Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/277

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Analysis of the Seven daily Services, &c.
17

§ 1. Analysis of the Seven Daily Services of the Church Catholic, as preserved in the Breviary.

Every Service but Compline is commenced with privately saying the Lord's Prayer, and the Ave Mary, to which the Creed is added before Matins and Prime. In like manner, after Compline, all three are repeated. Every other Service ends with the Lord's Prayer in private, unless another Service immediately follows. Concerning the introduction of the Ave Mary, vid. supra, p. 11. This use of the Lord's Prayer in private before the beginning of the Service seems to have led the compilers of King Edward's First Book to open with the Lord's Prayer, only, said aloud, not in private; but a pious custom has brought in again the private prayer, as before, though without prescribing any particular form. The compilers of King Edward's Second Book prefixed to the Lord's Prayer, the Sentences, and an Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution of their own. After these follows, "O Lord, open thou our lips," &c. which stands first in the Breviary Service.


1. "Matins, or Night Service (after One, A.M.)

Introduction.

Verse. O Lord, open Thou my lips.
Resp. And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.

(Each person to sign his lips with the Cross.)

Verse. O God, make speed to save me.
Resp. O Lord, make haste to help me.

(Each person to sign himself from the forehead to the breast.)

Glory be to the Father, &c.
As it was, &c. Amen."

(Ordinarily added) Hallelujah, (i.e. Praise ye the Lord.)

Psalm 95.—"O come let us sing," &c. with a verse called an Invitatory, "Let us worship the Lord: our Maker," divided into two parts, the whole being used before the 1st, 3rd, and 8th verse, and at the end, and again after the Gloria Patri, and the latter part after the 4th and 9th, and between the Gloria and the whole. This Invitatory varies with the season, but its general character is always preserved; e.g. in Advent, "O come