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.

Pope Benedict XVI Summorum Pontificum

On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI launched one of the boldest papal initiatives since Vatican II: He declared that the traditional liturgy of the Roman rite, which he said was never abrogated, was officially available to all the Church’s faithful alongside the new liturgy of Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II had allowed for the traditional Latin Mass on a limited basis since the 1980s; with his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum Pope Benedict removed the remaining restrictions.

In the letter he wrote to bishops, the Holy Father’s words explaining his decision are but an elegant expression of common sense: If the older liturgy was sacred in the past, then it is sacred now as well. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.” Summorum Pontificum declared that the older liturgy “must be given due honor for its venerable and ancient usage.” This due honor, according to Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” president Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, should be shown by making the traditional Latin Mass available even where it has not been specifically requested. The pope is especially hopeful that young people will be exposed to the Extraordinary Form.

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.