Chapter 10: The night office in summertime
Apart from that the arrangements for winter are followed exactly so that never less than twelve psalms should be recited at Vigils, not counting the third and ninety fourth psalms. (From Ch. 10 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Very precise instructions here, that begin to establish a rhythm and thoroughness about reciting the Psalter. Benedict's insistence on building a daily and hourly pattern to prayer remind me of John Main's instructions about saying the mantra. "It is also helpful to meditate regularly in the same place and also at the same time every day because this helps a creative rhythm in our life to grow, with meditation as a kind of pulse-beat sounding the rhythm." (John Main, Word Into Silence)
Twice daily you invite me to plunge into the “abyss of your otherness”, Abba. You call me to what Cassian called the “prayer without images, that restricts itself to the repetition of a single verse, the “prayer of poverty.” (John Main, “Gethsemani Talks, Kindle loc 196). And poverty of spirit makes mine your kingdom.
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