Our Prayer | Ampleforth Abbey

Raising the Mind and Heart to God

There are many definitions of prayer and one of the most popular, quoted from St John Damascene in the Catechism, speaks of prayer as the "raising of the mind and heart to God.” To pray is to make ourselves aware of God, to spend some time in His presence and listen to Him: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” To pray is also to present ourselves to God, as we are, to offer ourselves and other people to him, giving him thanks for all that is good, and to ask asking his help and strength with all that is weak.

In this section, you can find some basic information about some of the characteristic ways in which monks pray.

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Divine Office

The Divine Office - or what St Benedict calls the ‘work of God’ - is arguably the most characteristically monastic form of prayer. From the very beginnings of monasticism in Egypt, accounts of the monastic life tell of Psalms being sung to the praise of God, whether by a gathered community of monks, or by solitaries in their cells. St Benedict in his Rule takes on the discipline of the Divine Office from the monastic communities he had known and read about, although he does propose his own disposition of the Psalms across the offices on different days of the week. Benedict is clear that the Office is key in the life of a monk; 'nothing is to be preferred to it' (RB43:3), and 'an eagerness for the work of God is one of the marks of someone called to the monastic life' (RB58:7).

The Office is a public prayer, and this means two things. Firstly, the community gathers together visibly, in public, as the local manifestation of the Body of Christ. Secondly, the community is very much making its own the prayer of the Church, which is Christ’s prayer to the Father. As with Christ, as we listen to and pray the Psalms and readings, we sometimes praise God as our loving father, while at other times we hear him speaking to us as his beloved children, and at other times again we pray to him for our own needs and the needs of the whole Church and the world.

Lectio Divina

At least half an hour of our daily monastic timetable is devoted to lectio divina. Lectio divina (or ‘sacred reading') is a practice which originated among those who listened to and pondered upon the Sacred Scriptures. St Benedict devoted a significant part of the monastic day to this form of contact with the Word of God in his Rule. His disciples were encouraged to become ‘listeners’ and especially to God’s Word, and to learn it by heart. This was more than rote learning, for he wanted them to fall in love with the Word, and ‘ponder it in their hearts’. The Desert Fathers and Mothers considered the Word less impenetrable than the hearts of its listeners, yet the main purpose of the Word was to live in the heart and transform the lives of disciples.

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Contemplative Prayer

Monastic life is rich in moments of fraternity, and this is never more true than when the community gathers together in the Abbey Church to celebrate the Eucharist, the source and the summit of our life, and to sanctify the day by praying the Liturgy of the Hours. These moments, however, invite us as monks to something more, to time spent with God in personal prayer that is an intimate dialogue with the Father whom we meet through Jesus his Son in the Holy Spirit. Although the relationship that exists between each monk and God is individual, there are many common threads that make this prayer time one which can be the subject of guidance, of accompaniment and of mutual sharing.

There is a great tradition of wisdom that exists to help us in this enterprise, as we advance ever deeper into the knowledge and love of God. Often the notion of contemplative prayer can sound remote and intimidating, as something only for experts. While it is true that the deepest experiences of contact with the Lord are unlikely to come immediately, the nourishment given by our prayer together, our reading of the Bible and the rest of our community life, together with the guidance of wise older monks, provide us with a set of helps and stimuli to prayer, a context in which the time to spend with God is available, and a strengthening of our commitment to grow closer to him.

Devote yourself often to prayer

— Rule of St Benedict 4

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