Hurray, another cop-out post filled with a humanities assignment! We were each asked to choose an object we would keep in our future office which would stand as a symbol of our spiritual life.
I chose the Divine Office, which all priests, all consecrated people, and some laypeople (like me) pray each day.
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| My breviary (on top of an old medical text) with our Lady. |
The Office reflects the spiritual life very well. It is both regular (prayed according to rules) and personalized (because the psalms the Church chooses often seem hand-picked for my circumstances). Its times and seasons reflect the winding road of human life: it is partly sung and partly recited; it has seasons of fasting and seasons of feasting; it has times for standing and times for sitting. Also like the spiritual life, it is both communal and private—the Office is said by the Church as a whole and in each soul who prays it.
But this particular copy has separate significance and symbolism. In many ways, it symbolizes my Faith. It used to belong to my mother, and she gave it to me, just as my parents gave me the Faith. It has weight, reminding me that my Faith is a charge laid on me, but a light burden and even pleasant and comforting. It is red, a color of complete love; this reflects the love of a beloved wife, or the love of a martyr. This is the love which I have for Christ and which draws me to prayer.
Short and sweet. May I put this post on my blog, with, of course, a link to yours?
ReplyDeleteOf course. Thank you for asking; I'm glad it can be useful. Have a holy Lent!
ReplyDeleteKeep it up. As a lawyer, I keep a copy of the Roman Breviary on my desk. It allows me to say the Office of the Dead for deceased clients. The psalms will also give you comfort, or allow you to comfort other - Psalm 40 (vulgate numbering)is a great one to say for a sick person.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mr. McAuley! Thanks for the suggestions of Psalm 40 and the Office of the Dead.
DeleteI am so inspired by this! There is hope, after all! Praises be to Jesus and Mary!
ReplyDeleteLora, I'm so glad this was useful to you! Let's be firm defenders of hope in this world. There is hope and there always will be hope, until there is no need of it (in heaven). There is hope even when good feelings and rational expectations are exhausted.
ReplyDelete(On a side note, your comment made me look up "hope."
Hope:
1. "A Divine virtue by which we confidently expect, with God's help, to reach eternal felicity as well as to have at our disposal the means of securing it. It is said to be Divine not merely because its immediate object is God, but also because of the special manner of its origin...it is directly implanted in the soul by Almighty God."
2. More generally, "the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it."
So often I forget the italicized part of hope and fall into worrying. Thanks for sparking a review of the theological virtues! Source: Catholic Encyclopedia here)