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Document Details :
Title: Opus Dei y Devotio Moderna
Subtitle: El Directorio de las Horas Canónicas de Garciá Jiménez de Cisneros, O.S.B.
Author(s): CANTERA MONTENEGRO, Santiago
Journal: Studies in Spirituality
Volume: 16 Date: 2006
The Benedictine monk Fray García Jiménez de Cisneros, the reformer abbot of the
monastery of Montserrat in Catalonia, is the more representative figure of the devotio moderna in Spain, especially because of his work Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual (Montserrat, 1500), which influenced Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In this article we study his Directorio de las horas canónicas (Montserrat, 1500), which shows an effort for agreeing the traditional prayer of the Divine Office (Opus Dei) of monks and all religious in general, with the new spirit of devotio moderna. The work wished to obtain a meditative prayer by novices and beginners, but Fray García preferred other books for more advanced monks and friars, in order to know the psalms and the Divine Office better. The success of this short work was due to the simplified manner in which he presented his purpose. The author fell in the value and the importance or Divine Office in the religious’ life, for his own spirituality and also for the whole Church, and because God and his angels are present in this prayer. The abbot proposed several meditations, usually one for every psalm and for every part of the canonical hours, including someone referred to Christ’s life.