Prayer

Monastic life’s only meaning is to make possible a life of prayer. It has a personal and a communal dimension. Thus, time spent singing prayers in the choir of our abbey’s church, called “offices”, is like the backbone around which our days and our whole lives are organised.

When we sing the psalms and other hymns together, it is God himself who gives us the words to pray to Him.

“Blessed be the name of the Lord! »… « Have mercy on me, my God, in your love”…

In this way our prayer is extended to the dimensions of all humanity. It becomes praise with those who are in joy, intercession with those who are in difficulty, supplication with sinners…

These verses from the psalms, sung seven times a day and meditated upon in our hearts, are gradually imprinted in our memory and nourish our prayer throughout the day: while our hands are busy with work, our minds and hearts open to the silent presence of the Lord. Then our life becomes prayer. A prayer that is rarely easy but, being faithful, makes us become friends of the Lord.

Other daily events nourish our prayer: a time of silent prayer in the church, early in the morning in the scriptorium, meditation on the Word of God or Lectio divina and, during the day, individual study to deepen the mysteries of our faith by reading the Fathers of the Church, the great theologians and spiritual masters… Among all these forms of prayer, the daily Mass has a central place. It allows us to renew every day the offering of our life by associating it with that of Christ.