Divine Depths

The perfection of a society is in Sunday Vespers. Without it, public life is incomplete. The Church needs Sunday Vespers to be herself as the world needs the Church. Hidden in the five Psalms of Sunday Vespers is the greatest mystery on earth — the Most Blessed Sacrament. As God’s Substance in the Holy Eucharist can only be seen by the eyes of faith, so the meaning of the Psalms can only be known to faithful souls who listen to Jesus, listen to His Evangelists, listen to the Church Fathers. Otherwise, a person can read the Psalms a thousand times without gaining any insight into what they are about, and likewise, an unbeliever can look at the Holy Eucharist a thousand times without discerning the Real Presence of Jesus Christ. Sunday Vespers, chanted to a timeless music, attended by angels, is the summit of the Divine Office. And the high point of Vespers itself is Mary’s Magnificat. This is so structurally and experientially, with its beauty and incense, chants and silences, movements and stillness, familiarity and mystery. With the Magnificat being close to the close, that is, near to the end, one has become fully immersed in the ceremony, aware that the end is near but not yet having a sense it is over. Vespers is a roadmap for history. Woefully, the Church has abandoned her traditions. Restoration is required. Clerics need Vespers every evening, the parish every week, to grow more and more familiar with the meaning of the mysteries inspired by the Holy Ghost into the texts of the Psalms. Over the years, over lifetimes, through centuries, society discovers ‘Divine Depths’. This book is not like other books.