ONE OF the most important witnesses to the practice and spirituality of psalmody in the late fourth century is John Cassian. While other monastic legislators and desert fathers, Evagrius included, mention only in passing such details as bodily posture and the duration of different intervals associated with psalmody, it is Cassian who provides a more detailed picture. Writing in Gaul around the year 420 he was concerned to correct both imprudent excess in the quantity of psalmody offered at the public offices as well as laxity in the performance of psalmody. Thus he offers in the Institutes his recollections of what he had experienced twenty years previously during what was already coming to be wistfully regarded as the ‘golden age’ of Egyptian monasticism.^[1] Gabriel Bunge has summarized Cassian’s description of psalmody at the two monastic offices of Vigils and Vespers as follows:

During the performance of the psalms - in community this would be by one or at most three singers who remained standing while the others sat listening (Institutes 2.5.5) - all would arise to pray, cast themselves praying to the ground, then arise again to pray, standing in silence and with hands uplifted. (Institutes 2.7.2. and 2.8) ^[2]

             The three texts from Cassian’s institutes to which Bunge refers are among the very few which describe in detail the alternating rhythm of psalmody and prayer which characterized early monastic liturgy. In these passages from the Institutes Cassian explains the practices of the monastic communities in which Evagrius was formed as a monk, and which therefore underlie Evagrius’ own experience of psalmody. It will therefore be useful to consider these and other related texts from the Institutes in some detail.

In Book II of the Institutes Cassian justifies the practice of singing only TWELVE PSALMS at each of the principal offices of Vespers and Vigils. He invokes not only venerable tradition but also divine endorsement of this practice; this story may be related to a Pachomian legend claiming angelic authority for monastic usages.^[3] In Cassian’s version a group of monastic superiors have gathered to discuss the proper number of psalms to be sung at the common offices, but can reach no agreement. They decide to celebrate Vespers together:

           Cassian’s intentions in this passage are several. He wishes to establish, first, that psalmody may be listened to while sitting: such was, he says, and is the custom ‘throughout the land of Egypt’. Second, individual psalms are to be sung with prayers, not alleluia-responses, after each one. Third (a point he makes at length elsewhere) the psalmody is to be sung clearly and distinctly with the kind of ‘modulation’ that encourages all to fix the whole focus or attention of their heart, their intentio cordis, on the verses being sung. And finally, as the humorous conclusion to the story makes clear, twelve psalms will suffice.

          This text also illustrates that in the liturgical assembly psalms were ordinarily sung by one or more cantors while the rest of the community sat and listened. This point is described in greater detail later in the Institutes:

          These texts indicate that unlike the ‘antiphonal ‘^[7] form of singing according to which alternating choirs answer each other, the early monastic experience of Vigils and Vespers would largely have been one of listening, rather than of singing.^[8] It was the cantor who chanted, not, for the most part, the community.^[9] In order to help the monks listen as attentively as possible, they were allowed to sit during the psalmody:

According to Cassian this ostensible indulgence in regard to posture helped the monks maintain intentio cordis during the chanting. Their attentive listening was further facilitated by regularly interrupting the chanting with a period of ‘refreshment’ (refectio), an interval of silent prayer which concluded with a collect sung by the cantor. This permitted a redirecting of the intentio from receptive listening to a more active self-offering in prayer. Following the period of prayer the attention of the heart, now refreshed, could be redirected towards the next psalm sung by cantor(s):

James McKinnon believes that the phrase distinctim particulatimque (‘separately, section by section ‘) implies a slow pace of chanting on the cantor’s part, intended to facilitate understanding of the text being sung.^[12] An additional opportunity to appropriate the spiritual meaning of the psalm would have been provided during the pauses for prayer which regularly interrupted the psalmody. These intervals of prayer consist of three successive acts, each involving a change in posture. First, the monks arise to stand for a time in prayer; this is followed by a brief prostration. Finally, all stand again for prayer, this time with outstretched hands, and the cantor concludes with a collect ‘gathering’ the prayers of the whole community. Cassian warns that although the interval of prayer must be substantial and not rushed, the prostration should not be prolonged. Again Cassian describes and interprets the Egyptian practice he remembers:

This passage suggests a distinction between the kind of prayer offered during the intervals when the monks arise from psalmody. The first precedes the prostration and is referred to by Cassian as oratio. During the second, which follows the prostration, the monks stand with outstretched hands (a symbol of supplication) and offer preces, which conclude with a collect chanted by the cantor on behalf of the whole assembly.^[14]

          In addition to describing in detail the monastic practice of psalmody, Cassian also describes the inner, spiritual goal of the psalmody and scripture-meditation which monks were expected to practice during manual labor. In the Tenth Conference (the Second Conference of Abba Isaac) Cassian describes and recommends a form of monologistic prayer consisting of continuous recitation of the verse, ‘Deus in adiutorium meum intende, Domine ad adiuvandum me festina’. He explains that through ‘restricting itself to the poverty of this verse’ and meditating as well on the Lord’s passion, the mind casts off ‘the richness and multiplicity of thoughts’^[15] to ascend like the stag of Psalm 103:18 into ‘even more exalted and sacred mysteries’^[16] At first this rejection of multiplicity in favor of inward ‘poverty’ appears similar to Evagrius’ ‘pure prayer’ beyond all images and concepts. Cassian, however, develops this image further, describing the ‘spiritual stag’ ascending into ‘manifold knowledge of God (“multiformem scientiam dei “) through divine illumination’.^[17] Thus the goal of this spiritual ascent is not so much freedom from words or images, but rather the ability to perceive the ‘manifold wisdom of God’ (cf. Eph. 3:10);^[18] that is, to better understand and inwardly appropriate the rich variety of images and words found in the psalter:

It is clear from this text that for Cassian psalmody is not merely a preparation for the prayers which are offered between the psalms; rather, the psalms can and should be sung as one’s own personal prayer (‘quasi orationem propriam’). Indeed the chanting of psalms seems here to accompany, or perhaps to induce, that very highly-prized occasion of repentance and renewed consecration to God called by the desert fathers ‘compunctio cordis’  (κατάνυξις) .^[20]

          In Cassian’s view psalmody is not so much an exercise in recalling events from Israel’s past as it is an opportunity to practice sharpened spiritual vision, here principally a vision directed inward, for the purpose of understanding the deeper meaning of one’s own ascetical striving. Psalmody is thus not an escape from the ‘real world’ into another state of consciousness, nor is it an opportunity to meditate piously on events safely distant in time and culture from one’s own experience. On the contrary: Cassian recommends that the monk receive into himself the affectus cordis of the psalm’s original author and make the psalm his own, becoming as it were a new author of the psalm.[21] Through familiarity with the text the monk learns to anticipate the deeper meaning of the words he is about to sing and then to allow this to illuminate his own lived experience. During psalmody he will recall vividly his own daily strivings and failings:

Chanting the psalms, the monk peers into a ‘mirror of the soul’ where his own spiritual struggles are seen against the background of salvation history and in the light of God’s compassion:

Thus for Cassian psalmody is a school where the monk learns about his relationship with God by means of his own memories. The ‘inward states’ experienced as the psalms are chanted are ‘teachers’, clarifying the deeper meaning of ongoing spiritual progress or failure. The monk’s experiences unfold before him during psalmody, and by listening to what he feels within himself and to what he hears being sung, he begins to understand the deeper meaning of both. Psalmody thus becomes a sort of spiritual training-ground in which the virtue of discernment is learned: one’s thoughts, memories, and aspirations are tested and interpreted in the light of God’s word while that word is chanted. This approach presupposes an exegetical method whereby the images and stories encountered during psalmody can be understood as symbols which interpret the monk’s ascetical journey. As will be described, this intensely personal hermeneutic method had been taught in detail by Evagrius, whose exegetical works can be read as spiritual ‘dictionaries’ or workbooks intended to aid the monk in this very practice.

          Cassian’s discussion of psalmody and monologistic prayer culminates in a description of the soul caught up into an experience of prayer beyond words or images: Cassian calls it the ‘prayer of fire’. It is not a state that can be achieved through any technique, even the monologistic practice Cassian recommends in Conference 10. It is purely a grace from God and seems to occur unexpectedly at intervals, especially (but not exclusively) during psalmody:

Like the imageless ‘pure prayer’ which Evagrius extols, Cassian’s ‘prayer of fire’ lifts the one who prays, ‘beyond the need for words or voice’:

Although this ‘prayer of fire’ occupies a place in Cassian’s model of the spiritual life similar to that of Evagrius’ ‘pure prayer’, Cassian does not emphasize it to the extent that Evagrius does.[26] Although for Cassian this elevation into a state beyond words is in some sense the crown of the spiritual life, it is not so much a goal to be achieved as it is a gift from God which recurs at intervals throughout one’s spiritual practice.

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