XIII. The Opus Dei: Divine Praise

Summary. — God has made all things for His glory ; how the Divine Office procures this glory for God : St. Benedict rightly calls it the Opus Dei. — I. Ultimate basis of the excellence of the Divine Office : the canticle of the Word in the bosom of the Divinity and in creation. — II. The Word Incarnate has bequeathed to the Church, His Bride, the mission of per¬ petuating His canticle. — III. The Church confides a more important part of this mission to some chosen souls. — IV. The Divine Office becomes, through the heart and voice of man, the hymn of all creation. — V. It forms a parti¬ cular homage of the virtues of faith, hope and charity. — VI. This homage is invested with a special splendour when it is offered in suffering : Sacrificium laudis.

When we would judge of the absolute value of anything or any work we ought to try to do so from God’s point of view. God alone is the Truth ; truth is the light in which God, Eternal Wisdom, sees all things ; these are worth what they are in God’s estimation. That is the sole infallible criterion of judgment, outside which we expose ourselves to deception. It is a truth familiar to us that our holiness is of the supernatural order, that is to say above the rights, exigencies and powers of our nature ; all then that relates to this super¬ natural order, of which God alone is the Author, surpasses by its transcendency, all our human conceptions. God s thoughts and ways are not ours ; He Himself tells us so '.Non enim cogitationes meae, cogitationes vestrae : neque viae vestrae, viae meae, dicit Dominus 1, Between our ways and God’s there is the infinite : Sicut exaltantur caeli a terra 2. This is why, in order to know the truth about things of the supernatural domain, we must see them as God sees them, that is, with the eyes of faith. Faith is the light that reveals the Divine thoughts to us and makes us penetrate into God's designs. Lacking this light, there is but darkness and error in regard to spiritual things.¹

Now one capital truth God has granted us to know touching His designs is that He has created everything and done everything for His glory : Universa propter semetipsum operatus est Dominus x. God gives us all things ; He gives Himself in the person of His Well-Beloved Son Jesus, and with Him He gives us all good things ; He has prepared for us for all eternity an infinite beatitude in the fellowship of His adorable Trinity. But there is one thing that He reserves jealously for Himself, that He neither will nor can give us : that is His glory: Ego Dominus ; glori am meam alteri non dabo 2.

This being so, things are of value only in the measure in which they procure this glory for God. There are some works which, of their own nature, have no direct relationship with this glory ; for example, in the intellectual order, to devote oneself to literary work, to teaching ; and, in the manual order, to sweep the cloisters or work in the garden or kitchen ; transformed by the love wherewith they are done, these works become pleasing to God ; however, they procure His glory indirectly, not of themselves, fine operantis, that is to say by reason of the right intention of the one who performs them in view of pleasing God.

Other works go to procure this glory directly ; they are agreeable to God not only on account of the love of the one who accomplishes them but in themselves : fine operis; their direct end, like the elements that compose them, are supernatural : such are Holy Mass and the administration of the Sacraments. It is quite evident that in themselves, abstraction made of the interior dispositions of the one who performs them, these works surpass, from God’s point of view, all other works.

The Divine Office belongs to this second group. Not only in our intention, but by reason of its nature, its com¬ position, and the elements of which it is constituted, it relates entirely to God ; of itself, fine operis, it has God in view. With the Holy Sacrifice, around which it gravitates, it forms the most complete expression of religion ; it is by excellence “ the work of God, " Opus Dei, Opus divinum: that is the beautiful name by which our Holy Father calls it.²

Doubtless, the Divine Office contains petitions, prayers of impetration, but this is not its dominant element ; before all, the Divine Office is praise, and this praise is perfectly summed up in the doxology which ends each psalm : Gloria Patri et Filio et Spirilui Sancto. The direct aim of the Office is to confess and exalt the Divine perfections, to delignt in them, and thank God for them : Gratias agimus tibi, propter magnam gloriam tuam. It proceeds from this principle : “ Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour ” : Dignus es, Domine, Deus noster, gloriam accipere et honorem ... This is the cry of the elect in heaven: contemplating God’s infinite perfections, they are necessarily lost in praise and adoration : Magnus Dominus et laudabilis NIMIS3.

Now we, as religious, are seeking God ; it was for this we came to the monastery ; what is more natural therefore than to adopt the Divine Office as our principal work, by which we especially devote ourselves to God's service ? How are we “ to seek Him truly, ” — si r ever a Deum quaerit 4, unless we occupy ourselves first of all with Him, with His perfections and His works ? Et laudabunt Dominum qui requirunt eum 5. But in return, the more that we find Him, and that He reveals Himself to us, the more we feel the need of celebrating His perfections and works : Qnaerentes enim invenient eum, et invenientes laudabunt eum.

Thus, after having pointed out the purpose of our life, after having established the authority of the head of the monastery and defined the cenobitical life, after having shown how humility and obedience achieve the work of removing obstacles from the path of perfection, St. Benedict speaks to us of the Divine Office. He devotes numerous chapters to regulating it ; he makes the Divine Office, not the end nor even the exclusive nor characteristic work of the monk, but the principal work to which the others, in the order of estimation and action, are to be subordinate : Nihil Operi Dei praeponatur. He establishes a school of the Lord’s service: Dominici schola scrvilii, and the Divine Office constitutes, in this school the first “ service of our devotion ” : Devotionis servitium 9. Doubtless, as we have already said, St. Benedict does not exclude other works, and history as well as tradition for which we ought to have a humble respect, shows us that in the course of ages our Order has filled many missions in the varied domain of Christian civilisation ; but it remains none the less true that the work which first of all claims our attention and energies is the Divine Praise. This same Divine Praise is also, apart from the Sacraments, the surest means for us monks of entering into contact with God. The Divine Office which gives so much glory to the Lord becomes for each of us an extremely fruitful source of sanctification. We will reserve this second point for the next conference ; let us now endeavour to see how the Opus Dei constitutes an infinitely pleasing homage of praise to God.³

To comprehend its excellence, we have to form a concept of its source, its nature, its elements and its end. We must, of course, come to this study with eyes of faith ; faith alone can help us to penetrate into the truth. St. Paul says that only the Spirit of God is capable of searching into the deep things of God 1 ; while the natural spirit, not going below the surface of things, falls frequently into error.

Our love of the Divine Office depending moreover on the esteem we have for it, and on our faith in its value, it is supremely useful to us that this faith should be en¬ lightened and this esteem well and solidly grounded.

I

It is in lifting up our minds by faith — a faith full of reverence — even to the heights of the Adorable Trinity, that we shall find the very fountainhead of praise. We have the right to seek our examples thus high, for by grace, we are no longer strangers but sons belonging, through Christ, to the family of God ; Non estis hospiics et advenae, sed estis cives sanctorum et domestici Dei 2.

What has Christ granted us to know of this ineffable life of God in Three Persons ?

The Word, says St. Paul, is "the brightness of His (Father's) glory, and the figure of His substance 3. " The Word, the Son, is essentially, the glory of His Father. From all eternity, this Son in a single infinite Word which is Himself, expresses, the Father’s perfection, and this is the essential glory that the Father receives. The Eternal Word is a Divine canticle singing the Father’s praise. In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat⁴

Verbum. From all eternity He gives, has given and will give, in this infinite and unique act which is Himself, eternal and adequate glory to His Father. This glory consists in the infinite knowledge that the Son has of His Father, of the perfections of His Father, and in the infinite appreciation that He utters concerning them : an appreciation equal to God, worthy of God ; God has no need of any other glory.

The Word sees also in His Father the eternal decrees of His Wisdom and Bounty, all the merciful designs which are wrought in the creation, in the Redemption, in the institution of the Eucharist, and realised daily in the sanctification of souls : Quod factum est in ipso vita est; He contemplates all these objects and glorifies His Father for them : Qaam magnificaia sunt opera tua, Do-mine! omnia in sapientia fecisti.

This is the infinite hymn that ever resounds in sinu Patris 4 and ever ravishes the Father. The Word is the Canticle that God inwardly sings to Himself, the Canticle that rises up from the depths of the Divinity, the Living Canticle wherein God eternally delights, because it is the infinite expression of His perfection.

The mystery of the Divine Life which we have just searched into with all reverence, bears in itself the fundamental reason and value of the Divine Office.

" The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ” : Et Verbum caro factum est,et habitavit- in nobis. But never let us forget this truth that we sing at Christmastide : Id quod fuit permansit; quod non erat assumpsit. In taking a human nature, the Divine Word is not lessened ; He remains what He is — the Eternal Word, and consequently He remains the infinite glorification of His Father. How¬ ever, as He has united a human nature to Himself, in the unity of His Divine Person, this Sacred Humanity enters, through the Word, into participation of the work of glori¬ fication. Christ’s Humanity is like the temple 7 where the Word sings the Divine canticle which glorifies the Father ; or rather, the Sacred Humanity is carried along in the current of the Divine Life. Did not the Word Incarnate, Christ Jesus say : Ego vivo propter Patrem 8, “ I live by the

Father. " All His activity tends to procure His Father’s glory. This theandric activity remains that of a human nature ; it glorifies God in a human fashion ; but, as it emanates from a Divine “ Person, ” as it depends upon the Word, the praises it supplies, human in their expression, become the praises of the Word, and acquire on this account an infinite value.⁵

When Christ prayed, when He recited the Psalms, when, as the Gospel says, He spent the night in prayer : Erat pernoctans in oratione Dei, these were the human accents of a God ; of an absolute simplicity in eternity, the canticle of the Word was multiplied, detailed, upon the lips of His Manhood. Thus this same canticle which, from all eternity, the Word causes to resound in the sanctuary of the Godhead, was prolonged and sung upon earth when the Word became incarnate.

Henceforward it will be prolonged for ever in creation. For ever, Christ’s Humanity will therein sing, to the glory of the Father, a canticle of human expression but of incommensurable price and consequently alone worthy of God : this is the Opus Christi. On the last day of His life, Christ summed up all His work in saying to His Father : Ego te clarificavi super terram 2. His whole life was but a continual praise to His Father’s glory. This was His essential work ; for Him, nothing came before the glorification of His Father.

Certainly, He glorified Him by all His actions, in spending Himself for souls, in giving Himself to them as no apostle has ever done, in going about doing good everywhere ; but these were secondary forms of His praise. Above all, Christ, the W ord Incarnate, praised His Father in exalting the Divine perfections in ineffable communings. Who shall tell us how Jesus worshipped the Father and how full this worship was of profound adoration ! What incense of praise was that which went up unceasingly from His blessed soul to God His Father ! Jesus contemplates the Divine perfections in all tfieir splendour and this is the source of ineffable praise. He rendered to His Father, in the name of the human race to which He authentically belongs, all the duties of adoration, praise and complacency which we owe to God. The perfect knowledge, the sublime comprehension that He had of the^inspired canticles made His praise infinitely worthy of

Christ also contemplated the creation : in Him, the Divine Word, the creation was full oi life : In Ipso vita erat. It was needful that the whole order of created things should be for once perfectly comprehended by a human soul ; Christ Jesus exulted in looking upon the wonders of nature, as the Triune God in the days of creation contemplated the goodnessand beauty of the work come forth from His hands : Viditquc Dens cuncta quae fecerat : et erant valde bona 1. With what joy did Christ, seeing in creatures the reflection of the Father’s perfections, constitute Himself their High Priest, in order to bring all things back to His Father ! Hence was born in the soui of Jesus that perfect worship which it behoved Christ to offer as the supreme High Priest in Whom the Father finds all His delight.⁶

II

But, as you know, Christ does not separate Himself from His Mystical Body. Before ascending into Heaven, He bequeaths His riches and mission to His Church. Christ, in uniting Himself to the Church, gives her His power of adoring and praising the Father ; this is the liturgy. It is the praise of the Church united to Jesus, supported by Jesus ; or rather it is the praise of Christ, the Incarnate Word, passing through the lips of the Church.

Seeing her, the Angels ask each other : “ Who is this that cometh up from the desert flowing with delights leaning upon her Beloved 3 ? ” It is the Church, we reply, her beauty and charm come to her from the Bridegroom Himself, Whose arms uphold her ; her voice is ever sweet and her face comelv. .

Dowered with rhe riches of Christ, the Church, His Bride, is introduced by Him into the palace of the King of Heaven, into the Father’s presence, and there, united to Jesus Christ, she sings — as she will do until the end of ages — the c anticle sung in sinu Patris by the Word, and brought by Him to earth.

The Apocalypse shows us the elect adoring “ Him that sitteth on the throne, " and exalting His ineffable perfections : Dignus es, Domine Deus noster, accipere gloriam et honorcm et virtutem 6 ; that is the choir of the Church Glorious. Here below is formed the choir of the Church Militant, called also to take her place one day in the ranks of the blessed ; but this choir is united, by faith and love, with that of Heaven, and resounds too before the throne of God ; for the Church is one in Christ, her Divine Head. In Heaven, says St. Au- gustine, satisfied love sings the Alleluia in the plenitude of eternal enjoyment ; here below, yearning love seeks to ex¬ press the ardour of its desires ; Modo cantat amor esuriens tunc cantabit amor fruens. But it is the same choir in two parts, the choir of one Church, singing the unparalleled canticle of Divine glory animated, both here on earth and up in Heaven, by the same supreme High Priest, Christ Jesus. ^ The office is the official voice of the Bride of Christ. The Church, by her faith, confidence and love and by her union with Jesus, bridges the space that separates her from God and sings His praise, like the Word Incarnate, in the bosom of the Divinity. She sings, united to Christ, under God’s very gaze ; because of her title of Bride, she always merits to be heard. The great work, the triumph of the Divinity of Jesus, is to raise us, poor mortals, even up to His Father. God has given to the Sacred Humanity of the Word the power of drawing us with It where this Humanity Itself is : Ascendo ad Patrem meum et Patrem vestrum, Deum meum et Deum vestrum 2 : “ I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God. ” And again : Pater, volo ut ubi ego sum, et illi sint mecum*: "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with⁷

Me. ’’ After death, we shall be — we truly hope to be _ in a real and immutable way, where the Saviour is ; but even now we are there by faith. The Word dwells in us by faith : Christum habitare per fidem in cordibus vestris 4. We are especially united to the Word Incarnate when we join ourselves to Him in order to sing, through Him and with Him, the glory of His Father.

Such is the fundamental reason of the transcendency of the Opus Dei; such is the incommunicable and untransferable privilege attached to this prayer, the Work of God, accom¬ plished with Christ, in His name, by the Church, His Bride.

III

The Church associates all her children in this praise. There is a part of the public worship which ordinary Christians themselves must perform if they are to be counted among the disciples of Jesus. However, the Church has not content¬ ed herself with tnis worship common to all. In the same way as she chooses some from among her children to associate more particularly and preferably with the eternal Priesthood

*• cclv, 5. P. L. 38, 1183. — 2. Joan, xx, 17. — 3. Ibid, xvn, 24.

— 4. Eph. hi, 17. ’ * of her Spouse, so she confides to some chosen ones a more important and special share in her mission of praise : this phalanx is formed of priests and religious orders invested with the functions of the choir. The Church, in her name and that of her Bridegroom, deputes them as her ambassadors before God’s throne.

An ambassador does not present himself in his own private capacity, he stands in the place of his sovereign or of his country ; these are involved when he speaks in virtue of his mission. Therefore he has a right to all the honours and privileges which would be given to his sovereign, and there is a juridical obligation that these should be granted to him. The reasons and arguments that he brings to bear in his diplomatic interviews have not only a private value resulting from the qualities and talents of the man, but they acquire a special weight, more or less powerful, according to the greatness of the country or the rank of the sovereign repre¬ sented by him. This is not a simple fiction, but a moral and juridical reality which defines the very role of the ambassador.

It is proportionately the same with those whom the Church, the Bride of Christ, deputes in her name to bold her place before God, that is to say the priests and religious obliged to the Divine Office in virtue of the rules approved by ecclesias¬ tical authority. They stand before the Father as ambassa¬ dors appointed by the Church, whose homage they offer, and whose interests they represent. And as the Church is Christ’s Bride, these ambassadors share in the privileges conferred upon the Church by her supernatural dignity, as the Spouse of Jesus. When we are in choir, we bear a twofold personality : our own individual personality, that of our misery, our frailty, our faults, but also that of members of Christ’s Mystical Body deputed by the Church. In this second capacity we have to guard the numerous and varied interests of Christendom. If we know how to use our power, we are sure, in spite of our imperfections, of being pleasing to God and heard by Him. For, when we are acquitting Q^jj'sglvgs of our official functions, all our miseries are as it were veiled by the prestige with which the Bride of Christ invests us. The Father sees us, during these hours of the Divine Office, no longer as souls coming before Him with their private interests and personal merits, but as ambassa¬ dors of the Bride of His Well-Beloved Son, treating of the cause of souls with every right to do so ; we are officially invested with the dignity and power of the Bride of Jesus, and with those of Jesus Himself. Moreover, Christ Himself is in the midst of us ; He has formally promised to be so ; He is the supreme Hierarch Who receives our prayers and gathers up our praises to bear them to the throne of God : Ad thronum gratiae. Therefore, in God's sight, this praise surpasses, in value and efficacy, all other praise, all other prayer, all other work.

This truth is absolutely beyond doubt, and the saints, who lived in God’s light, so understood it. St. Magdalen of Pazzi put assistance in choir before all the private devo¬ tions that pious persons can make ; and when one of her nuns asked to be dispensed from choir in order to give herself up to mental prayer, she replied : “No, my daughter, I should certainly deceive you in giving you such a permission, for it would be making you believe that this private devotion would honour God more and render you more pleasing to the Divine Majesty, while in comparison with this public office which you sing with your sisters, private prayer is but a small thing 3. " St. Alphonsus Liguori relates, while making this opinion his own, the saying of a wise religious :

If time is lacking to us, it is much better to shorten mental prayer, and give more time to the Divine Office that we may be enabled to recite it with the devotion due to it 4. ”

Such is the opinion of the saints, such is the language of faith. There is no work that comes anywhere near the Divine Office. All other works are opera hominum. This is truly “ the Work of God ” pre-eminently, because it is a work of praise that comes from God through the Word Incarnate and is offered by the Church, in Christ’s Name.

IV

Another reason of the transcendency of the Divine Praise is that it directly tends to procure God’s glory.

. doubtless, as we have said, God finds His essential giory ih Himself independently of any creature : Dens tneus es tu, bonorum meorum non eges. But from tne moment that there are creatures, “ it is truly meet and just ” that they should praise God, magnify His name and give thanks to Him ; this is in the right order of things, it is justice ; it is from this principle that the virtue of religion is born : Vere ui love De me i. Hebr. iv, 16. — 2. Evidently supposing that the degree „ _ , dignum el just-urn est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere.⁸

Now, in creation, there are many beings who do not know God. They assuredly praise Him after their manner by the simple fact of their obedience to the laws that He ordained for them on their coming forth from nothingness : Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei et opera manuum ejus annuntiat firmamentum. However the heavens do not know their own canticle, any more than they know their Creator. Whence is the song of inanimate creation to take life ? Upon our own lips, the lips of humanity. Hear whatBossuet so admirably says ; the text is rather long but it renders the idea very clearly. “ The inanimate creature cannot see, it is seen ; it cannot love, it urges us to do so ; and this God Whom it knows not, it does not allow us to ignore. Thus imper¬ fectly and in its own manner it glorifies the Heavenly Father. But in order that it may consummate its adoration, man must be its mediator. He must lend a voice, an understand¬ ing, and a heart burning with love, to all visible nature that it may love, in man and through him, the invisible beauty of the Creator. This is why he is placed in the midst of the world, himself the world in brief... a great world in the little world, because although the world contains him, he has a mind and a heart greater than the world ; in order that contemplating the whole universe and gathering it up in himself, he may offer, sanctify, and consecrate it to the Living God. ”

We acquit ourselves of this sublime role each day at the Divine Office. The Church wills that every creature should take life upon the lips of the priest or religious, so that every creature may praise its Lord : Benedicite omnia opera Domini Domino, laudate et super exaltate eum in saecula *.

Upon our lips as in the Word, in ipso vita erat, all these creatures become animate that they may sing the Creator’s perfections. “ Come, ” we say to all these creatures, " come ; you know not God, but you may know Him through the medium of my understanding, and sing to Him through my lips. Come, sun, moon, stars that He has sown in the firmament ; come, cold and light, mountains and valleys, seas and rivers, plants and flowers, come and magnify Him Who created you. O my God I love Thee so much that I would have the whole earth adore and praise Thee ” : Omnis terra adoret Te et psallat Tibi! Through our lips, all the praise of creation rises up to God.⁹

It rises up to Him because Christ, the Divine Word, makes His own this praise which we, guided by the Church, offer to Him. Man is the mediator of creation ; but, says Bossuet again, man himself needs a mediator and this Mediator is Christ the Word Incarnate. We lend our lips to Christ, so that, through Him, our praise may be accepted in the Bosom of the Father : Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso est tibi Deo Patri omnipotent i in unitate Spirit us sancti, omnis honor et gloria. All things are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is His Father’s : Omnia vestra sunt, vos autem Christi, Christus autem Dei 4. “ Rejoice, O human nature, thou lendest thy heart to the visible world that it may love its Almighty Creator, and Jesus Christ lends thee His own Heart wherewith thou mayest worthily love the One Who can only be worthily loved by another Himself. ”

Through the Divine Praise, we associate creation and ourselves, as intimately as possible, with the eternal praise that the Word gives to His Father. This participation in the eternal, thrice-holy canticle is realised above all in the doxology of the Gloria, repeated at the end of each psalm, and again in many other parts of the Office. As we bow down to give “ glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ” we unite ourselves to that ineffable glory that the Holy Trinity finds in Itself from all eternity : Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saectdorum. It is like the echo of the infinite mutual complacency of the Divine Persons in the plenitude and bliss of their adorable fellowship.

What work equals this in greatness ? What work is more pleasing to God ? None ; let us be deeply convinced of this. The Opus Dei is what is most precious in the inheritance of our Order : Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris, etenim hereditas mea praeclara est mihi. There are no other hours when we can do more for God's glory than those we spend in choir, in union with the Divine Word praising His Father ; pernoctans in oratione Dei 7. There is no work more pleasing to the Father than that whereby we join, in order to glorify Him, in the canticle sung in sinu Patris by “ the Son of His love. ” There is no work that better pleases the Son than this which we borrow from Him and that is like the extension of His very essence as the Word, the splendour of infinite glory. Neither is there any work that glorifies the Spirit more : for by the formulas that He has Himself inspired, we express our love under its most delicate forms, admiration continually renewed, and unending complacency. Gloria Palri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.¹⁰

When this work is performed with all the faith, all the heart -felt confidence and all the love whereof our soul is capable, it surpasses every other work, and therefore our great Patriarch “ filled with the spirit of all the just, ” wishes nothing to rank before this work : Nihil Operi Dei praeponatur ; without beingexclusive.it comes before every¬ thing with us. Although we are not Canons Regular, we cannot put this work in the second place, because it concerns God directly and we came to the monastery especially to seek God. Ardent love of the Divine Praise is one of the most indubitable signs that we “ are truly seeking God ” : Si r ever a Deum quaeril... si sollicitus est ad opus Dei.

V

What further renders the Divine Praise extremely pleasing to God is that it constitutes a homage of those virtues of faith, hope and love which are the specific virtues of our state as children of God.

Everything here — let us repeat it — is to be judged from the point of view of faith. To gather together several hours day by day to praise God is a homage of our faith ; we thereby confess and proclaim that this Unseen God is alone worthy of adoration and praise. The acts of reverence, thanksgiving and complacency that we accomplish in the course of this work consecrated solely to extolling God, are, above all, acts of faith. Faith alone gives its meaning to the Divine Office. Those whose faith is null, pity men who pass a part of their life in chanting God's praises ; they do not comprehend how people can, at certain hours, occupy themselves solely with the Infinite Being : Ut quid perditio haec 4. Where faith is weak, the Divine Office is undervalued and other works are preferred before it. Souls which, like that of our Blessed, Patriarch are bathed in “ the deifying light 5 " of faith, give the first place to Divine Praise ; they do so at least in their estimation, even if, in consequence of their state in life, they cannot devote themselves to it. Divine Praise becomes uninterrupted when the eternal light of vision succeeds the obscure light of faith : Sine fine laudant.¹¹

In the second place, our praise is a homage of hope. During the divine psalmody we rest upon the infinite merits of Christ Jesus. We hope for everything from the satisfac¬ tions of our Divine High Priest. In fact no prayer of the Office terminates without explicitly seeking its support in Our Lord : Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. We make our claim through this All-Powerful Mediator Who “ lives and reigns for ever with the Father, ” and pleads with Him unceasingly in order to render Him propitious to us : Semper vivens ad inter pellandum pro nobis 1.

In leaving everything in order to hasten to the choir, it is like saying to God : " There is nothing of which I am more certain than of Thy goodness ; I come to praise and bless Thee, leaving in Thy hands the care of all the rest. I have nothing more at heart than to praise Thee, being persuaded that if I leave every other work for this, Thou wilt know how to take better care than I could do of my dearest interests ; I want only to think of Thee, knowing that Thou wilt think of me. ” To go to the choir every day, and several times a day, in this disposition of soul ; to put in practice the “ one thing necessary ", Unum est necessarium 2, to lay aside all our cares, all that regards our personal work, so as to occupy ourselves during several hours with Him alone, what an evident proof of our absolute confidence in Him !

Finally, our praise contains above all a homage of love. In it every form of love finds expression, especially in the Psalms which form the most considerable element of the Divine Office. Admiration, complacency, delight, the love of benevolence, contrite love, grateful love, all these affections find a place in an almost uninterrupted manner. Love confesses, admires, exalts the Divine perfections. Compla¬ cency whereby we rejoice in the joy and beatitude of the person beloved is one of the purest and most perfect forms of love. When we truly love, we find no sweeter joy than in praising and glorifying. St. Francis of Assisi composing his " Canticle, " St. Teresa writing her “ Exclamations, " such is the soul overflowing with love, and seeking to express it. Such is also the love that transported the Psalmist. With the sacred writer, the soul passes in review all the Divine perfections in order to exalt them : Exaltare Domine, in virtute tua, cantabimus et psallemus virtutes tuas... Narrabo omnia mirabilia tua. “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore His footstool, for it is holy ” : Exaltate Dominum Deum nostrum... quoniam Sanctus Dominus Deus nosier. “Justice shall walk before Him; the searcher of hearts and reins is God 5. ” “ The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. ” “ 0 Lord God of hosts, who is like to Thee ?¹²

Thou art mighty O Lord, and Thy truth is round about Thee 7. " “ How great are Thy works, O Lord ? Thou hast made all things in wisdom ” : Quam magnificaia sunt opera tua, Domine, omnia in sapientia fecisti. Then the soul turns to God to express its grateful love : “ I will sing to the Lord Who giveth me good things ” : Cantabo Domino qui bona tribuit mihi. “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done for thee. Who forgiveth all thy iniquities ; Who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction : Wlio crowneth thee with mercy and compassion, Who satisfieth thy desire with good things. ” Then feeling incapable of glorifying God as He should be glorified, the soul invites the Angels to unite in praising Him : Benedicite Domino omnes Angeli ejus, benedicite omnes virtutes ef us. At other times, together with the sacred singer, the soul convokes peoples and nations to join in this praise : Regna tcrrae cantateDeo 1X, for, “ from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is worthy of praise 12, admir¬ able... in the whole earth. ” Yet again, the soul pours out its joy and gladness before God in being admitted to praise Him : Exsultabunt labia mea cum cantavero tibi...1* si labiis exsultationis laudabit os meum 15. This joy is so deep and overflowing that the soul asks God for power to praise Him unceasingly : Repleatur os meum laude ut cantem glonam tuam... 16 Psallam Deo meo quamdiu fuero.

Where could love find accents as burning and ever new as these ? At every instant in the psalms this love is mani¬ fested and diffused. A truly extraordinary condescension of Divine Goodness has more than once shown to what an extent these praises are agreeable to God. We see Our Lord deigning with infinite kindness to teach ignorant souls the

1. Ps. xx, 14. — 2. Ibid, ix, 2. — 3. Ibid, mcviii, 5, 9. — 4- Ibid, lxxxiv, 14. _ 5. ibid, vii, 10. — C. Ibid, lxxxviii, 1. — 7- Ibid. 9. — 8. Ibid, cm, 24. — 9. Ibid, xii, 6. — 10. Ibid, cii, 1-5,20-21.— 11. Ibid, lxvii, 33 — 12. Ibid, cxii, 3. — 13. Ibid, vm, 1. — 14. Ibid, lxx, 23. 15* Ibid. lxii, 6. — 16. Ibid, lxx, 8. — 17. Ibid, cxliv, 2.

Christ- Td*al of Monk

SO

3o

Latin tongue, so that having this knowledge they may be able to penetrate into the meaning of the sacred texts.

•A like trait is met with in the life of a certain Benedictine nun, the Blessed Bonomo. “ Often, during her ecstasies, ” says a biographer, “ she was heard reciting the Divine Office ; but a curious thing was that she pronounced the verses alternatively, as if the inhabitants of Heaven were repeating the psalms with her ;she recited the whole without omitting a single syllable, whatever was the Office of the day. "

Then, do not let us forget that in the Divine Office the soul exalts these perfections as is befitting, in a manner truly worthy of God, a manner which He has Himself ordained. Left to ourselves, we could not render due homage to each Divine attribute ; God alone can tell us how we can and ought to praise Him ; God alone knows how worthy He is of being magnified, blessed, glorified ; and it is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, Who places upon our lips the very formulas we are to use in singing to God. These praises, in their origin, are not of earth, they come to us from Heaven, from the innermost depths of the Godhead and of Love. And when we appropriate them to ourselves with faith, above all when we recite or sing them in union with the Divine Word, our canticle becomes infinitely pleasing to God, because it is presented to Him by the Word in person.

St. Gertrude had the revelation of this truth in one of her visions. As Vespers were being intoned on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, Christ, holding His Heart in His hands like a melodious lyre, presented it to the glorious Trinity. Upon this lyre the fervour of souls and all the words of the sacred canticles resounded before the Lord in a hymn of heavenly delight.

VI

One circumstance often occurs in our monastic life to enhance further this homage of love : it is when we have to offer it to the Lord in suffering.

, *• Bourg. Une extatique du XVII6 siicle , la Bse Bonomo, moniale benediuine, p. u and 52. We likewise see Sl Catherine of Siena asking Our to^teach her to read in order to be able to chant the Psalms and praises

•(♦ w*c \jrcuL. il. 1 tie Lfivinc ujjice.

Suffering gives to love a special splendour and a singular value ; to love God in suffering is truly the height of self¬ oblation ; our Divine Saviour loved His Father with immense love at each instant of His life, but this love shone out in an incomparable way during His Passion, when Christ endured His unutterable sufferings for love of His Father : Ut cognoscat tnundus quia diiigo Patrem.

The Divine Office can become, and even frequently does become for certain souls, a veritable sacrifice. In this case the expression Sacrificium laudis 2 truly takes on a special fulness of meaning. This can happen in various ways ; to begin with we must not spare ourselves ; we must give all the energy we have. To use our voice unsparingly, to submit to the manifold and varied details of the ceremonial, willingly to accept and follow the indications of the cantor, even when our opinion differs from his on such and such a point of musical interpretation : all this requires continual attention. We must keep our imagination from wandering, and this requires generosity. Frequently renewed efforts are needed to overcome our natural apathy or levity ; these are so many sacrifices pleasing to God.

Next come the sufferings that the common life necessarily entails. Certainly common life is a stimulus ; the fact of being together in our stalls excites fervour, but it allows also of a number of inevitable small sacrifices, often repeated : Suntus homines fragiles... qui faciunt invicem angustias 3. The possibility of tiny annoyances jarring upon us is inherent to our poor human nature ; this is true even of prayer in common. A ceremony awkwardly performed, false movements of the choir, a melody badly rendered, discord in the rhythm with those around us, all this can set our nerves on edge, especially when, in addition, fatigue or an ailing state of health weighs upon the body and superexcites the sensibility. When we have to hymn God's glory under these conditions there is room for a read sacrifice, a veritable immolation. In Heaven, when we possess God, we shall praise Him in the eternal harmony of overflowing gladness ; here below, in the valley of tears, it may happen that we have to praise Him in suffering ; but our sufferings add a new degree of love to our praise, and prove the sincerity of our seeking after God 4. Jesus sang the praises of His Father not only upon Thabor, but on the Cross. St. Augustine says explicitly that upon Golgotha Our Lord recited the Psalm that begins with these words : Deus, Deus meus respice in me : quare me dereliquisti. This striking Messianic psalm expressed not only the circumstances of the Passion, but also tne affections of Our Blessed Saviour's soul. In the darkness of Calvary, in the midst of indescribable tortures, Christ Jesus recited “ the Office, ” and, at that moment, because He was suffering, he gave, much more than when on Thabor, infinite glory to His Father.¹³

We too, following His example, must praise God, not only when the Holy Spirit replenishes us with His consolations, but likewise when we suffer. Loving souls follow Jesus everywhere, as well and even more willingly to Golgotha as to the Mount of the Transfiguration. Who remained at the foot of the Cross with Jesus ? His Virgin-Mother who loved Him with a love into which not the least self-seeking entered ; Magdalen whom Jesus had forgiven much because she loved much ; St. John who possessed the secrets of the Divine Heart. These three stayed there near to Jesus ; they remained “ in jtheir stalls ” when the soul of Christ, the supreme High Priest, sang its sorrowful canticle for the world’s salvation. The other Apostles, Peter himself, who had so loudly protested his love, would willingly have remain¬ ed on Thabor, where it was good to be : Bonum est nos hie esse: faciamus hie tria tabcrnacula , but not at the foot of the Cross.

Christ Jesus Who loves us. Who has chosen us in preference to so many others to associate us in His work of praise, allows us sometimes to feel, by the sufferings that prayer in common brings with it, by the desolations and aridities to which it may subject us, what it is to chant the Office with Him on Calvary. If really you seek God solely, that is to say His Holy Will, and not His consolations, prove it by continuing even then,and even especially at such moments, to sing ex toto corde vestro ; do not run away, stay with Christ as long as He will have it so, near the Cross. The Cross is raised, as a reminder, upon the altar that the choir surrounds. Let us then repeat with the Psalmist : Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore, semper laus ejus in ore meo 4. “ I will bless the Lord at all times ; His praise shall be always in my mouth. ” Whether He fills my soul with the sweetness of His Spirit of Love, or leaves it like a desert land where there is no water, I will ever praise Him with all the energy of my heart, because He is my God, my Lord and my King, and is worthy of all praise : Exaltabo te, Deus mens Rex et benedxcam nomini tuo 2, confitebor tibi Domine Deus mens in toto corde meo, et glorificabo nomen tuum in aeternum 3.¹⁴

Recited in these dispositions, the Divine Office becomes the sacrificium laudis pre-eminently, the most agreeable sacrifice to God, because, united to Christ’s Sacrifice, it constitutes the most perfect homage that the creature can offer Him : Sacrificium laudis honorificabit me. Moreover, God not allowing Himself to be out-done in generosity, the same sacrifice of praise becomes for the one who accomplishes it the way of salvation and beatitude : Et illic iter quo ostendam illi salutare Dei*.

1. Ps. lxii, 3. — 2. Ibid, cxliv, i. — 3. Ibid, lxxxv, 12. — 4. Ibid, xux, 23.

XIV. — THE OPUS DEI, Means of Union with God.

Footnotes

1. 1. Isa. lv, 8. — 2. Ibid. 9.
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2. 1. Pr°v. xvi, 4 ; see what we have said on this subject in the conference on humility. — 2. Isa. xlii, 8. — 3. We are speaking, of course, of the supernatural order ; it is evident that every upright act, morally good, gives of itself a certain glory to God, from the fact that it enters already into the natural order willed by Him.
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3. x. Gloria of the Mass. — • 2. Apoc. iv, 11. — 3. Ps. xlvii, i. 4. Rule, ch. Lvm. — 5. Ps. xxi, 27. — 6. S. Augustin. Confess. 1. I, ch. 1. P. L. 32, col. 661. — 7. Rule, ch. XLin. — 8. Prologue of the Rule. — 9. Rule, ch. XVIII. ↩

4. 1. I Cor. ii, io-ii. — 2. Eph. ii, 19. — 3. Hebr. 1, 3.
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5. 1. Joan, i 1. — 2. Ibid. 1, 3-4. — 3- Ps. cm. 24. — 4- Joan- *» l8; — 5- Joan, t, 14. — 6. Antiphon of Lauds for the Feast of the Circumcision. — 7. This image is evidently only an imperfect comparison, for the union of the Word with a human nature is not accidental like that of the temple and the adorer ; it is a personal and substantial union. — 8. Joan, vi, 58.
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6. 1. Luc. vi, 12. — 2. Joan, xvn, 4.
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7. 1 Gen. I; 3I. _ 2. Cf. Mgr. Gay. Elevation 99. Sing to the Lord, a new song for He’ hath done wonderful things. — 3. Cant, vm, 5. — 4. Ibid. 11, 14. — 5. Apoc. iv, 10-11 ; cf. v, 12-13. ↩

8. same and setting apart the Sacraments. — 3. Life by P. Cepari, S. J. — 4. L Office me prise; CEuvres completes. Paris, 1836, t. XI, p. 39 — 5 ps xv ↩

9. 1. Preface of the Mass. — 2. Ps. xvm, 2. — 3. Sermon for the Feast of the Annunciation, 1662. 3rd point. The great orator has taken up this idea again and developed it in his Sermon on the worship due to God, April 2 nd. 1666, — 4. Canticle for Sunday Lauds ; Dan. in, 57.
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10. 1. Ps. LXV, 4. — 2. Continuation of passage quoted. — 3. Canon of the Mass. — 4. I Cor. hi, 22-23. — 5- Bossuet, ibid. — 6. Ps. xv, 6. — 7. Luc. vi. 12. — 8. Col. 1, 13.1
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11. 1. S. Greg. Dialog. Lib. n, c. vm. — 2. Rule, ch. xliii. — 3. Ibid. ch. lviii. — 4. Matth. xxvi, 8. — 5. Prologue of the Rule.
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12. 1. Hebr. vii, 25. — 2. Luc. x, 42.
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13. 1. Joan. XIV, 31. — 2. Ps. xlix, 23. — 3- S. Augustin. Sermo lxix, c. I. P. L. 38, 440. — 4. Laudemus et modo Dominum, quantum possumus, rnixiis gemitibus ; quia laudando eum desideramus eum, et rondum tenemus : cum tenuenmus, subtrahetur omnis gemitus et remanebit sola et pura et aeterna laudatio. S. Augustin. Enarr. in Psalm, lxxxvi, c. 9. P. L. 37, 1109.
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14. 1. S. Augustin. Enarr. in Psulm ixxxv, c. i. — 2. Ps. xxi. — 3. Matth xvii, 4. — 4. Ps. xxxiii, 2.
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