Praying the Hours and Angels
“We are always meeting deadlines; we are always running out of time. The message of following the monastic hours is to live daily with the real rhythms of the day. 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 crack 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 keeping the monastic hours in some manner. Each of the eight hours is prayerfully described by Brother David, often using the images of the Fra Angelico angels.
I take this book off my shelf and two cards drop out, both from deceased spiritual friends. The 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 the Fra Angelico 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 at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock. I remember I went to Florence solely to see these angels. Also, between the book’s pages is a Forward Day by Day pamphlet about 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 when our children were growing up. John brought it to me and said, “Mom, I think you will like this.”
This was my first introduction to 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 from spiritual friends, many I no longer physically see—calling me back to the spiritual life we shared.
Watch out for cards and notes you leave in books for unknown reasons. They may become messages from angels unaware, especially if they are brought to you by children.
