Chapter 18: The order for reciting the psalms (paragraph 3)
These same psalms are repeated daily until Sunday and the identical arrangement of hymns, lessons and verses is retained everyday. (From para. 3 of Ch. 18 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
I believe that what I do every day has the power to change me, especially something as rigorous as the practice of selfless attention. Routine becomes discipline at these depths, and thereby becomes transformative.
Each one of Benedict’s chapters offers me something new to expand my vision about my relationship with the Divine, with the Spirit of God, with Christ. In this reading I am given words. Do I not read everyday in the opening antiphon for morning vigils.
ReplyDelete“O, Lord, open my lips so that my mouth may proclaim your praise.” I cannot begin any day without God creating within me the desire to desire Him, to speak to Him, and best yet He gives me the words to address Him. Otherwise I am pretty speechless.
The new phrase that is given to me through Benedict in this chapter I can use also throughout the day asking for God’s assistance-assistance to remember, to keep in mind God’s eternal and loving presence. God fills my void, my emptiness. This prayer as all prayer is a divine gift of God Himself.
My vision is expanded, my relationship is opened to the “mysterious presence of the Spirit”… “the ultimate reality that is, that is now, that is here,” (from John Main in Silence & Stillness in Every Season, p.51) Thank you, Father Benedict.