Most people have probably never heard of the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office (same thing). Yet for Benedictines, this daily set of prayers is foundational. We gather three times every day for the mix of silence and song, Scripture and Psalms that form the Liturgy of the Hours.
 
The Psalms have provided the primary content for Benedictine prayer since St. Benedict wrote his Rule 1,500 years ago. In it, he dedicated more chapters to the order in which we pray them than to any other question. We still, for instance, pray the very Psalms he specified for Compline on Sunday evenings.
 
But times have changed rather dramatically since those early years in monastic caves! Modern schedules require teachers to be in their classrooms and social workers to be visiting with clients (to name a couple of our Sisters' ministries) all day. So our arrangement of Psalms accommodates the workday.
 
We pray the entire Psalter - 150 Psalms - over a 4-week cycle, at Lauds, Noonday Prayer, Vespers and Compline. Lauds, or Morning Prayer, symbolizes the Resurrection, featuring Psalms of praise. We dedicate the day, ask God for assistance and guidance. Vespers, or Evening Prayer, features Psalms thanking God for the good of the day, and asking for forgiveness for our sins. The remaining Psalms are distributed between Noonday and Compline.
 


The Central and Dominant Place
 
"The Liturgy of the Hours holds the central and dominant place in our lives," Sr. Catherine Cleary says. "Our reason for being here, as Benedictines, is to seek God. This communal prayer is an outward sign that we are doing so together. We sing and chant the Psalms, we sit in silent reflection on the Word."
 
It's a companionable silence, sitting shoulder to shoulder with one's Sisters, day after day, year after year.
 
"I get this wonderful feeling of unity with the community at prayer," Sr. Susan Hutchens says. "To look out and see our 98- and 99-year old Sisters praying with one voice with the younger members really moves me. It's the thing that unites us all in our search for God. And it unites us daily. I remember a monk once saying that praying the Office is like winding the clock every day. It's the daily-ness that I love about it."
 


With One Voice
 
The entire Psalter provides a picture of the human heart, and has done so for thousands of years. Jesus himself would have grown up praying the Psalms!
 
"The idea is, when you have prayed all 150 of them, you have prayed every human emotion there is," Formation Director Sr. Mary Core says. "And you have prayed them in the same kind of disjointed and unpredictable way in which the human heart operates. Psalm 139 is a good example of such a crazy juxtaposition: How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! ... If only you would slay the wicked!
 
"At the end of this Psalm, though, we see yet another emotion when we pray, Search me, O God, and know my heart ... See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Here, we pray for guidance against our own bad behavior. We say, 'Am I getting a little too righteous? Maybe I'm no better than anyone else.'
 
"For Benedictines, the Liturgy of the Hours form the hinges of our day. We pray them as the Spirit prays in us every day, together, as one voice. We pray them with the global church, over time, over space."
 
For more information on how the Benedictines pray together, contact Vocation Director Sr. Bobbi Bussan!