Let us come together to pray between 7 & 8 p.m. What follows is a suggestion for preparing to say your evening office, on Thu. May 3, 2012:


Practice Stillness, Silence & Simplicity:

Sit like a mountain. Sit upright and relaxed in a stable posture, with your eyes partially closed and your hands resting together on your lap.

Anchor your attention in the cave of your heart, and let your breath come and go. You do not need to 'follow' it. Just stay in your center--in the heart of your being.

Let all phenomena come and go as well: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought and feeling. You do not need to 'follow' any of it.

Whever you find yourself 'following' some phenomena, simply return to your heart.*

From the center of this mountain let all phenomena come and go like clouds drifting by. Just sit like a mountain "like Mount Zion, unshakable, standing forever" (Ps. 125:1 JB)

*The simplest way I know to keep from drifting off (and of returning to your center if you have drifted away) is to silently pray a short prayer-phrase in the cave of your heart in between each breath. The particular 'formula' favored by the monks of old comes at the beginning of Psalm 70 (69), "Deus in adjutorium meum intende" in Latin, or "O God, come to my assistance" in English.

Let us sit still in the presence of God for twenty or more minutes, then let us bless the world with peace:


Bless The World With Peace:

May prayerful peace flow outward from here, touching with grace all whose names we recall to you, our brothers and sisters whose names we recall to You, and all the earth as well.

Peter Strand: The Lord give you peace.
Peter Surran: The Lord give you peace.
Jenn Swaringen: The Lord give you peace.
John Syvertson: The Lord give you peace.
Dennis Testerman: The Lord give you peace.
Anne Nancy Vosler: The Lord give you peace.
Michael Vosler: The Lord give you peace.
Stephen Weiss: The Lord give you peace.
Sister Allegrezza: The Lord give you peace.
Helen Bathurst: The Lord give you peace.
Christopher Bisset: The Lord give you peace.
John C.J. Boylan: The Lord give you peace.
Francis Leo Canizares: The Lord give you peace.
Dale Carmen: The Lord give you peace.

May peace prevail in me.
May peace prevail in you.
May peace prevail on earth.

Amen.


Say Your Daily Office:

(Consider using Ampleforth Abbey's 1993 edition of Saint Benedict's Prayer Book For Beginners. It is very simple and spare. For some however, these qualities may also mean they might experience it as too monotonous.)