Colwich Abbey - Divine Office

Morning Office, Midday Office, Vespers and Compline are sung in choir at set times every day.

Each Office is made up of psalms, readings, hymns and prayers. Morning Office is quite long, about fifty minutes. The others are shorter. Visitors can join with the nuns in singing the Office.

The Divine Office is linked to the daily Community Mass by the common thread of the calendar of the Church.

A S H O R T O F F I C E

O Lord, you will open my lips.
And my mouth will tell of your praise.

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. Amen.

Psalm 99

Come, let us worship the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.

Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people the sheep of his flock.

Go within his gates giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.

Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age.

Come, let us worship the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Short Scripture Reading

With what gift shall I come into the Lord's presence and bow down before God on high? Shall I come with holocausts, with calves a year old?
What is good has been shown to you, O man. This is what the Lord asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah chapter 6

Responsory

Lord, you hear the prayer of the poor, you strengthen their hearts; the helpless trusts himself to you, for you are the helper of the orphan and oppressed.

Psalm 36

Do not fret because of the wicked;
do not envy those who do evil:
for they wither quickly like grass
and fade like the green of the fields.

If you trust in the Lord and do good,
then you will live in the land and be secure.
If you find your delight in the Lord,
he will grant your heart's desire.

Commit your life to the Lord,
trust in him and he will act,
so that your justice breaks forth like the light,
your cause like the noon-day sun.

Be still before the Lord and wait in patience;
do not fret at the man who prospers;
a man who makes evil plots
to bring down the needy and the poor.

Calm your anger and forget your rage;
do not fret, it only leads to evil.
For those who do evil shall perish;
the patient shall inherit the land.

A Reading from St. Anselm

St. Anselm was a Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century. He is one of the Fathers of the Church.

Make some time for God, rest in Him for a while. Enter into the chamber of your mind, exclude everything but God, and what will help you to find Him; shut the door and search for Him. Now tell Him how you long to see His face. Say to Him: Lord, it is your face that I seek. Say it with your whole heart.

Come then, Lord my God, come and instruct my heart where and how to search for you, where and how to find you. Where shall I look for you, Lord, if you are absent and not here? And if you are everywhere, why are you not visible to me? But of course, your dwelling is in light inaccessible. Then where is this light inaccessible, and how can I approach it? Who will guide me and conduct me into it so that I may see you? And then, by what signs, by what visible form shall I know you?

I have never seen you, I do not know what you look like, Lord my God. You have made me and remade me and bestowed on me all the good that I possess, and still I do not know you. In a word, I was created to see you, and I have not yet done what I was created to do.

Psalm 62

O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life,
my lips will speak your praise.
So I will bless you all my life,
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise you with joy.

On my bed I remember you.
On you I muse through the night
for you have been my help;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand holds me fast.

Prayer

God our Father,
may we love you in all things and above all things
and reach the joy you have prepared for us
beyond all our imagining,

through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.

From the Missal for the 20th Week of the Year

Concluding Prayers

Lord, hear my prayer.
And let my cry come to you.

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
May the divine assistance remain always with us.
And with our absent brethren.

The Divine Office

Praying the Divine Office