Elizabeth Griffin writes :”I have often had an image of myself as a monk in housewife garb. It’s a portrait that does not present any sense of struggle as much as reminding me of who I am within. I know my path is not a cloistered one. Still, I have always been interested in a hermit’s ethic. To my delight, I recently discovered the books of David Steindl-Rast. He is a Benedictine Monk, originally from Austria, who resettled in the States and lives in a Monastery in Big Sur, CA. He wrote a book called Music of Silence, in which he walks the reader from morning until night from the point of view of his religious order. The day is broken into parts that are accompanied by chants and prayer. So each segment of the day has characteristics on which reflection can take place.

I started the other week with vigils, or predawn. (See Grace Notes during the weeks of October 21st and 28th for more). It’s a time to contemplate the mystery of darkness. Next comes lauds or the coming of the light. This is a time to consider going forth from the fold so it is a meditation on a sense of belonging. Next is prime, a deliberate beginning. This is an moment of making manifest. It is a time of work but even if working alone, it is done in the spirit of making a contribution to what we all share. And next is terce, a pause to remind ourselves of the spirit that moves through us and feel Its blessing.

Today we enter the part of the day called sext, an hour of fervor and commitment when there is a temptation for laziness and despair:  Sext comes right in the middle of the day, in the middle of everything. It is the middle of our life each day, the time of opportunity and the time of crisis….this is the time of the full blazing of the sun, like a blaring trumpet, (but) it is also a time of great silence….

The hour, as we may waver, lose our resolve at midday, shouts to us the message of God’s unstinting love. To our worrying, midday questions – “Am I alone?” “Is the universe arbitrary, uncaring?” “What’s the point?” – we receive the forceful answer that the ultimate reality in which we are immersed cares for us like a parent or like a lover.

The answer to the existential question, “Who am I?” is quintessentially, “I am loved.”
Prayer is not sending in an order and expecting it to be fulfilled. Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world, to love…

Sext is associated with the stillness and peace of noon, but it also evokes crisis and danger. Crisis is always a purification if we understand it correctly. The very word, “crisis” comes from a root that means sifting out. Crisis is a separation, a sifting out of that which is viable and can go on from that which is dead and has to be left behind.

Personal crisis always has three elements. First, you feel that you can’t go on, like you’re up against a wall. Then you feel that something has to be sloughed off if you are to go on. The third and most important element in that process is guidance. We need guidance; otherwise, we do not know what to slough off and how to get to the other side of this apparently impenetrable wall…What we have to bring to the crisis is trust. And trustful waiting is a truly fervent way of praying.

An essential message of sext is to deal with crises, to face challenges one step at a time. Sext represents a time when our good intentions, our enthusiasm, can begin to flag….
The sadness that is the true opposite of joyfulness is not being disheartened that something has happened; it is the feeling of not rising to the occasion, not making the effort to meet the invitation of the moment.

I am in awe at the peace that comes when I allow the negative aspects to come up along with the positive. The day offers us time to recall both in all their personalities. And slowly, patiently, love finds its way forward in my life.