The importance of the common prayer

The word chorus/choir means a corps or an ensemble. The common prayer of monks in choir is their common public praise of God. The monks fulfil, through common prayer, their task in the organism of the church. They belong to God in a special way and are destined for service to Him, through their calling to monastic life. Everything that they do, not only the Holy mass, is valuable before God because it may lead to God’s honor. Therefore it is called “service” and St. Benedict speaks, to characterize it, about the “Work of God” (Opus Dei). By this phrase he means what has been done for God and because of God.

There are two kinds of public service: the Holy mass and the divine office (common prayer). The combination of both also appears in the fact that collect (prayer) of the daily mass repeats in every prayer at canonical hours of the office. St. Benedict emphasises the liturgical service in an unprecedented manner. Fervor in the service is one of the features of vocation to monastic life. The common praise, i.e. in choir, is the most sublime, beneficial and holiest what men can do on this earth. In the choir psalmody prayer, heaven and Earth are combined to pursue the same objective, which is to worship and praise God.

The glorification of God is the first and most important duty of every man. For that reason, people should put the service before every other activity. To make the service appropriate to human power, the spiritual and natural needs of monks are, according to the Rule of St. Benedict, divided wisely and in an extraordinary balance.

If man praises the greatness, glory and goodness of God, he must do so in a manner that is worthy of the highest being. Human manners of expression are too low and insufficient. Only God can praise and glorify himself in a dignified manner. He taught us this by becoming man. For that reason Psalms, God’s words, are read in the common prayer. According to the tradition, St. Benedict requires that his monks pray all Psalms within a week. Apart from Psalms, the monks also use other parts of the Holy Scriptures and texts from the church tradition, like antiphons, hymns etc. This is accompanied by reading texts from the Church Fathers, mostly explanations of the Bible.

This service is compulsory for the monks by means of their religious vows to the rules of the order. They owe it to God and it makes them God’s servants. These prayers are conducted on behalf of the church, and thus they have a liturgical and official character among all those who execute them with the permission of the church, whether they are clerics or not. For that reason the prayer of monks and nuns is of the same value. It is especially in the common prayer that the words of Christ,“Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them,” are applied in their best and deepest sense. The public prayer of the community is at a completely different and higher level than private prayer. Regrettably, people are too little aware of this nowadays.