A Day In The Life Of A Monk

The monastic day revolves around communal and solitary prayer, meant to touch all the monks’ other activities as well, finding its source and apex in the full round of liturgical prayer, especially in the daily Eucharist.
  
3:40 am
The bell rings, announcing the presence of the Lord.
The monk is supposed "to be ready" and "to arise without delay when the signal is given" (RB22).
  
4:00 am
Vigil begins with the verse from Psalm 50, "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise."  This is the longest session of prayer in the day, consisting of 12 psalms, a long reading from Scripture and a reading from the Church Fathers. All of the chanting is done in darkness. 
Beginning in the early morning, well before sunrise, the monk’s day of prayer begins, when all of nature is silent and the monk is free to meet the living God.

5:00 - 5:45 am
Breakfast - monks serve themselves.

5:45 - 7:15am              
Lauds is a church service that lasts about a half an hour and coincides with the rising of the sun. Lauds is immediately followed by the "Conventual Mass" (Eucharist). This is the heart of the monk’s day, when he receives the "Bread of Heaven," Holy Communion, nourishment for the day ahead, and really for all of eternity.
 
7:15 - 7:45 am              
Free time to clean up, make beds, etc.  After mass, unnecessary talking is not permitted.
 
7:50 am                      
The morning work meeting is held in the Chapter Room. At this time a hymn is sung, daily announcements are made and each brother states his work assignment for the day.  Prior Christian assigns the jobs including cooking, laundry, correspondence with guests, gardening, computer work, maintenance, cleaning the guesthouse, porter, bookkeeping, bee keeping and crafts. 
 
8:05 - 8:35 am       
Class is in session.  Novices and postulants  attend classes in Scripture, the Rule of St. Benedict, monastic history, chant and the vows, while the professed monks pursue a private course of study and reading or may begin to work.
  
8:45 am                                   
Terce is chanted in choir. Terce is simply the Third Hour of the Day, taken in the Roman reckoning of time, the third hour since the sun rose.  The Romans divided the day into 12 hours, from the rising of the sun to its setting, and the night into 12 hours, from the setting of the sun to its rising.  These “hours” did actually vary in length, depending on when the sun rose and set.  For example, in the Scriptures, Jesus is crucified at the Third Hour (Mark 15:25) and the disciples are in the temple at the Third Hour (Acts of the Apostles 2:15).
 
9:00 am                                   
Work meeting for guests.
 
9:10 am – 12:40 pm                     
Work. 
"The Brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading ... when they live by the labor of their hands ... then they are really monks," (RB 48).

12:40 pm                                
Sext , the third daily prayer is held in the church.

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1:10 pm                                       
Lunch.  The monks take their main meal in silence in the monastic refectory, listening to reading from the Bible and from a book or article chosen for the purpose of "feeding the mind" while the body is being fed. These books and articles are usually on a monastic, historical or spiritual topic. After washing dishes, the brothers can rest or read.
 
2:45 – 3:30 pm             
Meeting just amongst guests (no monks).

3:30 pm                     
None, this prayer ends with the ancient Latin chant "Sub tuum," sung to Our Lady for help in the material needs of the monastery.  The prayer service lasts for about 10 min.
 
3:40 pm                      
Coffee or tea can be taken in silence in the refectory. 
 
4:00 pm                            
Lectio Divinia is held in the chapter room. This is a sacred and serious reading and reflection on the Scripture texts. The postulants and novices meet together for this, while the professed monks may pursue Lectio Divina in the cell or elsewhere. For the guests, the reading will last for 45 minutes with a half-hour of teaching by Abbot Philip to follow. 
 
5:15 pm                                   
Break.
 
5:20-5:50 pm                         
Silent prayer for half an hour. 
 
5:50 - 6:20pm                          
Vespers includes a half hour of praying, psalms, a hymn, the Magnificat, and a prolonged prayer of intercession for the needs and intentions of the entire Church.

6:20 pm                                  
Optional light meal or free time.
 
7:10 pm                                   
A nightly "chapter meeting" when the monks gather to listen to a chapter or part of a chapter from the Rule of St. Benedict and a commentary by the abbot, as well as to pray for the intentions sent to the monks. 

7:30 pm                                   
Compline consists of a penitential rite, three psalms, a hymn and an antiphon sung to Our Lady, which varies according to the liturgical season.
To God is entrusted all the concerns and efforts of the day just passed. God’s angels are invited at Compline to "dwell in this house and keep it in peace," and monks pray that God’s blessing be with them always.

7:50 pm                                   
The day officially ends. The monks are free to retire for the night, perhaps to do some more reading, or study. Following Compline, until after Mass the following day, the monks observe "the Great Silence," when all unnecessary conversation ceases and the hours of dark turn his thoughts to resting in God. 

"I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety." (Psalm 4, Office of Compline)

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.