There's a gorgeous chapel that connects the guest house with the monastic enclosure. There we will worship five times each day. Matins is at 7:00, Eucharist is celebrated at 9:00, Diurnum at Noon, Vespers at 5:00 and Compline at 8:30.
As I said earlier, the first service of Vespers was interesting... I wasn't prepared for the monastic style of worship. Simple spoken or chanted services. I don't know the music and after finally attending some services where I did pick up the book and bulletin, it turns out it's OK with them if I don't know it. The guests are encouraged to watch and listen.
In the past, this would bother me. I never understood the people who seem to come to church to just watch. I mean why bother? But as I had to watch the past few services, I now realize that there is indeed value in communing with God by observing, listening, and thinking.
Still it is a different experience. Being an organist, I see they have what appears to be a pipe organ high up on the one wall... but we haven't heard it yet. I thought for sure they would during the Eucharist, but they didn't. Maybe Sunday??
At the Eucharist, Brother Larry shared that this was the feast of St. Jerome, one of the scholars of the ancient church. It turns out he was the one who translated the Bible into Latin - the Latin Vulgate. I appreciated this, as I've always been interested in how our Bible came to be... why do different versions say different things, etc. It's fascinating to read about how people were killed over their viewpoint on this - especially the decision years ago to publish the Bible in the language (English/German I think were first) of the common people. Today we take that for granted. So St. Jerome was one of the original Bible translators. It also turns out that he was quite controversial... perhaps his path had no shortcuts either.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please include your FIRST NAME and LAST INITIAL. I may delete comments that are not appropriate.