Our monastic Divine Office follows the format established by St. Benedict in his Rule, and is sung in traditional English from the Monastic Diurnal and the Monastic Diurnal Noted — both publications of the Lancelot Andrewes Press, publishers of traditional liturgical materials. Christminster, through the St. Bede’s Guild, is the Canadian distributor for their publications.

Unless interrupted by a Greater Feast or Solemnity with appointed Psalms, the entire Psalter is prayed “in course” every week, divided between Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. In Matins, Lauds, Vespers, and Compline the Psalter is accompanied by Canticles from the other books of the Old Testament and the Gospels.

The Offices also include hymns composed by — or in the style of — St. Ambrose of Milan along with the Kyrie eleison, Lord’s Prayer, and prayers appropriate to the day.

The Divine Liturgy of the Mass is celebrated according to the form commonly called the “Liturgy of St. Gregory,” and also known as the “Liturgy of St. Peter.” The form and much of the content of this liturgy antedates the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (d. 604 A.D.).

Watch excerpts from the 2008 Christmas Midnight Mass on YouTube.

As celebrated at Christminster, the Solemn or Sung Mass includes some features that passed out of common use after the schism of the West from Orthodoxy, including an Old Testament lesson, a litany, and the formal exchange of the Peace using the pax brede, a wooden plaque holding a metal cross inscribed with the word, “Peace,” kissed in turn by the priest, ministers, and each person present. On Sundays, Mass is always preceded by the memorial of Baptism known as the Asperges — or, in Paschaltide, the Vidi Aquam.