Chapter 12: The celebration of solemn Lauds

Then come the hundred and seventeenth psalm and the sixty second followed by the Benedicite and Laudate psalms, a reading from the book of the Apocalypse recited by heart, the responsory, an Ambrosian hymn, a versicle, the Benedictus, litany and conclusion. (From Ch. 12 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)


Time and again I find Benedict telling his monks to recite prayers or whole readings from the Bible as part of saying the daily hours. Or, telling them to recite from heart if they are out in the fields and unable to come to the oratory. So, I ask myself, what is it that I can recite from heart? A few poems, a few prayers, some lyrics to hymns or popular songs? It's not an impressive inventory. Memorizing is not the necessary skill that it was for a largely illiterate society, or even for literate ones that valued memorization as a means of intellectual development. Today, any and all information can easily be looked up by some electronic means. So I thank God that I have the mantra as a means of bringing my heart into discipline, into fidelity, and into rootedness.