Some lessons I have to learn over and over. Or maybe they are things that I just need to practice every day to learn at all. One of those lessons is how to find a life-giving rhythm in this chaotic world.
Chaos can come in the form of too many demands from too many directions. Work alone can pull you to pieces sometimes.
Add marriage, parenting, friends, church — after a while, each thing, even a favorite television show, can feel like it is pulling off a chunk of you as it pulls time away from every other demand.
Chaos.
Or chaos can come from the opposite direction: January finds me in a season of research and writing. I don’t have the usual enforced demands of classes, grading, and committee work. I’m free to work on my own — but that lack of structure can become its own kind of chaos.
Think about getting yourself a drink of water. You pick up the pitcher and start to pour it — but hey, there’s no glass! The water goes everywhere. All you have is a mess.
Chaos — because there is no structure.
But get a glass and your water has some structure.
Very helpful.
Bring it to your lips and drink.
Ah….
Prayer, and a life-giving rhythm
If you plan for it, prayer can be like the glass for the water, bringing order out of chaos.
When I was a pastor I was also finishing up my Ph.D. Thankfully, my contract included two weeks of study leave. I would spend them at a Benedictine monastery.
Early in the morning a monk would knock on my door. I would schlep myself to the chapel to pray Matins with the brothers, the first of the “hours” of the “Divine Office.”
- I’d go out and come back around dawn for “Lauds” and “Prime.”
- Then to my room for work, and back to the chapel for “Terce” at mid-morning.
- Back to work, then back to chapel for “Sext” just before lunch.
- Back to work, then back to chapel for “None” at mid-afternoon.
- Back to work, then back to chapel for “Vespers” at the end of the workday.
- Dinner, some quiet conversation, one last trip to chapel for “Compline,” and off to bed.
Before I tried it I feared I’d never get anything done with all that time in prayer.
Afterward I knew: this form of prayer, with all its structure, was like a glass to hold the water of life.
In two weeks at the monastery I did as much work as in three months back home.
Now with small children and a job it is often hard to get more than one of the hours into my day. But even that provides a useful pillar, a bit of structure around which the chaotic river of life must flow.
But as time goes on, especially in days devoted to research and writing, I can pray more than one of the hours.
Prayer can be the structure that turns life from chaos to order. Over and over it turns me from the mundane and worldly to the rich and eternal. Time and again I can live from a deep sense of being centered in God.
If I remind myself. If I keep coming back to the practice.
Now it’s your turn: Let me know in the comments how prayer impacts chaos in your life.
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Lent is a great time to retool your prayer life. If you’d like to join me in an online prayer class click here to get on the waiting list.
I was just thinking about the effect that the LOH has had on my life and prayer life over the last two years. I generally only pray Morning Prayer (Prime) and Compline. There are other things that have found their way into my day / prayer, for instance Pray as you go BEFORE compline for me. There is a daily reflection that I read mid-day.
For me like you, its the structure of the LOH that has made all the difference for me, kept me grounded and centered on God in my life.
Chapter 72 of Benedict’s Rule tells Monastic Communities (Oblates included) that We are to prefer nothing to the love of Christ as Christ has preferred nothing to us. Spending time in purposeful prayer is one way to engage in and be aware of that Love of Christ in our lives.
Thanks Tracy. Yes, in 72 nothing is to be preferred to Christ — and in 43 nothing is to be preferred to “the work of God” which is the Divine Office! Quite an interesting pair. I believe it is because, in the Liturgy of the Hours, one is in prayer and comes directly before Christ. The one leads to the other or embodies the other.
Hmm. Interesting concept of structure. My life is chaotic, and I’m struggling with this. Even meals happen whenever. Is there an app for this? Seriously. I’ll have to look into it.