The
Divine Office is a term used by St Benedict to refer
to the regular times of common prayer in the monastery.
He also calls it the ‘work of God’, and it is the
most important work a monk does in the monastery.
St Paul told the early
Christians to pray constantly. St Benedict suggests
seven times a day when his monks would come together
to pray: at daybreak (Lauds); the start of the morning
(Prime); during the working day at the third, sixth
and ninth hours (Terce, Sext, None); as afternoon
turns to evening (Vespers) and before going to bed
(Compline). He also kept to the monastic tradition
of a long time of prayer during darkness: monks were
to get up very early for Vigils. Due to the regularity
of these hours of prayer, the Divine Office is also
known as the Liturgy of the Hours. These times are
a way of making every day holy to God; they remind
that we look to God for the meaning and direction
of our lives; God always comes first and whatever
we do is secondary to him.
During these times above
all, a monk listens to God, and to his word in the
Bible. This is the heart of every time of prayer.
To prepare himself to listen, the monk sings psalms
and other songs from the Bible. The Psalms help focus
the mind on God and to provide a stable source for
prayer, for they express a wide variety of emotions,
thoughts and aspirations. We remember our need for
God’s help, we thank him for his mercy and kindness,
and together with the rest of the Church we pray
for the whole world.
This is one concrete way
in which monks seek to make Benedict's dream of the
monastery as a "school of the Lord's service" come
true. Many modern monasteries, including Downside,
have adapted the times of prayer to fit the more
varied patterns of daily work in our communities,
e.g. by omitting Prime, and by having only one midday
office instead of the traditional Terce, Sext and
None, but this does not detract from the essential
purpose of the Office: to keep God at the centre
of our lives as individuals and as a community.
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