the blunder of 1789 which eliminated the wrong occurrence of the Lord's Prayer, and restoring that prayer to what is unquestionably its rightful place in the service.39

Both these permissions at Morning Prayer—simply to omit the Confession, etc., or also to transfer the Lord's Prayer—are open at any time without restriction at Evening Prayer. And authority to close the Office at any time in any manner after the Third Collect, which 1892 granted for Evensong, is now extended to Morning Prayer.

Combining these rubrics at the beginning and end, it appears that on any Sunday morning it is possible to say the office with the same brevity, and on almost exactly the same lines, as in 1549. Whether it is advisable to do so at a principal service, is another matter. The minimum outline of Morning Prayer has assimilated to itself elements—penitential, intercessory, and eucharistic—indispensable to a complete service of worship; and eliminating them all, as the rubrics allow the minister to do, has been known to provoke the comment on the part of the laity: “That isn't Church; it's just a short service!”

The provision of the so-called “Shortened Services Act” of 1872 of the Church of England, permitting the use of any one Lesson followed by any one Canticle, is now applied to our Evening Prayer by a rubric before the Magnificat. A similar rubric before the Te Deum allows the minister to pass at once to the Holy Communion, after any one Canticle of Morning Prayer has been said following the First Lesson.

The combination of all the rubrics referring to the permissible management of Morning Prayer when the Communion is to follow gives the following minimum schedule: a Sentence; “The Lord be with you,” etc.; the Lord's Prayer and Preces; the Venite and a Psalm; an Old-Testament Lesson; and a Canticle serving as an Introit to the Holy Communion.40 This furnishes the Communion with a full choral introduction, supplementing the rather abbreviated and slighted Pro-Anaphora of modern times with the ancient Prophetic Lesson and further psalmody.

The 1928 rubrics for the first time make optional instead of mandatory the use of the “Ante-Communion” with Morning Prayer when there is no celebration. The custom had indeed fallen into general disuse, there being few churches where Morning Prayer is the normal principal service which do not also have an early celebration, which sufficiently fulfills the requirement. But mission churches in charge of a Deacon seldom get a celebration oftener than once a month—perhaps still more infrequently in sparsely settled regions. To preserve even a framework and a reminder of the fundamental sacramental worship of the Church, it seemed desirable to permit the use of the “Ante-Communion” by a Deacon; and this was done in 1928.

In using the “Ante-Communion” with Morning Prayer, the various alternative rubrics must be strictly construed. The permissions available “when the Holy Communion is immediately to follow” do not apply to the “Ante-Communion”: and any attempt to cut corners will result in a mutilated service. Morning Prayer must be said intact through the Collects, the only possible omissions being the Exhortation, and the Confession and Absolution except on penitential weekdays, and the Collect of the day; the position of the Lord's Prayer of course being optional. The service should be terminated with the Blessing immediately after the Gospel.41

§ 9

Rationale and Use

All the recent revisions of Morning and Evening Prayer are outstanding in their reconciliation of the immemorial but antithetical desires for enrichment, and for brevity, by applying the peculiarly Anglican principle of flexibility. This principle, signalized by the words may and or in the rubrics, has been increasingly characteristic of the Anglican books since the beginning. The officiant may now choose among a wealth of alternative forms, to adorn the offices with dignity and splendor, or to conform them to the season or the occasion; or by omission he may reduce them to their briefest essentials, and make them available “when two or three are gathered together” in a mission service, as well as appropriate for the solemnities of cathedrals.

The services begin with a Sentence appointed for the season, which gives a sort of key-note to the office, such as formerly the Antiphons did to the Psalms. Then follows a preparation of humility and contrition. This is optional save on penitential weekdays; but perhaps should hardly be habitually omitted from principal services on Sundays.

The heart of these offices consists of the reading of Scripture and the singing of canticles of praise, alternating in an inevitable rhythm. In this part, a selection from the Hymnbook of the Jewish Church leads to a portion from the Jewish Scriptures; and this is followed by a canticle glorifying God the Creator, and either expressly or by a natural Christian interpretation leading our minds on from the Old Covenant to the New. Then a reading from the Christian Scriptures is succeeded by a song of praise for the mercies of the Redemption. All this teaching of the Word of God is summed up in the Creed.

The services are concluded with the Prayers, in three divisions: first, the commemoration of the central liturgical worship of the Church, in the Collects of the day; then a general Intercession, which may be as comprehensive or as specific as desired; finally a corporate act of Thanksgiving, and a Blessing. Intercession and Thanksgiving are optional; but, as has been suggested, their omission does not leave a complete service of worship, and is hardly advisable unless this lack is to be made up by a following Litany or Communion.

The Prayer Book assumes that the Communion Office shall be the central service of the day, by directing that announcements, sermon, and offertory shall occur at that time. Yet it explicitly indicates (p. 73) that offerings may be received at other services, providing for the collection and presentation of the alms with the use of the Offertory Sentences and Anthems. The general rubrics (p. xi) also allow hymns before and after services and sermons. It is taken for granted that sermons and announcements may be used where needed. From these permissions, express and implied, custom, without explicit direction, has evolved the familiar structure of hymn, announcements, sermon, offertory sentence and anthem, and presentation of alms; to which the analogy of the English use of the Ante-Communion has appended the concluding “Table Prayers,” Benediction, and recessional hymn.

In their fullest form, therefore, Morning and Evening Prayer are complete services, embodying every element of worship—penitence, instruction, praise, intercession, thanksgiving, exhortation, oblation, and benediction. These services are contemplative rather than dramatic, forms of words rather than actions. They claim a genuine exercise of the mind and heart; they have shown themselves particularly expressive of the characteristic Anglican spirit of active personal participation, with none of the phase of passivity which accompanies the administration of the Sacraments: they have no ex opere operato quality at all.

In time past, it has been regrettable that Morning Prayer so largely tended to supplant the Eucharist, which it so adequately supplements. But it would be a pity if in our day it should in turn be wholly supplanted as far as the general congregation is concerned. The extreme flexibility in length and content of the Choir Offices, their adaptability to congregations and occasions, their variability in almost every part, responsive to the notes of the Christian Year, and especially the very comprehensive repertory of Holy Scripture which they present to the people, make them invaluable media for the Ministry of the Word.

Appended Note

Note on the Te Deum

The Canticle Te Deum Laudamus merits a detailed note. Formerly attributed by tradition to SS. Augustine and Ambrose, its authorship is now, following Dom Morin, commonly ascribed to Niceta, Bishop of Remesiana in Dacia in the fourth century. Its order and ideas are Eastern, but its language is Western, resembling early Gallican forms. Its latinity is very archaic, contemporary with the Canon of the Roman mass. It embodies a quotation from St. Cyprian.42

Originally it consisted of the first two sections, as now printed in the Prayer Book; which some MSS, and the oldest musical settings, actually preserve. In these sections the Scripture citations are from the Old Latin version, before Jerome.43

The third section consists of Suffrages, taken from the Psalter and the Eastern liturgical litanies. This part seems to have been written originally in Greek, and appended to the Gloria in Excelsis. Such a form of the Gloria, with the Suffrages added, appears in the Alexandrine Codex of the Scriptures in the fifth century. The Scripture citations of this portion in the Latin version are from the Vulgate.

About the beginning of the sixth century, both Te Deum and Gloria in Excelsis were sung in the morning office of Cæsarius of Arles. But in that century, the Gloria was admitted to the mass—but shorn of the Suffrages which had accompanied it in the Office. Not unnaturally, these were now added to the end of the Te Deum.

This Hymn, by common consent the climax of devotional inspiration outside Holy Scripture, is nothing less than a paraphrase of the Liturgy. As far as mere impassioned words can go, apart from the sacrificial action of the Eucharist, it is a Liturgy in itself. Following the order of the early Eastern Church, it contains a Preface and Sanctus; a Post-Sanctus praising God for his revelation under both dispensations, leading to an account of the Incarnation and Redemption; and in conclusion, properly liturgical Intercessions for the benefits thereof.

On occasion, the Te Deum is used as an independent service complete in itself, being sung at celebrations of national rejoicing as a most solemn and exalted expression of thanksgiving to God.