dennis began

god our creator yours is the day joys the night
all seasons and all times every moment every hour
let the spirit of your son pray in earnest and reveal in us the sanctity of our daily life re-assess to that same christ our lord
so good morning welcome
we're on honor this second function of the liturgy
class which i've been waiting to do for quite some time now i have mine and we do three sections one and abroad a broad based on the rigid general with the eucharist specifically a second section and liturgy the hours and the third of the sacraments so we are finally starting the second part which is on the new gp hours
when i give you a little advanced warning how this is gonna go i i corps having that thought this before it not knowing how loquacious i'm going to be an individual class periods i'm thinking ten sessions so we'll try for that it may go a little longer especially if at the end of the have some discussions i hate the composer
this first class i'm not sure i get through the whole introduction but for sure to day and maybes beginning of the second section i'm just going to go read an overview a kind of an introduction a lot of had taken from the general instruction on the liturgy the hours from vatican two
and then would they new soup headlong into a historical approach
and i have two reasons in mind to do that one is just to see how the church has celebrated liturgy the hours through the centuries and to see some of the shifting of importance the second is what i focused and specifically as monastic practices through the centuries
now history is not my absolute forty so of have plenty of people are on help me with some of the fact that i've done as best i could research how monks celebrated village of the hours through the centuries and will concentrate a lot especially on from early christian times of to the rule of st benedict and then whizzed through
we will talk about clooney in the cistercian things like that it's very interesting to me to find out how monks practice in what sense of importance it was two different traditions and we're right there in the middle of course in the eleventh century and st peter damian
and then at the end we'll talk about specifically the reform of vatican two what vatican two did to reshape the liturgy the hours and then get very specific and talk go through the monastic thesaurus a bit which archbishop rembert weakland who was then avid primate had written for the verdict
confederation and nineteen seventy three
early seventies and then haunted specific and his this is all his expectations of what benedict in houses should be celebrate vgp hours and then specifically look at our command lease constitution declarations
and then maybe even go through our office and try to understand it a whole new way cause i'm coming at this from the perspective of having taken the italian office and put our office together so it's i am obviously somewhat prejudice but awesome this is kind of in my dna in this sense at least how we pray
optus it and i'll be is i was telling mark i get so excited about some of these things and if anything if anything i'd like to get across even if i get the facts wrong maybe as to try to get across from my enthusiasm for this
agent kevin up
makes us if you require love to quote his pithy little sayings this stuff
from his book elements of right
makes the assertion that liturgy generally is not is not
prayer as much as it is ritual in many cases if you think about the eucharistic liturgy the mass we celebrate
very little of it is really specifically prayer according to kevin kevin's when looking at there's acclimation there's readings there's us talking to each other there's us listening there's a singing but the real focus of prayer is only really in the colleagues and the eucharistic parrot in the general reset
options
but when we talk about the liturgy of the hours we have taken a step deeper specifically into christian prayer
and when anything i read about the liturgy the hours always starts out with a pretty broad introduction about the meaning of christian prayer
you'll notice even some of the additions of the bravery remarked not liturgy of the hours but prayer of christians
so this first little section would talk about christian prayer and how that relates to the junior hours
it shouldn't become as too much of a surprise if i were to tell you that
especially after the last classes we had and the introduction of some of these guys have the have been put through the introductory classes the two guys got two years ago that whole first section
public and common prayer
by the people of god
is considered to be among the primary duties of the church
yes we're called to feed the poor yes because spread the word
but i real primary duty also lies in this realm of public in common prayer
from the beginning if you read to the actually apostles you we learned that the christian community began by praying with one accord
here is acts chapter one verse fourteen all these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer together with some women and mary the mother of jesus and his brothers riddled all throughout the acts of the apostles are many examples of the christian community gathering and
rare one gets the sense ride on that it is out the very essence of what it means to be church for the first christians to gather together in prayer
and we'll will see a little more clearly in a classroom to down the road from very early in the church's history individual christians also started devoting themselves to prayer at fixed times during the day
and customs very early on started developing around assigning special times to common prayer
so individuals were celebrating a fixed ours and groups started to celebrate at fixed ours very early on
and this kind of common prayer especially gradually took shape in the form of this been ordered round of hours as we say i came to be known as the divine office or the liturgy the hours i remember the first thing i said
public and common prayer by the people of god is rightly considered to be among the primary duties of the church so you hear us perhaps if you're new to the monastic like you confused by this were in office this is our office what does that mean office well this is the here's to here's writing that 's
sentences what the word office means in that sense duty
as in one serves in the office of president it's the service it's a duty
so the monastic office is the monastic duty it's our duty it's what we do to serves how we serve
and from the beginning this prayer of these christians gathering together has basically always had these two very important elements praise petition
he put that in a little side burner and we're gonna get to it
a lot of what i'm
teaching us today is a broad view of what's called the general instruction on the liturgy the hours after the documents came out the sort of redefined liturgy and vatican two then very specific instructions came out and exactly how to do it was called the general instruction and the roman missal which is the beginning of
one of those documents that i loved to read over and over and over over again there's also a general instruction on the the liturgy hours which is printed in the first volume of the for volume set in the roman office
in fact the general instruction on the liturgy our says it is the prayer of the church with christ to christ so this is where i'm going right here
did you up happened to catch that reading by san agustin this morning
and i couldn't have asked for a better introduction to this to this specific class in this course i'm going to read just a couple of parts of it again
it is the one savior of his body our lord jesus christ who prays for us and in us and is himself the object of our prayers he praised for us as our priest
he praised in us as our head he is the object of our prayers as our god this is a line that i loved so much that us then recognize both our voice in his and his voice in hours
okay can go now in fact that and that's it that's the whole thing let us recognize our voice in his and his voice and ours we prayed to him as god he prays for us as servant
so in fact
what we're talking about in the liturgy hours and we're talking about in christian prayer in general is it is first and foremost the prayer of christ
here's a quote from sacrosanct and petroleum that first grade document of vatican two on the liturgy
christ jesus the new high priest of the new and eternal covenant took our human nature and introduced into the world of our exile that hymn of praise that is sung in the heavenly places to rational agents so there's a song going on in heaven
it's sung throughout all ages has always been sung always will be so there's a song going on and when christ took our human nature christ brought us that song
brought us into the sun taught us how to sing the song
the jelly section on the liturgy the hours and says from then on from the time of christ on
the praise of god wells up from the heart of christ in human words of adoration propitiation intercession presented to the father by christ the head of the new humanity the mediator between god and humankind in the name of all
all for the good of all you can't get more inclusive than that
the praise of god wells up from the heart of christ in human words
presented to the father
by christ who is to preach the mediator in the name of all for the good of all
we see first of all from the lice life of jesus
while he was honors
the gospels record all kinds of examples of his prayer
when i stopped to think about jesus praying
ah i am i moved in a different way may i think of jesus as divine but there's that did the end when he says to mary magdalen i have not yet ascended to your god and my god
this is the to jesus is praying that jesus this divine one is praying
and you get the sense in the gospels that jesus and all of jesus' work somehow flows from this time of prayer
in luke i just wrote a couple examples down before he causes the district for it causes that passes and luke six he spent the night in prayer
look three to when his mission has been revealed by the father he's been spending time in prayer first
whenever the the stories that are the gas was the multiplication of the lows first jesus praying
when he heals a deaf mute mark seven first why he prays when he raises lazarus he's praying that there's many examples
at the work of his own day all his ministry flowed out of his own prayer
and you also get a pretty clear picture from the gospel that jesus also took part in public prayer in the public pair of the jews of his era like a good jew that he was in the synagogue which he the gospel tells he entered on the sabbath as was his custom
in the temple where he often taught and preached and gotten a lot of trouble
and probably we can assume that he would also be praying the private prayer to did about israelites would say regularly
we could talk a little bit more about that another class or two
also he used the traditional blessings and of god at meals and the multiplication of the loaves of the last supper and and man she always you see jesus using the traditional bear a cop prayers
and then leaving us a command to do as he did and even giving us a formula for how to prayer for how to pray certainly in the our father but all throughout the gospels you get these little hints these little descriptions of what prayer supposed to be like it was be humble it will be vigilant it should be persevering and should be single minded
especially call your attention to matthew six the sermon on the mouth and beautiful section
now the apostles continue this teaching on prayer especially st paul in his letters and st paul gives us our first explanation of what it means to pray as a christian after jesus and leisure's these themes that are not going to go away
firstly because of my mind all the time when st paul
it all of his letters no matter what he's talking about as this sense of urgency and he certainly brings that to prayer member and first thessalonians five rejoice always never stop praying offer constant thanks to this is a very important theme of st paul constant
always unceasing urgent never stop
a second thing paul ads in his teachings is a quote from galatians four six god has sent forth into our hearts the spirit of his son which cries out abba father so christian prayer to st paul is always in the spirit through the spirit powered by the spirit
here's another team paul ads hebrews thirteen fifteen through him christ let us continue to offer gotta sacrifice of praise so pine reduces this theme christian prayer is through christ
now in various places pass to speak of praise and thanksgiving a petition and intercession but all of these still take part in this
constant prayer in the holy spirit through christ cost of care in the holy spirit throughput through christ
but pockets all that attention where i like to go as poor old st peter first peter two nine
this could be the theme for like the past two years of my life you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a people he claims for his own so let's go to the second movement with that backhand the second movement as this
christ prayed and christ continues to pray specifically how does christ continue to pray christ continues to pray by the church praying christ praised in the church
we are a chosen race we are a royal priesthood
we are
first of all wholly dependent on god
so we always have to recognize that dependency on god and we have to express that dependency on god expressed that sovereignty of god this is what worship is about in the first place but we do not do it alone
because for the christian this prayer that's directed to god is always linked with christ who is the one mediator christ who is the priest
christ who has established for all time the link between god and creation
christ's great active reconciliation forever linking together the creator and the created
so every prayer
is addressed in the name of this great mediator who has opened up the way to the father
so we as a church we as individuals do not even need to make up our own prayer in a sense what we do is enter into the prayer of jesus
jesus prayed and jesus continues to pray jesus is forever at the right-hand of the father
praising jesus forever at the right head of the father loving adoring commuting and jesus has placed the spirit in our hearts his spirits so that we can enter into that prayer that jesus is forever offering

for the christian
we believe specifically that is through christ alone it is only to crush that we have access to god
as chauvinistic as that sounds as arrogant as that sounds or it sounded to me ten years ago it doesn't sound that chauvinist to get arrogant now when i think of christ as the second person of the trinity through the word that's our access to the father's through the word and the word is pretty big explosive term to me
we believe that word became flesh and dwelt among us and that flesh became the christ the anointed one establish the way to the father
so the christian believes that all the religious activity of all humankind is some up in christ
all the religious activity of humanity attains its goal reaches it's conclusion and it's ultimate value and christ the good news about that again is that christ has chosen to unite himself so closely to the community of humanity in such a way that there's this intimate bond
and between the prayer of christ and the prayer of the whole human race
we are in christ as christ intercedes and praises to the father christ is in us pray
and there is most especially this bond
with christ between christ and those who have been made his members through baptism
because baptist the baptized are specifically the ones who are united get the head for whom all the riches that belong to jesus flow from whom all the riches that belong to jesus flow through to the world
through this body because the church is now the body of christ
so everything that christ did and does we are meant to do everything that christ is we as a church are meant to be
this is the fellowship of the spirit of which we speak
this sharing in the divine adoption which jesus himself long for so much in gospel john praying that they may be one me as i am warning you and you are wanting me
so
christ paris continued by the church as priest
this priesthood of christ
is shared by the whole body of the church what is the priesthood of christ the most of the broadest sense of what a priestess is a go-between
from between humanity and god
there's only one go between we don't need anymore priests we have one preached christ as that priest
we don't need to offer those kind of sacrifice and when we don't need to bring got down to us remember that taft article i brought in god has already been brought down the reconciliation has been one christ as the priest we as a church than enter into that priesthood of christ by baptism we are priests
sharing in christ's priesthood we are a priestly people
specifically baptism to confirmation through rebirth and his anointing of the holy spirit we're going to the chrism mass next monday and this sweat little thing that excites me so much as this prism this oil specifically the christmas oil which is
has the sweet residence and it balsam end let's the other one could put in it is used three times baptism confirmation priesthood that's for that oil is used we are ready priests by virtue of our baptism because we as a church are preached
so this whole people is able to offer worship and praise the worship and praise that's been established by jesus not have our own power but from the gift of christ so as hebrews says jesus when he was in the flesh
offered prayers and supplication to god so now we who share in his priesthood i called upon to offer prayers and supplications
i had richard with his architectural handwriting write this out for us
maybe this some what i've said thus far
the excellence of a christian prayer lies in this that it's shares in the very love of the only begotten son for the father and shares in that prayer it's the sun put into words and users we live and which still continues unceasing
early in the name of the whole human race and for it salvation throughout the universal church and its members
christian prayer shares in the very love jesus shares with the fog christian prayer shares in the exact same prayer at the sun put into words
at which still continues
in the name of of all human raised here is our priesthood this is our christian is when we pray we are the priest praying for the all human race throughout the universal church members
his unity that of the church of course has brought about by the holy spirit that's been promised to us how must never to abandon us and planted into our hearts here's a phrase also from the general section and luigi the hours when these little tiny phrases i never caught before
this holy spirit
is the same in christ in the church and in every baptized person it's the same holy spirit it's not a different holy spirit that christ has that the church has that i have is the same holy spirit in christ church says in the church and
in each little temple here i have the same holy spirit that raised christ from the dead
this is the spirit who in the words of st paul helps us in our weakness intercedes for us in these sighs too deep for words
the christian believes there can be no authentic christian prayer without this action of the holy spirit that authentic prayer comes from the working of this spirit within us
so
i wrote this part out exactly word for word so i wouldn't get iran to sum up the church teaches them
that constant and person being prayer belonged to the very essence of what it means to be church
constantly person during prayer is the very heart of what it means to be church to be church is to pray unceasingly to break constantly and praise and petition that's what we're meant to do because we are a priestly people
now the school's highest him at the end of the last introduction glass crossing the reduction
they're the church is a community
and there is no better way for her to express herself as community
then in prayer and there is no better way for her to pray then in community
yes we've seen over and over again i keep playing this out but it's very important the roman catholic tradition always gives a certain pride of place to this prayer in common too common prayer especially remember the first category of father by be a genius
categories and i'll show use specifically to the liturgical prayer of the church that which the sacraments have it is situated by god or instituted by the church this is way up there liturgy the arrogance is that second level instituted by the church but efficient the church's liturgy anything after that are g the ours is not considered litter
so this is react out again the general structure delivered to the hours you remember this i think from the last time too
though you remember this theme that this exact paragraph though prayer in one's room behind closed doors is always necessary and is to be encouraged and is performed by members of the church through crushed and the holy spirit yet there is a special excellence in the prayer of
the community
christ himself said retour three are gathered i am there in their midst
my one hand out i didn't know if the cyrix was she was going to works of these are
first generation of yeah
press
have you
zipper merging present package you can you just up there was also from the general you yeah
be what else
when i like is for somebody else to read the first paragraph out loud since it will pay my own moisture be could you read it for it to
in the letter j v hours church exercises the priestly office of its head and offers to guy unceasingly and sacrifice of praise that is a tribute of lives acknowledging his name this prayer is the voice of ryan as she addresses the
right room indeed it is also the prayer christ and his body to other
at all therefore who offer this prayer more fulfilling a duty of church and also sharing in the highest honor given
because as they render praise to god they are standing the or god's throne in the name of mother church
i'm what am i looking at for things in that paragraph there
you see it mentioned priestly office
the church is exercising the priestly office of christ second thing unceasingly
the third thing this prayer is the voice of the bride as she addresses her bridegroom mrs seven because product quite often especially monastic future
for thing all therefore who offer this pair of filling the idea of the church when we pray we are doing what the church has been called to do
in the last thing standing before god's throne
when we pray we are standing before god's throne would have a little more this coming under the paragraph
i'm michael would you eat for his please sixty pair of sixteen
when the church of his praise to god in in the liturgy of the hours did united so that hymn of praise which is sung in the yemeni places throughout the board ages it also receives a foretaste of the song of praise in him
described by job in the book of revelation the song that is some our him before the throne of god and of the lamp
oh closer union with the church in heaven is given a thing to voice when we rejoice together and celebrate the praise of god's glory we would have been redeemed in the blood of christ from every tribe and tongue and people and nation
one have been gathered into church
i for one and triumph god in one canticle of prince
in the liturgy of the hours we proclaim this way we express and nourished as hope we share in some degree the joy of everlasting praise and of that day which knows no city so
this sums up much better than i could accept i can add the enthusiasm this whole idea of joining in the prayer it's going on in heaven when we pray the liturgy the hours we are joining that unceasing prayer
when we pray the energy the hours we are in close union with the church in heaven
and we're also united with
all the saints that have gone before us all the angels and and all those who will be there it's entering into this eschatological moment
the next paragraph david cause you read besides
he says grace of god and church and allergic garrett's expresses the prayers and desires of will need him praise to christ through him to the earth with this foundation of the world
the voice of churches just as a map it is also the voice cried since it's prayers are offered the name of christ and so the church continues to offer the prayer and petition which christ or are the days of his earthly life and which have there were true maternal function in bringing souls to christ and get my
show an example of penance of also pray so there's four things i'm seeing in there to that i like
where do we pray we are expressing the desires of all the faithful
when we pray we are the whole church
and bringing
with us than the needs of the whole world for the salvation of the whole world the second thing which we just talked about the voice of the churches not just its own it's the voice of christ since his peers are offering the name of christ the third thing is a whole another image being put in there too which have therefore a true maternal
function this is our job with church as mother is to care for the world
and the last thing not only by charity we bring souls to christ not only by charity not on the good examples of a pendants but through prayer
we won't look as expects to paris for a million
so then these to me are the primary themes of the divine office that is that it's first of all it's the prayer of christ not only to christ but the pair of christ as intercessor to the father it's the prayer of the church christ's prayer continued by the church as priest as
ride as mother
and it is also the chair in the spirit it's that spirit it's planet ines that enables all these things to happen that enables us to do all these things
now that for we just read about the church then i want to specifically think of it in terms of monks
how much therefore more so for us as monks everything i said about church that we could take the word church and put the word monks him constant and persevering prayer
belong to the very essence of what it means to be a monk
constant a persevering prayer or the very heart of what it means to be a monk to pray constantly to pray persevering the in praise and in petition is what we are meant to do we are appreciably people and to we are community
and there's also no better way for us to express herself as a community
and there's no better way
that in prayer and there's no better way for us to pray than community and no better way to do that in communities and with the prayer of the church so even we in the hermit tradition give a certain pride of place to this common prayer especially the prayer of this first category of the the liturgy sacraments literature the
yeah hours even the carthusian to exercise a ton more solitude than we do still pray together twice a day the office
in our command magician as has always been the case
at least in practice that we give pride of place to these two hours they do three hours together the conclusions as do we then we out of course to that this hour of vigils in the early morning which will see as really comes up from a very specifically monastic backroom
unfortunately the prayer of the illusion of the hours that most people know mrs a lot of this
and
the two things that quite often in general practice that mrs is that a it's not a private thing and be that it belongs to the whole church what happened in the actual practice of the liturgy the ours is it from its history from its roots
a thousand years later became private and clerical august
why i'm trying to make such a big point of it this dreary was of was a rather late development thirteenth fourteenth century to do this from the beginning the liturgy the hours worse things meant to be done in connor
and not just by priests and religious but meant to be the career the whole faithful this is the big push a vatican two hasn't necessarily succeeded yet and bringing this about
another theme than of the liturgy the hours will go through rather quickly this liturgy is dialogical in nature
as all of our liturgies are but let's specifically stinker to dialogue the frozen of the liturgy hours just to material and physical way
some of the elements of the hours are
addressed to god
many the elements are also god addressing us
so
we respond to god's call by trades we respond by thanksgiving we respond by petition so the readings would be seen as god's how the us but there's an interesting point we were going to get through this when we talk about the egyptian mugs is the samedi god's call to us
whereas our answer to god's call in the monastic and the cathedral tradition there's two different approaches to that
but all of our liturgies are meant to somehow embody to dramatize this whole dialectic that's going on in the relationship between god and ourselves god cause we respond a reading is read a responses son we are called together we praise god
answers with the word we praise this is only meant to be a symbol of the whole interaction between gotten ourselves and we could say that the whole energy the hours and oliver those users somehow about the pascoe mystery of christ but the dying the rising but we have to remember that the past the mystery that died that
the life death resurrection ascension of christ is not a static thing it didn't just happen once and for all hundred are great this new salvation it's all over past the mystery of christ as his ongoing thing because the spirit is planted in us so liturgy the ours is an enactment of this thing that's going on each individual also of this pascoe missed
hurry so it's the words of the spirit
at work in our own lives
here's where i specifically want to talk about the cathedral in a monastic traditions and again it may seem a quibbling think it may never occur to you again but there's two different strains of practice coming out of how to celebrate the liturgy of the hours why don't we call the cathedral tradition one out of what we call the monastic tradition obviously
the cathedral mean the parochial elements the monastic of course meaning communities of cloistered men and women
i'm putting this just to plant this little seed of doubt in your mind so that you can't nam hear this when it comes up a little bit later
it tends to be that in the cathedral tradition the emphasis is more on worship the emphasis is more on us calling out to god in intercession and in praise
so the cathedral approach the somebody is that we sing the songs to god that the psalms actually become our prayers the monastic tradition tend to be one more of listening tends to be one more of our being receptive to gods
cough
so in the monastic tradition the psalms start out not as us singing to god but as the word of god being proclaimed
we'll review some of the practices but when i'm pointing to his vigils notice how individuals we have that one sound that's read to us read for us recited for us
so in in some circles of the sobs were not considered to be actually prayers they were considered to be like readings read to us and then we respond with prayer
in a sense these two forms call that spread around the same time of st benedict the urban and the monastic the urban cathedral tradition and the monastic tradition so you don't see the am
the difference so distinctly when you look through the books but definitely in practice
and again many of these elements lost their vitality because of what happened to the office over history when it became so cleric lies and privatized it came to be something said by priests alone in private now when people pray the office alone that whole element of dialogue even gets lost in the
the incarnation of it in the realization of it
we'll trace some of that to how the office came to be seen more as duty than as a privilege and how the bravery developed for religious on the road but of course as i said it was never meant to be the norm
there's always been this communal biological nature i think we can end this period with this last two paragraphs than richard could you read from the pack of the hearts of this orange is work belong specifically just work in terms of the duty of the office for had this work of credit belongs especially tool
or by a special maybe to carry out to pyramids to bishops and priests as they pray a virtue of their office for their one people for their own people sorry
and for the whole people have got to refer to other sacred ministers and also true religious so the work of prayer belongs especially to this group of people were right there
as religious keep going communities cannons moonstones over with you switch celebrate the victory of the hours by rule or according to their constitutions within the common rightward particular room where over an impulse or aren't represent in a special way the church print
they are fuller side of the church as continues the prisons garden ones and they fulfill the duty of work above all i prayer to build up in his crease or mystical body
and for the good of the whole church
this is especially true that was well contemptible
so when i wanted a full outta here is what how the specifically relates to us as canal the leaves
we are considered to be like a little slice of church and in some way when we pray where the whole church what's our duty not just to pray the psalms not just as sing the psalms but also to do so for the whole church
and by doing so in a sense we are fulfilling the duty of the whole church for the whole church
it's interesting that they don't just say i can use of cannons monks and nuns but the very last line this is especially true for those who follow the contemplative life we could have a tendency to think of ourselves as isolated here
but one of the reasons i appreciate lawrence his prayers quite often so much as we are not just here for ourselves we can't be we are here and when we pray especially in there we are praying in the name of the whole church we are the mouth of the whole church
ouch we are saying the prayers that the whole church wants to say and may not have time to say in a sense the follow followed i'm saying we are here as representative of the whole church bringing the needs of all the world
to christ through christ them to the father
i see myself right it forty five minutes and that appears to be a good break time for me because this last section
any question
testing
the name of the father the son of the holy spirit
amen lord
i help us not only to resist temptation but to bring about works of charity
that we will be prepared to renew our baptismal vows as we celebrate the death and resurrection of christ our savior and be cleansed from sin and renewed in spirit we ask this through that same christ our lord
amen
so this means to be the last section of the introduction we'll see if i do pursue if i do it i'm just a quick
quick quick review of last time the last thing we ended up on
thing that i thought was very important these four dimensions of liturgical side
we spent a lot of time talking about science symbol
the four dimensions where this idea first of all that every sacramento sign
saving event is a commemorative of christ's saving action
and remembering that that is just as present the
in the remembering as it was in the original event so that memory that remembering is very important for us but it doesn't stop there it's not a pageant
it's not a drama
there is a present dimension in the present dimension i figured the way father by he says it is in two parts first of all that it's it's it demonstrates present visible realities and secondly that it obligates it's a moral side and obligates us to something
now that second part of it the more the present reality is the power okay that it's just as real now in the president as it wasn't it past and when we take part in that were committing and a big kavanaugh's words an act of believing and by that act of believing were committing ourselves more
morally to a certain way of life which points towards the future i see it as a bridge
the third element fourth element there is the future poor tending to future glory prophetic of heavenly glory and also that part i like to add in there we do these things not just because we believe them i don't give you the sign a peace just because i feel at peace with you i do it so
that i can be at peace with you we don't just receive because we are one body we receive so we can be one body it's portending to this future future prophetic glory
thus we ended up last time
though when i'd like to do today is really in three parts first evolved to define what exactly we mean by catholic liturgy secondly to talk about personal prayer and public prayer
the dialogue between the two of them i don't want to say the tension or the contrast i want to save the dialogue between the two of them and then third to bring it specifically into the monastic in our own broad monastic sense and then are very particular commodity sense if we can if i can get all that than forty five minutes
you won't have heard a word i said maybe so first of all when we're talking about the liturgy the roman catholic liturgy very specifically would just get right to brass tacks we're talking about the seven sacraments
we're talking about sacramento goals
things that surround our sacraments the prayers and the ceremonies that surround the church and the prayers of the ceremonies with which the church clothes celebrations
and we're also talking about the divine office economical they're called canonical hours so i the broad sense that's everything from what we celebrate plus the addition of all those little hours by the way that's the next section in the liturgy class will be talking about
the liturgy the hours but you know the the bravery from which many of us read prayers that's the roman office that's a canonical office meaning it's a law it is an obligation of priests and religious to pray that office that's
considered part of the liturgical life of the church
one thing will get into at some point is distinguishing the canonical obligation versus the the monastic privilege what i call it but that's the church's liturgy
when i want to talk about at this point is distinguishing liturgy from devotion now devotion if you're from my generation has a very bad name devotions is devotional and it smacks of you know saccharin and it smacks of of bad things but i want to maybe
try to get rid of that sense of it just think of the were in the broadest like an a technical sense and this again is out of bed and a father like a gene i've given you that diagram there on the board
so we distinguish really three different levels one to a and to be in the first level is the lad term ex operate or grotto from that work worked yes of while
yes from liturgy to devotion we're moving in that direction so i have three different levels the first level being x operate operatic from the work that is worked
what falls into that category seven sacraments because we believe those seven sacraments are divinely instituted seven sacraments divinely instituted by god even if a priest were in a horrible state of sin
we're to preside eucharist confect the eucharist that sagamore was still be there by the power of the sacrament itself because it's christ the priest performing that
so expo operate or granted by the work worked itself
the second level all this falls under x operate or parentis by the working of the work
but that splits up to
and first of all a
things instituted by the church i wouldn't open the site that his exact words
first of all liturgies rituals that have public an official authority and have been instituted by the church
now what falls into this the liturgy the hours
we don't this certainly they were divinely instituted to do the luigi the hours this way but what is it has public official authority as instituted by the church
writer that devotions held by the order of the hierarchy what falls into this for example things a hierarchy recommends the rosary stations of the crash eucharistic adoration these are all devotions
that are in a sense held by the order of the church
now go down one more level
we call this is still the x operator apparatus
this is prayer held by individuals and that splits up in the to ganic categories to
by individuals in the church acting in a group private group devotions next level down by individuals acting as individuals all by themselves you see the follow that
so an example for for me would be the one would be a prayer meeting charismatic prayer meeting not something necessarily instituted by the by the church or a regulated by the church but individuals acting in a group they've roberts israel williams
jobs down there how many things could fall into that category be to as individuals
but all the way down to be one they are those are all group done in a group for what i wanted when i worked with the dividing line i want to give you is right here first of all the first thing we'll talk about the do is to liturgy and devotions devotions again in this protestants of the word
strictly speaking and this is only strictly speaking technically speaking
it is only catholic liturgy it is why roman catholic liturgy
give it's in those categories above
anything outside of that is not technically speaking catholic liturgy is devotion it can be ritual it can be worshipped but it's not technically liturgy in our language do you follow him sam
anything after that is considered a devotion because it's not been into divinely instituted we don't believe has been divinely instituted as the sacraments were or instituted specifically by the church
so the rosary not a liturgy in technical language i gave part of this talk to the it's a spiritual directors under avid david down in the san louis obispo have created their charismatics and he took exception to this because the next thing i said as a charismatic prayer meeting
he is not a liturgy and he said well though i think or is my prayer meeting as liturgy par excellence i said in the broadest sense perhaps but technically speaking it's not a catholic liturgy
technically those both of those things as the stations costs are considered devotions
by the by the way which are encouraged and to some extent even regulated when you read the documents and sacrosanct of cotillion you get this idea the impression that the hierarchy would like a priest present at all of these things running them anyway you know i was it i stated a parish of and poorly
and some days to go to early morning mass back in phoenix and pray the rosary with the ladies there was a pretty comforting about that where the priest was their everyday leading the rosary for them you know rather well here's one credit really comes over the people and he was there which was okay to and use praying with his people but he led it he led the whole thing to do i thought was inch
so there's a couple of different implicit hierarchies is going on here
one of them being that
the highest form of prayers the pyramids instituted by god and by the church the other hierarchy that's going on here is that the highest form of prayers the we doing groups is known as the individuals way down at the very bottom so from liturgy to devotion
so we do consider our prejudice
is that
that liturgical prayer in groups is the highest form of prayer above individual prayer of any kind that is are prejudice were just start there when not going to end up there were going to start there at least the most as the church says the most efficacious this is the prejudice we begin with
you of course you run into this was some monks who will tell you there is no i are amongst a to me specifically there's no such thing as private prayer now that he mean that even when i'm praying alone are praying with the whole church did he mean you shouldn't play by yourself i think what he meant is monks are meant to pray together all the time now where from a very different tradition
dan that early
so
although this is father viper genie we have said that even in the prayer of a private lay person in the church noticed the accent there is on private and meaning not a priest
even in that prayer it is somehow the church who prays still for the church the actualization of the church as such visited that the actualization of the church and such reaches its maximum of reality and intensity in the liturgical ack
ocean
a prayer whatever its structure whatever it's thought content can never be liturgy unless it is approved as such by the church and why the church here always means hierarchy under the privacy of the roman pontiff for the liturgy always involves the a
authority of christ and the church by a special title that does not belong to any other action which implies the exercise of that threefold power sanctifying teaching governing
so as again two things going on in groups and
instituted by the church and the hierarchy
now there are two sides this i'm i'm trying that to take sides on this just going to present this is like mrs traditional liturgical teaching
on one side of it you could say
the church is just wanting to impose hierarchy on us and doesn't give full valued anything to which it doesn't watch it doesn't approve of specifically and lead looks like that but let's think of it this way let's blow our ecclesiology up a little bit
the hierarchy alone is not the church
just as the individual person is not the church is not the whole church
the church is always an indissoluble whole with christ as the head
the hierarchy as a human and divine mediating agent
and all the people who are united with christ and the hierarchy with one of those elements missing you don't have church
all those things are together with christ as head with hierarchy as divine mediating agent with the faithful and we could argue for days about restructuring the hierarchy but however it's laid out if we had all women priests in
cardinals if we if we had a popular vote we would still have some kind of hierarchy we would still have some kind of a mediating agent and we believe that it's a divinely instituted thing that god raises up for us leaders and faithful priests
and legislators
the other side of this
you can see that the church is pointing to the fact that we are meant to do this together with christ as the head we are the body of christ
now this doesn't deny that i am a member of the body of christ but to accent as we always accept liturgical theology that we are the body of christ when two or three or together in my name
unless i'm also not get too far away from that thames
incredible sentence from sacrosanct i'm consuming of article seven and i passed out before what we believe in the roman catholic tradition is that here i'm a quote directly for you every liturgical celebration is a sacred action sir
passing all others that's just this diagram in a in a different form so one to a
we consider that every liturgical celebration is this is a sacred action surpassing all others why because it because it is an action of christ the high priest and his body because that's christ's action no other action of the church can equal it's
efficacy
not too much wiggle room around that one
but there's more to it i wanted to take just a short little side trip because we just had the feast of st peter damian the other day bruno's incredible homily and besides
do you know this
this famous book liber dominus for bisco it's called the book of the lord be with you which was some people consider you know one of the most eloquent defenses of the private maps but it's actually was it was even narrower than that
and he wasn't defending private spontaneous prayer he was defending private public prayer in a sense
them so we have this mysterious question and you just heard when i just read to you from further by the genie two sides he seems to be saying both of them and i i would like to hear him speak on peter david's more so on one side he say in the prayer of a private lay person in the church it is somehow the whole church who prays these also saying it
cannot be said that the individual person is the whole church
it's mysterious
well for some of the early hermits in the rub quality and tradition
for whom peter davies wrote this had found a oh elena and i'm i'm assuming there's also this is a presumption of hermit priests
they themselves had this had a problem with the practice of reciting public prayers and the church and privates they themselves had a problem with it
and so he wrote a of them bruno said something about know how he said a bit i was something like who is it's an eloquent defensive a of dubious practice something like that now the practice itself was that's why it's called the book of the lord be with you as he was defending
the ability for me to be in my cells of pressing the lord be with you and also with you if the so let's has called the book of domain as well biskind the book of the learned be with you
as dubious as the practice might be the ecclesiology behind it is not far from we're talking about it's really beautiful from the reader a few quotes you might know this famous one that we have that calligraphy hang at the entrance to the bookstore some reason it was never made in new cars
the church of christ is united in all her parts by such a bond of love that her several members form a single body and in each one the whole church is mystically present
and in each member the whole church is mystically present
and so whatever belongs to the whole applies in some measure to depart
so there is no absurdity in one man saying by himself anything which the body of christ as a whole may utter and in the same way many may fittingly give voice to that which is properly set by one person so that's why we as a group can say
lord make haste to help me
for they perceived that whatever is reverently offered up in god's service by any one member of the church is sustained by the faith and devotion of the whole body since the spirit of christ which gives life to the whole body which is preserved by christ it's head
is one so there's a holiday side to the issue there's many ways to view this and i don't propose to be giving any answers maybe inspiring more questions and inspiring you to look yourself
even when we are by ourselves we are a we even when i am by myself i am part of the week
all that being said that is not meant to negate anything i've just said there beforehand i'm not encouraging that the the practice a private masses again
try to balance it out let's look specifically that devotions for a little bit why i like to talk about this as many people come in with practices of their own devotions they don't know specifically as months what they should do is it how does that fit into the rest of our life
now i always worried either what about the big things it's famous for this image of my head of priests raping rosaries out of people's hands you know in nineteen sixty four hundred sixty five no we don't do that anymore where you stand out recently did a director and this wasn't done in a very gentle way you know
and i remember one monk bragging to me i finally got my mother's stop praying the rosary and now she's praying the liturgy the hours instead i said that's too bad why couldn't she have done them both why do you know why you pester her for years to give up practice this issue that she knew how to do already and liturgy that
this is wonderful to boot doesn't have to be either are so the church vatican two did never discouraged devotions but one of them to be brought in line a with good theology be with the liturgy that the liturgy is always the focal point
now we have a whole nother snobbishness going on in monasticism
kazakh we're have a tendency to protrude i have this great coat from thomas merge and sign him from the sign of jonas the course is written in nineteen forty
no probably fifty three or so when i was in the hospital in louisville last month benediction rosary litanies in the chapel with the sisters and nurses made a big impression on me
a sense of the religious vitality and these devotions which are frowned on as on liturgical i felt that the holy spirit was really there sense that this was the church of prayer even though not liturgy not official public prayer for these using on this language that i was just just talking about
seem to me something of catholicism was missing it gets seventy on this account yet we can't have all these things they are not for us monks except in private but i would never do without the rosary
very interesting were watching during the day of the night to me she was to so faithful to all those devotions it went around your this is thomas byrne is very much centered in the liturgical life i've been to use him his quotes on that is she coming up also
ah
so we were never meant to do away with devotions we were only meant to focus
and why does some a devotions go up because the liturgy was self it was so far removed from people in terms of the language and in terms of participation so this is what nationally grew up so we had we should have been and we should encourage you to be very gentle about ripping these things out of people's hands this
is what they got instead of having a liturgy that was the in their own language and being able to participate in it so pastorally speaking
at the same time
i present the meeting of the society for catholic liturgy in detroit this year and this five every dallas gave a talk and the respondent was this brilliant woman from baltimore
and she proposed this one line that had me gasping for air for a while
you might not think it's detrimental she propose that perhaps the novus ordo into the woods the liturgy of latin to has about it it's own ecosystem
and that perhaps the devotional life before the novus ordo does it really feet in two or grow out of it as well as something else would and perhaps that new ecosystem hasn't developed yet but what might that be what might be the devotion life that feeds into the novus ordo and grows out of it she sucked
adjusted our bible study
i were to we thought of silent prayer
so she's thinking perhaps the rosary doesn't lend itself so well into the liturgy perhaps but addiction doesn't lend itself so that she perhaps people and maybe the delusion is develop its own ecosystem but the presumption is that there is prayer preparing us for liturgy and there is too
rare that grows out of liturgy and they're not opposed to each other but the liturgy is the summit of these pairs and the source of these prayers going back to that same line that i harp on
so
even for a monastic a technical language
anything that we do outside of liturgy is technically considered devotion
now for me our silent prayer around the blessed sacrament on the altar at night it fits pretty well into the ecosystem of her liturgical life i could think of three thousand different ways to define it was very simply this is our this is our sake
rudd thing this ah object in there is was the bread that is a symbol of our lives that is now
become the body of christ and we sit in the presence of christ and we sit in the presence of us transformed
it's to me as a beautiful flow now i sit in the morning in the rotunda there's nothing on the altar at noon there is liturgy of the eucharist and the evening there is the best sacrifices to me this makes a there's an ecosystem going there of my whole day
but that's a devotion it's considered a devotion sitting in silent prayer
ah my soft when facing a blank wall if i consider that prayer it's a devotion it's also devotional life lacks you in a sense his devotion
the interesting phenomena in this life perhaps you don't find in many other monastic traditions
is that
somehow sometimes we prefer our devotion our cell time our time and our sell we prefer that to the liturgy of the church as if there were a contradiction between the two
and sometimes we find the liturgy to be a nuisance
in our private prayer life now that's what i find a little disturbing that something is where the reason why we're having this class
as if there were a conflict between the target goal in private prayer
for me catholicism the wonderful thing about it is it's always this both and it doesn't ever have to be either or somehow the marvel of catholicism is being able to balance this both and but it's very important for formation
as a religious to realize this especially it as contemplative
that there is nowhere and explicit conflict between the trickle and private prayer
both of them form harm and harmonious unity
speculation here on my part that i think as can be backed up by thomas merton
where this may come from
is a seeming tension between the arabic and the of vidic
between the hermit life and the communal life some of this comes right from there is why i keep stressing when it was from the dag i'd hear there are no hermits at the liturgy
we'll hear later in this section on the liturgy the hours
how the egyptian monks for instance
for them they didn't place a great stress on the tragic a prayer the monks in the desert and for century
and some of them because do this are real direct line
for the poor means as well as for the hermits that wasn't the greatest stress
the tension of it seems also this to trace itself to the old tension them between the active life and the contemplative life
even in those days in the fourth century of i guess you'll read this antivirus liturgy
by its nature is somehow seen as active and private prayers somehow seen as contemplative now this wouldn't be a cistercian understanding but this this could be definitely an egyptian understanding this could definitely be at the roots of the the monastic tradition
who is going to be active so liturgies somehow seen as active and god forbid cena vidic you know whereas contemplative parents contemplative
this of course for our own life this is where the rubber hits the road
is that in that tension of us between commodities i shouldn't say attention i said it in the dialogue of us being compelled the least been addicted
but we think back to romulus own model and our traditional the way through and the prior assures me and my own work with liturgy that this is where we're very firmly in the benedictine tradition with our love for the liturgical life and indeed the fact that the liturgical life is
is the most important thing we do as a community
as a community
never read from merton who is obviously great defender of the arithmetic life
hence his doesn't get that idea of active
versus contemplative hence the liturgical prayer is by its nature more active it may at any moment be illuminated by contemplative graves
and though private prayer may by its nature tend to a greater personal spontaneity it may also accidentally be more arid and laborious than communal worship which in any case is particularly blessed by the presence of christ and the mystery of the worshipping community
eighty and he's insisting that there is no tension there there there's no conflict
the doctrine of early been addicted centuries shows us than that the opposite opposition between official public prayer and spontaneous personal player prayer is largely a modern fiction
so
it's interesting merton chases this back to
the devotes you're madonna of the counter reformation this is something i'd love for somebody to do if not myself someday is to figure out real specifically where we lost the app prophetic tradition in the west and somehow this is tied up to me
but the devotes you have if you know anything about it and i know just just enough to be dangerous to put it simply put a little higher stock and aspect is tired know if you were to read thomas a campus for example
this it had its effect on monastic life to and the fervent monks of the counter reformation era
where assumed that they would do more prayer than just recite the office that this was an age when blank mind is not trusted okay so this is the age of discursive vegetation is the age of ignatius this is the age of mental prayer
so what do you do you add lots of elements to the monastic prayer you add lots of things there's also an era in the church about the eleventh century i think when even this the pauses in the liturgy of the hours are getting out about this is by a monk ansgar because he didn't think people could handle the silence whose adding more little things cause i'm spiritual flowers
or something like that
well unfortunately what's going to happen is that
these subjective elements that monks or as super adding onto the liturgy are going to come to be seen as really more important and valuable than the objective the surgical worship itself that this aspect of piety eventually takes over the liturgy and this is not what we were heading toward and the counter reformation were trying to be
ulster that roman liturgy what happens a practical spirituality is the aspect of piety takes over and the liturgy gets lost
so the liturgical prayer eventually comes to be seen as an obstacle to the better and more fervent prayer that you do by yourself
now this thinking has a lot more in common with us that we realize
this is not just an old conservative thing to think that what i can make up is better than went to church can give me but this is where like liberal or conservative make the same mistakes sometimes what i do by myself my by spontaneous pair when i've made up is better than the objective worship
it also has a lot in common i think with your gums here where and how did the monastic tradition where it was seen more it was much more important to pray the rosary going to do the devotions necessary that the constraint of liturgical life of the church one of the things further prior
has insisted on here and father buddha before him is that the liturgical life of the church should go on here and that be the basis of our spirituality why for first of all rooted in scripture second of all it's rooted in the church they just it brings us together it's safeguard just against flying off on either side i could get
carried away at ever trained you
stay on here
for me that what i'm trying to say is it's exactly that objective element of the liturgy that is the safeguard for our personal paralyzed but also the springboard of our personal prayer lives
the early credit christian tradition in really the spiritual matters even up to the middle ages did not know this conflict between public and private prayer or between liturgy and contemplation as thomas merton's this is a modern problem and a modern fiction
here's another quote from climbed mrs climate a monastic barrows quoting from liturgy by its very nature
tends to prolong itself
in individual contemplative prayer in liturgy prolongs itself and individual contemplative prayer and mental prayer contemplative prayer entered disposes us for and six fulfillment in liturgical worship i'm very impressed by that statement
our personal prayer disposes us for liturgical worship and seeks fulfillment and liturgical worship
now this is traced back to the classic monastic belief really of cash and benedict both that secret and contemplative prayer should be inspired by liturgical prayer and also be the normal crown of that prayer the much is made out of them to
one little chapter twenty and the rp you'll get to it i'm sure with bruno but remember a chapter fifty two the rule on the oratory after the work of god all should leave the oratory and complete silence with reverence for god so that the brother who may wish to pray alone will not be disturbed
oh by the insensitivity of another moreover if at other time someone chooses to pray privately
he may simply go in and pray not in a loud voice with tears and heartfelt devotion and then chapter twenty and the reverence of prayer
which is it
we must know that god regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction not are many words prayer should therefore be shorted pure unless it is prolonged the inspiration of divine grace that little section is right at the end of these twelve chapters on the opus dei
it's i'm i we always wonder if chapter fifty sixty or got misplaced if it should have been or fifty two got miss potent should have bit earlier after the work of god after opus dei go out a chapel so that those who wish to stay can stay so there's an assumption that are be that liturgical prayer is resolving itself in peru
personal prayer and not traer with many words some kind of a secret supplication kind of prayer it is in the benedictine tradition to
patchy those who say it isn't

at the same time
point out quickly that for benedict as for the early monks liturgy is not seen as the highest form of contemplation

liturgy itself isn't
for a vicarious i mentioned or anyone's for samadhi is the work of the active life and the fulfillment of the active or liturgical prayer
the height of contemplative prayer is in what is in wordless prayer in the unity of the heart and a vicarious even goes on and describes his prayers prayer without images or words even sometimes beyond thought that flows from as
the normal fulfillment of the active and liturgical prayer but assuming that the liturgical prayer is there
now wagner he says the great teacher of john cation
for cash and writes about but he caused the or accio a nita
fiery prayer
so for cash and liturgical prayer bursts forth in this wordless
ineffable exaltation of the my mind and heart i got coffee new translation this is from
the ninth conference on prayer chapter twenty five
it leads them to a hired it leads them by a higher stage to that fiery and indeed more properly speaking wordless prayer which is known an experienced by very few this transcends all human and
are standing and is distinguished not i would say by a sound or movement of the tongue or a pronunciation of the words
rather the mind is aware of it when it is illuminated by an infusion of heavenly light from it and not by a narrow human word and once the understanding has been suspended it gushes forth as from the most abundant fountain and it speaks ineffably to god producing more in that very brief
moment then the self conscious mind is able to articulate easily or to reflect upon
now the interesting thing about that little quote there is it comes at the end of his section of the our father
because for cation the our father
leads to this higher higher stage of prayer the official liturgical prayer leads to this higher prayer
the lord's prayer leads all who practice it well to this higher state and brings them at last to the prayer of fire which is known an experienced by fuse in which isn't expressively higher degree of prayer
so
my point being yet again the distinction between public and private prayer between active and contemplative prayer really in a sense is a fiction in our own terms that i keep using it over and over again
liturgy as the source and the summit for all of these things so our private prayer the summit of our private prayer is that the liturgical action and those turgid action that becomes the source of our prayer

that's it
will turn the tape ah so we can speak for him