elders of the Christian church prescribed the prayer norm to be followed by the monks: “Twelve Psalms for an evening Office and the same number for a night Office. The presumption was that during the day each monk arranged in his own way for prayer and words of Scripture to accompany his manual work.”7 In effect this combines formal hours of prayer with personalized structure, whatever that may be. In reality, we all need the fruits of both approaches. Some may need more of one than the other.
Page 46