What is the role of the psalms in monastic life?

St. John Cassian speaks of the role of the prayers of the canonical hours including the psalms and praises, in the monastic movement of Egypt. They were the appetizing table around which the monks gathered according to their communal orders. Hermits practiced

150 St. Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms 10.1 On Psalm 1 (FOTC 46:151–152).

151 St. Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms 10.2 On Psalm 1 (FOTC 46:152–153).

152 St. Isaac of Nineveh, Part 1, Memre 5 .

153 St. Evagrius of Pontus, Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), trans., Robert E. Sinkewicz., ed. Gillian Clark and Andrew Louth (Oxford University Press, 2003) Praktikos 69: p. 109.

them in their caves in fellowship of praise and thanksgiving with the angels. In his work, De coenobitarum institutis or “The Institutes” addressed to Bishop Castor (419–426 A. D.) he discusses the prayers of the canonical hours (Agpeya) and vigil: “Put on, therefore, with this twofold girdle of which we have spoken, the soldier of Christ should next learn the system of the canonical prayers and Psalms which was long ago arranged by the holy fathers in the East. Of their character, however, and of the way in which we can pray, as the Apostle directs, ‘without ceasing’ (1 Thess 5:17), we shall treat, as the Lord may enable us, in the proper place, when we begin to relate the Conferences of the Elders [of Egypt].”¹⁵⁴

“And so I think it best to set forth the most ancient system of the fathers which is still observed by the servants of God throughout the whole of Egypt, so that your new monastery in its untrained infancy in Christ may be instructed in the most ancient institutions of the earliest fathers.”¹⁵⁵

In the fourth chapter, he describes the custom of praying exactly twelve psalms in the prayers of vespers and the night service, and of concluding the service with a reading from the Old Testament followed by a reading from the New Testament. This system is very old indeed, practiced and preserved unbroken. It was said that this system was brought down from heaven to the fathers by the ministry of an angel.

In the fifth chapter, Cassian explains that the Church of Alexandria was founded by the blessed evangelist St. Mark as bishop over it, and that many of its members sold all they had, offered it to the Church, and withdrew far from the towns to practice the life of solitude with asceticism and godliness. They organized their worship to avoid divisions. When they differed on the number of psalms that should be prayed, the following happened: “As they were going to celebrate their daily rites and prayers [at the time of the Vespers service], one [an angel] rose up in the midst to chant the Psalms to the Lord. And while they were all sitting (as is still the custom in Egypt ), with their minds intently fixed on the words of the chanter, when he had sung eleven Psalms, separated by prayers introduced between them, verse after verse being evenly enunciated, he finished the twelfth with a response of Alleluia, and then, by his sudden disappearance from the eyes of all, put an end at once to their discussion and their service.”¹⁵⁶ Thus, St. John Cassian believes that praying psalms and the specific number of twelve psalms date back to the first century A. D.

In the seventh chapter, he talks about the practice of metanoias or prostrations during the service of the psalms. He says that the Egyptians were never in a rush to prostrate before the end of a psalm, unlike the monasteries of southern France where the monks seemed keen to quickly reach the end of the prayer. He says, “Among them, therefore, it is not so, but before they bend their knees they pray for a few moments, and while they are standing up spend the greater part of the time in prayer. And so after this, for the briefest space of time, they

154 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.1 (NPNF II/11:205).

155 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.2 (NPNF II/11:205).

156 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.5 (NPNF II/11:207).

prostrate themselves to the ground, as if but adoring the Divine Mercy, and as soon as possible rise up, and again standing erect with outspread hands — just as they had been standing to pray before — remain with thoughts intent upon their prayers.”¹⁵⁷ No one dares to bend their knees before the leader bows down, and no one continues to prostrate after the leader stands up, lest it should be thought that they offered their own prayer independently and thus separated themselves from the community.

In the eleventh chapter, he tells us that the Egyptians “do not even attempt to finish the Psalms, which they sing in the service, by an unbroken and continuous recitation. But they repeat them separately and bit by bit, divided into two or three sections, according to the number of verses … For they do not care about the quantity of verses, but about the intelligence of the mind; aiming with all their might at this: ‘I will sing with the spirit: I will sing also with the understanding’ (1 Cor. 15:15). And so they consider it better for ten verses to be sung with understanding and thought than for a whole Psalm to be poured forth with a bewildered mind. And this is sometimes caused by the hurry of the speaker, when, thinking of the character and number of the remaining Psalms to be sung, he takes no pains to make the meaning clear to his hearers, but hastens on to get to the end of the service. Lastly, if any of the younger monks, either through fervour of spirit or because he has not yet been properly taught, goes beyond the proper limit of what is to be sung, the one who is singing the Psalm is stopped by the senior clapping his hands where he sits in his stall, and making them all rise for prayer. Thus they take every possible care that no weariness may creep in among them as they sit through the length of the Psalms.”¹⁵⁸

In the tenth chapter, he explains how the Egyptians were distinguished in their prayers by their silence. He says, “They are all so perfectly silent that, though so large a number of the brethren is assembled together, you would not think a single person was present except the one who stands up and chants the Psalm in the midst; and especially is this the case when the prayer is offered up, for then there is no spitting, no clearing of the throat, or noise of coughing, no sleepy yawning with open mouths, and gaping, and no groans or sighs are uttered, likely to distract those standing near.”¹⁵⁹

“Their rule is that the prayer ought to be brought to an end with a speedy conclusion, lest while we are lingering over it some superfluity of spittle or phlegm should interfere with the close of our prayer. And, therefore, while it is still glowing the prayer is to be snatched as speedily as possible out of the jaws of the enemy, who, although he is indeed always hostile to us, is yet never more hostile than when he sees that we are anxious to offer up prayers to God against his attacks; and by exciting wandering thoughts and all sorts of snares he

157 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.7 (NPNF II/11:208).

158 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.11 (NPNF II/11:209–210).

159 St. John Cassian, Institutes , 2.10 (NPNF II/11:209).

endeavors to distract our minds from attending to our prayers, and by this means tries to make it grow cold, though begun with fervor.”¹⁶⁰

“Wherefore they (the fathers) think it best for the prayers to be short and offered up very frequently: on the one hand that by so often praying to the Lord we may be able to cleave to Him continually; on the other, that when the devil is lying in wait for us, we may by their terse brevity avoid the darts with which he endeavors to wound us especially when we are saying our prayers.”¹⁶¹

In his one hundred and thirtieth letter, St. Augustine confirms this, saying, “It is said that the brothers in Egypt have certain prayers which they recite often, but they are very brief, and are, so to speak, darted forth rapidly like arrows, so that the alert attention, which is necessary in prayer, does not fade and grow heavy through long-drawn-out periods.”¹⁶²