IF TODAY YOU SHOULD HEAR HIS VOICE

conference    #  8






FR TIMOTHY  began by expressing the gracious gift he had recieved in praying the psalms with us the rhythm the pauses the intentional moments of listening for god he went so far as to suggest that he had recieved something far greater than what he had given to us in our conferences

it occured to me while he was speaking that we are in this flourishing time everything around us is in a  flourishing state i see young women who are pregnant i see the forests burgeoning with growth i see flower gardens literally bursting with color and greenery the air is fresh and cool not much sun but the life in the flora is a regular collective madness of flourishing power the birds are regaling everything not much insect life clouds which threaten to douse us once again in a flourishing storms of rain we  are drinking in lots of rain around here...i have this deep sense of some flourishing going on in my life...sometimes i feel i could burst with joy....this resulted in some tears




our flourishing in religious life is sustained by the recitation of the psalms
the psalms are a seedbed for the gardens of our lives
what are we doing singing and reciting these ancient poems
what do we think we are up to
to be to be do be do to    day -in- day -out   bringing these prayers
around in an endless cycle of continuous utterance the world round???

our earliest christian brothers and sisters adopted
the psalms immediately
most likely there was some form of collective psalmody going on
before the rites of eucharist took on recognizable form
from the time of Jesus' death to the the time of the writing of Mark's gospel
or    "peter's"  gospel  those marked by  the WAY
sustained their witness with the psalms in what became
the greatest witness to HOPE

at one level our engaging in the psalms is selfish
we find these chapels to be
places we like very much
we like the prayer and we make it a habit
and we pretend to own it to some degree
but really what we are doing is for others it is for
everyone else in the church it is a true charitable service
it is the ever flourishing garden
no matter what else goes down or awry in the church
the orders dedicated to the divine office will go on singing the psalms
each one is a song each one even when recited is a song
we are engaged in concentrated singing
this is why
MONASTERIES ARE FOUNDED FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHOIR
this takes priority

a little different from the world at large

although it is interesting to think about how important recorded music is in the life of people
 people take on a personal ownership of  "their music"   i have   "My"  music but

the divine office is the one true gem the one thing the treasure we cannot forsake in all of christendom

we keep alive this very public very ancient very drone-like method of prayer a nearly hypnotic form if it weren't for  mind -boggling  statements that wake us up
 or the wrestling match of anyone's particular struggle
the recitation of psalmody could easily descend into inanity...yet it has almost universal concensus that it is powerful and it is beautiful and it has its own perpetual motion...the  HOLY SPIRIT  if you will

herein fr timothy recounted two stories of people he new at the very end of their lives still conscious just before death requesting music requesting the last string quartets of beethoven or a haydn symphony for the other person

in the end there should be music as we finish up our stay here our ministry
whatever it could be we must attend it and end it with beautiful music
and the church learned this early on
 that despite all  no matter what  to go on praising god
'tis the way to lend dignity to everything every event every consequence
it is very quiet understated and insistent HOPE

sing and walk onwards   -  admonishes augustine of hippo

it is godly duty we perform the godly duty of doing it
just doing it day after day just doing it for no other reason
that to just do it
and the psalms as we know appeal to almost every imaginable emotion
every deep thought of mankind is imbedded somewhere
in the expressions in the psalms terrible anger anguish fear
horror laughter worry shame but always the acknowledgement of
transcending in the enduring hope of god
 we too are his hope after all
his language to us is intimate love talk



the   4   point structure of the prayer day:

EVENING
is the true beginning it is a moment of recounting
what has transpired that day and of looking onward in hope
to the next day
we let the day go
MASS is best in the evening tis in the evening we reconcile

the last supper was a late afternoon evening meal

NIGHT
is the time of truly letting go of the day of forgetting
of allowing everything to have its recourse in god
let us always bear in mind that Jesus
slept in the boat while the storm whipped up
compline is a beautiful prayer

MORNING
our tradition is that all churches face east
it is not so any longer
but up until the 20th century it was a standard
the rosetta windows were meant to be the
display of wonder in the morning every morning
announcing god's love for us
our eyes  AWAKENING  with the sun
in morning psalms we utter our deference to the possibility of life being new
a new day dawns we sing the glory this is the day if today you should hear his voice



DAY
day by day o dear lord three things i pray
the present of the present to be in the moment the only moment that really exists
present past - present present  - present future
all one each day the drama it is meant to be the time of flourishing
if at all possible      if we can flourish       if we can assist others
 in their flourishing or simply to flourish ourselves in the midst
of whatever flourishing may or may not be happening
sometimes religious life can appear pretty sterile
even from the inside
if we flourish in prayer we lend humanity to all of it

who is taking the pace         who sets the pace
jean vanier speaks of serving at the pace of a disabled person
allowing them to set the pace
let us not ignore the approach to time that the virtually helpless person
must assume


my brothers
         HE SO ENDED

let us pray











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