Opus Dei
"Our basic attitude, I feel, should be one of a reverential waiting for and hoping for the Lord."
Br Dominique is our master musician.
When Rev. Father asked me to give a chapter on the Opus Dei in the Rule of St. Benedict, as you may imagine a myriad of ideas circled through my mind: what aspect, or dynamic, or point of view should I choose? Finally I decided on Chapters 9, 11, and 19. They gave me my topic: Our Attitude in the Opus Dei.
Our basic attitude, I feel, should be one of a reverential waiting for and hoping for the Lord. Interestingly enough, in some languages, v.g. Spanish, the word for “to wait for” and “to hope for” are the same: esperar. So when reciting the Office in Spanish and one comes upon the phrase: Espero el Señor, it can mean I hope in the Lord, or I am waiting for the Lord. The context determines the meaning. This, I feel, succinctly expresses our basic attitude while engaged in the Opus Dei, the Work of God. But now let’s look at St. Benedict to see if he ratifies my sentiments and inclinations.
Beginning with Chapter 9: The Number of Psalms at the Night Office, we see that after having set the time in which one will celebrate the Divine office, Benedict proceeds to its content. Instead of just beginning with the psalms as the ancient office was done, early on, our Saint invites us to a sort of outer sanctuary which is presented in the form of a quadruple introduction to the psalmody. Remember, the psalmody is the heart of the Office. This introduction includes the verse “O Lord, open my lips” from Psalm 50, which is repeated 3 times; then Psalm 3: “How many are my foes, O Lord”, followed by Ps. 94: “O Come ring out our joy to the Lord”, and finally the Ambrosian hymn.
The introductory phrase, “O God, come to my assistance” which begins all the day hours of the office, is clearly lacking here at Vigils. This triple repetition of a psalm verse is in harmony with the rhythmical sense of the ancients, for whom the repetition of the same words evoked not just a progression of feeling, but a deepening of affective feeling, of love, towards the Saviour. Our verse implores the aid of divine grace for the praise of God. In this way, and in this way alone, will it be the Opus Dei, the Work of God in us. For if the work of God is clearly also our work, then it is, however, even more so, the work of God in us, since it is the Spirit of Christ who prays in us. Thus Christ is, properly speaking, the true prayer (orans), one who prays, for the Church. The Opus Dei from our side is a feast, and when one celebrates one rests, but from God’s side, it’s action: the work of grace wrought in us, and through us, into the whole ecclesial community. Our work is preparation, God’s work is accomplishment. Thus, there is a sort of reciprocity between us and God in the Opus Dei. A similar reciprocity can be seen in our chanting of the Office. One side chants a verse and the other responds. If your eyes drop down to the wrong verse and you begin singing it, confusion reigns. But when all is sung as it should be, there is a gentle peace, and Our Lord is the Prince of Peace.
Psalm 3 is designed to act as a transition between the repose of the night and the divine office of the new day: “I lie down to rest and I sleep. I wake for the Lord upholds me.” Because it is the Lord who calls us together, we clear ourselves of all nocturnal somnolence. The “Glory be” (an important Christological element) which must conclude the psalms is expressly mentioned. Then comes the summons: “Venite” “Come”, from which Psalm 94 took the name of “Invitatory”. It’s like a festive fanfare that escorts us into the new day. Finally this introduction concludes with the hymn, which St. Benedict simply refers to as the “Ambrosian”, those hymns composed by St. Ambrose of Milan, composed primarily for didactic purposes. Also, it was in Milan that he introduced the hymn for the first time in the western liturgy.
After the six psalms comes a verse. It is easy to pass this over. The verse is not only just a line from a psalm; it signifies a “change” in the direction of prayer. (Verse comes from the Latin “vertere” which means to turn.) It makes us pass from the active to the passive, from the attitude of the one who sings to the one who listens. There is also a change in our deportment: we were standing, but after that we sit. Our active duty of singing is accomplished standing; now we sit to passively listen to the Word of God. I know that presently we alternate between sitting and standing during the recitation of the psalms but in verse 5 of Ch. 9, verse 3 of Ch 11, and verse 7 of Ch 19, it indicates that at St. Benedict’s time, the monks stood while chanting the Psalter.
Chapter 19, entitled: The Discipline of Psalmody, has an interesting footnote in RB 80. It says: “The word discipline is a key word in the Rule with a variety of meanings, including ‘arrangements’, ‘discipline’, and here it refers to the interior dispositions the monks should have.” Reverence is a word the keeps popping up. In all three chapters (9, 11, & 19) St. Benedict exhorts the monks to immediately rise in reverence when the Glory Be to the Father is begun. Look at the scriptural quotes in Ch. 19: “that in every place the eyes of the Lord are watching the good and the wicked.” This quote, by the way, aligns Ch 19 directly with Ch 7, the chapter on Humility, where the same words are cited, regarding the angels. How fitting: humble reverence toward our God! Note the ending of Ch. 19 where our saint says: “Let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices.” What a beautiful prescription for chanting the work of God.
Let us see, now, what some of the Fathers of the Church have to say about our attitude in the Divine Office. At one time, many years ago, this was a few years before I went to Rome, so you see it was many years ago, I began compiling some of these comments. Unfortunately I’ve lost that compilation, but I’ve been searching and I have found a few. Let’s enjoy them.
St. Bernard as you know can be quite descriptive and graphic. The following is taken from Sermon 47 on the Canticle of Canticles. “For by our Rule, nothing must be preferred to the work of God, which is the name that our Father Benedict desired to be given to the solemnities of divine worship, which are offered day by day in our church, thus showing more clearly how desirous he was that we should apply ourselves with all our heart to that holy work. Therefore I warn you and entreat you, beloved, always to occupy yourselves in the praises of God with pure hearts and earnest minds. With earnestness, so as to present yourselves at the worship of the Lord, as well with willingness and gladness as with reverence; not with laziness and sleepiness, not yawning, not keeping silence, not cutting your words short, or even passing over some altogether, not chanting through the nose or between the teeth, with broken and lowered voice, in a lazy and effeminate manner, but pronouncing the words of the Holy Spirit with manly and earnest voices, which correspond to the dignity of the subject of which they speak. And to occupy your thoughts while chanting with nothing else than the words which you are chanting.” When I first read this, I thought: “hmm, Guadalupe doesn’t sound too bad. Can you imagine: singing through the teeth!
St. Thomas in the II-II, q 83, art 13 says: “It must be observed, however, that there are three kinds of attention that can be brought to vocal prayer: one, which attends to the words, lest we say them wrong: another, which attends to the sense of the words; and a third which attends to the end of prayer, namely,
God, and to the thing we are praying for.”
St. Augustine, in Sermon 336, On the Dedication of a Church, recounts how singing the Office is a work of love. “Singing is for one who loves. The voice of this sacred song is the fervor of holy love.” Again, in his Confessions he says: “What cries did I utter to you in those psalms and how was I inflamed toward you by them, and on fire to set them sounding through all the world, if I could, against the pride of man!”
St. Bernard once again in his Sermons on the Cant. #85 says: “Where there is love, there is no effort, but delight.”
Cassian in his Collatio IX says: “For sometimes a verse of any one of the psalms gives us an occasion of ardent prayer while we are singing. Sometimes the harmonious modulation of the voices has stirred up the minds of dullards to intense supplication.”
Finally, and my favorite, Evagrius, in Chapter 82 in his Chapters on Prayer, exhorts: “Pray with fitting reverence and without anxiety; sing with understanding and with attention to the requirements of the music – Then you shall soar aloft like young eagles.
God does not ask us to be expert singers, but He does ask us to be attentive to the words of our prayer. Our attentiveness is the vehicle to proper expression of the text and loving union with Christ.
+ Br Dominique