Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1884 — LIFE IN A MONASTERY. [ARTICLE]

LIFE IN A MONASTERY.

A Monotonous Existence—The DaUy Routine. A monk’s day begins at 4:30 a. in., and as breakfast is a very light and hasty matter, taken without formality somewhere between 8 and 9, no one will be surprised to hear that English stomachs are ready for their principal meal at 12:30. Let ns go through a day: At 4:55 precisely—for punctuality is a great matter —the big bell begins tolling for matimus. This is the modern equivalent o{ what used to be called the midnight office. In the thirteenth century the time was 2 a. in., now it is 5; in some monasteries on the continent it is 4. But in those days they went to bed at sundown or soon after 6, while we moderns think 9 o’clock early. When the tower clock has ceased striking 5 all rise at a signal given by the superior, from the places where they have been kneeling and waiting in the chancel and the matin service begins. On ordinary days it lasts an hour and a quarter, and has not much about it of ceremony or ritual that could catch the eye of an onlooker. But on festivals it is an almost gay scene, and must begin earlier on account of its great protraction. On such occasions a large number are arrayed in cope and alb; the organ accompanies the chant, and sometimes the voices of boys mingle with the heavier tones of the monks. These little choristers are selected from the abbey school. ‘'Prime” is chanted at 7:30; the conventical mass—that is, the public mass of the day —is sung at 9 o’clock, and at this mass the whole school assists. On festivals this is the great celebration of the day, and is more or less solemn in proportion to the greatness of the feast; a sermon often accompanies it. The noxt time that the community are called to the church is for the office of “none,” and after this, at 4, comes the evening office or vespers. This, like the mass, is sung with organ accompaniment, and these two, with matins, make up the more solemn of the daily services, at which all are most stringently bound to be present. The office of “compline,” the closing prayer of the day, recited at 8:30, makes the sixth, and last time that the monks assemble in the church. They spend at least three hours and a half every day in this choral duty—on festivals much more; it is one of the principal employments of monastic life. The order of the day never varies, with the single exception that on Sundays and very great festivals the high mass takes place at 10 o’clock, for the convenience of those “outsiders” who frequent the abbey church and who might think 9 o’clock rather early. The remainder of the day is filled up in divers ways, in the discharge of the various occupations which each has assigned to him. From the end of compline till the end of prime of the following morning is a time of the strictest silence and reflection; not a word must be spoken for anything short oi the gravest necessity, and no work or business is done. It is the time for the nightly rest, and for meditation and private prayer. But when prime is finished, the active work of the day begins. Foremost among this is the work of teaching; for the monks of these days still maintain their ancient tradition of education, and the school is an almost integral part of a monastic establishment.