THE GIFT OF STRUCTURE
But what do you DO all day?
Well, we could say that we spend our time being as alive as we can be, and that all our activities are differing expressions of that act of living.
We sing the Liturgical Hours, but we could also say that the day sings itself. Our days and much of our nights take on the rhythm of liturgy, self-supporting labor, and prayer.
Does the Office of Vigils at 3:15 AM sound odd to you? Psalms and light spilling from our chapel into the darkness do not seem off to us—neither the service not the three hours of quiet that follow. They create the base rhythm of Cistercian time. In these hours of prayer, study, a simple breakfast and perhaps a walk, we wait for morning and all it symbolizes of resurrection and rebirth, for us and for the whole world.
At seven, we celebrate that very daybreak with Morning Prayer and Eucharist. Work, which follows, is not a break from prayer but its continuation in the physical world of Altar Bread manufacture, kitchen and yard work, art and music, office work, house maintenance, and whatever falls into the category of odds and ends.
Noon has its own significance with the sun at its height. We return to chapel for the short Office of Noon Prayer. The meal which follows comes as a remembrance of Eucharist and the joyful confirmation of our common life. In every culture, meals have been considered a sacred image of mutual bonding.
The quiet break after dinner wash-up may be spent in siesta, prayer, or some other quiet interest to renew the mind and body for afternoon work and another free interval leading into the liturgical celebration of Evening Prayer.
Supper has been, as breakfast, a pick-up meal, and we are free until the Hour of Compline concludes our liturgical worship cycle, and the day itself.
Into this basic structure we fit the lectures, informal get-togethers, occasional fun suppers, community dialogues, Chapter Talks, and the meeting of guests that vary our daily lives.
