Monastic Prayer Research Articles

A Greek-Coptic Miaphysite Litany from Thebes (P.Mon.Epiph. 49)

Abstract A bilingual Greek-Coptic manuscript (P.Mon.Epiph. 49+592) found at the monastic settlement of Epiphanius in Western Thebes contains a litany recounting the principal events in the saving work of Christ. The litany has been overlooked in scholarship on the manuscript and on comparable litanies from antiquity. It differs from other litanies in attributing all the statements to God rather than to Christ. The article argues that the litany was an expression of miaphysite affiliation and belief. The article contextualizes the litany in the robust miaphysite culture of Thebes in the early seventh century and in the Greek-Coptic bilingualism of the time, and it discusses possible uses of the litany in collective worship, monastic prayer, and other rituals.

Praying Unceasingly: The Jesus Prayer

This article elucidates the theology and practice of the Jesus Prayer. Prayer, to the average person, is asking God for something. But, the Jesus prayer is not this. It is an attempt to change the one who prays. This prayer is traditionally a monastic prayer. Its simplicity allows everyone to practice it. In this prayer, there is faith and hope in the goodness of Christ. It is the prayer from our whole being. It is a cry out of the deep heart and nepsis without ceasing. The unceasing repetition of the Jesus Prayer kept the mind on the thought of God and dispersed all irrelevant thoughts (logismoi). This is the prayer requires watchfulness as a lantern requires a candle. Watchfulness, mature in Christ, the fruit of Spirit, and theosis will follow in the praying unceasingly: the Jesus Prayer.

Staircase turret of the St. George’s cathedral in the Yuriev Monastery: archaeology, architecture and fresco painting

The article focuses on the architecture of the staircase turret of the St. George’s Cathedral in the Yuriev (St. George’s) Monastery near Novgorod and fresco wall paintings in the drum and dome at the top of the turret as well as those marked on the walls of the spiral staircase itself. This painting made in the first half of the 12th century can be interpreted in different ways: at present, experts have been associating it with the monastic use. Moreover, the room in the drum of the dome is regarded as a solitary space for monastic prayer. The analysis of the architecture of the staircase turret leads to conclusion that most of its features are related to the princely order and with the main purpose of the tower: a way to rise to the choir loft intended for the prince and his entourage. In this regard, the understanding of the nature of the painting at the top of the turret may change. The article also touches on the chronology of the construction and painting of the St. George’s Cathedral: the painting of the turret was suddenly stopped, which may be due to several events. The most probable one is the beginning of the construction of the princely St. John’s Church in Petryatin Court in 1127, where masters from the St. George’s Cathedral could be transferred to.

Kontakty zakonów mendykanckich z organizacjami cechowymi w Prusach Krzyżackich i Królewskich

The article examines the mutual relations between the mendicants and guilds in the towns of Teutonic Or�der and Royal Prussia in the 14th–16th centuries. The preserved sources, in their widest extent, concern the issue of monastic prayer commitments. They show that, in relation to costs, only the largest and richest guilds could afford to have their own chapels, more had altars within monastic churches, and the poorest could only perhaps afford to pay individual monasteries for prayer obligations. The documents also indicate that at the time of the mo�nastic economic crisis, caused by the progress of the Reformation and, consequently, the loss of income from the collection of alms and indulgences, they sought compensation for establishing cooperation with non–guild crafts�men, who, in exchange for paying fees to monasteries, were able to manufacture their products within their ser�vice buildings. These rights in Gdańsk and Toruń were confirmed by the king, usually specifying that the named individual could work only for the needs of the monasteries. Subsequent practice indicated that these provisions were violated, and attempts to sell goods caused numerous conflicts in which the town council became involved.

Abbot Martin Marty and the Pursuit of a Monastic Family for the American Church

Martin Marty (1834–1896) as abbot of St. Meinrad Abbey in southern Indiana introduced to his Swiss-American Benedictine community the monastic vision of kinship. Through original archival work, this study demonstrates how Marty's idea of the monastic "family" informed his campaign to return his religious order to the original vision of its founder, St. Benedict. Marty realized this vision through a debate on the vow of stability and two controversial reforms regarding monastic prayer and work, the latter inspiring a missionary paradigm of a "double family" among the Lakota on the High Plains. Marty articulated a distinctly monastic vision of kinship that anticipated both the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement and the Second Vatican Council's attempt to bridge the cloister and parish life in the American context.

Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context by Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach

Reviewed by: Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context by Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach Adam Knight Gilbert Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context. By Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach. (Music in Context.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. [xxi, 324 p. ISBN 978-1-1070-6-2634. $99.99] In the introduction and concluding essay to Manu scripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context, editors Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach describe their goal of re-examining important but overlooked sources and repertories, in three ways: Inscription, Performance, and Context. “Inscription” considers the benefits of viewing the repertory, text, or image as an integrated part of a complete source, rather than as a discrete entity divorced from its larger source, arguing for “a wider, more inclusive view of the nature of musical inscription and musical reading” (p. 272). “Performance” not only refers to ways in which the repertory might have been performed, it argues for expanded definitions of what constituted medieval performance to include “ a wide range of performative activities, including . . . singing aloud to an audience, singing aloud alongside companions, singing pieces but not necessarily straight through from beginning to end, and singing in a low voice—or even silently—to oneself ” (p. 279). “Context” refers to the editors’ conviction that “the material traces of song, in the form of the manuscripts that house them, can supply . . . a good deal of information about these lost social contexts, as well as providing . . . a direct written context for song that has not been fully acknowledged” (p. 282). To that end, this book gathers studies by respected scholars on ten important sources of medieval collections of and about medieval song. The result is a magisterial collection of studies that will be an indispensable resource for serious students of medieval music, music libraries, and teachers of music history. The studies will be of particular value to those interested in medieval performance, for their information about performance settings and practises, and with their invitation to explore expanded medieval repertories. While the topics do not lend themselves to breezy reading, the writing is never dry, and the chapters serve as models for joining engaging writing and rigorous scholarship. Each chapter introduces the repertory and source in question, seamlessly leading the reader from commonly known (and often inconsistent) names to their standard RISM sigla. This is followed by a detailed account of the history and current state of scholarship of each source and its repertory, including each author’s contribution. Case studies on individual compositions, images, and texts provide compelling arguments for how each repertory can be better understood within the larger context of its source, culture, and performance traditions. Each chapter also provides a concise and helpful summary of the issues raised. Sam Barrett views the Latin versus collection of “the earliest medieval songbook”, F-Pn Lat. 1154, as an integral part of a varied collection of litanies, prayers, and other texts. Using paleography and textual clues, he places the origins of the manuscript in the Abbey of St. Martial of Limoges, offers an informative account of its role in private monastic prayer, and shows how [End Page 313] its prayers reflect Alcuin’s instructions for personal devotion. Jeremy Llewellyn considers the “Cambridge Songs” as part of a larger collection, GB-Cu Gg.V.35, that includes theoretical texts and glosses. He places the songs in a rich pedagogical context, recounts the complex nature of variants and “a panoply of dialogues” between repertories, and considers the role of the “careful cantor” as one charged with both practical and moral responsibility. Rachel Golden examines monophonic and polyphonic settings of Latin song in the twelfth-century Aquitanian versarium GB-Lbl Add. 36881. In addition to placing the source in context of other versaria, she identifies images prompting readers to make the sign of the cross as a performative cue. Her fine editions of the monophonic Ave mater salvatoris and the two-voice Quam felix cubiculum, enhanced by analysis founded in contemporary theological allegory, inspired me to find her dissertation (“Devotion to the Virgin Mary in Twelfth-Century Aquitanian Versus [Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000]), and left me glad I...

WORDS OF FIRE AND FRUIT: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRAYER WORDS IN THE "CLOUD OF UNKNOWING"

In chapters 35 to 38 of the Cloud of Unknowing {c. 13 90s), the anonymous author makes a series of remarks regarding the nature and form of effective prayer. He makes a sharp distinction between two classes of people: the 'contemplatiff prentys', and those who 'contynuely worchen in ]}e werk of jfis book'.1 Each exemplifies a specific form of prayer. For those 'biginners & profiters' prayer is part of 'Redyng, Pinkyng and Preiing' - the Middle English translation of the first three stages of the lectio divina-, lectio, meditado, orador All three are 'so couplid to-gedir' that preier 'may not goodly be getyn in bigynners & profiters wij}outyn jfinkyng comyng bifore'.3 Prayer for the novice is rich in words, associations, and figures, and is inspired by preaching, reading, and aspects of the liturgy. It is dependent upon 'menes of redyng or heryng comyng before'.4 The prayers of 'hem J>at be parfite' are utterly different.5 Their prayers 'risen euermore sodenly vnto God, wija-outyn any meenes or any premeditacion in special comyng before, or going ]}cr-wi]}'.6 Independent of liturgical formulae, or prior reading or thinking, such prayer possess the utmost potency and 'peersij} J}e eres of Almy3ty God j>an do]} any longe sauter vnmyndfuly mumlyd in j}e tee]}'. Linguistic brevity is stressed as key:& 3if fiei ben in wordes, as j}ei ben bot seldom, j>an ben j>ei bot in ful fewe wordes; 3e, & in euer fie fewer j>e betir. 3e, & 3if it be bot a lityl worde of o silable, me junk it betir ]}en of to, & more acordyng to j}e werk of j}e spiryte; sij>en it so is J}at a goostly worcher in fiis werk schulde euermore be in fie hi3est & j>e souereynest pointe of j}c spirit.8The prayer of the perfect is rarely verbal, and when it is it consists of the smallest unit of language possible: the syllable. In this respect the Cloud author is drawing upon a tradition of monastic prayer that can be traced back to Ephraem the Syriac (d. 373), Evagrius (d. 399), and John Cassian (d. 435). For these early monks prayer was understood as part of a long process of increasing intimacy with God.9 In its ideal form it is continuous and pre-phatic. As Cassian asserts,quae non solum nullis imaginis occupatur intuitu, sed etiam nulla uocis, nulla uerborum prosecutione distinguitur, Ignita uero mentis intentione per ineffabilem cordis cxcessum inexpugnabili spiritus alacritate profcrtur, quamque mens extra omnes sensus ac uisibiles effecta materias gemitibus inenarrabilibus atque suspiriis profundit ad Deum.([This prayer] is not concerned with any consideration of an image, nor characterized by any sound nor set of words. It comes forth from a fiery mental intention through an ineffable rapture of the heart by means of an inexplicable burst of the spirit. Freed from all sensations and visible concerns, the mind pours itself out to God with unspeakable groans and sighs.)10These groans and cries are akin to those monosyllables, each one a succinct unit that stands on its own and is 'uninflected, syntactically uninhibited'.11 Each syllable is a tool of focused expression, deeply connected to '^>e werk of J)e spiryte', and able to channel it into its highest and most intense point. It is prayer born not out of conceptual or rational thinking, but of the raw affective powers of the soul:A man or a womman, affraied wi]d any sodeyn chaunce of fiir, or of mans dec]), or what elles [)at it be, sodenly in ]^e heI3t of his speryt he is dreuyn upon hast & upon nede for to crie or for to prey after help. 3e, how? Sekirly not in many woordes, ne 3k in o woorde of two silabes. & whi is j^at? For hym ]knke[) to longe tariing, for to declare ]>e ncdc & ]:>c werk of his spirit. & bcrfore he brcsti]) up hidously wi]? a grete spirit, & crye[:> bot a litil worde of o silable, as is [>is worde FIIR or [fis worde OUTE.12Urgency and emotional intensity, not tranquillity and calm, distinguish this form of prayer. …

Prayer as Liturgical Performance in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Monastic Psalters

Medieval monastic Psalters attest to the central role of the psalms as living texts in religious communities, where the psalms were experienced both through con stant liturgical performance and through reading the commentary traditions (such as the Christian tituli psalmorum and glosses) transmitted with the psalms in many manuscripts of the central Middle Ages.1 Besides these texts, medieval monastic Psalters often contained office chants, computus, abbreviated Psalters, and collec tions of prayers for various purposes. Although modern scholarship frequently separates the elements of such books into several discrete categories, in combi nation these components constitute a rich ensemble of resources for monastic prayer in all its manifestations. Studying the monastic Psalters of the central Mid dle Ages as integrated collections brings out fundamental connections between the performance of the monastic and those prayers that scholars usually char acterize as devotional. Historians of medieval religion have increasingly demonstrated that any con sistent distinction between as a category of practices performed only in public and as predominantly private is elusive indeed.2 Although differ ences between the two are a matter of opinion, in this study I use the term liturgy to designate acts of structured communal worship (such as the Mass, Office, pro cessions, and other ceremonies in which clergy preside) and devotion to refer to more flexible practices that can be performed by an individual and do not involve clergy.3 Of course, such terms operate in a continuum of practice variable

Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus

Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-399), practitioner and theologian of monastic prayer, brought his deep knowledge of both Hellenistic philosophy and Christian thought (especially the work of Origen) to bear on his tracing of the human journey back to perfect union with God. His several writings on prayer, and particularly his teaching about "imageless prayer," must be situated within that philosophical and theological framework. The emphasis on imageless prayer creates a tension with the Christian and monastic focus on biblical texts. Examining Evagrius' theories of mental operation and biblical exegesis helps in understanding both the imperative of imageless prayer for Evagrius and its problematic aspects.

Peter Jeffery, ‘Eastern and Western elements in the Irish monastic prayer of the Hours’, 99–143, in Margot E. Fassler & Rebecca A. Baltzer (ed), The divine office in the Latin middle ages: methodology and source studies, regional developments, hagiography

Peter Jeffery, ‘Eastern and Western elements in the Irish monastic prayer of the Hours’, 99–143, in Margot E. Fassler &amp; Rebecca A. Baltzer (ed), <i>The divine office in the Latin middle ages: methodology and source studies, regional developments, hagiography</i>

The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200 (review)

Reviewed by: The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400–1200 Georgia Frank Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400–1200. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii + 399. $59.95. “People do not ‘have’ ideas, they ‘make’ them,” Mary Carruthers writes in The Craft of Thought, a stimulating exploration of memory, imagery, and invention in monastic prayer. More so than in The Book of Memory (1990), her groundbreaking work on classical and medieval arts of memory, Carruthers explores the inventive side of memory. Specifically, she examines how monks devised mnemonic “tools” and “machines of the mind” with which to craft their thoughts about God. Closer to a community chest than a personal stash, memory furnished meditation with shared metaphors, clever associations, tropes, and images. This constructional conception of memory emerges from Carruthers’s perceptive reading of patristic authors, including Prudentius, Augustine, John Cassian, Boethius, and Gregory the Great. [End Page 625] This is not a psychologizing work, probing monks’ emotions or beliefs, nor does it say much about rote memorization or reconstructing the past. Instead, Carruthers adopts a rhetorical approach to meditation guidelines, focusing on the tropes, ornaments, and images that shaped prayer. Scripture, in large part, furnished the schemes and places with which to “see,” craft, and map out their thoughts. For instance, the Apostle Paul’s notion of the skilled master builder (1Cor 3:10–15), initially a metaphor for church leadership, became an organizing principle for composition. Memoria was profoundly locational, a point Carruthers underscores with rich illustrative examples of imagined paths, roads, gardens, and buildings in meditation. Ironically, locational memory also relied on calculated forgetting, a form of displacement rather than erasure. Carruthers expertly demonstrates the symbiosis between recollection and forgetting in her analyses of John Chrysostom’s efforts to reclaim the pagan holy site of Daphne for the martyr Babylas, John Cassian on prayer, and the poetics of pilgrims’ diaries. Images were “good to think with.” Augustine’s “mnemotechnical walk” through the locus tabernaculi in Ps 41 typifies this type of anagogical visualization. In addition to mental images, Carruthers considers how in later periods architectural plans, liturgical processions, and church architecture could also serve as meditative maps. I leave it to those with greater expertise to judge Carruther’s treatment of Carolingian and twelfth-century writers. Within the matrix of memory, several late antique concerns—whether doctrinal, devotional, or polemical—take on new meanings. Carruther’s claim that an image’s cognitive utility took priority over any “mimetic realism” carries profound implications for further work on early Christian attitudes to images. Clear translations of primary sources make her writing accessible to advanced undergraduates. Graduate students as well as scholars will benefit from this outstanding book, which deepens our understanding of the power of word and image in the history of Christian art, exegesis, pedagogy, and monasticism. With ample illustrations and a superb bibliography, The Craft of Thought is as rewarding as it is engrossing to read. Georgia Frank Colgate University Copyright © 1999 The Johns Hopkins University Press

The Monastery: A Study in Freedom, Love, and Community.

Foreword Preface Beginning Introduction The Historical and Socological Context The Historical Context Freedom and Discipline (with Charles J. Dudley) Love and Community An Ethnographic Analysis The Guest House and the Novitiate Space and Interaction Family and Celibacy Earning a Living Authority and Government Stratification (with L. Richard Della Fave) Monastic Prayer Asceticism and Recreation Invalids and Death The Relativity of Deviance Conclusions Community, Freedom, and Love Ending: A Personal Summing Up Appendices Glossary References Index

School for Prayer, by Archbishop Antony Bloom. Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1970. 75 pp. 10s. - Learning to Pray, by Bernard BroO.P., Ecclesia Press, Shannon, Ireland. 176 pp. 35s. - The Climate of Monastic Prayer, by Thomas Merton. Irish University Press, Shannon, 1969. 154 pp. 35s. - The Experience of Prayer, by Sebastian Moore and Kevin Maguire. Darton, Longman

School for Prayer, by Archbishop Antony Bloom. Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1970. 75 pp. 10s. - Learning to Pray, by Bernard BroO.P., Ecclesia Press, Shannon, Ireland. 176 pp. 35s. - The Climate of Monastic Prayer, by Thomas Merton. Irish University Press, Shannon, 1969. 154 pp. 35s. - The Experience of Prayer, by Sebastian Moore and Kevin Maguire. Darton, Longman