The Divine Office
Benedictine life is structured around the praying of ‘offices’ at regular times, a practice that can be traced back to the earliest Christians and the hours of prayer in the temple at Jerusalem [Acts 3:1]. It is a way of placing God at the centre of our lives, breaking off from whatever we are doing to go to the church to pray together. We call it the ‘Work of God’ which can be read as both the work we do for God but, more importantly, the work that God does in us. As we pray together we open ourselves to God’s presence and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. St Benedict devotes a substantial part of his Rule to arrangements for this public prayer, indicating its importance in monastic life.
These offices are short services consisting mostly of the chanting of psalms along with scriptural readings, hymns and prayers. Our constant chanting of the psalms immerses us in a world where God’s presence is felt and God’s goodness is praised. We are entering into the prayer of Jesus, who quoted from the psalms from the Cross and at other times too.
Encouraged by the faith of the psalmists we find the gift of God at the centre of all reality in spite of the evil and violence we are so aware of in the world around us. The psalms cover the whole range of human feelings and enable us to give voice to our own feelings or those for whom we pray. With regular repetition the words of the psalms become part of our mental ‘furniture’ and we find that the language of scripture becomes our own.