The Music of Silence: Entering the Sacred Space of Monastic Experience

At one time this book was packaged with a CD of monastic chant to provide some context for the singing. However, the book deserves to be read on its own as a rich exploration of the spiritual possibilities of time itself and of the eight hours of monastic prayer. Originally timed by the sun, the hours begin before dawn and follow at two to three hour intervals until the last light vanishes at dusk. Steindl-Rast is a well known Benedictine writer who mingles spiritual insight with vignettes that show how the hours punctuate and illuminate the daily rhythm of monastic life - prayer, reading, work. He illustrates each hour with one of the "angel musicians by Fra Angelico, from the Tabernacle of the Linaioli, Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy." In the photos one can see bits of the neighboring figures. I tried to put them in sequence as I thought they would appear in the original. I was so intrigued by this puzzle that I sought out a picture of the whole group in an art history book. The angels are actually on the outer rim of the Tabernacle frame and would be unseen when the Tabernacle was closed. They are like a silent music box in which the music only emerges when the lid is raised - an angel choir silently hymning the glories of Christ as present in his sacraments. I was disappointed to discover that the angels are not in any kind of sequence corresponding to the hours. So how did Steindl-Rast come up with the idea of the comparison? However he did it, it worked beautifully. Worth both reading and rereading.