8/6/2023 0 Comments Virtual divine office prayerIn this we grow in the likeness of God in whose image we are created. God speaks to his people in Word and silence, in sacrament and signs, and we speak to God with words and silence, gestures and receptive hearts. The Divine Office and all our acts of prayer are meant to be a dialogue with the Savior. The Opus Dei becomes an important part of this offering, especially since it occupies a sizeable part of our waking hours. The entire life of a consecrated man or woman, every hour of every day, is capable of being a liturgy, by which is offered to God a sacrifice of love. When praying the Divine Office is linked to genuine personal prayer, then there is a clear relationship between the Opus Dei and the rest of one’s life of prayer, which is what our life is supposed to be all about. The Opus Dei is supposed to be the “source of spirituality and nourishment for personal prayer,” according to Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (90). We form a vital praying community, and more than celebrating “in the name” of the Church, we pray as the “Church in action,” which clings to Christ’s words: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there is I in the midst of them.” The praying community, however large or small it may be, becomes a manifestation, an epiphany, of the mystery of the Risen Christ in our midst. The Mass is the source and summit of spiritual riches for our vocation, but the Opus Dei is not to be neglected, especially by contemplatives. The Opus Dei we celebrate each day is intended to be a vital part of our life as consecrated men in the Church. God’s action and our response are both essential for a living and dynamic life in Christ. God calls us but leaves us free to respond or not. We are able to glorify God because he has first reached us in our depths and called us by name.īefore we can do anything, God is acting on our behalf, in our lives. This glorification of God is possible only because we are sanctified, that is “made holy,” by God’s grace. By this daily and repeated calling to mind, monks are striving to “glorify God in all things,” as Saint Benedict puts it in his Holy Rule. The monastic liturgy, comprised of both the Opus Dei and the Holy Eucharist, is fundamentally a contemplative praise of God, where monks recount in word and song the great and saving deeds of God for the human race in Jesus Christ. Sometimes this approach to prayer drives the newcomers to distraction, asking us, “Why are you wasting so much time going to and coming from choir?” Of course they are missing the point, and eventually they either get the picture of the process or move on to another way of life! This breaking up of the day by returning at fixed hours to church and the choral office is meant to promote a continual communion with the living God. The vocation of the monk is to be a living prayer, a perpetual “pray-er,” whose praise of God goes on inside and outside the church, and whose day is marked by continually returning to church or cell to pray to God. Sayings and Stories from the Desert Fathers.How We Pray and Chant – Monastic life has prayer at its very heart.Abbot’s Archives – Personal reflections from our abbots across the years.Subscriptions – We can add you to our postal or electronic mailing lists for monastery news and homilies.Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, “Corpus Christi”.Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.Fourteenth Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A. Take yourself on a virtual tour around our Monastery.
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