Listening to the Benedictine monks sing their Gregorian chant

Listening to the Benedictine monks sing their Gregorian chant

Listening to the chant, I’ve long been able to hear the joy in the monks’ voices, but now I can hear the love. These are men in love, but not with a woman, but with God. They are in love with love, in love with the love they experience within themselves. They have discovered a spring of love that keeps bubbling up, filling them, and overflowing. They cannot stop it and so must return to chapel over and over again to sing their hearts out.; if they kept silent, they would burst.

They found a well and drank deep to quench their thirst, but, unlike others who then felt free to leave and go about their business, the monks were drawn to stay. They have peered deeply into the well and, staying still until the water was completely stilled, they caught a reflection of themselves, transformed. “So, here I will stay”, each one has said, and glad to have found others who feel the same, they give their hand in companionship and say, “Welcome, brother”.

And I imagine that some days it is the spring, and other days it is the well: sometimes they cannot help but sing out their love for God, and sometimes they slog to haul up the bucket from deep in the well – but either way, they find refreshment, and pour out living water to all who hear.

It is the ability of the monks to focus that makes them what they are. Most of us get bored after a while, no matter how delightful the experience initially; we seek distraction and variety. But they decide that this is worth more than everything else put together; they have the staying power and make their commitment. “This is the well-spring of my life”, they say. “Here I will stay and sing. I want no more”.