Chapter 12: The celebration of solemn Lauds
Then come the hundred and seventeenth psalm and the sixty second followed by the Benedicite and Laudate psalms, a reading from the book of the Apocalypse recited by heart, the responsory, an Ambrosian hymn, a versicle, the Benedictus, litany and conclusion. (From Ch. 12 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Time and again I find Benedict telling his monks to recite prayers or whole readings from the Bible as part of saying the daily hours. Or, telling them to recite from heart if they are out in the fields and unable to come to the oratory. So, I ask myself, what is it that I can recite from heart? A few poems, a few prayers, some lyrics to hymns or popular songs? It's not an impressive inventory. Memorizing is not the necessary skill that it was for a largely illiterate society, or even for literate ones that valued memorization as a means of intellectual development. Today, any and all information can easily be looked up by some electronic means. So I thank God that I have the mantra as a means of bringing my heart into discipline, into fidelity, and into rootedness.
Today the Rule references the Ambrosian Hymn, better known to me as the Te Deum. “We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the world doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting. . . .”. As I read these words one more time, Abba,. I am struck by the enormity of my gift of faith in you. Like Pope Francis, I can feel immense empathy for atheists and agnostics, who cannot believe. In the face of the wars and pogroms and death and misery in the world, I yet have come to believe that you, the Creator of this 13.5 billion light year-sized (at least!) universe created us and then freely chose to become one of us on this tiny speck of dust called planet Earth. You did this simply out of love and the pure Great Artist’s joy of creating something beautiful. I believe, Abba. Help Thou my unbelief.
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