FIRST of all let this verse be said: ““O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me,” and the Gloria, followed by the Hymn proper to each Hour. At Prime on Sunday four parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm are to be said. At the other Hours, that is, Tierce, Sext, and None, let three parts of the same Psalm be said. At Prime on Monday let three Psalms be said, namely the first, second and sixth; and so in the same way every day until Sunday let three Psalms be said at Prime in order, up to the nineteenth ; the ninth and the seventeenth, however, being divided into two Gloria's. It will thus come about that at the Night-Office on Sunday we shall always begin with the twentieth Psalm.
At Tierce, Sext and None on Monday are to be said the nine remaining parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, three parts at each Hour. This Psalm having thus been said through in two days, that is Sunday and Monday, let the nine Psalms from the hundred and nineteenth to the hundred and twenty-second be said on Tuesday at Tierce, Sext and None—three at each Hour. And these Psalms are to repeated at the same Hours every day until Sunday; the arrangement, moreover, of hymns, lessons and versicles remaining the same throughout, so as always to begin on Sunday from the hundred and eighteenth Psalm.
Vespers are to be sung every day with four Psalms. And let these begin from the hundred and ninth, and go on to the hundred and forty-seventh, omitting those of their number which are set apart for other Hours—that is, from the hundred and seventeenth to the hundred and twenty-seventh, the hundred and thirty third, and the hundred and forty-second. All the rest are to be said at Vespers. And as there are three Psalms wanting, let those of the aforesaid number which are somewhat long be divided, namely the hundred and thirty-eighth, the hundred and forty-third, and the hundred and forty-fourth. But let the hundred and sixteenth, as it is short, be joined to the hundred and fifteenth.
The order of the Psalms at Vespers being thus disposed, let the rest, that is the lessons, responses, hymns, verses, and canticles, be said as already laid down. At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day: namely the fourth, ninetieth, and hundred and thirty-third.
The order of psalmody for the Day-Hours being now arranged let all the remaining Psalms be equally distributed among the seven Night-Offices, dividing the longer Psalms among them, and assigning twelve to each night. Above all, we recommend that if this arrangement of the Psalms be displeasing to any one, he should, if he think fit, order it otherwise ; taking care in any case that the whole Psalter of a hundred and fifty Psalms be recited every week, and always begun afresh at the Night-Office on Sunday. For those monks would shew themselves very slothful in the divine service who said in the course of a week less than the entire Psalter, with the usual canticles; since we read that our holy fathers resolutely performed in a single day what I pray we tepid monks may achieve in a whole — week.