Spare A Thought

Spare a thought for the nuns at the Carmel here in Launceston: come December the 1st, they move to their summer timetable, and arise half an hour earlier, at 4.55 am. Deo gratias!

It certainly makes my coming to weekday Mass for Advent at Carmel pale in comparison - especially since I've now missed the start of Mass (at 7.30 am) for three days running, and have shamefully to sneak in late - the first day during the sung Gloria, yester-day during the first reading, and to-day during the sermon! At this rate I'll soon never get to Mass at all, quod Deus avertat.

I must say, I find it a real discipline to take up the Breviary again as part of my Advent preparation: all these Psalms... I was quite pleased to be almost over with Matins before Mass. It must be said, Matins is the real kicker: the Day Hours are doable, though one has to be consistent about observing the veritas horarum lest they all get left to be said at night.

Writing this put me in mind of something to consider, for I keep a small notebook recording Masses heard, Confessions made, and Hours prayed (obviously I turn my mind to God on other occasions also, but liturgical prayer makes up the bulk of my devotional practices).

I find that this year so far, out of just over 11 months, I've read the full Breviary Office on 131 days, the Day Hours only on 70, and some part of the Hours on 14; while I used the Little Office instead for 76 days, plus 15 when I attempted only part of it; up until Advent, for a change, I prayed Mattins and Evensong from my copy of the Book of Divine Worship for 20 days straight; shamefully, 8 days here and there went by without much prayer at all.

To think that for years and years - well over a decade - I was absolutely punctilious about saying the Divine Office; now see how much of a chopper and a changer I've become...

I confess

It makes me feel lazy and therefore ashamed, but I must admit that this week I've left aside Matins, and only used the Day Hours of the Breviary.

Unfortunately, I have found reading the nine psalms of Matins and its lessons - while ideally excellent - to be too much of a burthen, and a source of anxiety and restlessness.

I do hope in this (as in much else) that I have not entirely succumbed to acedia - that is, to that form of sloth which is the vice of finding religious devotion repulsive.  (Aquinas warns that this vice, often linked to the effects of pride, lust and gluttony, is closely related to despair - quod Deus avertat.)

On the positive side, I haven't been assailed with a foolish mania to read the Office as if it were some duty binding upon me, construed in a pharisaical manner (like tithing mint and dill, yet not practising charity), but rather, I hope, I have looked forward as my daily nourishment to delighting in the psalms given us by the Holy Ghost through the sacred writers, and the prayers of the Church composed under the guidance and governance of the same Spirit.

St Benedict defined the hoped-for effect of the Prayer of the Church as mens concordet voci: "may the mind accord with the voice" - that is, the desired result is that the heart may be lifted up to the Lord by striving to be of one mind and soul with Him through participating in the very words of Divine Revelation and right doctrine.  To this I say, Amen.