Jerodmac's Thoughts on Stuff

Why don’t they use lights in this place?

I set my alarm to go off at 5:15. As it started to beep, it was joined with the bells. (which chime every 15 minutes, and at a host of other times as well) I quickly got up and ready. I was out of my room in a few moments and left the retreat house in the drizzling rain and made my way to the Abbey Church. I don’t know if the dark rainy skies had much to do with it or not, but it was dark. On the sidewalk, monks started to join me. No one said anything. As I opened the door that said peace in the window I saw five or six monks moving by, the hall only lit by a candle sconce on the wall. Why don’t they use lights in this place?

These men meet here to pray in the morning every day of their lives. What more can you say? I was sort of astounded when I began to do the calculations. Brother Mel had told me the evening before that he had been at the Abbey 15 years. They told me of a brother who had died recently after having been at the Abbey since 1941. Here is commitment to prayer. Here is a form of devotion to God. Oddly though, I didn’t feel guilty.

As we prayed this morning we came to one of my favorite passages, taken from the prophecy of Zechariah over John the Baptist. “You my child shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you shall go before the Lord to prepare His way, to bring his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1) Once again, as I have felt so many times before, I felt the scripture speak directly to me. I grabbed hold of Zechariah’s words as if they were my own father’s. In fact, they sounded to me as if, Father God was encouraging me. I felt happy to be His child, confused by what He has for my future but confident in the knowledge that I was at least hearing his voice.

As the morning prayers ending, all of the monks hurried off to breakfast and then to work. I crept out the back door and went back to bed.