Schedule Changes

The monastic day receives its structure from the hours of prayer which express and support our search for the Living God. These communal celebrations of our joining together in Christ’s pray to the Father define and regulate our experience of time and are sometimes called the sanctification of time.

Changes in our schedule or hororium are very significant in the community’s life. That is why we make changes with caution and care. But we have initiated a serious change in keeping with recommendations from the Committee of the Future which met last fall with the community. Given the reduced numbers in the community and the aging of our population, they suggested that we look for ways to simplify and accommodate to reality the ways we live together. We have been making efforts to do this in the liturgy and in our work. A further step has been to make some alterations in the daily schedule. We have begun to move the rising time in the morning from 3:15 a.m. to 4:15 a.m., with Vigils beginning at 4:30 a.m. The liturgical schedule for the weekday is:

Vigils 4:30 a.m.

Lauds 7:30

Eucharist 8:00 a.m.

Tierce in private

Sext and dinner and the rest of the day as normal.

On Sunday, Lauds will be celebrated at 7:00 a.m. and Eucharist at 9:00 a.m.

An unfortunate consequence in changing the time of daily Eucharist from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. is that some of our neighbors who come to celebrate the eucharist before going to work will no longer be able to do so. We will review this change after three months to evaluate its effects.

On the local scene, the shortage of pilots has caused American Airlines to suspend all flights between Dubuque and Chicago. The nearest airport for flights is now Clinton, IA. Even Greyhound buses are no longer scheduled directly from Dubuque to Chicago. They are routed through Madison and Milwaukee or through Davenport.