In praise of staying put: Benedictine stability in today’s world
The Benedictines have shown me another pattern of faithfulness: the pattern of committing to a place and a community and refusing to run away.
The seventeen days
Pre-Lent rolled in early this year. Septuagesima already past, at the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Sexagesima as well, with Quinquagesima looming
A pitch for memorization
Memorizing prayers, by definition, means that the prayers become inscribed on your soul in a new way. You become mindful of the words, and they come to rest in the “fields and vast palaces of memory” (see Augustine, Confessions X.12-26), engraved on the walls of those palaces for your perusal at will.
Strive to enter that rest
The Daily Office requires each Christian to begin the day by reciting Psalm 95, meditating on the profound similarity between Israel's rebellion and the rebellion that lurks deep in every heart.