LITURGICAL PRAYER
The solemn celebration of the liturgy
is the
heart of our whole life
and the chief source
of its unity.
Constitutions of the Nuns
The word liturgy was a familiar one even in pre-Christian days. In
the ancient pagan society the Greek word meant any work done for
the good of the people, usually without compensation. It might be
the public worship of the local pagan god or goddess or it might be
building a road. Christians adopted the term but in a narrower
sense meaning the official public worship of the Church. This
maintained the sense of something done for the good of the people,
but restricted it to a religious sphere. In the Eastern Church it
has an even more limited meaning and is the equivalent of the
Eucharistic action. For us the term includes the Eucharistic
celebration, or the Mass; the Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine
Office; the celebration of the Sacraments; and also occasional
things like the dedication of a church, religious profession, and
various blessings which are approved in the Roman liturgical Book
of Blessings and its supplements in each nation and culture.
We make use of the best we have in the service of the liturgy
whether it be music, texts, vestments, decorations or furnishings.
But it is not our own subjective enjoyment of a beautiful and
reverent service that demands this, but rather the honor and glory
of God.
One important thing about the liturgy, at least as carried out in
choir, is that we pray with our bodies, with our whole selves. A
human person is not just a soul or just a mind, but a whole person,
body-mind-soul. The body is part of us and will be for all
eternity, even though it will be changed. It is through the body that we
express and make visible what is in our heart. When at the
beginning of our Liturgical Office we make the sign of the Cross
and say or sing, 'O God, come to my assistance', the more
thoughtfully, carefully and reverently we perform this simple
gesture, the easier we find it to maintain the inward devotion we
express. The bowing, turning, sitting, standing, processing that we
do at liturgy have been seen as a form of liturgical dance. We even
pray with David, 'Praise him with timbrel and dance'.
Even though we spend our whole life exploring the liturgy we never
exhaust its spiritual benefits. It has an immense power to
transform us and lead us to God, but for it to do its work in us we
have to immerse ourselves in the mystery of Christ which is its
content. Year after year we are led through the cycle of Christ's
life and thus we can spiral down deeper and deeper into the mystery
of His life and the meaning of our life in Him. As we become more
and more familiar with the texts of the liturgy we learn how to
model our private prayer on these same motifs and themes. The
psalter is both our book of prayers and our school of prayer. The
more we grasp the meaning of the psalms and make them our own
personal prayer, the more we respond to the teachings of the Holy
Spirit. We make it a point to seriously study some of the psalms
and to take the psalms as matter for our private Lectio from time
to time, and it is good to memorize at least a few of them so they
can come to mind spontaneously during our day.
Vatican II in the document on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium
says the Liturgy is 'the outstanding means whereby the faithful may
express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ
and the real nature of the true Church'. Liturgy is the ritual
prayer of the church and therefore it focuses on relationships. In
liturgical prayer we encounter the word of God but the words are
symbols; the reality is the Word who can only be discovered and
loved in a personal relationship.
When we participate in the liturgy we are carried into the
conscious awareness of that beautiful doctrine of our Church, the
Communion of Saints. This is the time when there is the closest
unity of mind, heart, and body among those who are worshipping
together. We have come here for this communion and this is the way
we express it publicly. And, yes, it is a communion of saints. Not
canonized saints to be sure, and not perfect ones either because
God is not finished with us yet, but each of us is a 'holy one'
chosen by God for this life of worship. To realize that about
myself and about each of my sisters is a wonderful help to bring
about the unity of our life. And we are in communion, not just with
each other here in this chapel, but with the entire Church. This is
the public worship of the Church and we are designated by our
profession to carry out the liturgy in the name of the entire
Church and for the needs of each member. So while we are doing this
we can appropriately think of a real closeness with every person
who needs our prayers. This communion is the Church Militant, but
we are also in union with the Church Suffering in Purgatory and the
Church Triumphant in heaven. This truth is beautifully depicted by
a painting of the choir of our brethren saying the Gloria Patri
with the Brothers and Sisters in heaven joining in them in company
with the Angels. It is also demonstrated by the stories of the
early days of the Order when Our Lady was seen by some of the
brethren blessing them during the Salve procession at Compline.
There is a correlation between the quality of our monastic
community life and the quality of our liturgical prayer. The unity
of mind and heart which St. Augustine enjoins on us in our Rule can
be sensed in the oneness of voices in choir. As we listen to one
another carefully in choir and in daily life, try to cooperate with
one another in choir and in living the life, it will enhance our
recitation or singing in choir and our relationships in community.
This is what our life is all about: Charity.
Singing is an integral part of the Roman liturgy. The type, amount
and structure depends on the degree of solemnity of the event being
celebrated, season of the liturgical year, the size of the assembly
(or in our case the size of the monastic community), and the skill
of the musicians. There are many different liturgical actions,
postures, and ritual objects. Some of the liturgical actions are:
laying on of hands, the reading of scripture, sprinkling with holy
water, processions, and the sign of the Cross. Liturgical postures
include kneeling, the orans-posture (arms extended and upraised in
prayer), standing, prostration, and sitting to listen to readings
or observe sacred silence. And we use ritual objects such as bread,
wine, oil, water, incense, banners, vestments, candles, light, and
darkness. These liturgical signs and symbols are meant to foster
worship. In our culture we are not used to drawing from the
abundance of symbolic things and acts. But it does enrich our
participation in the liturgy and consequently our prayer, to study
from time to time one or other of the symbols. There is for
instance a whole book on the use of fire and light in the liturgy.
And a little digging into encyclopedias, reference books, and books
on the liturgy can yield a lot of treasure.
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