Chapter 9: The number of psalms at the night office
During the winter season the office of Vigils begins with this verse recited three times; Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. (From para.1 of Ch. 9 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Chapter 7, on humility, had so much to say about the use of speech and silence. Interestingly, the verse Benedict mentions here, invoking God to open my lips to declare his praise, resounds to my ears with the soundless drama of creation, or a new cosmic birth in the midst of a cold and silent winter night. Listen!, Benedict says to me: The mouth hums with the the song of the Spirit.
Chapter 7, on humility, had so much to say about the use of speech and silence. Interestingly, the verse Benedict mentions here, invoking God to open my lips to declare his praise, resounds to my ears with the soundless drama of creation, or a new cosmic birth in the midst of a cold and silent winter night. Listen!, Benedict says to me: The mouth hums with the the song of the Spirit.
John Main cites Cassian’s warning about “the great danger of all Christian prayer”. That is, “ that we cut down God to our own size in order to talk to him, making a convenient shoulder for us to cry on and a convenient idol enabling us to avoid the abyss of His otherness.” (“Gethsemani Talks”, Kindle loc 191). Through the silence, stillness and simplicity of meditation, Abba, you plunge me daily into that abyss of your otherness.
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