Praying the Hours and Angels
“We are always meeting deadlines; we are always running out of time. The message of the monastic hours is to live each day in tune with the day’s rhythms. We learn to listen to the music of this moment. We learn to dance a little in our hearts, to open our inner gates a little more, to hearken to the music of silence, the divine life breath of the universe.”
—David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B., in The Music of Silence: Entering the Sacred Space of Monastic Experience (HarperCollins, 1995).
The Music of Silence is an invitation to journey through the day by observing the monastic hours in some way. Each of the eight hours is prayerfully described by Brother David, often using images of the Fra Angelico angels.
I take this book off my shelf, and two cards drop out, both from deceased spiritual friends. One from Nyna Keeton is an encouraging note about some of my writing. Another from Joanne Meadors is on a card from the San Marco Museum in Florence, Italy, depicting Fra Angelico’s painting of the angel beating the drum from The Tabernacle of the Linaioli. The angels playing the harp and the trumpet are also on a card from another spiritual friend with whom I have lost contact.
There is also a photograph of the musical “Fra Angelico Angels” on the altarpiece at the Pierce Chapel of Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock. I remember going to Florence solely to see these angels. Between the book’s pages is a Forward Day by Day pamphlet on following the monastic hours. Our young son, John, picked it up from a tract rack when we visited Pat Murray and his family at All Saints Russellville while our children were growing up. John brought it to me and said, “Mom, I think you will like this.”
This was my first encounter with the hours over thirty years ago. Years later, I would read so many of Phyllis Tickle’s writings about her experience with the monastic hours.
A book full of angels and memories, still being communicated by spiritual friends, many of whom I no longer see in person—calling me back to the spiritual life we shared.
Watch out for cards and notes you leave in books for no apparent reason. They may become messages from angels, unaware, especially if they are brought to you by children.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/