The modern man lives his life by the clock--and his clock is married to the money.
Modern time is usually measured simply by what we earn or don't earn. Think of any time measurement, and notice how it is tied to labor and pay: the work week, business hours, overtime, the school year (when the kids work), etc. Most of the remainder are tied to labor's absence: the weekend, after hours, vacation, sick leave, summer, overtime. Even our holy-days have become little more than days where, for some long-forgotten reason, most people don't work. We've taken the saying "Time is money" to ultimate perfection.
Then he suggests you start with about five hours per day.
But, but...I can't do that! you think. I have...work...
Yet this is about how much time the medieval Benedict of Nursia expected his monks to pray when he wrote his famous Rule for Monasteries around A.D. 516. As a good Protestant, I am far from commending everything Benedict had in mind, but there is much we can learn from him. In particular, two points leap out to reproach our modern world.
First, he was willing to follow scripture wherever it led. Few of us would think that "Seven times a day I will praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgements" (Ps. 119:164) was anything more than poetic hyperbole; Benedict thought of it as a command. And so he made sure that the monks in his community (and the others patterned after it) would meet seven times a day to pray: at daybreak, the first hour, the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, at sunset, and at bedtime. He did the same with prayer in the night. Even sleep was not so important that it would never be interrupted by praise.
Second, he wanted his monks to marinate in the Scripture. In an age where an entire town would consider itself lucky to have one complete copy of the biblical books available, Benedict mandated that the monks spend plenty of time reading, singing, memorizing, and contemplating God's word. In fact, he chastised them for their slackness in only chanting the entire psalter once per week!
"...taking care in any case that the psalter with its full number of 150 psalms be chanted every week, and begun again every Sunday at the Night Office. For those monks show themselves too lazy in the service to which they are vowed, who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week, whereas we read that our holy fathers strenuously fulfilled that task in a single day! May we, lukewarm as we are, perform it at least in a whole week!"--St. Benedict's Rule (trans. Leonard Doyle) ch. 18
It is hard to imagine what he would say about a culture so wealthy that we possess a multitude of translations and copies individually, print and audio, and yet cannot be bothered to pick one up and see what God has said to us. Truly our riches have gone to our heads.
If you would care to see what such dwelling in the Word would look like, here is my own rough draft of Benedict's recommendations. His schedule or "Divine Office" follows this general pattern:
Night Office or Matins: Psalms 3, 95, (+12 more)Lauds (Daybreak): Psalms 67, 51, (+2 more)
Prime (1 hour after daybreak): three psalms
Terce (3 hours after daybreak): three psalms
Sext (6 hours after daybreak, about noon): three psalms
None (9 hours after daybreak): three psalms
Vespers (evening): four psalms
Compline (bedtime): Psalms 4, 91, and 134
A note on the schedule: In his Rule, Benedict specified many psalms for particular prayer times (for instance, Ps. 119 for the first two days of the week during the minor hours). However, the psalms in red are not explicitly listed by Benedict, who did not specify the additional twelve psalms for the night office; they cover the missing selections in numerical order. The numbers used are the Hebrew psalm numbers used in modern Protestant Bibles.
SUNDAY
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32Lauds: 67, 51, 118, 63
Prime: 119:1-32
Terce: 119:33-56
Sext: 119:57-80
None: 119:81-104
Vespers: 110, 111, 112, 113
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46
Lauds: 67, 51, 5, 36
Prime: 1, 2, 6
Terce: 119:105-128
Sext: 119:129-152
None: 119:153-176
Vespers: 114, 115 and 116, 129, 130
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60
Lauds: 67, 51, 43, 57
Prime: 5, 7, 8
Terce: 120, 121, 122
Sext: 123, 124, 125
None: 126, 127, 128
Vespers: 131, 132, 133, 135
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 61, 62, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77
Lauds: 67, 51, 64, 65
Prime: 9, 10, 11
Terce: 120, 121, 122
Sext: 123, 124, 125
None: 126, 127, 128
Vespers: 136, 137, 138, 139:1-12
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89, 93
Lauds: Ps. 67, 51, 88, 90
Prime: 12, 13, 14
Terce: 120, 121, 122
Sext: 123, 124, 125
None: 126, 127, 128
Vespers: 139:12-24, 140, 141, 142
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Matins: Ps. 3, 95, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106
Lauds: 67, 51, 76, 92
Prime: 15, 16, 17
Terce: 120, 121, 122
Sext: 123, 124, 125
None: 126, 127, 128
Vespers: 143, 144, 145, 146
Compline: 4, 91, 134
Lauds: 67, 51, 143
Prime: 18, 19, 20
Terce: 120, 121, 122
Sext: 123, 124, 125
None: 126, 127, 128
Vespers: 147, 148, 149, 150
Compline: 4, 91, 134
