OFFICE OF
THE DEAD
MATINS OF THE DEAD
Lessons 1 -6
As early as the ninth century, Amalarius remarked the similarity between
the dirge and the Office which commemorates the death of our Lord. There is the
same lack of hymns, doxologies, absolutions, and
blessings; the same suppression of the customary
introduction Domine labia men aperies, Dens in adjutorium meum intende.
There is this difference however: that the Office of Holy Week has no
Invitatory; while that of the Dead has either always kept it, or long ago taken
it up again. This Invitatory, like the first Psalm of Vespers, is a song of
love and hope: Come, let us adore the King, to whom all things live. Beyond the
tomb, as well as on this side of it, all men are living in the sight of him who
is one day to raise them up again. In the language of the Church, the
grave-yard is the cemetery, that is the dormitory where her children sleep; And
they themselves are defuncti, labourers who have finished their task
and are awaiting their recompense. Rome has been better inspired than some
other churches, where the Antiphon chosen as refrain to the joyous Venite exmltemus
was: Circumdederunt me gemitua mortis; dolores inferni circumdederunt me. Were
we to make an historical study of the Office of the Dead, which however is
beyond the limits of the present work, we should find innumerable instances of
such variations, always to the advantage of the mother-church.
Invitatory
Ant. Come, let us adore the
King, to whom all things live.
Come let us rejoice in the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to God our
Saviour: let us approach his presence in praise, and let us sing joyfully in
psalms to him. Come, let us adore the King, to whom all things live. Because
the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods: because the Lord
repels not his people, for in his hands are all the bounds of the earth: and he
beholds the heights of the mountains.
Ant. Come, let us adore.
Because the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry
land: come, let us adore, and fall down before God: let us lament before the
Lord that made us: because he is the Lord our God: and we are his people, and
the sheep of his pasture.
Ant.
Come let us adore the King,
to whom all things live.
To-day, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your
fathers tempted me, they proved, and saw my works.
Come, let us adore. Forty years was I nigh to this generation, and said,
they always err in their hearts: and have not known my ways, to whom I swore in
my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.
Ant. Come, let
us adore the King, to whom all things live.
Grant them eternal rest, O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.
Ant. Come, let us adore.
Ant. Come, let us adore the
King, to whom all things live.
This opening of the Office shows us what prominence the Church gives to
thanksgiving and praise in her prayers for the dead.
FIRST NOCTURN
The first Psalm expresses the overflowing gratitude and praise of the
soul escaped from the snares of sinners, at that first dawn of her eternally secured
salvation, when she took her place among the holy ones in Purgatory. With what
confidence she entrusts to our Lord the care of directing her along the painful
and purifying way, which is to lead her to the very entrance of God's house!
Ant. Direct, O Lord, my God, my
way in thy sight.
Psalm 5 - Verba mea
Give ear, O Lord, to my words: hearken to my cry. Attend to the voice of
my prayer: my King and my God.
Because I will pray to thee: O Lord, in the morning thou wilt hear my
voice. In the morning I will stand by thee and will see: for thou art not a God
that wiliest iniquity. Neither shall the wicked dwell near thee: nor the unjust
abide before thy eyes. Thou hatest all that work iniquity: thou wilt destroy
all that speak lies.
The bloody and deceitful man the Lord will abhor: but I, in the
multitude of thy mercies, Will enter into thy house:
I will adore at thy holy temple in thy fear. Conduct me, O Lord, in thy
justice: because of my enemies, direct my way in thy sight. Because there is no
truth in their mouth: their heart is vain. Their throat is a gaping sepulchre,
they dealt deceitfully with their tongues: judge them, O God. Let them fail in
their designs: according to the multitude of their impieties expel them, for
they have provoked thee, O Lord. And let all be glad that hope in thee, they
shall rejoice for ever: and thou wilt dwell in them. And all that love thy name
shall glory in thee, because thou wilt bless the just.
Lord, as with a shield of thy good-will thou hast crowned us.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord: And let perpetual
light shine on them.
Ant. Direct, O Lord, my God, my
way in thy sight.
The soul has been heard:
the time of mercy being at an end, justice has laid hold of her. Under the
terrible grasp of this her new guide, and placed in the irresistible light of
God's infinite purity, which lays open her most secret recesses, the flaws in
her virtues and every remaining trace of ancient stains, the poor soul feels
all her strength fail her. Trembling, she beseeches God not to confound her, in
his wrath, with those cursed for ever, whose proximity increases her torment.
But her supplication and her fear are still full of love: Lord, save me; for
there is none in that death who will be mindful of praising thee.
This Psalm is the
first of the seven Penitentials.
Ant. Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul: for there is none in death who will
be mindful of thee.
Psalm 6
Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, nor ohastise me in thy wrath. Have
mercy on me, O Lord, because I am infirm: heal me, O Lord, because my bones are
disordered. And my soul is very much troubled: but thou, 0 Lord, how long P
Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul: save me for thy mercy's sake.
Because there is none in death that is mindful of thee, and in hell who
will praise thee? I have laboured in my sighing, every night I will wash my
bed: I will water my couch with my tears. My eye is troubled with fury; I am
grown old among all my enemies. Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity:
because the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my
petition: the Lord has received my prayer.
Let all my enemies blush, and be troubled exceedingly: let them be
turned back and ashamed very speedily.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord: And let perpetual
light shine on them.
Ant. Turn, O Lord, and deliver my
soul: for there is none in death who will be mindful of thee.
In the following Psalm, David accused by his enemies cries to the Lord
against their calumnies. The fear, which causes the soul in Purgatory to
prostrate with a holy trembling before God's justice, has no more shaken her
hope than her love; nay, she trusts to the very sentence of her Judge and to
the help sought from him, that she may be able to cope with the infernal lion,
who pursues her with his roaring in the midst of her poverty and desolation.
Ant. Lest at any time the enemy
snatch my soul as a lion, whilst there is none to redeem, nor to save it.
Psalm 7 - Domine, Deus meus.
O Lord my God, I have hoped in thee: save me from all that persecute me,
and deliver me. Lest at any time he snatch away my soul as a lion: whilst there
is none to redeem, nor to save it. O Lord my God, if I have done this: if there
be iniquity in my hands: If I have repaid to them that returned me evils: let
me deservedly fall empty before mine enemies. Let the enemy persecute my soul,
and seize it, and tread down my life on the earth; and bring down my glory into
dust. Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath; and be exalted in the borders of my enemies.
A d arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which thou hast commanded: and an
assembly of people shall encompass thee. And for this return on high: the Lord
judges the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice: and according to
my innocence upon me. The wickedness of sinners shall be consumed, and thou
wilt direct the just: who searohest the hearts and reins, O God. My just help
is from the Lord: who saves the right of heart. God is a just judge, strong and
patient: is he angry every day? Except ye be converted, he will shake his
sword: he has bent his bow, and prepared
It: And in it he has prepared weapons of death: he has made his arrows
with fiery points. Behold he has bred injustice: he has conceived sorrow, and
brought forth iniquity. He has opened a pit and digged it up: and he is fallen
into the ditch which he made. His sorrow shall be turned upon his head: and his
iniquity shall descend upon his crown. I will praise our Lord according to his
justice: and will sing to the name of the most high Lord.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord: And let perpetual
light shine on them.
Ant. Lest at any time the enemy
snatch my soul as a lion, whilst there is none to redeem, nor to save it.
From the gates of hell. Deliver their souls, O Lord.
After this cry has escaped from the maternal heart
of the Church, the whole assembly prays in silence, offering to God the Lord's
Prayer for the departed, who are struggling with the powers of hell. And now,
from the midst of this recollected silence rises the single voice of the
lector. He receives no benediction, for he is speaking in the name of the holy
souls, who have no longer the same right as we have to ask a blessing from the
Church. He borrows the accents of the afflicted Job, in order to relate their
overwhelming sufferings, their invincible faith, their sublime prayer.
As in the ancient tragedy, the choir intervenes after each Lesson with a
Responsory, whose melody is marvellously in keeping with these echoes from
beyond the tomb. At one time it is man taking up the words of the dead and
making them for his own, or supporting their prayers with his own supplications;
at another, terrified at God's rigour towards souls that are so dear to him,
and that are sure of loving him eternally, he trembles for himself a sinner,
whose judgment is still uncertain. According to St. Antoninus and Demochares
quoted by Gavanti, some of these admirable Responsories were composed by
Maurice de Sully, the Bishop of Paris who began to build the Cathedral of Notre-Dame;
the greater number, however, were already to be found in earlier Gregorian manuscripts.
Other Books of Holy Scripture, besides that of Job, and also the works of St.
Augustine, were long used in various places to furnish the Lessons of the
Dirge; and it was customary in divers churches to conclude them with the
formula: Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur.
Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord.
Lesson one – Job
7
Spare me, O Lord, for my days are nothing. What is man, that thou
magnifiest him? or why settest thou thy heart towards him? Thou dost visit him
early, and suddenly thou provest him: how long dost thou not spare me, nor
suffer me to swallow my spittle? I have sinned: what shall I do to thee, O
keeper of men? Why hast thou set me contrary to thee, and I am become burdensome to myself? Why dost thou not take away my sin, and why dost thou not
take away my iniquity? Behold now I shall sleep in the dust, and if thou seek
me in the morning, I shall not be. I believe my Redeemer liveth, and that in
the last day I shall rise from the earth, and in my flesh I shall see my
Saviour.
R. I believe my Redeemer
liveth, and that in the last day I shall rise from the earth, and in my flesh
I shall see my Saviour.
V. Whom I myself shall see, and
not another, and my eyes shall behold. And in my flesh.
Lesson Two – Job
10
My soul is weary of life, I will let my speech loose against myself, I
will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Condemn me not;
show me why thou judgest me so. Does it seem good to thee, if thou calumniate
me, and oppress me, the work of thy hands, and help the design of the impious?
Hast thou eyes of flesh; or as a man sees, shalt thou also see? Are thy days as
the days of man; and are thy years as the times of men, that thou shouldst seek
my iniquity, and search my sin? And thou mayst know that I have done no impious
thing; whereas there is no man that can escape out of thy hand.
R. Thou who didst raise
Lazarus fetid from the grave. * Thou, O Lord, give them rest, and a place of
pardon.
V. Who art to come to judge
the living and the dead, and the world by fire.
Thou, O Lord.
Lesson Three –
Job 10
Thy hands have made me, and framed me, wholly round about; and dost thou
thus suddenly cast me down headlong? Remember, I beseech thee, that as clay
thou didst make me, and into dust thou wilt bring me again. Hast thou not
milked me like milk, and curdled me like cheese? With skin and flesh hast thou
clothed me: with bones and sinews hast thou bound me. Life and mercy thou hast
given me, and thy visitation has kept my spirit.
R. O Lord, when thou shalt
come to judge the earth, where shall I hide myself from the face of thy wrath?
* For I have sinned exceedingly in my life.
V. I dread my misdeeds, and
blush before thee: do not condemn me, when thou shalt come to judge. For I
have sinned exceedingly in my life.
V. Grant them eternal rest, O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them. * For I have sinned exceedingly in
my life.
SECOND
NOCTURN
Our astonishment at finding the following Antiphon in the Office of the
Dead might elicit from the dear souls the reply: "I have meat to eat which
you know not." And, being just and holy, they might add with our Lord:
"My meat is to do the will of my Father." Seen from such a height in
the light of our Antiphon, what a place of pasture is Purgatory! O Lord, who
guidest me, who by thy grace deignest to be with me in the midst of this shadow
of death; thy rod, by striking me, comforts me; my resignation to thy justice
is the oil which flows from my head, and, anointing all my members, strengthens
them for battle; my heart, thirsting for submission, has found its inebriating
cup. St. John Chrysostom informs us that in his time this Psalm was chanted at
Christian funerals, together with the Dilexi our first Psalm of Vespers.
Ant. In a place of pasture, he
has put me there.
Psalm 22 - Dominus regit me.
The Lord rules me, and I shall want nothing: in a place of pasture, he
has put me there. Near the refreshing waters, he has brought me up: and has
converted my soul. He has conducted me in the paths of justice, for his name's sake.
For though I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear
evils: because thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff: they have comforted me.
Thou hast prepared in my sight a table: against them that afflict me.
Thou hast anointed my head with oil: and my inebriating cup, how excellent is
it! And thy mercy shall follow me: all the days of my life.
And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord: for length of days.
Grant them eternal rest, 0 Lord: And let perpetual
light shine on them.
Ant. In a place of pasture, he
has put me there.
The sins of my youth and my ignorances remember not, O Lord. Would to
God that we now examined our conscience as seriously as we shall be forced to
do in the place of expiation, in order to repair our present negligence in that
respect! Ignorance, which is now considered so excusable, will be a sad thing
for those, whose neglect to seek instruction has darkened their faith, lulled
their hope to sleep, cooled their love, and falsified on a thousand points
their Christian life. Then too must be paid, to the last farthing, the debts of
penance accumulated by so many sins, which have been forgiven, it is true, as
to the guilt, perhaps long ago, and as long ago entirely forgotten. O God, see
my humiliation and my labour!
Ant. The offenses of my youth,
and my ignorances remember not, O Lord.
Psalm 24 - Ad te, Domine.
To thee, 0 Lord, I have lifted up my soul: my God, in thee I put my
trust, let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies insult over me: for all
that hope in thee shall not be confounded. Let all be confounded: who vainly do
unjust things. Show me thy ways, O Lord: and teach me thy paths.
Direct me in thy truth, and teach me: because thou art God my Saviour,
and thee I have expected all the day. Remember thy compassions, O Lord: and thy
mercies that are from the beginning of the world.
The sins of my youth: and my ignorances, remember
not.
According to thy mercy do thou remember me: for thy goodness' sake, 0
Lord.
The Lord is sweet and righteous: for this cause he will give a law to
them that sin in the way. He will direct the mild in judgment: he will teach the
meek his ways. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth: to them that seek
his testament and his testimonies. For thy name, 0 Lord, thou wilt be
propitious to my sin: for it is great. Who is the man that fears the Lord? He
appoints him a law in the way he has chosen. His soul shall abide in good
things: and his seed shall inherit the land. The Lord is a support to them that
fear him: and that his testament may be manifested to them. My eyes are always
towards the Lord: because he will deliver my feet out of the snare.
Look upon me: and have mercy on me: because I am alone and poor. The
tribulations of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. See my
humiliation and my labour: and remit all my sins. Look upon my enemies, for they
are multiplied: and with unjust hatred they hated me. Keep my soul, and deliver
me: I shall not be ashamed, because I have hoped in thee, The innocent and
righteous have adhered to me: because I have expected thee. Deliver Israel, O
God, out of all his tribulations.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord: And let perpetual
light shine on them.
Ant. The offenses of my youth,
and my ignorances, remember not, O Lord.
On Good Friday the 26th Psalm was sung, to express the unfailing
confidence of the Messias throughout his Passion. It was repeated at the Matins
of the morrow, to announce his approaching deliverance; and on this latter
occasion it was accompanied by the very Antiphon we are now about to sing. As
the dwellers in Limbo on the great Saturday when our Saviour was among them, so
the souls in Purgatory unite themselves to their divine Head in his expectation
of a return to light and life. Their prayer, which the Church also makes her
own, is such as may well touch the Heart of our Lord.
Ant. I believe I shall see the
good things of the Lord, in the land of the living.
Psalm 26 - Dominus illuminatio. Lord is my Light.
The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the protector of my life: who shall make me tremble? Whilst the wicked approach
to me: to devour my flesh. My enemies that afflict me: themselves are weakened
and are fallen. If camps stand against me: my heart shall not fear. If battle
rise up against me: in this will I hope. One thing have I asked of the Lord,
this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
That I may see the delight of the Lord: and visit his temple. Because he has
hid me in his tabernacle: in the day of evils he has protected me in the secret
of his tabernacle. On a rock he has exalted me: and now he hath exalted my head
above my enemies. I have gone round, and have immolated in his tabernacle a
host of loud acclamation: I will sing and say a psalm to the Lord. Hear my
voice, O Lord, wherewith I have cried to thee: have mercy on me, and hear me.
My heart has spoken to thee, my face has sought thee out: thy face, O Lord, I
will seek. Hide not thy face from me: turn not away in wrath from thy servant.
Be thou my helper: forsake me not, nor despise me, O God my Saviour.
Because my father and my mother have forsaken me: but the Lord has
received me. Set me a law, O Lord, in thy way; and direct me in the right
paths, because of my enemies. Deliver me not to the will of them that afflict
me; because unjust witnesses have risen up against me, and iniquity has lied to
itself. I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living. Expect the Lord, do manfully: and let thy heart take courage, and
expect thou the Lord. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord: And let perpetual light
shine on them.
Ant. I believe I shall see the
good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
V. May the Lord place them
with the princes. With the princes of his people.
The Choir having echoed in the Versicle the desire of the holy souls,
the Pater noster is once more recited in secret. It was at the commencement of
the following Lesson, that took place the terrifying scene immortalized by the
pencil of Le Sueur in his Life of St. Bruno. According to a tradition preserved
in his Order, St. Bruno, while yet a secular, was assisting in Notre Dame at
Paris at the funeral service of a renowned Doctor, Raymund Diocres; when at the
words:
Responde mihi,
quantas habeo iniquitates et peccata, the dead man raised himself upon the bier
and uttered the words: "I am accused by the just judgment of "God. So
great was the universal consternation, that the Office was deferred to the
following day; when in answer to the same question, the dead man again sat up
and said: "I am judged by the just judgment "of God." The
interrupted service was begun again on the third day; when at the same juncture,
the voice of the unhappy man was heard once more, petrifying the assembly with
terror by the awful words: "l am condemned by the just judgment of
God."
Lesson Four – Job
8
Answer me; how many iniquities and sins I have: my crimes and my offenses show me. Why dost thou hide thy face, and esteem me thy enemy? Against
the leaf that is carried away with the wind, thou showest thy power, and
pursuest a dry straw. For thou writest bitter things against me, and hast a
mind to consume me for the sins of my youth. Thou hast put my feet in the
stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast considered the steps of my
feet. Who as rottenness am to be consumed, and as a garment that is eaten by
the moth.
R. Remember me, O God, because
my life is but wind: nor may the sight of man behold me.
V. From the depths I have
cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Nor may the sight of man behold me.
Lesson Five - Job 14
Chapters 1-12
Man born of a woman, living a short time, is filled with many miseries.
Who as a flower comes forth, and is destroyed, and flies away as a shadow, and
never abides in the same state. And dost thou count it a worthy thing, to open
thy eyes on such a one, and to bring him with thee into judgment? Who can make
him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? Is it not thou who only art? The
days of man are short, the number of his months is with thee; thou hast
appointed his limits, which cannot be passed. Depart a little from him, that he
may rest, till his wished-for day comes, even as that of the hired man.
R. Woe is me, O Lord, because
I have sinned exceedingly in my life: O wretch, what shall I do, whither shall
I fly but to thee, my God? Have mercy on me when thou comest at the latter day.
Lesson Six - Job 14
Chapters 13 - 16
V. My soul is greatly
troubled; but thou, O Lord, succour it. Have mercy on me.
Who will grant me this, that in hell thou protect me, and hide me till
thy fury pass away, and appoint me a time wherein thou wilt remember me? Shall
a man that is dead, thinkest thou, live again? All the days, in which I am now
in warfare, I expect till my change comes. Thou shalt call me, and I shall
answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt stretch out thy right hand.
Thou indeed hast numbered my steps, but spare my sins.
R. Remember not my sins, O
Lord, when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
V.Direct, O Lord my God, my
way in thy sight. When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
V. Grant them eternal rest, O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them: When.
*****
The Liturgical Year - Very Ven. Dom Prosper
Gueranger, O.S.B.
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