midnight
* * * * * Chris was supremely content that he had done right in asking for profession . It appeared to him that he had found a life that was above all others worthy of an immortal soul . The whole day 's routine was directed to one end , the performance of the _ Opus Dei _ , the uttering of praises to Him who had made and was sustaining and would receive again all things to Himself . They rose at midnight for the night-office that the sleeping world might not be wholly dumb to God ; went to rest again ; rose once more with the world , and set about a yet sublimer worship . A stream of sacrifice poured up to the Throne through the mellow summer morning , or the cold winter darkness and gloom , from altar after altar in the great church . Christopher remembered pleasantly a morning soon after the beginning of his novitiate when he had been in the church as a set of priests came in and began mass simultaneously ; the mystical fancy suggested itself as the hum of voices began that he was in a garden , warm and bright with grace , and that bees were about him making honey -- that fragrant sweetness of which it had been said long ago that God should eat -- and as the tinkle of the Elevation sounded out here and there , it seemed to him as a signal that the mysterious confection was done , and that every altar sprang into perfume from those silver vessels set with jewel and crystal . When the first masses were over , there was a pause in which the _ mixtum _ was taken -- bread and wine or beer -- standing in the refectory , after a short prayer that the Giver of all good gifts might bless the food and drink of His servants , and was closed again by another prayer said privately for all benefactors .