CHICAGO NEXUS QUARTER III­IV

Research Centrum

THE DAILY OFFICE WITNESS 1975­76

THE RECOMMENDATION

In order to intensify Memorial #22 from the Global Priors Council pertaining to Symbolic Life Structures, we recommend that for Quarter III­IV, 1975­76 all Daily Office Witnesses shall be on the Daily Office Liturgy. These witnesses may be on a phrase from the liturgy itself, major motifs or themes that run through the Office, the dramaturgy of the liturgy, the dynamics of an act, or some other aspect of the Daily Office.

THE CONTEXT:

This recommendation is designed as an experiment in recovery of the objectivity of the Word in history and the power of the liturgy in expressing and dramatizing that Word. An Orthodox monk, having recently visited Chicago Nexus reported to his superior that they need no longer worry about the decline of their orders because the liturgy was being held in history by the Order Ecumenical. The understanding of liturgy as that which holds history in being is able to be grasped in a new way in the midst of our intensified social engagement.

Caring for the self involves being present to the objective realities that do not fluctuate with one's state of being or his emotional or social relations. The liturgy is a treasure of truth about the way life is in the Word. The time of radical engagement is a time for turning to Worship.

The time of engagement is a time for turning from individual to corporate emphasis. The liturgy is a corporate, objective social act that portrays and speaks of corporate, objective social realities. Ours is a time in which intensified engagement­in the objective situation--motivates and sustains people.

ADDENDA:

Enclosed are two sample witnesses reflecting two of the many possible approaches to witnesses on the liturgy.

It is likely that during the quarter many classical statements will be made throughout the Order. When these occur, they may be typed and sent to Global Research Centrum: Chicago for compilation and distribution.

SAMPLE DAILY OFFICE WITNESS

"ALL THE EARTH DOTH WORSHIP THEE, THE FATHER EVERLASTING"

This line from the Daily Office is astounding to me. How can it be true that all the earth doth worship Thee...? I would expect it to say "All the earth could worship or will worship Thee when x or y or z happens." The liturgy says, "All the earth worships Thee."

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Perhaps that might be paraphrased "All that is, dramatizes or recognizes or submits to Mystery or Glory."

That's preposterous. Yet I've seen that very fact in the mudholes of Kawangware, when residents and visitors recognized Mystery by just walking around in their actual situation. I've seen this act of worship in the happening we call Community Forum when people explore, stand before, and embrace the details of their "mudholes" in naming the issues and challenges and proposals from their actual situation. Mystery is disclosed there.

Perhaps it is really true then. "All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting."

SAMPLE DAILY OFFICE WITNESS

HOW DOES THE LITURGY WITNESS TO US?

The liturgy is an act of reconciliation between God and His people. It is a happening: it is the happening of humanness that reenacts the wholeness that is in the midst of the violently separated relationship inherent between the Mystery and humankind.

The liturgy is pure symbol. It is man's rehearsal of how he finds life to be. The acts of confession, praise and dedication are man's decisions about his relationship to his trappedness. It is his decision to embrace his finitude. It is this act of embracing one's finitude whereby man acknowledges that God is God. God is in charge. This is no intellectual set of abstractions. "We have done little to forward they Kingdom in this world." Who would propose that he had done much? If one of us were to be so pridefilled, perhaps some among our number could remind him of the scope of the task.

Second, the liturgy is the rehearsal of the faithful. The "Our Father" is a series of radical claims made by those who have abdicated their own paltry strength in favor of the supporting and sustaining strength of the Mystery. The faithful are those who have established in their being the conviction that life itself is complete support to maintain human fulfillment. Life itself tells us all we need to know about how to expend our energy. "Thy Kingdom come." The single task in which we are all engaged is the social act of reconciliation: it is the deed of engaging the separated peoples in the healing act of working together to build the earth. The Kingdom of God is not reversing or even equalizing the positions of the "haves" and have­nots" of this world. It is realized in the act of the faithful, who throw their lives into the objective sociological gap between established society and the outcasts, to construct the bridge that allows each to participate consciously in the destiny of the other for the sake of rebuilding a human society. This act of the faithful is the demonstration of the power set loose among men when people determine to live for their neighbor rather than for themselves.

Third, the liturgy is a rehearsal of trust. All of us here are bright enough not to trust the particulars of human finitude, either our colleagues, our spouse or our children. Our colleagues, our spouses or our children always disappoint us. It is the Mystery that never disappoints. The Mystery can always be relied on to be surprising. Of course, the surprising turn of the Mystery is always manifest in colleagues, spouses, children, and our day­to­day working situation. Righteous indignation which is the first response to the surprising character of the Mystery finally has no place in the life of one who trusts the Mystery: surrender is the only adequate response. A servant does not have the luxury of cherishing his anger against his master. He only serves. The liturgy celebrates the decision to serve the Mystery through serving the neighbor.