(Some of the material on the Hours is adapted from the most recent Procopian Oblate Newsletter).

From the fourth century onward (Sts. Benedict and Scholastica were 6^th century religious), Lauds (now our Morning Praise) and Vespers  (Evening) were already very stable institutions in the Christian Church both East and West. St. Ambrose,  the Bishop of Milan who so influenced St. Augustine,  once stated that “Just as every day, whether going to church or praying at home, we begin with God and end with him, may every day of our life down here and in the course of each one of our days begin with and end in him.”   In keeping with this tradition the Western European church organized the Divine Office (the term monastics, too, used for centuries)  according to their own ritual.  Now called the Roman rite, as Benedict says in his Rule, the Hours should begin with the phrase, “O God come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me.”  Vigils, Benedict says, may begin with another phrase (now adapted by us Sisters to open Morning Praise) “O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.”  Those verses, we are told, should remind us that only from God can we receive the grace to worship and praise Him worthily. 

Outside of Lent is added the “Alleluia” which means “Praise the Lord.”  Then these Hours usually begin with a hymn, followed by two or three psalms and/or a canticle—poetic phrases from the Old and New Testament.  Psalmody is of light, of praise and thanksgiving, penitential and looking forward to death and new life, even psalms which prophetically refer to the Last  Supper.  There is then a brief reading at these Hours.  In Morning Praise the Canticle of Zachary follows, in Evening Praise—the Canticle of Mary from Luke 1:46-55.  Intercessions for others follow, then the Our Father, and a concluding prayer.  Benedict mentions other Hours—Vigils, Prime (first hr, about 6 a. m.); Terce (about 9 a. m.) and Sext (sixth hour was approximately noon) but these times varied.  Monastics often prayed Vigils the night before, the other Hours in the morning with Mass between and None at noon  (9^th hour would be about 3 p. m. in medieval times).  Compline is the night prayer just before the Great Silence and bedtime which is prayed in most monasteries to this day. (We pray it in small groups).

So whether you are using the Christian Prayer Book, The Benedictine Work of God, or the complete Divine Office two or four volume book, you are sharing with the whole church and all the monasteries  of the Christian Church.  Oblates are urged to join daily when possible with the whole Christian world praying at least the Hours now known as Morning and Evening Praise.

Lectio as Table Conversation                                           

In the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict we read “What could be more delightful than this voice of the Lord inviting us!”  Without damaging the sense of the Latin words, we could translate this into:  “Can you imagine anything more nourishing than table conversation with the Lord!”

We enter into dialog with God by means of Scripture.  We must sit at the table there and anticipate the presence with us of the Lord Jesus.  We want answers to questions from one on whom we can rely for the truth so that we can set upon a journey in which the road is clearly marked, the destiny clearly posted, and the companionship assured. 

We must, of course, make an act of faith as we take up the Scripture.  We must believe it to be God’s Word to us –the answers to our questions.  Conversation with Jesus, then, must begin and then continue.   But we need to be on God’s page—relinquishing the lesser questions about what we are to wear, what we are to eat  or what we will do next.  We must let the important questions develop in us or our lectio will be unsatisfying and the table-conversation will falter.  Let us discuss the significant questions—those about our final destiny—eternal salvation.  So we read the word of God and then converse with Him.

Liturgy of the Hours books are available from Oblate Directors, most book stores, Liturgical Press, and other catalogs.

Lectio as a Requirement to Action

So how does God’s response in His “table conversation” apply to us oblates?  As the act of faith has drawn the listening heart near to the speaking God, and we realize that there is no one, anywhere, from any age, who so loves us as to show us all  the way to life, we must respond to Him through action.  Has the answer seemed too simple, too general, nothing more than basic moral advice and the commandments we know so well applicable to everyone or is there more?  We need to ruminate on God’s words, rehearse them to ourselves and then ponder what we must do because of what God has said to us during this conversation with Him.

We may then conclude that we must not only shun what should be deleted from our way of life, but earnestly  search after peace and pursue it.  And what is this peace?  First, it seems, it is a willingness to listen to God’s voice so that we can attend to His word (often with much help from the Master Commentator, St. Benedict, himself, in his Rule, our way of life).    Second, ultimately, peace means to appropriate to ourselves God’s ultimate purpose for us, moving to eternal life. PEACE is dwelling always in God’s presence.  See RB!

(Adapted from a clipping found in file with unnamed source.  With apologies to the now anonymous monk).

Pope John Paul II, commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the Apostolic Letter on Sacred Liturgy stated:  “What else, in fact, is the Liturgy if not the unisonous (translator’s word!) voice of the Holy Spirit… and the Holy Church… if not that pure and perennial source of living water to which any one who is thirsty can freely obtain the give of God (John 4:10).  In his reflection on Psalm 8, the Holy Father says that it constitutes the “soul of the prayer” of the morning liturgy.  We are, according to the Bible, to begin and end our day with a song (psalms are the songs and poems of the OT).