Print Issue: March 28, 2002

Vigils

Introduction • Vigils • Lauds • Terce • Sext • None • Vespers • Compline

Brother Augustine Myslinski rings the monastery bells at 4 a.m. to announce the beginning of vigils in the abbey church.

By Deacon Michael Balfour
Photography by Michael Alexander

While we are deep in the middle of our night's sleep, a soft house bell rings at 3:45 a.m. in advance of the first communal prayer service or office of the day, Vigils.

Shortly before 4 a.m., a novice stands ready at the base of the bell tower with eyes on a large wall clock, his hands clasped around one of the bell ropes disappearing in the ceiling above him. On the wall in front of each rope is a holy card naming each of the bells for an angel, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Raphael and St. Gabriel. He watches the second hand as it sweeps to the 12 position. Precisely at 4:00 he begins to pull on the rope and the large abbey bell peals the Angelus through the darkness of night over the abbey calling the monks to prayer to begin the day. He rings, stops, watches the clock, pulls a different rope for a different bell, stops and goes back to the first rope and rings again to complete the structured sequence of bell ringing that has been heard in Conyers since they were blessed on May 26, 1958.

But before the bells rang their call to this first prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, some of the monks are already in the church in prayer, sitting in silence in the darkest hours of the night. The abbey church is lit dimly with only the light reflecting off of the golden tiles behind the tabernacle in the sanctuary illuminating the church.

This silence is a continuation of the Grand Silence that began the night before following Compline, the last office of the day at 8:30 p.m. The Grand Silence will continue up to breakfast at 8:15 a.m.

Monks, cowled and cloaked against the cold, begin to appear out of the darkness of the side aisles to take their places in their choir seats as they prepare to lift their minds, hearts and voices to God as their day begins.

The antiphon "Oh Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim your praise" is sung as a cry to God to journey with them throughout the day. Each of the communal prayers or offices consists of chanting the psalms, prayer and Scripture readings.

From 4:20 to 4:50 a.m. the brothers' prayer form is silent meditation followed by the second nocturne of Vigils from 4:50 to 5:15 a.m.

When this concluding prayer of Vigils is completed, the brothers file out in silence to continue their meditations or devotional prayer. The professed monks retire back to their rooms for an hour of private prayer, and study Scripture. This hour of personal study and meditation for the professed monks is called the Lectio Divina (devotional prayer).

Novices go together to the novitiate for a communal gathering that will begin with a short prayer with each novice quietly going off to his desk or study space to pray or meditate on Scripture.

The novitiate is on the third floor of one wing of the abbey under the peaked roof. It consists of a long space sectioned off beginning with a simple prayer space at one end with floor cushions circling a candle. A divider wall of cinder blocks leads to the longest portion of the floor with dormer windows running down either side of a central aisle. In each dormer a raised platform holds a small desk and chair and serves as the "private" study space of each novice. In the center is a circle of chairs for novitiate chapters or meetings. Another space with a table and chairs is used for class work and then there is a small office for the novice master, Father Alberic Farbolin, OCSO, that is used for private spiritual direction and counseling followed by a small library.

At this early hour, this simple place "in an attic" takes on an intensely spiritual atmosphere of light and dark. Each dormer/study space casts a separate pool of alternating yellow-gold light into the dark of the central aisle of the novitiate. Each novice, observer or oblate priest sits in deep concentration of his study or quietly making notes. Some sit with their cowls or hoods up to help them focus even more intently in the silence of the darkness outside their windows.

While the novices study in the quiet of the novitiate and the professed monks meditate in their rooms, Father Francis Xavier Kavanaugh, OCSO, 90, is preparing to celebrate the Latin Mass. He walks slowly with the aid of a cane and approaches one of the smaller altars beside the main sanctuary where four or five lay visitors and two monks wait. A small circle of light pushes back the darkness in the vastness of the abbey church. In a quiet, weak and deeply reverent voice, Father Francis opens with words more than a thousand years old.

"Introíbo Ad Altáre dei . . ." "I go unto the altar of God."

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