Chapter 13: Lauds on ordinary days (paragraph 1)
On ordinary days Lauds should be celebrated like this: the sixty sixth psalm should be said with its antiphon but rather slowly, as on Sunday, to make sure that all are present for the fiftieth psalm which is said with its antiphon. (From para. 1 of Ch. 13 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
Starting out slowly, and building to a rhythm over the week, the psalms are like a river of praise. In a similar way, it seems to me, meditation requires patience and fidelity to merge with the divine energy flow of real life.
“On ordinary days lauds should be celebrated. . .” I need to be reminded that the Divine Office is a celebration. Benedict, in the Rule, reminds me that all monastic prayer, including meditation and the Divine Office is work, the “work of God”. Slowly, gently, I learn to embrace the privilege of undertaking your work, Abba, of daily remembering and celebrating Reality, with you and my brothers and sisters.
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