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Page 3 of 6 FEASTS AND FASTS
Many believers have lost touch with life’s seasons and cycles. Fortunately there are many churches that maintain and celebrate “the rhythm of the Church year.”3 Monasteries maintain this “life of Christ lived out again in liturgical time,” this remembering and reliving of the life of Christ.4
How often have we felt like the passing of time was meaningless? How often have we felt like life was vain? Be honest. Don’t respond with what you know to be true, respond viscerally, from the gut, from where you really live. At one time or another, we may have all felt this way. Living within the liturgical seasons, being able with the aid of the church kalendar and Christian community to walk with Christ, can help to address this deep sense of vanity and “chasing after wind.”
Monks, as well as those who seek to follow their lead, walk through life accompanied with tangible reminders (as well as the objective reality) of Christ. His “seasons” become their seasons. Advent, Lent, Easter and Pentecost (among other feasts and fasts) become far more than just holidays or holy days. Saints of the Day become spiritual friends along the way. Seasons, again like sacraments, channel the presence of our Lord in a unique way. We can participate in this active remembering and reliving of Christ’s life should we choose to do so.
DAILY OFFICE
St. Benedict tells us that the Divine Office (which may also include the Sacraments) should be preferred, or have precedence, over every other activity (Rule 43:3). The Daily Office, when done thoroughly and properly, provides an opportunity for well-rounded prayer. Have you ever felt like your prayer life is just not “cutting it?” Have you, using (in fact, misusing) the words of T.S. Eliot, “wept and fasted, wept and prayed,” and still felt like you were coming away empty, that the heavens were like brass? There may be many reasons for this sense of absence, abandonment and failure: disobedience, “dark nights,” the need for maturity and obedience, and sickness are among a few. One other reason may be that you may not be praying completely or consistently in community. Complete, consistent and community prayer are vital to a vibrant faith.
The importance of prayer was driven home to me very early in my Christian walk. Initially I prayed very little. After falling on my face, I learned to pray a lot. Now I’m learning to pray ceaselessly. But, even after I learned to pray consistently, I needed to learn the value of complete and community prayer. Sure I’d pray, but, upon examining scripture and other sources such as Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Prayer, I discovered that my prayer was lopsided. I was, so to speak, “flying with one wing.” Petition ranked high, but many other features of prayer were notably absent. Community prayer, on a daily basis, even when I was in my “closet” at home and alone, was also lacking. Prayer Meetings and Cell Groups were just not enough.
The Daily Office, exercised through the 1928 and 1549 Book of Common Prayer5, helped me with this. Now I can say, albeit recognizing my failures, that my prayers are far more well rounded. Moreover, when I pray the Office from the Book of Common Prayer I am assured that I am praying orthodox Christian prayers that are shared by countless others who, throughout the day, pray the same prayers. My prayers are now more complete, consistent and rooted within the historic Christian community. It must also be stated that such a practice in no way impedes my being profoundly responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Form and freedom are not, necessarily, at odds.
As spiritual direction and authentic transformation are intimately and inextricably related to prayer (which is not just a set of mechanics, but a powerful mystery) it is advised that anyone who is genuinely concerned about salvation and sanctification align themselves with the monastic practice of the Daily Office.
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