Chapter 11: Vigils or night office on Sunday
This arrangement for Vigils is followed in the same way on every Sunday both in summer and winter, unless -- which God forbid -- the community gets up late, in which case the lessons or responsories should to some extent be shortened. (From para. 2 of Ch. 11 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
In my life, meditation generates a creative rhythm, but also a disposition, at least an increasing one, to be gentle with myself when I fall short of my discipline. I realize that God upholds me with a divine energy that constantly heals and renews me.
“Thus says the Lord . . . what house could you build me/what place could you make for my rest? . . . my eyes are drawn to the man/of humbled and contrite spirit/who trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2 from Morning Prayer/Lauds today.) Reminds me of the role model for prayer you gave me, Lord Jesus: that despised publican, in the back of the temple, asking for mercy, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” In his humble heart--and in mine, if I can be poor in spirit--you choose to find your rest.
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