LORD JESUS, HAVE MERCY ON ME A SINNER
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AN ANCIENT CHURCH STILL TEACHING THE ANCIENT
TRUTH AND LIVING OUT THE ANCIENT FAITH
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The Celtic Orthodox Church is
so Ancient it demands respect
is so Traditional it is refreshing
and so Conservative it is reassuring.
HOLY TRINITY CELTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
A MONASTIC CHAPEL LOCATED IN THE RESIDENCE OF
THE
CELTIC ORTHODOX BENEDICTINE FATHERS
1703
MACOMBER ST., TOLEDO, OHIO 43606
PHONE
419.206.2190 / E-MAIL amdg@bex.net
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CELTIC ORTHODOX BENEDICTINE MONKS ARE PRAYER WARRIORS WHO DAILY
OFFER THE DIVINE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND DAILY PRAY THE
SCRIPTURES
FOUND IN THE DIVINE OFFICE CALLED THE MONASTIC DIURNAL.
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Our Lord assured his disciples that he had
come, not to destroy, but to fulfill,
the Law. It is not
surprising, therefore, to find the earliest Christians,
notably the Apostles,
conforming to the traditional customs of worship of
the old Covenant: keeping the
Passover, or going up to the Temple to pray
at the appointed "Hours
of Prayer," or keeping those hours as times of private devotion.
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Likewise, we find St. Paul, wherever he
might be, seeking out the
local synagogue on the Sabbath, taking part
in its worship and
availing himself of its opportunities for
teaching. At the same time
we find Christians keeping strictly
Christian observances, notably
the First Day of the Week, with its
Eucharistic Breaking of Bread as
the distinctive act of worship. Even when
the Church had overflowed
the bounds of Judaism and was
overwhelmingly Gentile in its
membership, there was a survival of
devotional practices of Jewish
origin. Chief among these was the
observance of the "Hours of
Prayer," as services supplemental to
the central Eucharistic Rite.
Tertullian, among others, is witness that
this survival was not
confined to the Christian communities of
Palestine. The observance
of the Hours was at first a matter of
private devotion in Gentile
communities, as it continued to be in Rome
until a comparatively
late period. But with the rise of
asceticism, we find outside of
Rome the practice of saying the Hours
becoming customary in the
public assemblies for worship, where it met
and coalesced with two
other Non-Eucharistic services, the Vigil
preceding Sundays and
great festivals, and the daily
“Lucernarium”, or lamp-lighting
service, held at night-fall. The material
of these services was
drawn from the worship of the synagogue and
the structure of the
Vigil modeled loosely after its pattern.
There was psalmody, the
reading of other parts of Scripture, and
prayer. It is in the union
of these two streams of common worship, the
monastic, semi-private
services of the Hours, and the public Vigil
and its prelude, the
Lucernarium, that we find the original form
of what has long been
known in the Church as The Monastic Diurnal
or Divine Office.
The Liturgy proper, the Mass, held its
position of supremacy unchallenged
and unrivalled.
But contemporary writers bear witness to
the fact that in the East,
in the Fourth Century, the laity, secular
and monastic, as well as
the clergy, attended these supplemental
services in great numbers.
That there should be need of regulation was
inevitable. By the time
such regulation appeared (in the Fourth
Century) the fusion of the
secular and monastic elements of the Office
had become general, and
perhaps we may attribute the enactment of
legislation on the subject
to the cooling of the zeal of not only the
secular laity, but of the
clergy as well, in the matter of regular
and systematic attendance
at the offices. Thus we find in The
Apostolic Constitutions
directions that clergy and laity shall
"make prayers early in the
morning, and at the Third, Sixth, and Ninth
Hour, at eventide, and
at cock-crow." There is an additional
enactment that, if assembly
for service cannot take place in church (on
account of persecution,
or similar grave cause), the Bishop shall
assemble his flock in some
private house; but if this is impossible,
each one shall discharge
this duty either alone, or with one or more
of his brethren. (Apost.
Const. VIII, xxxiv. Patr. Graec. I, 1135.)
In the same century,
the Council of Laodicea (A. D. 387) echoes
these directions.
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THE
BENEDICTINE MONASTIC DIURNAL
THE
BENEDICTINE MONASTIC DIURNAL DATES BACK TO THE 6TH CENTURY AND IS
AMONG THE FIRST AND OLDEST FORM OF PRAYER REGIMENTATION IN THE WESTERN RITE OF
THE LARGER ORTHODOX AND CATHOLIC CHURCH.
IT WAS ESTABLISHED BY SAINT BENEDICT OF NURSIA, A WESTERN RITE ORTHODOX MONASTIC, BEFORE WHAT
TODAY IS CALLED THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH BROKE AWAY FROM THE LARGER ORTHODOX
AND CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE DAILY PRAYING
OF THE
DIURNAL HAS ALWAYS OPENED THE FLOOD GATES OF GOD’S
BLESSINGS ON THOSE WHO
PRAY IT WITH
FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE. DARE I SAY IT HAS BEEN THE CAUSE OF THE SALVATION OF
MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE ENDED UP IN HELL.
St.
Benedict writes in his Prologue to the Rule: We intend to establish a school
for the Lord’s service. In founding it
we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. If your experience convicts
you of sin, do not at once be dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, as we
know the way to salvation is narrow. For as we advance in the religious life
and in faith, our hearts expand and we run the way of God’s commandments with
joy and gladness.
CELTIC ORTHODOX
BENEDICTINE SPIRITUALITY
Celtic
Orthodox Benedictine are warriors who daily pray the Benedictine Monastic
Diurnal. This helps them sanctify their
day and draw closer to God in Christ.
Christ asked the Apostles, “WILL YOU WATCH ONE HOUR WITH ME”? Celtic Orthodox
Benedictine respond “YES LORD, SPEAK YOUR SERVANT LISTENS”. The Diurnal (means day time prayers) are a
composition of psalms differing with
each
day of the week. The Psalms have always
been considered the prayer book of the church from the
time
of the Apostles.
HISTORY
The
Monastic Diurnal owes its remote origins to the inspiration of the Old
Covenant. God commanded the Aaronic priests (c.1280 BC) to offer a morning and
evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:38-29). During the Babylonian Exile (587-521 BC),
when the Temple did not exist, the synagogue services of Torah readings and
psalms and hymns developed as a substitute for the bloody sacrifices of the
Temple, a sacrifice of praise.
After
the people returned to Judea, the Temple was re-built. The prayer services
developed in Babylon for the local assemblies, (synagogues) of the people, were
brought into Temple use. We know that in addition to Morning and Evening Prayer
to accompany the sacrifices, there was prayer at the Third, Sixth and Ninth
Hours of the day. The Acts of the Apostles notes that Christians continued to
pray at these hours (Third: Acts 2:15; Sixth: Acts 10:9; 10: 3, 13). And,
although the Apostles no longer shared in the Temple sacrifices—they had its
fulfillment in the "breaking of the bread" (the Eucharist)—they
continued to frequent the Temple at the customary hours of prayer (Acts 3:1).
Monastic
and eremitical (hermit) practice as it developed in the early Church recognized
in the Psalms the perfect form of prayer and did not try to improve upon it.
The earliest Psalter cycles of which we have a record is the division given by
St. Benedict in his Rule (Ch. 8-19) with canonical hours of Lauds (Morning
Prayer) offered at sunrise, Prime (1st hour after the Mass), the
Office of Terce (3rd hour, or Mid-morning), Sext (6th hour or Midday), None
(9th hour or Mid-Afternoon), Vespers (Evening Prayer) offered at sunset, and
Compline (Night Prayer) before going to bed.
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Christ
continues to bring the love of the Father to His people and reveal His own love
for us from the Tabernacle on the Altar. Christ continues to be our Savior, our
Redeemer, our life, our sweetness and our hope. From the Tabernacle on the
Altar Christ ALONE remains the gate of Heaven, the SOLE arbiter and dispenser
of all God’s Graces and gifts; The Mediator of all graces. We are healed by the
Sacred Wounds of Christ, we are redeemed by His Precious Blood and we are made
clean by His spoken word. It is impossible to be sealed in the Blood of
the Lamb without also experiencing the power of the Mass, as the Eucharist is
what seals us in the Blood of the Lamb. The Benedictine Monastic Diurnal is an
extension of the Mass used in the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church and is
oriented toward the Mass.
St. Benedict (A.D. 480-543)
writes of the canonical hours in the Rule he wrote;
As
the Prophet saith: "Seven times a day I have given praise to
Thee," this sacred sevenfold number
will be fulfilled by us in this
wise if we perform the duties of our
service at the time of Lauds,
Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and
Compline; because it was of
these day hours that he hath said: Seven
times a day I have given
praise to Thee. At these times, therefore, let us offer
praise to our Creator
"for the judgments of His justice;"
namely, at Lauds, Prime, Terce,
Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.
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THE CANONICAL HOURS
Regular
daily prayer appears to have both been inherited from the Jewish Church and an
outgrowth of the extended apostolic Eucharist.
In accordance with Psalm 118:164 -- "Seven times a day do I praise
Thee" --
devout
Jews would offer prayers and psalms periodically throughout the day, and such services
were a feature of synagogue worship in the days of the Apostles.
The
watch of prayer which preceded the post-apostolic Eucharist was eventually
organized into several hours, one of which remained as the preparatory part of
the Eucharist (the Proanaphora or Mass of the Catechumens).
Vespers
for Saturday is called Vespers 1 of Sunday to show continuity of worship with
the Sabbath Day (Saturday). In the life
of the early church for some 600 years or so the faithful met for worship on
the Sabbath (Remember, keep holy the Sabbath) and also on Sunday, the Lord’s
Day (the Apostles met on the first day of the week in addition to worship on
the Sabbath).
The
chief end of the Monastic Diurnal of the Benedictine tradition is to render to
God Praise, Thanksgiving, and Adoration which is His due, and the
sanctification of souls.
The Church lives in time and with time. This truth is brought
out beautifully in the canonical hours. They provide a perfect way to
consecrate the whole day to God and make it holy. The admonition of our Lord, that we are to
pray and not grow weary, is thus perfectly fulfilled. For every part of the day
the Church has drawn up a special prayer-form, an hour, as it is called, that
corresponds to the particular need of that time of the day. The day is like a
journey through an arid desert, but every three hours we come upon an oasis
that offers us the waters of grace and the cool refreshing shade of heavenly
assistance. Spiritually we may revive ourselves at the canonical hours of
prayer.
LAUDS
Lauds is a jubilant hour, fresh as the morning dew, perhaps the
most beautiful of all the hours. Its symbolism deserves attention. It is night;
nature and men are asleep. In the Far East the grey of dawn appears; then the
ruddy hue of morning, the harbinger of a new day, spreads across the horizon,
and the world of nature begins to stir. But all this natural beauty is only a
symbol and reminder of a most wonderful event in the story of salvation. It was
at this beautiful hour that our Savior burst the bonds of death.
Resurrection—that is the background theme of Lauds. And the two pictures
together, dawn and resurrection, remind us of a third arising from slumber, the
spiritual awakening of the human soul. There is, then, a threefold resurrection:
nature awakens, the Savior rises from the dead, the human soul celebrates its
spiritual resurrection. Such is the background to our prayer of Lauds. It is an
explicit song of praise; praise is the hour's central theme. If we can get a
feeling for these three pictures intermingling in our Lauds prayer, if we can
enter into the spirit of this threefold resurrection, if we can enlist the
forces of nature to pray and praise and exult along with us while reciting this
hour reasonably early in the morning, perhaps even in the open air, then we are
certain to be struck by the full impact of its meaning. Lauds is, actually, one
of the most striking examples of what a proper observance of the characteristic
thought of an hour and the background theme from the story of salvation can do
for personal devotion. The psalms at Lauds are all specially chosen hymns of
praise. The climax of Lauds is the
Gospel song, the “Benedictus”. It is a hymn in praise of man's redemption, a
greeting to the dawning day of salvation which is destined to be one more step
toward its completion. Every day is a new coming of the Redeemer, and the
Church greets her Savior as the "Day-Spring from on high".
PRIME (FIRST HOUR AFTER
DAILY MASS)
Prime is the Church's second Morning Prayer, quite different in
tone from Lauds. Lauds is the ideal morning prayer, a "resurrection
song" of all creation and of the Church. Prime is the morning prayer of a
sinful human, a subjective prayer. The basic theme of Prime is dedication of
and preparation for the day's labors and conflicts. This theme runs through the
whole hour.
TERCE
9 o'clock. The Church wants us to pause briefly during our day's
activity and raise our hearts to God; that is the purpose underlying the
“little hours”. They are a chance to catch our breath, an oasis in our desert
wanderings. It is important that we do not pray them all at once, but whenever
possible we should pray them at the corresponding hour of the day as a renewed
consecration of the day's work. The little hours are short, because the day is
for work. The story of salvation has a role to play in Terce: it was the third
hour (9:00) when the Holy Ghost came down upon the young Christian community on
Pentecost Sunday. Quite appropriately,
the Church recalls this mystery in the hour of Terce: Terce is thus the
"first Confirmation", a strengthening for the conflicts of the day.
The hour's theme is invocation of the Holy Ghost. The hymns proper to the
little hours are a further development of the theme proper to each, and to the
corresponding time of day.
SEXT
12:00 noon. Theme of the hour: The day's conflict is at its climax,
the heat of passion is at its strongest, the powers of hell have greater
influence over man; our lower nature seems to have gained mastery. Theme from
the story of salvation: the Savior is hanging on the Cross (12:00 to 3:00);
hell is bringing all its forces to bear against him. This scene from Good
Friday is the background for Sext; foreground is the battle against sin in us
and in the Church. "Lead us not into temptation" is the message of
this hour.
NONE
3:00 to 6:00. This day of salvation is slowly beginning its
decline. Our thoughts are taken up with the end of life. Looking to my future I
ask: will I persevere? Perseverance is the hour's theme. There is no theme from
the story of salvation. At the most there is eschatological shading—the last
things.
VESPERS
Vespers, or Evensong, is the Church's evening prayer. It is very
similar to Lauds, both in construction and in basic theme. The Church looks back
on the day of salvation just passed with all its redeeming graces—and is
fervently grateful. Vespers is a thanksgiving prayer. Thanksgiving is the
principal theme: the “Magnificat” is the climax, the great thanksgiving song of
the Church. The canonical-hour theme is this: thanks be to God for the day just
passed, both in the soul and in the Church, thanks for all his saving
graces. There is also a theme from the
story of salvation to be found in Vespers—the Last Supper. At the very same
time that Vespers is prayed, Christ was seated with his apostles in the upper
room. This gives Vespers a special connection with the holy Eucharist, and as a
matter of fact, a great number of the Vesper psalms are Eucharistic songs or at
least can easily be referred to the Eucharist.
COMPLINE
Compline is the Church's second evening prayer, and as opposed to
Vespers, it is a subjective and individual prayer for the sinful soul who wants
to make her peace with God. The hour is a masterpiece of construction, the work
of St. Benedict; we might call it the ideal night prayer. Particularly
beautiful is the symbolism of Compline. Light and sun are favorite Scriptural
and liturgical symbols of God, Christ, the divine life. Christ is the divine
Sun, the Christian is a child of the Sun. These thoughts are to be found
frequently in the hours. But also the opposite of light, night and darkness, is
a frequent liturgical symbol for the sinister power of the devil; night is the
cloak for the prince of this world.
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