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Dominican Sisters Open Mic
Ep. 5: The Prayer of the Church – Liturgy of the Hours (Sr. Peter Thomas, O.P.)
00:32:07
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- [00:00]
A
The Liturgy of the Hours as a setting for that, that makes a ring, that if it's well done, it enhances it, and it. It makes. It extends it throughout the hours of the day. So that's where we get the name, the Liturgy of the Hours. It's also called the Divine Office, the work of God, meaning our work that we offer to God, but it's also God's work in us. At this or that hour, such and such disciple is going up to the temple to pray. Right. We see the church continuing these fixed hours of prayer to sanctify the day. So all the emotions we experience, joy and adoration and being overcome with wonder at the beauty of creation. And then deep grief and sorrow and bewilderment. And why is this the way it is?
- [00:59]
B
Hi, and welcome to Dominican Sisters open Mic. My name is Sister Miriam, and I'm a Sister of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. We're based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Each week, we'll be sitting down with one of our very own sisters, and we're talking all things Dominican. And today I have our special guest, Sister Peter Thomas with us. Sister, thank you so much for coming.
- [01:23]
A
You're welcome, Sister. Thanks for having me.
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B
And I have asked Sister to come and talk a little bit about liturgy and the Liturgy of the Hours, and she is an expert in our community on this topic.
- [01:37]
A
I don't know about that, but I have some things that I like to say.
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B
You have some amazing things to say a little bit about your background, though, before we get to that. So you're originally from the Woodlands, Texas.
- [01:51]
A
That's right. You're just outside of Houston.
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B
Okay. Now, what year did you enter our community?
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A
I entered in 2010.
- [01:59]
B
Okay, and you're a teacher. Like, we are certified for mathematics.
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A
That's right. High school.
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B
High school math. Do you have a favorite kind of math, but you like to algebra? Oh, yeah. Algebra.
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A
Most people are algebra people or geometry.
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B
That's true.
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A
And I'm an algebra person.
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B
Okay.
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A
But I like it all, and I like. I like the kids.
- [02:19]
B
So what are you doing now?
- [02:21]
A
Yeah, so right now I'm not in the classroom because I live with our sisters who are in. In formation and our students at Franciscan University. So we have a convent just outside of Steubenville, so I'm in residence with them there. And then I help with our community's liturgy, and I work on other projects for the community.
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B
Sister, I like that you say you help with the sisters liturgy. You are like the liturgy expert that we all go to.
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A
But I don't live in all the convents.
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B
You don't live in the. All the convents.
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A
Like I'm doing it.
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B
But it's so nice because you're an email away when we have questions, all things liturgy. So thank you for the service that you provide for us of being knowledgeable. And I know you do so much research to get to the answers of things, of particular questions that come up, and unusual circumstances that come up, and you get to the bottom of it. So we appreciate that, Sister. So we want to talk about liturgy, specifically liturgy of the Hours, but can you give us an overview of what is liturgy?
- [03:24]
A
Yeah, liturgy. That's a good question. It's one of those things that's a way so big, it's a little bit hard to define. Define it in one clear thing. I looked up in the catechism, figuring you would ask me this, and the definition was I thought that's not really a definition, but it's because of how all encompassing liturgy is. But I think there's something we can say about it, maybe from two angles. So the, the word we use for liturgy comes from a Greek phrase that is about public work or work by the people or on behalf of the people. So in the pagan context, pre Christian, um, I think originally it would have been broadly infrastructure, kind of any public works, and then started to be applied to worship of the gods, you know, making offerings to the gods as a work on behalf of the people. So that's going on in the pagan side, then in the people, with the people of Israel, who God is leading and revealing himself to. Part of the way he's revealing himself is he's revealing how he wants to be worshiped. So at Mount Sinai, when Moses is there, he doesn't just get the Ten Commandments, he also gets chapters and chapters of instructions about this is how I want you, you as my chosen people, to worship me. And so then we have the whole book of Leviticus that's about that and, you know, whole sections of the Old Testament. And sometimes we get bogged down when we're trying to. I'm going to read the Bible this year. And we get stuck in Leviticus. But. But it's actually beautiful. We can think of it sometimes wrongly. I think as this sounds so burdensome. But that wasn't from my understanding the way the people of Israel.
- [04:47]
B
Like, it sounds like a lot of rules. Yeah, but.
- [04:50]
A
But it's. It's a gift that God tells us this is how you can be in right relationship with me, even in your fallen state, by right worship. So he's doing that already in the Old Covenant. And then in Christ, we have this whole transformation where Christ comes. And in a sense, we could say Christ comes and does the liturgy for us. He's the great high priest who comes and pinnacle at Calvary with his own sacrifice of himself. But he transforms all liturgy and then makes the Church able to do liturgy in him. So it's still the work of and on behalf of the people, and we get to join it, but it's Christ who's doing it. So that's maybe a. A broad way of how we could think about what liturgy is tangibly. It's. It's ritual worship of God. Right. So things like, like the Mass or these other rights that where, again, we're not kind of making it up. We can have our own personal prayer, we can have praise and worship. All of that is great. But the liturgy is something that's given by God through the church for us. That's kind of the pinnacle way that we can. We can give Him Right. Worship and be transformed ourselves.
- [05:56]
B
Sister, I love. I love that.
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A
I do, too.
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B
That's a good overview. Can we go into particulars of liturgy examples? So you mentioned the Mass, right?
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A
Yeah. The Mass is the high point, going to receive other.
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B
Other sacraments.
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A
All of the sacraments have rights that go with them. And then even beyond the sacraments. I know we're going to talk more about the Liturgy of the Hours, Right. Some of the sacrament, even the. The book of Blessings that your parish priest might use to bless the Advent Wreath or to bless your home at Epiphany. There's a liturgical element to those as well. So it's kind of a broad swath of which the Mass is the. The kind of the exemplar and the high point.
- [06:42]
B
So how about praying the rosary together?
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A
Oh, that's a good question. It's not liturgical per se, although the Rosary has some really cool connections with liturgical prayer, and it's a beautiful devotion, but that would be something outside of the formal liturgy.
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B
Okay, so here's a question for you. Do you have to be with other people for it to be liturgical?
- [07:05]
A
Good question. The liturgy, the Hours suggests no, although it's ideally meant to be prayed in common, the liturgy. So it's kind of a yes or no, because the liturgy is always the prayer of the church. It's not your own personal whatever. I feel like doing prayer, which, again, there's nothing wrong.
- [07:22]
B
Right. And we. We have that kind of prayer in our life. Absolutely.
- [07:26]
A
So it's always the prayer of the Church. However, there are cases when a per. A priest who's alone and maybe doesn't have a congregation that day, but still offers Mass, he's still offering the liturgy on behalf of the whole church. If I'm traveling and I'm away from community, or a priest who lives alone in a rectory or a layperson, you know, we pray the liturgy the Hours on ourselves. That's still a liturgical prayer on behalf of the church. So I could do it on my own, but I'm not actually doing it on my own, if that makes sense. I'm stepping into something bigger than me when I pray the liturgy.
- [07:58]
B
Right, Sister. Good. Okay. So now getting into the Liturgy of the Hours in a little bit more depth. So, as sisters, we are obliged to pray these hours and in our life just to give our listeners some background. We do. On a weekday when we're teaching, it'd be three times a day.
- [08:21]
A
Four if we're home. Yeah.
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B
Four if we're. If we're.
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A
No vision.
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B
Yes. The novitiate. So that'd be morning prayer, daytime prayer, Vespers, which is the. Around dinner time, and then the night prayer hours. And. And we call these hours. It's not it.
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A
But they're not an hour. They're not 60 minutes. That would be a lot while we're teaching. Most of them tend to be about 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah.
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B
So can you explain Liturgy of the Hour?
- [08:48]
A
Sure. Yeah. So the Liturgy of the Hours. Oh, it's such a gift. One of the ways the Church talks about it is taking everything that's in the Mass, so praise and thanksgiving and petition and Scripture and sacrifice, and extending all of that throughout all the rest of the hours of the day. One analogy I've heard is the Mass as this precious jewel or gem, and then the Liturgy of the Hours as a setting ring for that, that makes a ring that if it's well done, it enhances it, and it. It makes. It extends it throughout the hours of the day. So that's where we get the name, the Liturgy the Hours. It's also called the Divine Office, the work of God, meaning our work that we offer to God, but it's also God's work in us. And structurally, what it is is it's largely based around praying the Psalms, and then there's other elements attached to it as well at these different times of day, so that it's spreading it all throughout those hours of the day. But again, as you said, not for a whole Hour at a time.
- [09:47]
B
Right. Which. And Christ sets the model. He does speak a little bit about.
- [09:52]
A
Yeah, that's one of the things that just amazes me about praying the Psalms is that these are words that the people of Israel have prayed for millennium, and that includes our Blessed Mother, and that includes our Lord. And he prayed these Psalms. He prayed these words. I mean, they're, they're, they're inspired words of Scripture, so they're the word of God, but. But they're also words that have been prayed by Christ in his humanity and by the early church and then for all the centuries since. So we're stepping into something, this tradition of prayer that's, that's living now. It's a living tradition, but it's so much bigger than just what my own words of prayer might be.
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B
And Christ himself seemed to be. He would pray at fixed times. He would go and he would go away to pray.
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A
This life of prayer, we know he would have. He would have been faithful to the customs of a Jew of his time, which included praying the Psalms regularly. And then we really see in the Acts of the Apostles, there's a lot of references to at this or that hour, such and such disciple was going up to the temple to pray. Right. We see the church continuing these fixed hours of prayer to sanctify the day.
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B
So really central to the Liturgy of the Hours is the Psalms. Now, sister, tell us why you love the Psalms.
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A
Yeah. Well, in addition to Christ having prayed them, the church having prayed them, they cover the whole gamut of human emotion. It's all, it's all in there.
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B
All.
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A
I mean, and humans as we are, right, not, not kind of an idealized humanity, but humans as we are. So all the emotions we experience, joy and adoration and being overcome with wonder at the beauty of creation and then deep grief and sorrow and bewilderment. And why is this the way it is? One of the Psalms talks about why do the. Why do the wicked prosper? You know, how come. How come the wicked guy has a good job and I'm out of work? You know, would be. Amount. All the questions that we have in our hearts, really, they all show up there and they're. And they're kind of messily put. The Psalms don't pull many punches. They just ask questions. When the psalmist is upset, you know, or has a negative emotion, they're really quite blunt. And so when we pray them, I mean, for my own even personal prayer, to pray with the Psalms. The Psalms are formative because they give. They give inspired Language to the experience of each of those emotions. In a way, they teach me, how do I pray when I'm joyful? How do I pray when I'm mad at God or when I have questions or when I'm in sorrow or thanksgiving? Yes, all of it. It models that.
- [12:35]
B
Or petition asking for. For help.
- [12:37]
A
Yes, yes. How do I pray that? And then when we prayed in the liturgy, the Hours, again, we're not just praying our own personal prayer, we're praying in on behalf of the church. And so then sometimes that's tricky because then I'm in a great mood that day. I'm. God is so good. And the psalm that's assigned that morning might have an element of grief in it. How do I pray that somebody in the church is grieving part of the body of Christ? Someone's suffering in this world. And so to pray that in their. In their name and for them continues to form my heart as a member of the body of Christ. And the same, when I'm having a difficult season or a hard day and it's this song of praise, well, praise is still. Praise is still part of what my prayer should be. And so that rhythm shapes us and forms us and brings us out of ourselves and reminds us. I don't pray alone. I pray as part of the church. And the church. The church is, Is living the whole of human life at prayer.
- [13:34]
B
I love the idea too, that, okay, we have. Priests and religious are obliged to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and many lay people are. Are picking it up. It seems to be growing in popularity, which is wonderful. But you have people around the whole world who are praying the liturgy. And I love the, the idea that I'm. I'm praying at 5 o' clock, vespers, and then I'm moving on, and eventually I'm going to bed and sleeping, and someone on the other side of the world is praying and they're. And. And so we have it covered. It's like all the hours are covered.
- [14:12]
A
Yeah.
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B
Because we're offering these prayers to God.
- [14:15]
A
Yeah. And there's this beautiful line in Sacra Sanctum Concilium, which is the document of Vatican II on the liturgy. It gets echoed in pretty much everything else that's written afterwards about the literature to the Hours. And it talks about how this hymn of praise to God is going on through all eternity in heaven. It just is happening already. And then Christ, when he comes as the high priest, he comes down to this land of exile, but he inserts us into that hymn of praise. That's already happening. So there's the. There's the really concrete. Somebody on this earth is praying it, but it's also all of heaven is praying this all of the time. And we get to step into that and participate in that even here and now. It lifts our minds beyond the here and now to what's the truest reality.
- [15:00]
B
Sister so you, you, I mean, you love the Liturgy of the Hours. How would you. Can you say, like, how has it impacted your spiritual life? And did you pray the Liturgy of the Hours before you entered the convent?
- [15:15]
A
Good question. I prayed part of the liturgy hours a little bit. So a couple years before I entered the convent, I worked at a Catholic camp and the staff would pray morning prayer and pray prayer together.
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B
Was that the first exposure you.
- [15:27]
A
As far as I remember. And so after that summer, I picked that up and I. And I tried to keep up with that, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but it did kind of shape me. And so it primed me a little bit to know what I was doing when I got to the convent. How is it. How has it impacted me? I think the biggest way is it's totally steeped in Scripture. So the heart of it is praying the psalms and then there's other scripture readings, and then there's antiphons and intercessions that fill it out. But even those are mostly scriptural language. It's like you're swimming in Scripture multiple times a day for a few minutes.
- [16:02]
B
And it's true, really.
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A
It took me probably a decade in the convent to notice the impact it was having on me. But what that, that steady drip of. Of God's Word being part of my life all throughout the day, even at times when I didn't really know, I wasn't sure how to read the Bible. Or am I, you know, I'm. Am I a good sister? I don't read the Bible enough. I was getting the Bible all throughout the day. I think for me, that's been one of the most formative things, is just that immersion in the Word of God and. And coming to realize years into it, wow, this has. This has really shaped me. This has changed how I think it's renewed my mind and it's formed my heart differently than before I was. I was immersed in this. That's one of the great benefits of it, is it just, it happens almost without you noticing it when you're praying the liturgy, the hours.
- [16:51]
B
Yeah, that is true. Actually, one thing I've been noticing more recently is sometimes if I'll Hear a line of the Psalms, I'll. I'll know what the next line is, but I'm like, not really sure how I know it. Yes.
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A
Yes.
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B
Somehow it seeped into my being in a way that, that, that prayer of supplication or that prayer of thanksgiving. And, And I'm hearing the words come. Come to my mind even, even before the. Maybe the reader.
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A
Yeah.
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B
At mass is saying it. But it's so beautiful to have the, the words of. Of revealed to us by God at, At the tip of the tongue.
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A
And when we read a little bit of the early church fathers or something, we see that's how they were. They were immersed in Scripture and that's why their writings are just peppered with it and they don't often cite their sources. And that bothers us as modern people. You know, where'd you get that from? But it's because they don't maybe remember the chapter and verse. They. But they know the line because they're. They're living in it all the time. And so sometimes in the convent, we'll make jokes, you know, we'll pull out a, A reference that fits in a situation, but also in serious ways, too. It's. It just, it becomes part of you. And then you have that, that inspired vocabulary in a sense to. Then when you don't have the words to pray in a particular situation, this is already in you and, and you know where to go to. To find it.
- [18:17]
B
So I'm just curious, but do you ever not feel like praying it? Does that ever happen to you?
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A
I mean, early in the morning.
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B
Early in the morning.
- [18:27]
A
If I attend, that usually changes by the end of the prayer. Right. Because if I'm attending to it, there's grace in it for me. You know, there's something. I mean, I might still not be super excited because it's still early in the morning, but. Yeah, I mean, yes, yeah, we have tired moments, we have bad days, but I still find it transformative if I, If I make any effort to attend to it. I love that we start every, every hour, every part of the office. When we come together to pray, the first thing we do is we. We cross ourselves with the sign of the cross, just like at our baptism. And then we say, God, come to my assistance. So right off the bat, I need help to do this.
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B
Well, right.
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A
This divine office. I'm not really fit to perform it on myself, but I don't have to. It's Christ the high priest, and it's his whole church.
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B
And the next line is Lord, make haste to help me.
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A
Make haste. Gotta move on. Please, Lord, I could use some help down here. So that. That's hope. When I don't feel like praying it.
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B
One of the things that we do when we're. When we're not actually at the Mother House, because we might be traveling or out and about, is we still gotta fit in our liturgy of the hours and pray those hours. And I always find it really refreshing because I might be on the go, I might actually be at the airport and it's around dinner time and I know I gotta get my vespers in to just kind of maybe find a place that's a little bit removed, or maybe I'm in the hustle and bustle of. Of a crowd and put. Take my book out, my bravery and put myself in the presence of God and praying those psalms in a space like that. And. And I think sometimes I might not feel like doing that in that moment, but once I do do it, there's a peacefulness that comes and I feel refreshed. And then I put my book away and okay, when's our flight coming? When are we departing? But I feel refreshed by that. And so just fitting it in. I mean, because when we're at the Mother House, it's built in.
- [20:37]
A
Yes.
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B
But when we're out maybe traveling or in the apostolate, fitting in an in is. It can be difficult, but it's also very refreshed. I always feel refreshed after.
- [20:49]
A
Yeah. And that's a good. That's a good reminder that there's not one perfect way to pray this. Right. It's the prayer of the church, but it's a little bit of a more flexible prayer of the church in terms of circumstances. So I think about cloistered communities of nuns who rise during the night to pray it, who pray sometimes for several actual hours a day because they pray it in elaborate chants that go back centuries. And then we have the blessing of praying it for the most part in common in choir. That's part of our Dominican tradition that we chant back and forth and. And so we get this kind of embodied experience of the spiritual reality that's there any. Which is, I'm part of something bigger praying this. But then a parish priest often is going to be praying it on his own. When we're traveling, we step into that experience a little bit more. And then the church invites she. She calls on her priests and her religious to pray this, but she invites everyone to pray it. I know a lot of lay people who pray the liturgy, the hours, and for them, it's mostly going to be fitting it in, so to speak, or setting up, figuring out a time so we have a. We have a priority. I mean, what I love it's our vocation to pray it in community. But. But it's not restricted to that. It's something that can sanctify the hours of the day for any member of the church. And it doesn't have to be perfect to do that. It doesn't have to have a silent room, it doesn't have to be in a chapel to be able to do that. There are people who pray this as a family, who pray it with their kids, who pray it when they can, but don't always pray it. They're not obliged to it. And all of that is, is giving worship to God. And it's transformative for us as well.
- [22:24]
B
Sister, I. You. It gets me jazzed up just hearing you talk about it. I love, I love your. Your love. I love your love of the liturgy. And I have seen more lay people taking it up. So maybe we could go into sort of tips or how people could get some started if they would like to participate in this.
- [22:48]
A
Yeah, that's a great question. So it can be a little overwhelming, honestly, for somebody new. You mentioned our book, the Brevery, a couple minutes ago.
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B
Yes.
- [22:56]
A
So that's the name for that prayer book. And actually we pray the full office, so we have four of them, and we use one at a time throughout the day.
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B
Four volumes.
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A
There's one volume versions. And even that can be a little overwhelming because there's usually a whole bunch of ribbons and you're flipping back and forth and it, it all can make sense if you learn it and anybody can learn it, but that's not always the best place to start. It's. It's seemed to me, from the number of people who have told me that they, they lost hope trying to navigate ribbons. So there's great resources, like there's. In addition to the books, there's electronic apps on phones or on computers that, that work really well that lay out that day's office. You don't have to navigate it.
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B
Yes. It's just all there, all in order.
- [23:37]
A
Yeah.
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B
Exactly as it should. And they have the hymn there, the Psalms, they have the reading and the intercession.
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A
And similarly, I know Word on Fire has started the last couple years doing for those who don't want to pray it on the phone because that can come with. With distractions for people. They do something similar in A monthly little booklet. Yes. That you can order. And, and so they've, instead of all the flipping, they've laid it out for you. So that's a good, I think a good way for a lot of people to pray it.
- [24:04]
B
Sister, what about the Magnificat?
- [24:06]
A
I know it has a wonderful devotional, so it has a morning and evening prayer around the, the text of the Mass that it provides. It's not the formal lauds and vespers, morning and evening prayer of the Divine Office. It's not the exact same texts. It's great for devotional use and it's, it would be a great place to start for a lot of people, I think.
- [24:24]
B
Yes.
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A
To get accustomed to.
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B
Very doable.
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A
It's very doable. It wouldn't be the op. It wouldn't fulfill the obligation for someone like a priest or a religious who's obliged. But it's, it's based on the same model.
- [24:34]
B
Okay.
- [24:35]
A
Yeah.
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B
So then what should someone start with? Morning prayer.
- [24:41]
A
Oh, which, which hours? You know, one great place to start. Morning prayer is nice because you can, you can decide what to do and then it, it begins your day in a note of prayer, even if you can't maybe make it to morning mass during the week. Another one I've heard people have success with this was my own experience at camp was night prayer, which is, it's not the church calls morning and evening prayer, the two hinge hours, the, the big, most important ones. But night prayer has this sort of special intimate character. Dominicans have a special love for night prayer because we have these special chants we sing at the end, a hymn to Our lady, kind of a good night hymn, the Salve, the Salve Regina and then a hymn to St. Dominic. But for the whole church there's, it's a little bit shorter, it's a little bit simpler, it's just a one week more repetitive. So it's pretty easy to learn. And it's, it, it only takes honestly maybe seven or eight minutes to pray it on your own. And so it's, that would be a great starting place too, if somebod wants to dip into this a bit. Night prayer is a way you can just take a few minutes before, before you call it a day and, and give praise, give thanks, ask for God's blessing on the next day and join in the church. That might be a place.
- [25:51]
B
And I have seen, you mentioned families and children. I have seen families gather for one of the, maybe even just one of the hours in a day to, to do it together. And it's. It's. And I've actually had the. The opportunity to kind of sit in on that and pray in on that with the family.
- [26:11]
A
Nice.
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B
And it's. It's such a. A beautiful practice for. For the children just to. To get exposed to the Scriptures and that style of liturgical prayer, and they tend to really enjoy being a part of it.
- [26:27]
A
So the word of God is for everybody.
- [26:29]
B
Oh, yes. Young and old.
- [26:31]
A
Right? That's right.
- [26:33]
B
Any. Any final words about. About the liturgy? Words, Words of encouragement for our listeners that you want to hear.
- [26:41]
A
It's just such a gift. I mean, we hear. We hear often, and thanks be to God that we do that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our life. And that is. That's one of the phrases that the church uses. But she also says that the liturgy as a whole is the source and summit, and the Eucharist is the pinnacle of that. Of course, as Christ himself.
- [26:59]
B
Yes.
- [27:00]
A
But it's all. It's all one work of Christ. And so the liturgy, the hours, is this way that it extends that throughout our day. One of the ways that I've. I've heard it phrased is the liturgy. The hours should be preparing us for the next time we go to Mass, and it should be bringing the graces of the Mass when last we went into it. And so it's another way that we can root ourselves in the heart of our spiritual life, of our. The Sunday Mass as a community, daily Mass, if we're able. But these moments of. Of turning our minds and our hearts to God, of using the words he gives us to pray to him, but also to know he's. Christ is praying in us when we do this. What a privilege for any of us. We don't deserve it, but we get to do it as members of the body of Christ. And it's amazing, Sister.
- [27:48]
B
Thank you. Okay, are you ready for speed round?
- [27:52]
A
So ready. Maybe. I don't know.
- [27:55]
B
I think you're ready. If there's anyone who could do this as you. Oh, this first question is perfect for you. What is your favorite liturgical season and why?
- [28:06]
A
I think the Easter season, there's alley is on everything. By the end, you're almost sick of them, except not because they're so joyful. And you read. We also, we read the first letter of St. Peter during the. The Easter octave, and it's just brimming with joy. It's a beautiful book.
- [28:22]
B
So, Sister, do you have a hobby?
- [28:24]
A
I read a lot and I like to cross stitch. Oh, I'm Cross stitching. This big Noah's ark right now that'll probably go in, like, a children's nursery. And you ever think about how that's actually a story about, like, the whole world getting killed except the student? They're like, let's hang it in the baby's room.
- [28:43]
B
Wow.
- [28:44]
A
So that's my cross stitch meditation
- [28:48]
B
sister. Very good. Now, do you have a favorite game at the moment?
- [28:52]
A
I'll say Wingspan, AKA the bird game.
- [28:55]
B
You're not the first that has said that.
- [28:57]
A
I'm not surprised because I have to play with other people and they like it.
- [29:00]
B
It's kind of a trend right now. We go through phases.
- [29:02]
A
We do go through convent game phases.
- [29:04]
B
What's a book besides the Bible that's impacted your spiritual life that you would recommend?
- [29:10]
A
Oh, that's a great question. Not too long ago, Pope Leo made a plug in an interview, I think, for the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. And. And I read that in my novitiate, and it just reminded me what a classic that is. Informative. So that's one I would recognize.
- [29:27]
B
That's a great one.
- [29:28]
A
It's short and it's. It's just beautiful to think, how can I. How can I be attuned to God at any moment of the day?
- [29:34]
B
Favorite title of Our lady and why?
- [29:38]
A
Oh, Mary, undoer of knots. Ooh, yeah. Just that image of her undoing the knots, taking the knots.
- [29:46]
B
We all need that, right?
- [29:47]
A
Working them out.
- [29:49]
B
Okay, favorite age to teach.
- [29:51]
A
Juniors.
- [29:52]
B
Oh, juniors. Okay. That's very specific.
- [29:55]
A
Yes, it is. But they're. They're. Because they've realized they're half more than halfway through high school. So they start having serious life questions, but they're not seen.
- [30:02]
B
And you're there at that point, you're there.
- [30:05]
A
But they're not seniors yet, so they don't have senioritis.
- [30:08]
B
I like all.
- [30:09]
A
I like all the high school grades. I like all the ages, but juniors are my favorite.
- [30:13]
B
Okay, if you could have dinner with a saint, who would it be, and what would you ask them?
- [30:22]
A
I'm tempted to say St. Peter. And I'd ask, were you embarrassed when Jesus told you multiple times to stop saying the wrong thing? Probably St. Thomas. And I'd have to study up and come up with what. What best question to ask him. I'm hoping we'll have all of eternity to do this. So I don't want to be limited
- [30:40]
B
or one saint or one question or one dinner.
- [30:44]
A
So wedding feast of the lamb. It's got to last a while, right?
- [30:47]
B
That's right. Name last one, Sister.
- [30:50]
A
Okay.
- [30:51]
B
Name an activity that brings you peace and refreshes your spirit.
- [30:56]
A
Right now, reading the Bible. It's really opened up and there's just constant treasures in it.
- [31:03]
B
Sister Peter Thomas, thank you so much for coming and sharing your perspective on the Liturgy of the Hours and your love for liturgy. And I'm always inspired by seeing that in you. So thank you so much. And we want to thank all of our viewers for watching and we want to encourage you if there's anyone in your family, your friends, your loved ones that might benefit from hearing our conversation on liturgy, Liturgy of the Hours, please pass along this podcast to them. And we just desire for people to know our Lord more in their lives and to grow in relationship with him. Please know of our prayers for you. And we ask the Lord to bless you and your loved ones. Have a wonderful day.