Part 42 (2/2)

9.15. Asperges, Tierce, Procession.

10. High Ma.s.s.

11.10. s.e.xt and special examination.

11.30. Angelus, Dinner.

12.15. Siesta, Great Silence.

EVENING.

2. End of Repose. None.

4. Vespers and Benediction.

5.45. Quarter of an hour for Prayer.

6. Supper.

7. Reading before Compline.

7.15. Compline.

7.30. Salve, Angelus.

7.45. Examination of conscience and Retreat.

8. Bed time, Great Silence.

Note.--After the Cross of September, no siesta. None is at 2 o'clock; Vespers at 3; Supper at 5; Compline at 6, and bed time at 7.

Durtal copied this rule for his use on a sc.r.a.p of paper. ”In fact,” he said to himself, ”I have to be in chapel at 9.15 for Asperges, High Ma.s.s and the Office of s.e.xt, afterwards at 2 for None, then at 4 for Vespers and Benediction, and lastly at 7.30 for Compline.

”Here is a day which will be occupied, without counting that I got up at half-past two this morning,” he concluded; and when he reached the chapel, about nine o'clock, he found the greater part of the lay brothers on their knees, the others saying their rosary; and when the clock struck all returned to their place.

a.s.sisted by two fathers in cowls, the prior, vested in a white alb, entered, and while the antiphon ”Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor” was sung, all the monks in succession defiled before Father Maximin, standing on the steps, turning his back to the altar; and he sprinkled them with holy water, while they regained their stalls, each making the sign of the cross.

Then the prior descended from the altar, and came to the entrance to the vestibule, where he dispersed the water crosswise, traced by the sprinkler over the oblate, and over Durtal.

At last he vested, and went to celebrate the sacrifice.

Then Durtal was able to think over his Sundays at the Benedictine nuns.

The ”Kyrie Eleison” was the same but slower and more sonorous, more grave on the prolonged termination of the last word; at Paris the voices of the nuns drew it out and put a gloss on it at the same time, turned into satin its final sound, rendered it less dull, less s.p.a.ced, less ample. The ”Gloria in Excelsis” differed; that of La Trappe was more primitive, more mounting, more sombre, interesting by its very barbarism, but less touching, for in its forms of adoration, in the ”Adoramus te,” for example, the ”te” did not detach itself, did not drop like a tear of amorous essence, like an avowal retained by humility on the tip of the lips; but it was when the Credo arose, that Durtal could uplift himself at ease.

He had never yet heard it so authoritative, and so imposing; it advanced, chanted in unison, developing its slow procession of dogmas, in sounds well furnished and rigid, of a violet almost obscure, a red almost black, growing lighter towards the end, till it expired in a long and plaintive Amen.

In following the Cistercian office Durtal could recognize the morsels of plain chant still preserved in parish ma.s.ses. All the part of the Canon, the ”Sursum Corda,” the ”Vere Dignum,” the Antiphons, the ”Pater,”

remained intact. Only the ”Sanctus” and the ”Agnus Dei” were changed.

Ma.s.sive, built up, as it were, in the Roman style, they draped themselves in the colour, glowing and dull, which clothes, in fact, the offices of La Trappe.

”Well,” said the oblate, when, after the ceremony, they sat at the table of the refectory; ”well, what do you think of our High Ma.s.s?”

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