Chapter 18: The order for reciting the psalms (paragraphs 4-6)

We have no hesitation in urging that, if any are dissatisfied with this distribution of psalms they should re-arrange them in whatever way seems better, provided that one principle is preserved, namely that the whole psalter of one hundred and fifty psalms should be recited each week and that the series should start again on Sunday at Vigils. Any monastic community which chants less than the full psalter with the usual canticles each week shows clearly that it is too indolent in the devotion of its service of God. After all we read that our holy Fathers had the energy to fulfil in one single day what we in our lukewarm devotion only aspire to complete in a whole week. (From para. 6 of Ch. 18 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Benedict advises fidelity to a general principle of devotion. The general principle of my devotion is not the recitation of the psalms in the way he describes, but rather, fidelity to the twice-daily practice of meditation. There is nothing for me to accomplish or achieve in the practice of meditation except openness to transformation.