October 26

Chapter 19

The Rule of Benedict October 26

The personal experience of Presence while "assisting in the Work of God" (praying the Office) is what Benedict seeks to enable by this chapter.  Of course there is a learning curve wherein one must learn the techniques involved in ritualized prayer, but other problems arise when we feel so comfortable within the form that our focused attention is no longer needed.  It is at this point that Benedict calls on our minds to join our voices in harmony.

From February:

I appreciate that Benedict describes the desired relationship between mind (our thoughts) and voice (the words we sing) in the Divine Office as "in harmony".  "Harmony" implies a pleasant relationship between two distinct entities, not a top-down conformation of one to the other.  Our task as we pray is not so much to submit our thoughts to the words of the Office, but to allow our thoughts the freedom to sing along.  And as we all know from experience, such freedom takes practice.