Monastic Ponderings is new blog I enjoy reading and... well.. pondering. Here are several of the most recent blog titles:
In the Garden of the SoulEvery one is a clear view into the life of seeking God.
The Journey
Inner Spirit
The truth about Community life
Penthos
St. Benedict wrote a Rule for monks which is also used today by Benedictine oblates.
St. Benedict’s Rule gives a schedule for chanting all 150 Psalms during a week. But in that schedule St. Benedict actually had his monks reciting certain Psalms more than once each week.
I call these repeated Psalms St. Benedict’s favorite Psalms because while he borrowed the Psalm patterns used in other monastic rules and in the Church practices (the Lauds (meaning praise) Psalms are a good example), he also modified those lists to fit his own plan.
In a freedom common with St. Benedict’s famous Rule he adds at the end of his detailed Psalm schedule that if anyone does not like his Psalm arrangement, they should rearrange the Psalms as they see fit, provided that all 150 Psalms are chanted every week.
What are the Psalms that St. Benedict’s Rule has his monks chanting more than once a week? I like to think they were his favorites and perhaps because they were also the favorites throughout the Church and monastic communities since antiquity.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Psalm 3 at Vigils each day(1)
Psalm 94(95) at Vigils each day(1)
Psalm 66(67) at Lauds each day
Psalm 50(51)at Lauds each day
Psalm 148 at Lauds each day
Psalm 149 at Lauds each day
Psalm 150 at Lauds each day
Psalm 119(120) at Terce Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 120(121) at Terce Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 121(122) at Terce Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 122(123) at Sext Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 123(124) at Sext Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 124(125) at Sext Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 125(126) at None Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 126(127) at None Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 127(128) at None Tuesday through Saturday
Psalm 4 at Compline each day
Psalm 90(91) at Compline each day
Psalm 133(134) at Compline each day
CityDesert — “Desert Spirituality for the City” — is a new-to-me blog that is well worth reading.
The “desert” homes of the early desert fathers may have been more like uninhabited remote areas that were actually fit for the support of life and not the completely barren wastelands that I sometimes pictured in my mind and wondered about.
The always helpful New Advent Encyclopedia has an insightful article on the “desert” or wilderness in the Old Testament. The article can also give a better idea of the term in later monastic writings.
From the first part of the New Advent article:
The article then continues to explain and give examples of the four Hebrew words.
“The Hebrew words translated in the Douay Version of the Bible by "desert" or "wilderness", and usually rendered by the Vulgate desertum, "solitude", or occasionally eremus, have not the same shade of meaning as the English word desert. The word wilderness, which is more frequently used than desert of the region of the Exodus, more nearly approaches the meaning of the Hebrew, though not quite expressing it. When we speak of the desert our thoughts are naturally borne to such places as the Sahara, a great sandy waste, incapable of vegetation, impossible as a dwelling-place for men, and where no human being is found except when hurrying through as quickly as he can. No such ideas are attached to the Hebrew words for desert. Four words are chiefly used in Hebrew to express the idea.”
Until this morning, I had missed that Monastic Musings blog, — one of the blogs listed on the right sidebar under the “Spiritual & Religious Blogs” section — had moved in August and changed its name slightly. It is now Monastic Musings Too.
I corrected the name and links on the right sidebar and also over on the Oblate Spring web site’s page listing all the blogs in alphabetical order.
Monastic Musings Too’s first new blog mentions that the previous blog was attached by malware and the blog was shut down and she has not yet been able to retrieve any of her 1000 previous posts yet from Google.
In her new blog format she is also going to have some dedicated pages on Monastic Musings Too for oblate resources. Very good and I wish Monastic Musings Too much success as an important resource for oblates.
Monastic Musings Too is written by Sister Edith, a Benedictine sister of St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota. She is also an Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of St. Scholastica, a college sponsored by her monastery and housed on the same grounds.
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Footnotes:
Picture is Reference Books by Barbara L. Slavin as is subject to the creative commons license.
According to the Catechism, the practice of lectio divina (prior blog) is rooted in the divine office (liturgy of the hours).
I found two references to lectio divina in the Catechism, but no uses of the term in the 2005 Compendium.
Here are the two passages:
1177 The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day, the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading from the Word of God at each Hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia) and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal more deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the psalms, and prepare for silent prayer. The lectio divina, where the Word of God is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the liturgical celebration.I had not considered lectio divina as being rooted in the public worship practices (ie liturgy) of the Church. The significance of this — to someone who has come to the Catholic Church from the Protestant world — is that once again I see how liturgy in all of its fruits produce gifts of the full Christian life.
2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.
Origen (182-254 AD) was the first to use the term lectio divina.(1) He used the term in a letter describing the importance of reading divine Scriptures by faith and prayer. Origen says that Christ will open the Word’s hidden meaning.(2)
In the short time since the third century AD, the practice of lectio divina is becoming more widely known in a world seeking deeper spirituality.
Pope Benedict XVI said in October 2008:
The Bible “must be read in the same Spirit in which it was composed.”(3)Here are ten articles on lectio divina for your link library(4):
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