Downtown Monks by Albert Holtz

Author:Albert Holtz
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Church Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

“Our voices spill beyond the circle of yellow light around the choir stalls.” (Page 88)

4.

SEARCHING

IN PRAYER

WAITING WITH THE CITY: VIGILS

O God, hear my cry!

Listen to my prayer!

From the end of the earth I call:

My heart is faint.

I tug the hood of my choir robe down to my eyebrows to ward off the icy draft from the windows overhead, and join my brothers in the first psalm of Tuesday morning Vigils. Praying in the seat right next to me, our senior monk, Fr. Emilian, doesn’t seem to notice the cold at all. Our voices spill beyond the circle of yellow light around the choir stalls to echo in the shadows at the far end of the church. At 6:15 on this winter morning, I shiver and hunker down into my hard wooden seat.

The first Christians would spend all night in praying psalms and listening to readings, watching and waiting for the Lord who was to come and deliver them. Monastic communities continue this tradition of keeping watch by celebrating the hour of Vigils in the early hours of the morning. The monks on the other side of the choir take up the next stanza,

On the rock too high for me to reach

Set me on high,

O you who have been my refuge,

My tower …

The horrendous blare of an air horn obliterates the final verses of the psalm as a fire engine roars up the William Street hill right beside the church. We are on the corner of two busy streets, so we often pray to the impromptu accompaniment of a siren, a rap song from some car radio, or the rumble of a truck stopped for the light. These sounds from the street remind us that keeping vigil, longing and waiting for God, is a universal experience, not just a monastic one. Whether they realize it or not, the rest of the people of our city, who carry more than their share of burdens, are looking for the Lord’s coming, too. They are hoping for deliverance as much as we are—probably more. Some of them seek it in prayer and in doing good, but others, tired of waiting, look for it in money, material things, sexual excess, drugs, or alcohol. In any case, the whole city is here at Vigils this morning. There is a short pause at the end of the psalm. Then the next one, Psalm 106, begins,

Alleluia!

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good;

For his love endures forever.

Who can tell the Lord’s mighty deeds?

Who can recount all his praise?

The psalms are the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours. Praying them draws us into a deeper level of reality, and we become part of the ongoing saga of salvation history. In Psalm 106 we’re celebrating God’s faithful presence in the events of Israel’s history, but we are also experiencing that same saving love at work today in our city, our monastery, and our own lives. In this sacred dimension, our everyday existence takes on infinite meaning as part of God’s unfolding, mysterious, loving plan.

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