Wondrous Hidden God
Yearning, I adore you,
wondrous hidden God,
Living Bread by bread concealed,
speaking heart to heart.
Give me now the faith that sees
darkly through the veil,
Let your presence draw me in
where my senses fail.
It being Thursday, the Most Blessed Sacrament was exposed in our choir within the clausura. Father Abbot posted a list of hours of adoration. The monks, clothed in the white cuculla out reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, kept watch in adoration all day. An indescribable fragrance of adoration seems to linger in the air even after the hours of exposition.
The practice of adoration on Thursday or, at least, of the holy hour of adoration of Thursday night, recalls the Great and Holy Thursday of the Lord’s Mystical Supper and the gifts of the Priesthood and Eucharist. It introduces the weekly ascent to the Cross and the contemplation of the Pierced Side on Friday. Then, on Sunday evening after Vespers, it is good to remain before the Eucharistic Face of the Risen Christ, having recognized Him “in the breaking of the bread.”
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Father Mark, O.Cist.,
A blessed and fruitful lent to you!
I was wondering if you knew of any solid Monastic communities in the US that have a solid grasp on the liturgy including the Novus Ordo? Many of the ones that I have experienced are sadly disobedient to general liturgical norms (such as the use of ceramic chalices and patens
Blessings
Carissimo Cugino,
Yes, I am sure that there are monasteries where the liturgy is celebrated with a loving obedience to the prescriptions and rubrics of the Missal and of Redemptionis Sacramentum. I am thinking of our O.Cist. Fathers at O. L. of Spring Bank in Wisconsin and in Irving, Texas. There are splendid Canons Regular (Praemonstratensians) in California. There are also OSB monks in Petersham, MA.
Disobedience to the liturgical norms is toxic to the faith. Most of the time it is due, I should want to think, to ignorance. I am shocked at the number of bishops and priests who have never studied the GIRM. We are to be “artisans of the sacred” and “servants of the Mysteries of God.”
Perhaps, we will begin to see parish churches where the sacred liturgy is celebrated correctly, devoutly, lovingly, gloriously, passionately . . . beacons of light! One church at a time!
I would also consider St Louis Abbey, St Louis, MO, to be very attentive to the discipline of the sacred liturgy. And they are thriving!!!