the rule of life 70 CHAPTER SIX Schedule 1. “The day evolves by God’s arrangement.”21 Therefore, the day is to be passed, for God’s glory, in good order. Rising a little after the middle of the night, you will move together to the church, when the second signal has been given. There, during the verse Tantum ergo Sacramentum, you will adore the Blessed Sacrament. Then you will say devotedly, distinctly, with attention and clearly, the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception22 to the end of None (according to the Roman Correction, approved by Pope Innocent XI in the brief sent to Emperor Leopold I on December 18, 1678) together with the first part of the Rosary, in the vernacular because of the brother-helpers. After the Rosary, you will spend an hour in mental prayer, at the end of which you will receive the Superior’s blessing with holy water. 2. From six to nine o’clock, devote your time to reading, studies, or works according to the Superior’s wishes. At nine-thirty you will recite the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer of the Office of the Dead. At ten, you have the conventual Mass; at eleven, an examination of conscience, reflecting on the Four Last Things,23 then the Litany of the Name of Jesus, and the meal preceded by the blessing and customary prayers. The meal will be seasoned with the reading of Sacred Scripture — especially the New Testament — or the lives of the saints, your Rule, and spiritual books, for growth of the soul and perfection. All will remain silent, trying to keep the reading in their memory and to apply and imitate it. 3. After having given thanks, everyone will sit together and the work of some moral theologian of good standing will be read to them. 21 Latin proverb: “ordinatione Dei perseverat dies.” 22 Cf. Lucien Ceyssens, OFM, Le Petit Office de I’lmmaculée Conceptions Prétendue Approbation, Condemnation (1578). Tolérance (1679), in Virgo Immaculate XVII, Romae 1957, pp. 41-124; Positio, p. 474, footnote 67. 23 i.e., death, judgment, Heaven, & hell.
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