Works

Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These efforts, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works. This monthly column explores different ways in which the Abbey is responding to this vocation.

More Works:  2020  /  2019  

There are earlier monastic indications of tres orations, associated with the ringing of bells and linked to Compline, so we may confidently consider ourselves directly linked here to monastic practice of at least one millennium. The practice later came to be applied at several moments in the day, to sanctify morning, midday, and evening. In the late 19th century, Pope Leo XIII tried to recognize and promote the practice with eased requirements for indulgences. It remains one of the principal moments of the day at the Vatican for prayer papal pastoral guidance (Vatican - Angelus). As we approach Advent, we may consider that with its focus on the Incarnation, the Angelus has been promoted as an Advent devotion. Indeed, remembrance of the mystery of the Incarnation is invaluable at any time of year – as at any time of day, as the traditional practice has come to express. Those living on or visiting the campus, whether attending the Divine Office or the Mass or not, should consider that upon hearing the three-fold tolling, they are reminded of this prayer.

We can trace the journey to Adoration back to earliest of Christian belief, expressed by both Paul and Peter  in their catechesis about the Real Presence in the offering of the Christ’s Passover. This early attention and priority to the eucharistic celebration sets the stage for its later reverence. By the third century, hermits had begun reserving the eucharist, and John Hardon, S.J. notes in his article on EWTN that it seems inevitable that they would note that its presence began to bear meditative fruit for them. Divine Adoration was thus monastic from its earliest days, both in eremitic and cenobitic monastic life. The host came to be shared as “fermentum,” as a kind of leaven of unity, shared between members travelling between faith communities. The fourth century Saint Basil, great patriarch of Eastern monasticism, was said to have divided the host in three: one portion to be consumed, one to be shared with fellow monks, and the third to be preserved in “golden dove above the altar.” In all of this, we see the host playing a growing role in the centering and deepening of prayer.

By the 11th century, belief in the Real Presence had crystallized. Pope Gregory VII, with his Benedictine experience, was sharp in his correcting of Berenger of Tours, offering a clear statement of Real Presence, as noted by Pope Saint Paul VI in Mysterium Fidei (1965). Gregory had framed the teaching this way: "I believe in my heart and openly profess that the bread and wine placed upon the altar are, by the mystery of the sacred prayer and the words of the Redeemer, substantially changed into the true and life-giving flesh and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, and that after the consecration, there is present the true body of Christ which was born of the Virgin and offered up for the salvation of the world, hung on the cross and now sits at the right hand of the Father, and that there is present the true blood of Christ which flowed from his side. They are present not only by means of a sign and of the efficacy of the Sacrament, but also in the very reality and truth of their nature and substance." (53) Paul VI goes on to say, “The Catholic Church has always displayed and still displays this latria that ought to be paid to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, both during Mass and outside of it, by taking the greatest possible care of consecrated Hosts, by exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and by carrying them about in processions to the joy of great numbers of the people. (56) In establishing the Feast of Corpus Christi, Pope Urban IV, in the thirteenth century, had emphasized the desire of Christ to remain physically among us: "Christ is with us in His own substance… for when telling the Apostles that He was ascending into heaven, He said, 'Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world,' thus comforting them with the gracious promise that He would remain and be with them even by His bodily presence" (1264). Hardon notes that Urban IV was instrumental is prompting Thomas Aquinas to produce his three great Eucharistic hymns, all of which remain central to the traditional Catholic rites  of Benediction and the eucharistic vigil of Holy Thursday. “O Salutaris Hostia,” “Tantum Ergo,” and “Panis Angelicus” all articulate the theology of Christ’s presence, beyond what senses can perceive, yet present before us in the species of bread and wine.