Matins in the BR

Yesterday I said Matins from the BR, and with only a minor snag. Thanks for any instruction I can give on the BR should go to Daniel at officiumdivinum.org. His website has posted for every day Lauds through Compline, and he was gracious enough to review my Matins yesterday and correct it. Everything I messed up was in the Nocturns. Nocturns are the BR's equivalent of the LH's readings in the Office of Readings. Matins can have either one or three nocturns, and each nocturn has three lessons (ie, readings). It seems that only first and second class feasts have three nocturns; Sundays, third class feasts, and ferias have one nocturn.

So on to my problem. I figured out that yesterday (St Pius V, 3rd class feast) had one nocturn. I had read the rubrics earlier, but once I got into actually saying Matins, I was going off the Ordinary. I skipped over the section "In an Office of nine lessons" to follow "In an Office of three lessons".

There are blessings associated with each lesson. The Ordinary puts them all together, and relies on you reading the red closely to realize that it goes blessing, lesson, blessing, lesson blessing, lesson; rather than blessing, blessing, blessing, lesson, lesson, lesson. I didn't read the red closely enough.

Also after each lesson is said "Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis, / Deo gratias." I missed this because while it is listed in the nine lessons, it isn't in the three lessons. It is also the subject of rubric 216, which I had apparently glossed over.

So, I've learned that the nocturn goes as follows:

1. Iube, Domine, benedicere.
2. Blessing 1
3. Lesson 1
4. Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis / Deo gratias
5. Lesson 1 V/R

6. Iube, Domine, benedicere.
7. Blessing 2
8. Lesson 2
9. Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis / Deo gratias
10. Lesson 2 V/R

11. Iube, Domine, benedicere.
12. Blessing 3
13. Lesson 3
14. Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis / Deo gratias
15. Lesson 3 V/R.

Thanks to Daniel for explaining this.