Benedictine prayer
Last week I went to a meet held at a meeting being held at the Southern Star Cistercian (Benedictine) Abbey at Kopua, near Dannevirke. Most of our time was retreaty. A big part of that was joining the brothers for their daily office: at 6am, 8am, 11.30am, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm. Most of these consisted of a hymn, singing three psalms, short bible reading, short prayer, blessing, and Marion anthem (and angelus at 6am, 11.30 and 6pm) The fist service I went to I thought “O my Lord, this might be a little tedious”. The singing was not great, it seemed slow, the seats were not so comfy. But after one or two services it grew on me. I fell into the rhythm. The chants entered into me. I went to sleep with the tune in my head. I woke singing “Praise to the Father the Almighty, and to the son Jesus Christ our lord, and to the Spirit who dwells in our hearts, both now and forever amen.” It was amazingly stilling, and earthing. And it was nice to get in touch with some of our Anglican roots. Cranmer was i...