Chapter 11: Vigils or night office on Sunday
This arrangement for Vigils is followed in the same way on every Sunday both in summer and winter, unless -- which God forbid -- the community gets up late, in which case the lessons or responsories should to some extent be shortened. (From para. 2 of Ch. 11 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
In my life, meditation generates a creative rhythm, but also a disposition, at least an increasing one, to be gentle with myself when I fall short of my discipline. I realize that God upholds me with a divine energy that constantly heals and renews me.
“But don’t let me mislead you. Actually to say the word morning and evening, day in and day out, winter and summer, whether you feel like it or don’t feel like it, all this requires a good deal of grit, determination and steel in the spine.” (John Main, “Gethsemani Talks” Kindle loc 220). Simple but not easy, this pilgrimage with you, Abba. Keep me gently on the path, strengthen my spine, one day at time.
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