Echoes from the Bell Tower

“Nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God.”
Rule of Saint Benedict 43.3

Several times a day we monks go to the Abbey Church to pray together. We sing hymns, we chant and recite psalms, we listen to scripture and the writings of spiritual commentators that help us reflect on the sacred texts of the Bible. This activity, along with our daily celebration of the Mass, is the vital center of our lives as monks. This work is God’s work, and is, for the monk, the most important kind of work we do.

We do other kinds of work, of course – teaching and administration, writing and study, arts and music, spiritual direction and retreats, parish work – but nothing is so central to an expressly monastic lifestyle as the “Work of God”, also called the “Liturgy of the Hours” or “Divine Office” (holy duty). The five “offices” (duties) we pray each day are Vigils and Lauds early in the morning; Midday Office (also called Sext, the “sixth hour,”) prayed at noon; Vespers each evening around sunset; and Compline after the evening meal.

St. Benedict calls these collectively the Work of God, because it’s not just a collection of individuals praying together in church. The monastic community is a gathering of the Church itself, brothers and disciples of Jesus, united in his Spirit, praying with Christ and as the whole Christ, head and members, in praise of our Creator, God the Father. We pray in community with Christ and in Christ, and through this work in the Spirit we give flesh to Christ’s presence in the world – physically and spiritually – praying for the world through his body, the Church.

The praise monks offer God throughout the day is done from within a world forgetful of God; within a society darkened by sin and violence. As a monastic community, our primary duty is to pray as God’s Church in the world, to express, in Christ, the divine and human aspects of the new creation God brought into being through Christ – God’s kingdom – which is near at hand! (Mk 1:15; Mt 3:2; Mt 4:17)

Our other works – our school and seminary, our hospitality and guest facilities, our ministries and parish work – flow from our monastic commitment to prayer. These other works we’re involved in, along with you our coworkers, are meant to express the love and service of Christ, out of concern for a world God loves (see John 3:16). Our common prayer witnesses to and makes present not just our love for God, but God’s love for hu-manity and the whole creation, and God’s love for us personally! (1 John 4:10-16). This is why our common prayer, the Work of God, is the heart and core of our monastic life. To value our others works more than the Work of God would be to neglect our “duty” as monks – and we wouldn’t be “true to ourselves” if we did that.