#2 Vigils

First, let me say that I have no set times at which I practice the Hours of prayer. I do not watch the clock and I have no community calling me to stop what I am doing and pray during the day. I intend to pray each of the Hours each day, but if I miss one I don't let it upset me. There are often good reasons for the distractions that keep me from a praticular Hour of prayer.

On the other hand, because of my intention to pray, I find myself praying in all kinds of places and circumstances. There are many interesting places to pray. This morning I prayed Lauds in the car on my way to our Elders meeting at church. I prayed Prime on my knees in the empty sanctuary of our church after our Elder breakfast. Later in the morning I prayed Terce with a friend who is recovering from surgery. After lunch I prayed Sext with my daughter-in-law who came over to do laundry at our house. Soon, I want to pray None, so I will soon slip out to the garden and pray again. When my husband comes home I will offer to pray Vespers with him and, later, I will close the day with Compline.

I will write more about each of these hours in the days to come, but today I want to write about Vigils.

Vigils is the night watch, the Hour that comes before the dawn. In the Benedictine monasteries, the monks rise from bed and gather in the chapel for prayer together in this Hour. The liturgy that they chant is hauntingly beautiful (see the film "Into Great Silence"). They stand with small lamps creating pools of light around them and the chant rises and falls, echoing against the walls. When they are finished, they return to their beds.

People don't often think of Vigils when they think of prayer, yet how many of us wake suddenly in the middle of the night, gripped with anxiety or troubled by our thoughts? The darkness around us feels heavy and we long for the relief of returning to sleep. We deal with restless, persistent thoughts that make us tense and nervous in our beds. We can't decide whether to get up or stay in bed, watching the clock tick away the minutes.

In the night we are spiritually naked. There is nothing to distract us from our fears, our guilt, our memories of what has happened in our day and our dread of what might be. All that we push away from our consciousness in the day returns to us in the night. We need prayer more in that hour, perhaps, than in any other.

When I was a little girl I was a restless sleeper who often woke in the middle of the night. I would sometimes go and stand silently by my father's bedside until he became aware that I was there. Without waking my mother he would get out of bed and take me quietly to the kitchen where he patiently listened to my fears and worries. Then he would open his Bible, or talk and pray with me until I was settled and quiet. His loving attention to my concerns brought me peace and I would go back to bed ready to sleep.

The Hour of Vigils is much like this. No matter what wakes us in the night, the Heavenly Father is already present, watching over us. He knows what troubles us and He sees the fear that grips our hearts. King David wrote:

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of the sand.

When I awake I am still with you."

Psalm 139:17-18

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Prayer in the night is the cry of a child who wants comfort. It is the restless soul that wants to be unburdened, to be reassured and given peace. God hovers over such souls in the night, ready to listen, ready to speak and ready to ease us back to our rest.

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How do we pray Vigils? With honesty, trust in our Father and by claiming the promises of God.

When I rise to pray Vigils, I bring all that is in me in that hour and lay it before God. Then I wait and see what He says. Something I wrote in my notebook for Vigils may guide me or a song may come to mind and speak to my heart. My Bible is always at hand and I look up familiar passages as the Lord reminds me of them.

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Sometimes I will remain in prayer for quite a while, interceding, confessing or petitioning the Lord about my concerns. Most often I find quietness and return to bed pretty quickly, partly because I have already been dealing with my concerns in prayer throughout the previous day. Vigils isn't only about my restlessness, sometimes the Lord invites me to come and pray for a little while just because He is the Lord.

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I don't practice Vigils every night. Many nights I sleep peacefully all night long and wake when it is time for Lauds. I admire the discipline of the communities who rise as a body to observe Vigils each night, but I am a simple Protestant believer. Sometimes I sleep through Vigils and I am grateful for the sleep!

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I will write what I am learning about Lauds next time. Peace, my friends.

#1 The Hours

I am trying to think of a way to describe the latest development in my spiritual journey. It involves the hours of the day and the marking of them with prayer. Writing about it in a blog is risky because I know that most of my readers are probably in a hurry and may not read the whole story...but here goes.

Some time ago I acquired a book called "Music of Silence". It is a tiny volume that simply describes the monastic hours of prayer observed through the days and nights in Benedictine Christian communities. I have had this book for a few years and have marked and made notes on its pages. I started a series of small spiral-bound notebooks in which I write personal notes, scriptures, poetry and lyrics that pertain to each hour of prayer. From time to time I have observed the hours of prayer for a day. I loved it, but it never clicked into a pattern of daily observances for me.

When we went to Sea Ranch this month I took all of my notebooks with me and decided to practice the Hours each day. I took time to meditate upon the meaning of each Hour and add verses and thoughts to my notebooks. As the time went by prayer began to dominate my thinking and I found myself eagerly looking forward to each Hour of prayer.

There is a rhythm in the Hours that flows gracefully through the day, like a river of silence and stillness in the background of my life. Instead of an interruption to my activities, I saw the Hours as essential to my pursuits.

I was intentional in observing the Hours, but my observances were not lengthy. Much of the time I entered the time by thoughtfully reciting the Lord's prayer. Then I used my notebooks to guide me into the purpose of each Hour. I read scriptures that came to mind or I listened to a song on my Ipod. Sometimes I just stood and looked out at the sea and sky and yielded my thoughts to the Lord.

The Hours are: Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.

Now that I am home I am continuing to observe them. Since I am not part of a community that observes the Hours, I practice them in whatever ways they come to me . I find that each Hour fits beautifully into whatever is happening when it arrives. For me it has become a way to continually seek the Lord and enjoy His presence in my life.

I plan to blog about each of the Hours and my experiences of them in the coming days. Perhaps the practice of the Hours will become a blessing to my friends.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;

Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;

Come quickly and abide or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;

O make me Thine in deed, Thou blessed Son!

I need Thee, O I need Thee,

Every hour I need Thee!

O bless me now, my Saviour--I come to Thee.

(This hymn was written by a mother of many children as she cared for them at home.)