A Day in the Life of a Carmelite Nun (Part 4) -- Terce (Part 1)
Terce is the first of the “little hours” of the divine Office. The time for this hour varies, due to Mass schedules. Typically, Mass follows Lauds (or Morning Prayer—around 7:30am), then Terce follows the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If we look at the third day of creation in light of this part of our day, it’s mind boggling how much it reveals. Day three is in two parts. Let’s look at the first part for now: “ Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water He called “Sea.” God saw that it was good… ” ~ Genesis 1:9 - 10 The separation of the water from the land, of course, creates a desert. Deserts in the Bible are a place of purification, desolation, and sacrifice. For example, Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert and was tempted by Satan. The Jews were or...