St. Benedict provides many instructions about prayer in his Rule, including detailed directions about prayer times in the different seasons of the year. In Chapter 16, St. Benedict quoted Psalm 118, which said, “Seven time a day have I praised you,” and he noted “We will fulfill this sacred number of seven if we satisfy our obligations of service at Lauds [dawn], Prime [sunrise], Terce [9 am], Sext [12 pm], None [3 pm], Vespers [ending between 5:30 and 7 pm], and Compline [before retiring].” Because Psalm 118 also said “Let us arise at night to give him praise,” Benedict’s monks also prayed Vigils (Matins) during the night, sometime between 2 and 4 am.
“The nature of water is yielding, and that of a stone is hard. Yet if you hang a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way, the word of God is tender, and our heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are opened to God.”
Another
water-based image of prayer I heard mentioned at the 2021 Oblate Renewal Day at Mount St. Scholastica is
that prayer is like an ice cube that melts into us throughout the day. In other
words, we are always to carry an awareness of the divine presence within us.
Few of us are able to take time to pray eight times a day, but it is likely we drink water or other liquids that often — perhaps even during the night when we wake up thirsty. One way for us to stay centered in God, then, is to recall whenever we take a drink that God is our water of life and the source of all the blessings that flow into our lives.
Thomas Merton, when asked how to improve prayer, replied, “take the time.” Taking time to drink fluids is essential for a healthy body; taking time to pray is essential for a well-developed soul.
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