The voice of the Church

The Primitive Rule determines that we recite all the Hours of the Divine Office, as the First Institution of Monks taught: "Since then, these monks have always gathered in this chapel (which they built in honor of the Mother of God) to commend himself to this Virgin and to pray canonically every seven hours to this Virgin and to her Son, with fervent prayers, supplications and praises. In the chapel they met to give mutual exhortations and spiritual instructions in a simple way and to study how to save souls” (Chap. XXXVI).

However, while keeping the hermit and the solitary spirit of Carmel at the same time, on ordinary days of the week the hermits meet three times a day, reciting the wee hours in the solitude of the cell, also mentioning the Venerable Book where it is said that before the construction of the Oratory in honor of the Virgin, still at the time of Our Father Saint Elijah: “He and his followers left their graves three times a day and met very devoted to oratory, not to feed the body together or to perform other material occupations, but to ask mercy from the Creator of all things, to honor him with the litany and the prayers and to repeat each of them with the prophet David: In the afternoon, in the morning and at noon, I will weep and groan; and he will hear my voice (Ps LIV, 18); (Cap.XIX).

In the days of the Church Fathers, monastic life was called life after the manner of angels.

All our liturgy is celebrated according to the traditional rite of the Holy Church, with the particularities of the liturgy of Mount Carmel.

The Divine Office is the prayer of the Church, the most sublime sacrifice of praise after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. That is why it is called "Divine", because it is not a personal prayer where so many human motivations can enter, with what would cease to be Divine, but we praise God in his own words.

It is also rightly called the "Office", just as every Christian has an office to fill in his life for his subsistence and in obedience to the divine law which commands him to work, religious fulfill their office in the full recitation of the liturgy of the Psalms, hymns and prayers, composed by the Church, all imbued with Holy Scripture, not only for its own benefit, but for all the Holy Church and all mankind created and redeemed by the Son of God . So that your main "obligation" is this Divine Office, and only what remains is employed in manual work, which in its time the Holy Rule also specifies its importance in the life of the monk.

Our Rule being entirely biblical, it is therefore full of mercy for human frailties, hence the wise and magnanimous permission to exchange the Psalms for the recitation of the Our Father, for those who do not know how to pray.

"Hi qui litteras noverunt & legere Psalmos per singulas horas eos dicant."

However, we must be careful to pray the psalms with care, because quantity is excellent in psalmody, when it accompanies perseverance and attention. The demons surprise the senses of the soul in different ways, doing everything to relax and annoy us, and also to waste the fruits of prayer. But resist courageously and do not favor the comfort of the body at the expense of the soul, abandoning yourself to think only of the fulfillment of the Hour; the demons will not endure your patience or the strength of your determination.

Plan to have Divine Office records for each day. For more honor 

and Glory of the Good Lord and the Salvation of my people!