Liturgy & Prayer

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Liturgy & Prayer Hours of the Day

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the prayer of the whole Christ, head and members, addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. As members of the Body of Christ, we pray the Mass in and with the whole church. We sing psalms – i.e. prayers forming part of the Bible (Word of God) – during the celebration of the Mass. We thus pray to God using the very Word of God. God is the origin and end of our prayer. St. Benedict rightly calls the Mass the Opus Dei, i.e. the work of God, since God is both its subject and object. St. Benedict attaches great importance to the liturgy: no less than fifteen chapters of his rule are devoted to it.

By the daily celebration of the Mass, we praise God for his gift of life and for the even more wonderful gift of friendship with Him, who willed that all men and women should become his children. Celebrating the Mass with care draws us into the dynamism of creation, which glorifies God by the beauty it has received from Him. The great attention to beauty in all things that typifies monks is rooted in the Holy Eucharist.

Celebrating the mass with care draws us into the dynamism of creation, which glorifies God by the beauty it has received from Him.

The daily celebration of the Mass is said in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite of Saint Pius X, the source and summit of our daily prayer. By our communion with the body and blood of the Lord, we become one with Him. The unity of our community, its incorporation into the church and its spiritual lives are ultimately based on this communion. Our daily Mass is celebrated with the utmost care, in Latin and with Gregorian Chant.
By the daily celebration of the mass, we praise God for his gift of life and for the even more wonderful gift of friendship with Him, who willed that all men and women should become his children. Celebrating the mass with care draws us into the dynamism of creation, which glorifies God by the beauty it has received from Him. The great attention to beauty in all things that typifies monks is rooted in the Holy Eucharist.