Morning Prayer in a monastery

Holy Saturday 2016

One of my favorite parts of the Triduum each year is the office of Vigils and Lauds (Morning Prayer) on Saturday morning. The Cross is displayed at the altar, the tabernacle is empty, and we enter the quiet time of Holy Saturday morning and pray psalms and canticles through a particular filter: Christ has died, and is in the process of passing from death to life. What I offer you today are selections from those prayers so that you can read them through the same lens.

“My body shall rest in hope”   antiphon for Psalm 16

For you will not leave my soul among the dead, nor let your beloved know decay.

You will show me the path of life,

the fullness of joy in your presence,

at your right hand happiness for ever. (Psalm 16)

O gates, lift high you heads;

grow higher, ancient doors.

Let him enter, the king of glory. (Psalm 24)

Descending to death’s dark abode

where dwelt just souls from ages past,

You let them forth, a victory march,

to glory in new life at last.  Hymn for Lauds: Christe caelorum domine, translated by Abbot Matthew

The just will rejoice in the Lord

and fly to him for refuge. (Psalm 64)

I shall praise you all my life,

freed from my anguish (Isaiah 38)

For you, Lord, my heart will live,

you gave me back my spirit;

you cured me, kept me alive,

changed my sickness into health. (Isaiah 38)

And finally, one of the petitions of the final prayer, which has particular meaning for us monks:

Good Shepherd, in death you lay hidden from the world;

keep us faithful to the prayer and work of a monastic life

hidden with you in the Father.

God bless you.