The Divine Office

this ain't many dicks calls the hours of prayer that the monks have because it uses the global term for that the Opus Dei the the work of God is how that translates today the church calls the same thing the Liturgy of the hours st. Benedict doesn't use that term although Liturgy of the hours is a good way of naming what's happening it's liturgy at different hours st. Benedict's name is perhaps hides a deeper reality of what's happening at all the different hours of the day the monks come together for prayer and the idea is to sanctify that hour of the day st. Benedict's arrangement is inspired by a line from one of the Psalms that he quotes in the holy rule where he says seven times a day I praised you O Lord and in the night I rise to sing your praises and so Benedict arranged these different hours of Prayer and that was a work it was the work of God you can understand it as a work done for God but I said there's something hidden in the phrase it's also a work that God does in the monks and it's a work he does in the world through the monks the various hours of the prayer I like st. Paul's phrase for what my vocation as a monk is what our vocation is where he says that that you are called to the praise of God's glory and so all these hours spread throughout the day ultimately their origin is the praise of God and we use the Psalms primarily as the as the texts of our prayer we use the Psalms primarily and the Psalms are full of praise but praise is accompanied by other attitudes of Prayer as well when one comes into the presence of God which st. Benedict says when monks are praying together in the choir ah they need to be mindful that they're in the presence of God when monks come into the presence of God to sing his glory we're immediately mindful also of our unworthiness to be there we become aware in that presence of our sinfulness and so prayer also is a plea for mercy and forgiveness prayer also is a plea for protection a prayer also rejoices in being called to be in God's presence it asks for strength to be faithful to God it recounts again and again before God that we know the wonderful things he's done for us the different hours of the day the first hour of the day is vigils and vigils is the most probably the most characteristic monastic prayer because the whole church has the Liturgy of the hours as a form of Prayer but the monks do it in a particular way vigils would be the most characteristic monastic prayer vigils is a prayer that takes place on the cusp between night and day it takes place in the early morning generally in this part of the world while it's still dark but the the name vigil tells us the essence of the spirit of this prayer because every day the vigils of the monk echoes the hour of the day in which Christ rose from the dead namely ah before dawn ah somewhere in the middle of the night Christ at an hour known to God alone and with no one seen it actually happened Christ rises from the dead so that time of day in a sense is sanctified forever and monks begin their day in that time of day in that place between light and dark where Christ rises from the dead and vigil also implies a lengthy prayer so it's kind of a prayer in which one is waiting for this rising of Christ from the dead every day begins every day repeats for for the Christian the pattern of Christ's life so that in a sense getting up in the morning is for the Christian and the monks live this in an intense way arising from the dead and having on our lips the praise of God vigils begins at Benedict's instructions with the song verse repeated three times Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise oh but really that's that's almost it's like that's Christ speaking from the tomb Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise and that Christ's prayer then is found in the monks Christ's rising from the dead and the praise that is on Christ's lips to his father when he rises from the dead that's what's on the monks lips for the rest of the day Lodz is the first prayer after that Lodz is is the morning praise of the church and Lodz takes place just as the Sun is rising and depending on the time of the year we do it Lodz at the same time every morning here but more or less as it's definitely going to be day okay and so it in the end the mood of that prayer is a praise of God as the Sun is rising and various of the Psalms and the canticle especially the gospel chemical we sing marks that that prayer here my people so ciao right size the mass is the is the high point of the day of prayer and we would say the Sunday Mass is the high point of the week of Prayer in some sense Sunday Masses is the big moment of Prayer in the week Sunday of course is the the day of the Lord's resurrection in celebrating the mass we encounter the Lord's resurrection and our and our Sharon and in it in a particular particularly strong way and then what happens to us on Sunday in that premiere kind of way is repeated every day in the in the course of the week but the mass is important because it's it's it's Jesus's biggest gift to us it's the memorial of his death of course we're repeating the supper that he gave us the night before he died we repeat the supper at his command and with the church discovered by being faithful to this command to repeat the meal that he did the meal in during the course of which he took the bread and said this is my body taking the wine he said this is the cup of My Blood by repeating that meal Christians through the centuries have realized that they come in to the power of this of this hour which is the hour in which he gives himself over to us the actual historical Last Supper ah was already a part of Jesus's dying he was he was he was saying I'm going to death on the next day and I'm doing it for you and so in that way what we have discovered through the centuries in the celebration of Eucharist is that when we repeat this meal we come into the hour of his going to death and we share in that and that's why we the meal is also understood by the theological tradition to be is the sacrifice the sacrifice of his dying and when we remember his dying it is then that we know him to be risen from the dead I think that's an important connection it's a deep one it but it is worth understanding because it we don't proclaim Jesus's resurrection simply by saying he's risen but we don't experience him disservice by simply saying he's risen remembering his dying we encounter him as the risen Lord so that the one so that we remember that Jesus being risen from the dead doesn't simply vaguely mean while I guess he's not dead anymore what it means is that this one who went to death for our sake and was crucified for our sake has been raised up and is present now because he's raised up and is giving himself to us now and he's giving us and he's giving himself to us now in this bread which has become his body and in this wine which has become his blood this is huge there's nothing bigger than this so in some sense then of course it's the center of the monastic day of course it's the center of monastic prayer ah when we receive his body and blood we enter into that hour of his dying and rising and then we share in the power of his dying and rising if we think of how that relates to the Divine Office the Prain of the Liturgy of the hours throughout the day it cannot not remember that of course any other prayer takes place in the same place around the altar on which the Eucharistic sacrifice has has been offered that day we come to the same place and we recall that or if you will look forward to it and so it's a kind of rhythm of Prayer with that that central highlight that is there come to my assistance then we pray at noon when the Sun is at its zenith again what time of the day is that that's why it's called Liturgy of the hours so now a tad different when the day has a different characteristic under way we pray again we come to that prayer not like we did the morning prayer we come to vigils from bed and we come to Lodz from the extended vigils in the and Alexia Divina that we do before that instead we come to the noonday prayer from work and we're going to go back to work when it's over so this is a prayer that's kind of going on in the heat of the day and maybe we maybe we really need help to get through the day maybe we've fallen into temptation or sin hour a rough spot with one of the brothers all that is meant to be quickly remedied by the presence of God that we come into and we reconcile in and we can still sing his praises and ask his help for the rest of the day then vest versus the evening prayer of the church when when the monks workday is over and it is again an extended praise for what this day has been the sense of working with God and His creation working with other people and now we want to finish that work day before we go to supper I want to finish that work day doing what we really want to do all day long and that is praise him in this different hour of the day my thoughts my words and in the final hour of the day is complan in complan means our English word complete comes from its closing of the day and that's a night prayer and the night prayer is a is a sense of entrusting oneself over to God through the course of the night and using still always working with the hour what time is it now it's dark now it's 9:00 and of course dark and night are a symbol of potential evil potential danger potential death and so we let we let the hour we let the darkness remind us of these realities of our life we almost use them as normally we use them as symbols for our prayer and we ask that in this night of danger we be protected in the night of this world that we be protected and that we can shut our eyes and enter into the defenseless space of sleep trusting that God will raise us in the morning that soon it's a beautiful prayer and then after that prayer in monasteries Saint Benedict has what he calls the great silence we practice silence all day long in the monastery but the night after after the complan prayer there the silence is is absolute in the monastery so that's a time monks go generally to bed shortly after conflict but it's a time of intense prayer and quiet with priced appropriate to the night is Martin the agenda portal on heads as commodities good god empty so larger make way quorum professionally speed not own a mirror auntie to Uncle Jamie Tory moves almost any news I read a summary so Mansfield on a nice man you you you

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Id: M5doP7gchgo

Length: 20min 1sec (1201 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2012