mateo + lo

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

"Each night, when the moon has conquered the horizon of day and the sky has dimmed, we anticipate the release of sleep.

Like so many wonders of our lives, sleep is made common by its familiarity. But think of it--we rehearse this little death with hardly a thought of the bizarre and unknown world we enter. Into that dark we go alone, as if in a fairy tale or horror film, only to emerge with little memory of where we have been or for how long.

Here is a mystery then: why not enter sleep as though embarking on a great journey into the unknown--a journey for which we might actually prepare? In this hour of Compline, we are urged by the ancients to request nourishing and learning dreams from the One who never sleeps, who never slumbers.

Learn from the hour of Compline not to fear death but to anticipate its wonder, for to succumb at the end of each day is the same as with the sum of them--to journey toward morning."

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

“It is the end of the day. It is an hour weary but beautiful with a life well-lived, an hour of fellowship, when people gather to share food and each other’s company.

We see each other differently in its golden light, as if newly met; we see ourselves differently as reflected in the eyes of those who love us, and we believe that we have done well. Together we are able to keep the challenge of Vespers—to let go of the disappointment of the day, and to embrace life as we embrace one another: with sincere, full-bodied joy.

At Vespers, we lay aside petty grievances and forgive, we eat together and we bless. When we gather we find a new energy because we receive it from one another.

This is Vespers rest—the finish of one day and hope of another, and the faith of mysteries between.”

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

“How beautiful this dappled, soft hour of light, and yet heartbreaking. Grey at the temples, the hour of None is melancholy, a time to ponder things we thought would always be with us. The loss of our plans, our parents, our pains have eroded confidence in the ability to conquer time. A lonely hour, None is when monks pray alone in their cells for a holy death.

We crave contact with something transcendent at this time of day precisely because temporal things are dissolving into shadow.

The None hour is an hour of sleepy prayer, when the light plays among the shadows it creates and we are haunted by old dreams. …the gentle challenge of None is not to give up, for there is time left.

At this hour, we are urged to shift our thinking from what we have left unachieved to what we might yet leave behind, and to apply our energies to forgiveness and generosity.”

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

“Noon is the hour when the sun is overhead, sizzling and merciless yet glorious with the fullness of God.

Sext is the dull center of ordinary time, the hazy clacking dry torpor of late summer, the midlife crisis of our days. At this Hour, everything seems hard. Hard to keep the precarious hold on what remains of the day, hard to climb, hard to hold on, hard to let go, hard to be bothered.

Who can bear to look at the sun directly, who can look directly at this Hour? All the morning hours of light and encouragement are gone, perhaps wasted, and remaining are the afternoon hours of paradox and challenge. Half of life is spent, and night is coming.

No wonder the Benedictines called Sext ‘the Hour of the noonday devil.’ Sext is also the Hour of intensity….

However forlorn, impossible, or foolish our prospects are judged to be at this Hour, the prayers of Sext are to remind us that God prepared the way, and the door God has opened cannot be shut.”

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

“The light of Terce is bright, a sharp spotlight on our work. We have found the rhythm of a focus that has snapped into place, and the last intuition we have is to stop. And yet.

Benedict urged stopping at this hour precisely to say, this work is not my purpose. In fact, monks are encouraged to drop their work tools wherever they are, whatever they are doing, when the bell for Prime rings, to remember God’s presence, and to acknowledge, as Rabbi Abraham Heschel put it, ‘Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.’

The personality of Terce is characterized by…joy that is prompted by gratitude. Joy is alive—a vivacious, sweet, tender, and powerful woman walking alongside to whom one can, every morning, express thanks for God’s blessings.

The work remaining to be done is the same as when we stopped to pray, but we are different when we return.”

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

“Prime is the first hour of the day between the dawn of Lauds and the mid morning Hour of Terce. For many, this is the hour when one is finally fully awake and charged, even if one has been stumbling around out of bed for some time.

The soundtrack of Prime is the drumming of our hearts. The hour knows no bounds. It is long enough from night to deny its threat, and to allow belief in our own immortality. If dawn is the epiphany of a nascent idea, then Prime is that thought in its fruition, with all the fervor that accompanies big plans. The emphasis of ‘choose your course’ is not just on choosing the best path ahead, but on the importance of stopping to choose in the first place.

The gift of this hour is its infinite repetition, and its value is determined by whether we seize the day or are bored by its endless familiarity.”

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

"Sunrise & sunset--Lauds & Vespers--are called hinge Hours because they are transitions between dark and light. The Hour of Lauds marks the time from the sky’s first lightening to the sun’s release into the sky from the horizon.

The personality of Lauds is to be found in all things naked and new. It is a time of relief, of celebration, liveliness, and...an Hour to follow after love.

As with each Hour, the citizen of Lauds faces the sometimes brutal conflict between dreams and reality, voicing the ubiquitous surprise that 'things didn’t turn out the way I expected them to.'

Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez wrote the simple lines: 'My boat struck something deep. And nothing changed, and everything has changed. And here I sit in the middle of my new life.' This is a Lauds prayer. What is, is. What is not, is not. New and not new, this sleepy, achy Hour is where God meets us with tender urgings toward courage. We must be led into the light by the Spirit who knows and sees things hidden to us, for sorrow is always easier to anticipate than joy."

excerpts from writer/director, Lauralee Farrer…

"Vigils is the night hour, the longest hour, the polar opposite of Sext at noon. Like the noon hour, the light source is overhead: but at midnight, the moon casts strange and sharp shadows that give the illusion of life to inanimate but familiar objects, redrawn by the darkness into threatening figures.

The Latin root of the word vigil means 'wakefulness.' To keep Vigils does not mean simply to be unable to rest, to be anxious or beleaguered by mind-revving sleeplessness. Keeping Vigils is rather to be purposefully awake at a time when one would otherwise (or surely rather) sleep.

Silence is the soundtrack of this Hour, whispers and listening, mystery, danger, trust. The purpose of this time is to learn to trust God in the darkness."