Wednesday 20 December 2017

Matins

Matins, which may also be written as martins, is a service of morning Christian prayer. Or it may be a night 'office of prayer', but it can also happen at daybreak or in the evening. There, aren't you glad I cleared that up for you?

Matins (or mattins) is both the singular and the plural, so at least that's simple.

You may recall me moaning about poets getting an extra definition for the word bedew (no reason you should remember, but you might). They're at it again with matins as they can use it to describe birdsong. Only in the morning though.

6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Morning birdsong could be prayer...

Rosemary Johnson said...

Matins is quite rare now in the Church of England. However, I attended a Matins service a few weeks ago, all wonderful liturgy. It was great!

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Thanks for that, Patsy - love the medieval connotations of the word.

Patsy said...

It could be, Alex.

Patsy said...

I can imagine that for a person of faith this would be a great way to start the day.

Patsy said...

It does suggest tradition and ritual of the past, doesn't it?