Antiquity.  The Jews honoured God by special and solemn evening service.  Their feasts by God’s command began in the evening.  “From evening unto evening you shall celebrate your sabbaths” (Lev. xxiii, 32).  And David sang “Evening and morning and at noon I will speak and declare” (Psalm 54:32).  The eariy Christians faithfully followed the practice.

“In the sixth century, the order of Psalms, etc., in Vespers differed little from the Vespers in our modern Breviaries.  Long before the sixth century there were evening Offices in various forms.  Its existence in the fourth century is also confirmed by St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Ephraem ...  Before the fourth century we find allusions to the evening prayer in the early Fathers, Clement I. of Rome, St. Ignatius, St. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, the Canons of St. Hippolytus, St. Cyprian (for texts see Baumer-Biron; 1. c.t. 20 seq. 73-74, 76, 78)”—­(Dorn Cabrol, Cath.  Ency., art “Vespers").

Why do we offer up public prayer in the evening?  The old liturgists reply:—­

1.  To imitate the devout Christians of apostolic times.

2.  To honour Jesus, the true Sun of the world, Who hid Himself at His Incarnation, and in His life, and Whose glory was hidden in His Passion.

3.  To thank Christ for the Eucharist, which He instituted in the evening of His earthly life, ... “and they prepared the Pasch.  But when it was evening (vespere autem) He sat down with His twelve disciples” (St. Matthew, xxvi. 20).  At this vesper meeting He gave to priests the power to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, to change bread and wine into His body and blood.  At this vesper service, too, Christ and His apostles celebrated the divine praises, “Hymno dicto” (St. Matthew xxvi. 30).

4.  In the evening our Lord’s body was taken down from the cross.

5.  At the approach of evening Christ appeared to His disciples at Emmaus and revealed to them His divinity.  “Stay with us because it is towards evening (advesperascit) and He went in with them.  He took bread and blessed and brake and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew Him” (St. Luke xxiv. 29-30).  At Vespers we thank God for the Eucharist.

The hymns at Vespers date for the most part from the sixth century.  They are of great beauty and have the peculiar characteristic of telling of the days of creation.  Thus St. Gregory’s (?) fine hymn, Lucis Creator optime, in Sunday’s Vespers, refers to the creation of light; Monday’s hymn, Immense coeli Creator, refers to the separation of land and water; Wednesday’s hymn (written probably by St. Ambrose), Coeli Deus sanctissime, refers to the creation of the sun and moon; the hymns for Thursday’s vespers, Magnae Deus potentiae, refers to the creation of fish and birds; Friday’s hymn, Hominis superne conditor (St. Gregory), refers to the creation of the beasts of the earth; Saturday’s hymn (St. Ambrose) is an exception, as it refers to the Trinity.  All these hymns have been beautifully translated into English and the text and translations repay study.