Readings and responsories for Passiontide

This week marks the start of Passiontide, and with it we shift from the Old Testament Patriarch histories to Jeremiah and Lamentations (which was often considered a part of Jeremiah rather than a separate book in early compilations).

Jeremiah

This Sunday's first Nocturn readings traditionally mark the start of the reading of Jeremiah.

The primary reason for Jeremiah's traditional position in the lead up to Easter lies in its promise of a new covenant to come, in chapter 31:31-34:

Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah and Lamentations make particularly appropriate reading for our current times, so if you are self-siolating and have a bit of time on your hands, perhaps a good challenge to round off Lent with!

The responsories

Most - though not all - of the responsories for this period have texts taken from the psalms.

There are three sets of psalm based responsories - for Epiphanytide, Passiontide and Eastertide - and some have conjectured that they may represent the oldest layer of responsories. 

There isn't much by way of hard external or internal evidence for this proposition: while its true that psalm based Graduals seem to be the oldest in the Mass, that principle doesn't necessarily automatically translate across to the Office, where responsories play a very different function. 

All the same, it is notable that they appear in three of the oldest seasons (albeit not for the oldest feasts, viz Easter itself, Pentecost and Epiphany and Christmas).

And this particular set are very clearly appropriate to the season, foreshadowing the coming Passover feast, events of Holy Week, and Christ's prayers at this time.

The patristic readings

 As during Lent, the Scriptural readings have been displaced, from the tenth century onwards, in first Passion week, by Patristic sermons on the Gospel of the Mass of the day on weekdays.

Matins readings and responsories for June and July: overview

This Sunday marks the start, in the Benedictine Office, of the post-Easter cycle of  readings, which starts with the four books of Kings (or Samuel I&II and Kings I&II if you prefer).

The inner logic of the reading cycle

There is, it should be noted, a chronological basis for the current reading cycle, which dates back to (at least) the eighth century.

The Matins reading cycle in the Roman and Benedictine Offices, you will recall, started with Genesis in Septuagesimatide, and originally took in the first seven books of the Bible over Lent.

Eastertide took as to the narrative of the aftermath of the Resurrection, in Acts, as well as to last books of the New Testament, the Catholic Epistles and Revelation.

After Easter, we turn to the book of Kings, which effectively picks up from the narrative of Jewish history read during Lent, and deals with the institution of the kings of Israel, to the destruction of the kingdom and the Exile.

Kings is the start of a cycle, which extends from June onwards, that was thought to correspond to four great world monarchies (according to Eusebius and Jerome, and spelt out in Amalarius' commentary on the responsories), namely the Assyrians, the Persians, the Macedonians and the Romans. [1]

The books of Kings can be seen as setting out types for the struggles of the Church Militant, and foretelling and foreshadowing the creation of the true and eternal kingdom of God, yet to be fully realised, above all with David as a type of Christ.

The earlier (?Benedictine) cycle...

In the earliest reading cycle we have preserved for Rome, though, the readings after Eastertide also included Chronicles (which extends the history of the Jewish people up to the authorisation for the restoration of the Temple and Jerusalem). [2]

The evidence we have for this cycle associates it with St Peter's, and the later one, still used in the 1962 Office, with the Lateran.  It is possible though, that the earlier cycle was originally more widely used, but then superseded by an eighth century reorganisation of the Matins readings. [3]

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the older cycle recorded (in Ordos XIV and XVI), is that the reading of Kings and Chronicles continued up to the middle of autumn (mid-November), providing a much lighter reading schedule for the summer months, consistent with the Rule's omission of weekday readings at Matins (and the prohibition on reading Kings after dinner lest it disturb weak minds, in RB 42).

The responsories used during June and July still seem to reflect traces of this earlier, more expansive cycle, including some texts from Chronicles, as the table below illustrates.

Position On Sundays (Benedictine 1962)	Position notes, cantus	Incipit	R source
1	Roman Monday1/Thurs	Praeparate corda vestra	1 (Sam) Kings 7:3
2	Roman Monday 2/Thurs	Deus omnium exauditor	1 Kings 13:17, 37
3	omitted	Deus omnium exauditor	[Ps 151 (Apoc)] v=1 Kings 17:37
4	Roman Monday 3/Fri	Dominus, qui eripuit me	1 Kings 17, 37
5	Roman Tuesday/Fri 1	Percussit Saul mille	1 Kings 18:7; 21:11; 29:5; Sirach 47:4-8
6	Roman Tuesday/Fri 2	Montes Gelboe	2 Kings 1:19-21
7	Roman Tuesday/Fri 3	Ego te tuli	2 Kings 7, 8
8	Roman Wed/Sat 2; Monpp4 on	Exaudísti Dómine	3 Kings 8, 20
9	Roman Wed/Sat1	Peccávi super númerum	Oratio Manasse
10	Roman Wed /Sat3; Rom mon pp4 on no 3	Audi, Dómine, hymnum	3 Kings 8, 28-29
11	Omitted	Dómine, si convérsus	3 Kings 8, 42-43.48
	Rom Mon post Epiph 4 onwards	Recordare Domine	1 Para 21:15-17
	Rom Tues post Epiph. 4 on	Domine si conversus	2 Para 6:24-25
	Roman Tues pp4 on	Factum est	4 Kings 2:12, 11

The second and third Nocturn readings

Just how many Sundays are devoted to the books of Samuel/Kings each year depends on the date of Easter (and hence Pentecost): this year there are seven Sundays (ie up the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost); the theoretical maximum is eleven. I have included the full possible list for reference purposes in the table below.

Sunday/Feast

Nocturn I

Nocturn II

Nocturn III

Gospel

PP2 (within the Octave of Corpus Christi)	1 Kings (Samuel) 1	Chrysostom - Ex Hom. 60 ad pop. Antioch	Gregory the Great – Homily 36 on the Gospels	Lk 14:16-24
[Sacred Heart]		Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius XI	Bonaventure	Jn  19: 31-37]
PP3	1 Sam 9-10	St Gregory (attrib)	St Gregory	Lk 15: 1-10
PP4	1 Sam 17	Caesarius Sermon 121	Ambrose On Luke	Lk 5:1-11
PP5	[2 Sam 1	Gregory on Job 4:4	Augustine Sermon on the Mount	Mt 5:20-24
PP6	2 Sam 12	Ambrose Apologia David	Ambrose on Lk 6	Mk 8:1-9
PP7	1 Kings 1	Jerome letter to Neotianum	Hilary on Mt 6	Mt 7:15-21
PP8	1 Kings 9	Augustine City of God 17:8	Jerome letter 121 to Algasiam	Lk 16:1-9
PP9	2 Kings 1	Caesarius Sermon 124	Gregory Hom 39 on Gospels	Lk 19:41-47
PP10	2 Kings 9	Chrysostom on Romans Hom 25	Augustine Hom 115	Lk 18:9-14
PP11	2 Kings 20]	Jerome on Isaiah Bk 11:38	Gregory Homilies on Ezekiel no 1	Mark 7:31-37

Notes

[1] Amalarius of Metz, Liber de Ordine Antiphonarii, PL 105: 1245-; For an interesting discussion of the context, see Graeme Ward (2018), "The Order of History: Liturgical Time and the Rhythms of the Past in Amalarius of Metz's De ordine antiphonarii", in Elina Screen; Charles West (eds.), Writing the Early Medieval West, Cambridge University Press, pp. 98–112.

[2] Ordos XIV and XVI in Michel Andrieu (ed), Les ordines romani du haut moyen age, vol 2, 1961.

[3] Maiani, Brad, Readings and Responsories: The Eighth-Century Night Office Lectionary and the Responsoria Prolixa, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1998), pp. 254-282.  The reorganisation of the Matins reading cycle in this period would also help explain why Monte Cassino initially followed the Roman practice of weekday readings in summer rather than St Benedict's prescriptions on the subject.

Readings and responsories for Eastertide

During Septuagesimatide and Lent, the Matins reading cycle traditionally takes in the opening books of the Bible, above all Genesis.

During Eastertide, the books read are those from the other end of the book: Acts, the Catholic Epistles (James Peter, John, Jude) and the book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

The ancient Easter cycle

This reading cycle goes back to the oldest evidence we have for the Roman Office, in Ordo XIV, (probably) from the seventh century, which prescribes:

diebus autem  paschae epistulae apostolorum et actus apostolorum atque apocalypsin usque ad pentecosten

The same books, though, were also read in Gaul in the sixth century, according to the Rule of Caesarius of Arles, so this cycle may well have been more or less universal in the West by St Benedict's time.

There is an obvious logic to it: we start in Lent with the creation of the world, and the first ages of man; in Eastertide we trace the establishment of the Church and the start of the new age of the world, including foreshadowing its future to the second coming and beyond.

In the Benedictine Office, of course, we have now shifted into summer mode, so on weekdays we have only one, fixed short reading at Matins each day, from Romans; most of the reading of Acts, Apocalypse and the Epistles occurs either in the refectory or as lectio divina.

The current arrangement of the readings

In the modern (post Tridentine - 1962) Roman Office, however, the order of readings has been shifted to put Acts first, rather than after the Catholic Epistles.

The Benedictine Office adopts the same basic pattern, giving a set of Sunday readings as follows:

Easter Sunday	Romans 6: 2-13	Gregory Nazaranus   - Oratio 1&5 on Easter	Gregory the Great Homily 21 on the Gospels	Mk 16:1-7
White Sunday	Colossians 3:1-17	Augustine Homily on Octave of Easter	Gregory Homily 25 on the Gospels	Jn 20:19-31
Easter II	Acts 1:1-26	Leo sermon 73	Gregory Homily 14	John 10:11-16
Easter III	Rev 1:1-19	Augustine sermon 242	Augustine, Tract 101 on John	Jn 16:16-22
Easter IV	James 1: 1-16	Cyprian: Tract on the good of patience	Augustine, Tract 94 on John	Jn 16: 5-14
Easter V	1 Peter 1:1-9	Ambrose: On faith in the resurrection	Augustine, Tract 102 on John	Jn 16: 23-30
Sunday after the Ascension	1 John 1:1-2:6	Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 210 on the Ascension	Augustine, tract 92 on John	Jn 15:26-7; 16:1-4.

The responsories

There are effectively four sets of responsories used in Eastertide:

• those for Easter and its Octave, used up until and including the Second Sunday after the Easter octave, most of which contain specific references to the events of the Resurrection;
• a set for the third Sunday, which mainly relate to the book of Revelation; 
• the third set of responsories based on the psalms, all of which have a strong Easter flavour, used on Sundays 4&5; and
• the responsories for the feast of the Ascension and its pseudo-Octave.

Matins reading notes for the second week of Lent

This week the first Nocturn readings for  the Second Sunday of Lent return us to the covenantal reading of Genesis.

The Patriarchs and God's covenants with them

The sequence so far, you will recall, is Adam (Septuagesima Sunday); Noah (Sexagesima Sunday); Abraham  (Quinquagesima Sunday); and Isaac (though the readings are displaced by the special set for the First Sunday of Lent).

This week covers Jacob;  the Third Sunday of Lent, Joseph; and the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Moses.

And in Passiontide we look forward to the new covenant prophesised in Jeremiah.

The story of Jacob

This week's Scriptural readings for the First Nocturn of Matins come from Genesis 27 (1 - 29); next Sunday picks up the story of Joseph in Genesis 37.

Accordingly a possible ordering of the weekday readings (displaced by the Gospel homilies from the later middle ages) might be:

Sunday: Genesis 27 (Jacob's blessing)
Monday: Genesis 28 (leaves home to seek a wife; see's a ladder to heaven)
Tuesday: Genesis 29-31 (marriage to Lia and Rachel, children)
Wednesday: Genesis 32 (wrestles with an angel)
Thursday: Genesis 33 (confrontation with Esau)
Friday: Genesis 34 (abduction and rape of Dina)
Saturday: Genesis 35 (renamed Israel) &Genesis 36 (generations of Esau)

The responsories (of which there are fifteen spread over the week) highlight key aspects of the storyline: the  deception to obtain his father's blessing; the vision of the ladder; wrestling with an angel; the confrontations with Esau; and his renaming.

The Gospels and their readings and responsories

This Sunday's Gospel is Matthew 17, on the Transfiguration.  Curiously, no responsories specific to the Gospel are used in the current Office, or listed in the Cantus database for this Sunday (or the Thursday, the other day Gospel responsories are often provided).

The Gospel's for the week, which are the subject of the Patristic readings are:

Monday: John 8:21-29
Tuesday: Matt 23:1-12
Wednesday: Matt 20:17-28
Thursday: Luke 16:19-31
Friday: Matt 21:33-46
Saturday: Luke 15:11-32

The feast of St Gregory the Great

The major feast this week is of St Gregory the Great, pope and author, inter alia, of the Dialogues, of which Book II is the Life of St Benedict, and hence is the person most responsible for the propagation of his cult and the Benedictine Order.

As perhaps the most important figure for the order after St Benedict himself, it should be no surprise that St Gregory's Benedictine credentials came under sustained attack from the middle of the twentieth century onwards.

Some argued that although he devoted an entire book to the Life of St Benedict, and used the preceding and succeeding book of the Dialogues to frame it, St Gregory was not strictly speaking a Benedictine seeking to promote and consolidate the charism of his Order,  even though virtually every other contemporary monastic saints' life (such as those of Eugippius, Caesarius of Arles, Fulgentius, the lives of the abbots of Agaune, and Columbanus for example) are accepted as works of their disciples and serving such a purpose.

Some went to so far as to claim that there was no evidence that St Gregory had ever actually read the Benedictine Rule, since all his citations from it could also be found in other sources: never mind that  he specifically commends it; that the  Life is essentially a commentary on the Rule; and that the way St  Gregory uses his source texts was deeply steeped in Benedictine spirituality rather than other interpretations of those monastic sources.

It was even claimed that the entire Dialogues were a fake, a much later invention; never mind that a steady stream of visitors to Rome in the early seventh century, including Jonas of Bobbio and Benedict Biscop, seem to have come away having read it.

Perhaps for this reason, the responsories for the feast in the 1962 breviary appear to be entirely modern compositions, for which I have been unable to find chant settings.  Accordingly I've stuck with those for a Doctor Pontiff, one of the options provided for in the breviary.  You can find transcriptions of four responsories for the feast contained in the Hartker MSSS here though.

Notes on the Matins readings and responsories for Quinquagesima week

Abraham, Sarah and Hagar
Foster Bible 1897
Source: wikicommons

This week the responsories take us through the stories of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 12 - 26); the Scriptural reading sequence, though, stops on Tuesday at Genesis 14, and doesn't resume again until the Second Sunday of Lent, at Genesis 27.

The weekday Patristic readings

The use of Patristic readings at Matins of three readings instead of Scriptural ones is standard in the modern office for higher class days such as Ash Wednesday.

The use of Patristic sermons on the Gospel of the day instead of Scriptural texts on Lent weekdays, though, was a tenth century innovation that gradually spread, and was eventually entrenched in the post-Tridentine breviaries. 

Oddly though, new responsories were not composed to match the change: instead they mostly continue to reflect the (previous) Scriptural reading sequence from Genesis, this week focusing on the stories of Abraham and Isaac.

A case for returning to the older tradition?

The use of Patristic sermons on Lent weekdays was, perhaps, a logical extension of the continuing clericalisation of the Office, including the addition of collects from the Mass of the day, and the eighth or ninth century move to replace the reading of the New Testament specified by the Rule for the Third Nocturn of Sundays, with Patristic readings on the Sunday Gospel.

But the daily reading of at least Genesis to Exodus in the pre/Lent period seems ancient and near universal at least in the West: St Ambrose's commentaries on Genesis used in the second Nocturn, on Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph are all products of his regime of daily sermons during Lent; and Caesarius of Arles (more or less contemporary to St Benedict) also left a series of sermons  on Genesis for use in this period.

The change to the Office did not, of course, necessarily mean abandonment of the traditional reading cycle: in a monastery, the Scriptural sequence could, at least in theory, be maintained through lectio divina, refectory, and evening readings (though the evidence on whether it actually was maintained this way in places where the Patristic reading were inserted is ambiguous).  The retention of the Genesis 'historia' responsories might perhaps have been regarded as a way of assisting the assimilation of this material even though it was mostly being read outside the Office.

The responsories

Several of the responsories for this week  (Sunday no 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) actually relate more to the readings that would presumably have occurred next week, so I will discuss them in that context.

Instead let me provide you with the texts of some of the responsories most relevant to this week for your consideration.

They highlight Abraham's obedience, and the various promises made to Abraham.

The first tells of his call to leave all and follow the instructions of God:

Sunday no 1: Genesis 12:1-2

℟. Locútus est / Dóminus ad Abram, dicens: † Egrédere de terra tua, et de cognatióne tua, et veni in terram quam monstrávero tibi: * Et fáciam te in gentem magnam. ℣. Benedícens benedícam tibi, et magnificábo nomen tuum, † erísque benedíctus.

℟. The Lord spake unto Abram, saying: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and go unto the land that I will show thee, * And I will make of thee a great nation. ℣. I will surely bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be blessed.

The second highlights his priestly role, paralleling a responsory on the same subject in relation to Noah (Gen 8, resp 5 of Sexagesima):

Monday no 1: Genesis 13:8

℟. Movens / Abram tabernáculum suum, venit et habitávit iuxta convállem Mambre: * Ædificavítque ibi altáre Dómino. ℣. Dixit autem Dóminus ad eum: Leva óculos tuos, et vide: † omnem terram, quam cónspicis tibi dabo, et sémini tuo in sempitérnum.

℟. Abram removed his tent, and came, and dwelt by the vale of Mamre * And built there an altar unto the Lord. ℣. And the Lord said unto him Lift up thine eyes, and look; all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Curiously, none of the responsories highlight the important story of Melchisedech, chronicled in Genesis 14, though a responsory on this chapter is used on the (much later) feast of Corpus Christi.

Chapter 15 deals with a vision of Abraham, and God's promise to him of descendants and land:

Wednesday no 2 (Sunday no 10): Genesis 15:1

℟. Factus est / sermo Dómini ad Abram, dicens: * Noli timére, Abram: † ego protéctor tuus sum, et merces tua magna nimis. ℣. Ego enim sum Dóminus Deus tuus, † qui edúxi te de Ur Chaldæórum.

℟. The word of the Lord came unto Abram, saying * Fear not, Abram I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. ℣. For I am the Lord thy God That brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees.

Chapter 16 deals with the birth of Ismael; chapter 17, the covenant sealed by circumcision, and Isaac.

Sunday no 4 [Friday, Saturday] Genesis 17:19, 18:10

℟. Dixit / Dóminus ad Abram: † Sara uxor tua páriet tibi fílium * Et vocábis nomen eius Isaac. ℣. Revértens véniam ad te témpore isto, vita cómite, † et habébit fílium Sara uxor tua.

℟. And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, * And thou shalt call his name Isaac. ℣. I will return and come to thee at this time, life accompanying, and Sara thy wife shall have a son

The natural flow of the reading sequence suggests that chapter 18, which deals with the visit of the three angels, could be read on Saturday.

The final Abraham responsory set for Sunday (no 11) actually comes from James 2:23, and provies a nice overall summary of Abraham's importance.  The Cantus database listing comes from various thirteenth and fourteenth century British manuscripts, for the Sarum rite, but Dominique Crochu has noted that it is also attested to for Italy in various Beneventan and Franciscan manuscripts:

℟. Crédidit / Abram Deo, et reputátum est ei ad iustítiam: * Et ideo amícus Dei factus est. ℣. Fuit autem iustus coram Dómino, et ambulávit in viis eius.

℟. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. * And therefore he became the friend of God. ℣. For he was righteous in the sight of the Lord, and walked in His ways.

The readings

Quinquagesima Sunday: Genesis 12: 1-19
Monday after Quinquagesima Sunday: Genesis 13:1-16
Tuesday: Genesis 14: 8-20
Wednesday: Homily of St Augustine - Our Lord on the Mountain, Bk II ch 12 [Genesis 15]
Thursday: St Augustine On the Harmony of the Gospels, Book II ch 20 [Genesis 16]
Friday: Homily of St Jerome - On Matthew 5:44-45; 6:1 [Genesis 17]
Saturday: Homily of St Bede - On Mark 2:6 [Genesis 18: 1-15]

Notes on the Matins reading cycle - Sexagesima week

Image credit: Martpan

This week the Scriptural readings at Matins tell the story of Noah, covered in chapters 6-11 of Genesis; unusually, the responsories also include one related to the Sunday Gospel, the parable of the sower.

The commentary on the Old Testament readings provided in the breviary for Sunday comes from St Ambrose, but St Augustine's discussion of the subject in his City of God (Book 15, from ch 22) is also well worth a read.

The Noah responsories and the forty days of Lent

The responsories for this week trace the events of the Flood, from God's decision to destroy all life, save that to be saved in the arc, to the making of a new covenant with Noah.

The 'Noah historia' has an intriguing history, for when Archbishop Amalarius of Metz visited Rome in the early ninth century, he found the Noah responsories (and presumably the associated readings) not on Sexagesima Sunday, but taken out of their logical order, on the first Sunday of Lent.

This was possibly a legacy of an earlier time, before Septuagesima and Sexagesima Sundays were introduced, retained because of the appropriateness of the typology to Lent [1].  In particular, the opening responsory (now the third on Sunday) was taken from Genesis 7:

R. Quadragínta / dies et noctes apérti sunt cæli, † et ex omni carne habénte spíritum vitæ ingréssa sunt in arcam: * Et clausit a foris óstium Dóminus. V. In artículo diéi illíus ingréssus est Noë in arcam, † et fílii eius, et uxor illíus et uxóres filiórum eius. R. Et clausit a foris óstium Dóminus.

R. Forty days and forty nights were the heavens opened; and there went into the ark two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life. * And the Lord shut them in. V. In the self-same day entered Noah into the ark, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons. R. And the Lord shut them in.

The forty days symbolism, it should be noted also runs through the Benedictine Office, for each day, the Rule prescribes a  'pensum' of forty psalms (if you count the Laudate psalms individually).

Another of the responsories (no 8 of Sunday) highlights another piece of number symbolism particularly relevant to the Office, namely the 150 days before the waters started receding (Genesis 8), on which St Benedict's contemporary St Cassiodorus commented:

."..we have observed that through the Lord's generosity the earth was cleansed of its sins after one hundred and fifty days, when the flood covered the earth.  So the spiritual depth of the psalms with their perennial cleansing purifies the hearts of men until Judgment Day; and from this we experience a saving flood which washes clean our minds befouled with sins."

The parable of the sower and its antiphon

The last responsory of Sexagesima Sunday, Cum turba plúrima, is particularly interesting since it seems to be reasonably ancient in origin, yet responsories relating to the Gospel of the day, in this case the parable of the sower, are rarely included in the post-Tridentine Office.  In the (pre-1962) Roman Office it is given a special status as the ninth responsory, replacing the Te Deum.

Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, explained the link between the Gospel and the Old Testament Scriptural reading, and the collect's reference to St Paul:

The earth is deluged by sin and heresy. But the Word of God, the Seed of life, is ever producing a new generation, a race of men, who, like Noah, fear God. It is the Word of God that produces those happy children, of whom the Beloved Disciple speaks, saying: they are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God [St. John, 1. 13]. Let us endeavour to be of this family; or, if we already be numbered among its members, let us zealously maintain our glorious position. What we have to do, during these days of Septuagesima, is to escape from the Deluge of worldliness, and take shelter in the Ark of salvation; we have to become that good soil, which yields a hundred-fold from the heavenly Seed. Let us flee from the wrath to come, lest we perish with the enemies of God: let us hunger after that Word of God, which converteth and giveth life to souls [Ps. xviii].,,

At Rome, the Station is in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls. It is around the tomb of the Doctor of the Gentiles, - the zealous sower of the divine Seed, - the Father by his preaching, of so many nations, - that the Roman Church assembles her children on this Sunday, whereon she is about to announce to them, how God spared the earth on the condition that it should be peopled with true believers and with faithful adorers of his Name.

Another link between the number of the Sunday (Sexagesima= 60th) and the Gospel is the reference to the sixty-fold (and implicitly thirty-fold) returns mentioned in St Matthew's version of the parable, reflected in the antiphon for Sext (but not Matins, at least in the 1962 version).

The full version of the antiphon runs as follows:

Semen cécidit in terram bonam, et áttulit fructum, áliud centésimum, et áliud sexagésimum (Some seed fell on good ground, and bare fruit, some one hundred-fold, and some sixty-fold).

The traditional interpretation of the different rates as the rewards in heaven for different states of life: depending on the writer, one hundredfold for martyrs or monastics; sixty-fold for monastics or widows; and thirty-fold for married persons.

But in the context of the Sunday, the interpretation was perhaps more meant to indicate the rewards of asceticism?

In any case, I have been unable to find a chant to match the 1962 Matins antiphon text.

The distribution of the Scriptural readings for the week

Sexagesima Sunday: Genesis 5:32, 6:1-15
Monday after Sexagesima Sunday: Genesis 7: 1-5& 10-14&17
Tuesday: Genesis 8:1-4; 5-9; 10-13
Wednesday: Genesis 8:1 -22; 9:1-6
Thursday: Genesis 9:12-29
Friday: Genesis 10:1-6; 11:1-8
Saturday: Genesis 11:10--30

Notes

[1] See the discussion of possible chronoogy in Thomas Forrest Kelly, Old-Roman Chant and the Responsories of Noah: New Evidence from Sutri, Early Music History, Vol. 26 (2007), pp. 91-120