News  |  About Us  |  Prayer Life  |  Lives of Ss. Isidore and Maria  |  Contact

Prayer Life

The oratory must be simply a place for prayer, as the name itself implies
(Rule of St. Benedict, 52).

As we have come to be more and more influenced by the Benedictine monastic tradition we have come to realize the wisdom of Benedict's invitation to make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile you attempt especially as, like Benedict, what we we mean to establish is a school for the Lord's service (Prologue). For this reason we have dedicated as an oratory what had been built as the dining room of our home. Although we are still working to build or obtain the rest of the needed simple furnishings for such a room, a rough-hewn cross and a piano with censor and candle mark this as a space set aside for prayer.

Every morning and night and, as often as we are home in the evenings, we pray the official liturgy of the Church: the Liturgy of the Hours, which structures our days as we begin each day asking God to open our lips that we might proclaim his praise throughout the day and brings each night to a close as we humbly ask our master that we might rest in peace. This celebration of Morning Prayer (Lauds), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline) forms the hinges of our daily prayer life. As our community grows and as we are able to dedicate more time to being here we hope to gather more consistently, to include the Office of Readings, and provide further opportunities for communal lectio divina and reflection on the scriptures.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end (Doxology).