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Sext, or Sixth Hour, is a fixed time of prayer of the Divine Office of almost all the traditional Christian liturgies. It consists mainly of psalms and is said at noon. Its name comes from Latin and refers to the sixth hour of the day after dawn. ==Meaning, symbolism and origin == The ''hora sexta'' of the Romans corresponded closely with our noon. Among the Jews it was already regarded, together with Terce and None, as an hour most favourable to prayer. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that St. Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray (). It was the middle of the day, also the usual hour of rest, and in consequence for devout men, an occasion to pray to God, as were the morning and evening hours.〔(Cabrol, Fernand. "Sext." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 14 April 2015 )〕 The Fathers of the Church dwell constantly on the symbolism of this hour. Noon is the hour when the sun is at its full, it is the image of Divine splendour, the plenitude of God, the time of grace; at the sixth hour Abraham received the three angels. We should pray at noon, says St. Ambrose, because that is the time when the Divine light is in its fulness. Origen, St. Augustine, and several others regard this hour as favourable to prayer. Lastly and above all, it was the hour when Christ was nailed to the Cross; this memory excelling all the others left a still visible trace in most of the liturgy of this hour.〔 This scene from Good Friday is the background for Sext. "Lead us not into temptation" is the message of this hour.〔Parsch, Pius. "Introduction to the Canonical Hours", ''Commentaries on the Breviary''〕 It is also a time to ask God to grant one health and peace of heart, as in the traditional hymn ''Rector Potens''. All these reasons and traditions, which indicate the sixth hour as a culminating point in the day, a sort of pause in the life of affairs, the hour of repast, could not but exercise an influence on Christians, inducing them to choose it as an hour of prayer. As early as the third century the hour of Sext was considered as important as Terce and None as an hour of prayer. The Didache, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian all speak of these three hours of prayer. Origen, the "Canons of Hippolytus", and St. Cyprian express the same tradition. It is therefore evident that the custom of prayer at the sixth hour was well established by the 3rd century. But probably most of these texts refer to private prayer. In the 4th century the hour of Sext was widely established as a Canonical Hour. In his rule St. Basil made the sixth hour an hour of prayer for the monks. St. John Cassian treats it as an hour of prayer generally recognized in his monasteries. But this does not mean that the observance of Sext, any more than Prime, Terce, None, or even the other Canonical Hours, was universal. Discipline on this point varied widely according to regions and Churches.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sext」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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