Calling Amelia

A few days ago “Amelia” sent me an email concerning vocation discernment and a retreat. Amelia, my emails to you are being returned by your server. Please can you check your email account and fix up whatever is wrong, or give me another email address where I can contact you? Thanks!

Vigils: Prayer during the darkness of night

VIGILS is a night Office, when we rise to watch and pray during the hours of darkness.  Our Constitutions remind us that the “hour of rising is so determined that Vigils maintains its nocturnal character”.  (In this community Vigils begins at 4.10 a.m. and lasts between 50 minutes and an hour). 

But why pray at night?  Why not just sleep at night, and pray by day?

Here are a cluster of ideas which together give a sense of the idea behind monastic vigil-keeping, and which can help us appreciate this rather counter-cultural practice:

Paschal movement: from darkness to light
Every Christian vigil derives its meaning from the Easter Vigil, the “mother of all Vigils” as St Augustine called it, which celebrates Christ’s triumph over death, sin and evil.  Keeping nightly vigil until dawn, we enter into the paschal dynamic of passing with Christ from darkness to light.  The Easter Vigil itself derives from the Jewish Passover, celebrating the night when God freed Israel from slavery, “the night when the Lord kept vigil to bring them out of Egypt” (Deut 12:42).  The original vigil was kept by God, watching in love, overseeing and making possible the people’s escape.  In keeping vigil, we respond to what God has first done for us!  We celebrate God’s vigilance towards ourselves, particularly God’s vigilant love in Christ, which triumphed even over sin and death.

Keeping vigil: watching, waiting
Our nightly vigil is also oriented towards the future return of Christ in glory.  To keep vigil is to watch.  Our vigil is a watchful waiting in hope for the return of the Lord.  Jesus said: “Stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow or dawn; if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep” (Mk 13:33-36).  So we get up at night as an expression of our belief that he will return, and we watch through the hours of darkness with longing hearts, eager for the arrival of the Bridegroom.  Of course Christian hearts should be vigilant always.  We rise at night to keep vigil for the Lord’s coming because we long for that coming at all times.

Union with Jesus, who prayed at night
Jesus taught us to pray, not only through his words but also by his example, which included prayer at night.  He rose early in the morning to pray (Mk 1:35).  He sometimes spent the whole night in prayer to God (Lk 6:12), or stayed in prayer until the fourth watch (Mt 14:23, 25).  We pray in him and through him, joining our nocturnal prayer to his.  With him, we experience the quietness of night, when the natural silence and stillness promote awareness of God and facilitate listening to the Word of God, both in the liturgy of Vigils and afterwards in our personal lectio divina.  That is why we observe the “Great Silence” during these hours.

The revelation of God in darkness
“God is light” (1 Jn 1:5) and “the Father of all light” (Jas 1:17), but God is also mysterious and hidden.  There is a sense in which it is in  and through darkness that we approach and experience the divinity.  Some mystical writers speak of our journey to God as an ascent into divine darkness.  Scripture gives many examples of people who had significant encounters with God at night or in darkness.  Above all, at Jesus’ death there was a terrible darkness over the land, in which lay the greatest revelation of God’s love for us, in the redemptive death of the Son of God.  Sometimes, entering into darkness precedes an experience of God’s unfathomable love.  Our regular night vigil expresses our readiness to face darkness: both our personal, inner darkness and the mysterious darkness of the world.  God is to be found in darkness as well as in light.

Prayer for a world in darkness
Night is a time of anguish and fear for many, when pain, guilt, fear and despair can seem almost unendurable.  Many of the psalms of Vigils call out to God from the depths of distress, for mercy, help, justice, victory over evil.  Praying them, we give voice to the cries of the poor and troubled, those who are unable to turn to God themselves, or who do not even believe in God.  We identify with those who are suffering, and call out with them and for them.  Our prayer rises to God in the hours of darkness as an act of solidarity with those experiencing the night of the cross.

Praising God, even in darkness
We also offer praise and thanksgiving at night.  For even in darkness, we know that God’s faithful love surrounds us, that we are a blessed people.  Even when the evidence is not visible, we continue to praise God.  “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines… yet I will rejoice in the Lord” (Hab 3:17-18).  We walk by faith, not by sight.  So our nightly song of praise rises up, a sign of faith and confidence.

As ascetical practice
Keeping vigil constantly calls for discipline.  Through it we express a willingness to renounce our own agenda (or “will”), and commitment to ongoing conversion.  We die a little to ourselves in order to find deeper life in Christ, and to have our hearts expanded in love of God and others.

The Hours of monastic prayer

You don’t have to be very long at a Cistercian monastery before the bell rings and it is time for prayer.  Seven times every day the community assembles in the church to sing God’s praise and listen to God’s Word.  Generally we use the traditional Latin names for these times of prayer:

Vigils – beginning some time during the early hours, around 4 a.m. while it is still dark;
Lauds – morning prayer, at daybreak;
Terce – mid-morning prayer, around 9 a.m;
Sext - midday prayer, around noon;
None – mid-afternoon prayer, around 3 p.m;
Vespers – evening prayer, ideally at sunset;
Compline - night prayer, which completes the day.

Each one of these “hours” of prayer has its own unique colour and focus, linked particularly to the time of day at which it is celebrated.  Each reveals to us something of the goodness of God and the mystery of Christ.  As St Basil put it, “each period contains a reminder peculiar to itself of blessings received from God”. 

The Second Vatican Council urged those who take part in the Prayer of the Church to “make it their own so that it becomes a cource of devotion, abundant grace and nourishment for personal prayer and apostolic activity.”  In the next few posts I will outline some of the ideas and themes associated with each of the Hours of prayer. 

If you understand French…

… you might like to look at this excellent video. It is an interview with Dom Olivier Quenardel, Abbot of the monastery of Citeaux in France, speaking about his life of faith and his vocation. Even if your French is not great, it has some wonderful visual glimpses of the monastery and the brothers – it runs for almost an hour.

I had hoped to write something else today but spent most of my computer time struggling to learn how to insert an image in the sidebar!  (Yes, I found the instructions in WordPress FAQ; yes, I thought I followed them; no, it didn’t work.)  Got it in the end, though there’s room for improvement.

New assistant novice director

Sr Michelle Miller has recently been appointed assitant novice director in Glencairn.  She will work with the novice director, Sr Michele Slattery (two Michel[l]es! Room for confusion, yes!) and in particular will be responsible for the work assignments of the novitiate sisters.  With four sisters currently in the novitiate, she will be kept busy.

Sr Michelle is from Dublin; she entered Glencairn in 1997 and made solemn profession in 2003.  She recently completed a three-month programme for monastic formators in Rome (see here for details).

Come away and rest

In the page on Cistercian Spirituality, I mention that the words of Jesus to his disciples to “come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31) is an invitation which is at the heart of monastic life.

 

Bonnie Thurston explores this text which, she says, “contains the whole of the monastic project”, in a little more depth.  Here is what she says:

 

To “come away” is to separate one’s self from everyday life, the larger whole, to be set aside for a special task, which is the theological meaning of “holy.”  It encompasses the renunciatory aspect of monasticism.

 

“By yourselves” seems to suggest the solitude of an individuated life, one which resists the conformity and “mass-produced-ness” of society.  But as the pronoun in Greek is plural, it is, in fact, and invitation to an alternative community, to relationship with all who choose to withdraw.

 

“To a desert place” conjures up images of the geographical remoteness traditionally associated with great monastic (especially Cistercian) houses.  But “desert” can be understood in contrast to “city”.  To be invited to the desert is an invitation to leave what passes for society, to leave the cultural norm for a holier alternative.  The “desert” is the place where one meets self and God.

 

“Rest” encompasses the greatest (and most neglected?) of monastic virtues, the end toward which the life is organized: leisure.  To rest is not to be idle, but to avoid frenentic activity that prevents deep confrontation with the one who truly is.  To “rest” is to give up care and anxiety, to cast all one’s cares on the One who cares ultimately for us.

 

It is from this invitation of our Lord to come away and rest that monasticism arises.

 

Bonnie Thurston, “Soli Deo Placere Desierans”, in A Monastic Vision for the 21^st Century, ed. Patrick Hart ocso [Cistercian Publications, 2006; Monastic Wisdom Series, no 8]

 

It is worth reflecting on these ideas.  If you are considering vocation, do these words resonate in your heart?

Do Not Keep Them From The Door

An attractive poem posted on Poetry, Prayer and Praise  whose author has been kind enough to link to this site.  It speaks to me of the potential of each new day, full of gifts waiting to be unfolded for us.  It also links with the idea of hospitality, including hospitality to ideas, of which Bonnie Thurston writes in an essay that I’m reading, and on which I will post later. 

“Selling” monasticism?

Another radio station picked up on the “Irish Examiner” article and phoned me yesterday about the Vocations Information Day which we will host next Sunday.  It is good to get this coverage, to let people know that Cistercian life for women is vibrant and healthy in the Irish church today.

 

 

But I am also a little uneasy.  Some of the media questions betray an understanding of the Information Day as a “selling technique” for the “product” that we are “marketing”.  But monastic life – or any form of religious life, or any Christian calling – is not like that.  We do not just select it from a list of possible career choices.  It is a response to a “call”; the initiative lies with God. 

 

Vocation is always a response to an invitation from the Lord, not just a lifestyle option that we decide upon for ourselves.

“Irish Examiner” feature

Today’s “Irish Examiner” includes a feature on us by Conor Kane, with photos by John Kelly.  As newspaper articles on monastic life go, it’s not bad.  The focus is on why a woman today might choose to join a community like ours.  It also draws attention to our “vocations information day” coming up on Sunday.  Already I’ve had a local radio station (WLR FM) ring me up for more details about that.

So head over to page 9 of today’s “Examiner” and read all about it!

Anyone for history?

Dr Deborah Vess is Professor of History/Interdisciplinary Studies at Georgia College & State University.  She teaches a course in Medieval Monasticism, which ”is a survey of the forms of religious life in the medieval west, and the major contributions of medieval monasticism to medieval and to modern culture.”  The website for the course is here, and includes pages on “Desert Hermits”, “Eastern Monasticism”, “Benedictine Monasticism”, “Irish Monasticism”, “Anglo-Saxon Monasticism”, “Merovingian and Carolingian Monasticism”, “Medieval Monastic Women”, and several others.  Each page contains links to all kinds of other fascinating and informative sites… a real treasure and a rich resource.  There are also links to contemporary monastic sites. 

Thank you, Dr Vess!