Q: What parts of the day are considered "Offices?"
A: The Offices are Vigils, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.
Q: Why are they called Offices?
A: They are called "Offices" from the Latin "officium" which means service or duty. The "offices" for us are "Divine Offices" or a divine duty/service which we have promised to carry out.
Q: What do the various names of the offices symbolize?
A: Vigils means to keep watch and that is the purpose of Vigils: Keeping watch for the Lord, symbolized by the light. So Vigils takes places before it gets light.
Lauds simply means "praise." Lauds is ideally sung as the sun rises and it is praise to Jesus Christ who is seen as the true light of the world.
Terce is the third hour, Sext is the sixth hour, None is the ninth hour. Each has a significance with the death of the Lord. Jesus is crucified at the third hour. Darkness comes upon the earth at the sixth hour. Jesus dies at the ninth hour.
Vespers simply means evening prayer. It is characterized in our tradition by remembering the days of creation.
Compline means that the day is completed. It is night prayer, before retiring.
Q: What are the various rooms that make up the monastery? What are they used for?
A: For us, all the rooms within our buildings that are connected are considered "The Monastery." The monks live in the cells. Teaching to the whole community occurs in the Chapter Room, which takes its name from the reading of a Chapter or a part of a Chapter of the Rule of Saint Benedict for monks. We also have the kitchen, pantry, guest reception area and the gift shop. We speak to one another or to others in the Parlors and the laundry.
Things for use in the Church are kept — and monks don their choir robes — in the Sacristies. We also have an infirmary, classrooms, a recreation room, business office and Library. There are also some craft rooms and a computer work room.
Q: How are the assignments handled?
A: Assignments are given day by day, even though a weekly list is drawn up. Because life is real, sometimes there have to be changes made in the assignments and it is always good the each member of the community to know what work others are doing.
Q: Prior Christian, how did you decide what jobs to assign the guests?
Perhaps it's best if I try an answer in the form of a prose poem.
"In a monastery so many things "just need getting done":
meals to cook and bread to bake,
rooms to clean and wood to split,
letters to answer and envelopes to stuff,
floors to sweep and windows to wash,
horses to feed and cars to maintain,
repairs to be made and guests to be greeted,
dishes to wash and pots as well,
silverware to dry and glasses too,
laundry to wash and don't forget fold,
gardens to weed and brush to clear,
books need replacing on library shelves,
and dusting there now and then never hurts.
toilets to scrub and corridors to mop,
to mention just a few of the daily needs.
all in a day in the life of the monks, and
any extra hands are always a help. The
able-bodied may be asked to do some or
all of the above, and the less able on
a more modest scale. but one and all,
young and old, are assigned as needs arise
without alot of pondering, who is
best-suited personality-wise for this or that
task.
sometimes newcomers think there is a
master-plan to what they are assigned, challenging
them, picking on them, or favoring them if this
or that job is given to them. would that there
were time, energy and a method to the madness,
but such is not the case nor the luxury of
life in a monastery. amen."
Q: Abbot Philip, during their morning class, what lessons did you choose to teach the guests and why did you choose those lessons?
I tried to focus on why anyone would want to lead our life, which means that I had to speak about faith and how anyone could believe. I spoke about silence and what silence was and is supposed to do in our life. I spoke about the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures and what they mean in a monastic life.
All of this teaching was simply to try to help our participants understand our life and to see some of the benefits that come to us from living it. I think that most of the participants, in the end, could see that all of our life is based on a very deep faith in Jesus Christ and that all of our actions flow from that faith.
Q: Abbot Philip, during Lectio Divinia, what are some of the passages you chose? Why those passages?
A: I tried to choose passages that the participants could identify with, such as Psalm 66 about praising God. But I also took some stories from the life of Abraham Lincoln and some fairy tales and other stories, just the get the participants to begin to reflect on what stories tell us about living.
Real Lectio in the monastery is about reading the Bible and learning what it means to me within the context of my faith and my belonging to the Church. For the participants, it was an attempt to get to them reflect on any story, practically, so that they could reflect on a story and then on their personal life.
