Let My Prayer...

Let my prayer rise before you like incense, and the lifting of my hands like an evening offering...

Deeply part of our life is the daily chanting of the Liturgy of the Hours, or "Divine Office". Etymologically connected to the Latin word for work, "Office" refers to the performance of a task, a duty. 

Indeed, the praying of the Office is no light work. Our submission of our bodies, voices, minds, hearts, and intentions to the rubrics, words, and petitions of the Church demands some sacrifice of personal preference and personal emotion. Yet, simultaneously, Christ through His Church offers each Sister refreshment for her soul, formation for her intellect and will. The rhythmic exchange between the choir sides, like the waves of the ocean washing on the shore, allow the Word of God to flow over each Sister, imparting to her His sentiments, enabling her to join with His very prayer of adoration, praise, petition, thanksgiving to the Father. With the passing of the feasts and seasons, her whole

​“When one recites the office with attention, what merit and profit does one derive from it.  What lights are then obtained from the divine words!  With what holy maxims is the soul penetrated! How many acts of love, of confidence, of humility, of contrition, may one not make by merely paying attention to the verses which one recites."  Saint Alphonsus Ligouri

being, immersed in the prayer of the Church, is shaped and formed by the mysteries of Christ's life as they are presented to her consideration, one after another, like the beads of the rosary. Each of the saints shares with her his insights as she joins with them in the sublime task of adoring God. Together each day proclaiming His praise, we pray that our prayer might rise before Him like clouds of sweet incense.