Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ to the Bridegroom

monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas. In St. John Paul II's Apostolic letter

Orientali Lumen, Light of the East.

He talks about how in the East, monasticism

was not seen as a separate condition,

but that monastics were supposed to be, are supposed to be, the reference point for all the

baptized.

So I'd like to talk about that today in a very specific way, because a way in which I think that monastics are called to be

this reference point is are striving to be in the presence of God throughout the day every day. I want to

emphasize that I said striving because we don't do this perfectly, but we're very intentional about trying to accomplish that.

So part of this comes through just our coming together throughout the day in liturgical prayer at certain times of the day

for morning prayer and evening prayer and sixth hour and so on and so forth. But it's not only

liturgical prayer. It's also these small moments throughout the day in which

we're trying to have short prayers or pray while we're working in order to call

to mind the presence of God, in order really to respond to St Paul's,

his order to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing.

There's this great quote by St. Augustine,

he says, the monks in Egypt are said to offer frequent prayers but these are very

short and hurled like swift javelins. Otherwise they're watchful attention

a very necessary quality for anyone at prayer, could be doled and could disappear through protracted delays.

Because this is the problem of going long periods without prayer, without turning our

hearts back to the Lord, is that we just become forgetful because as human beings, we just

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