The Mystery of the Eighth Day

…The liturgy of time [i.e., the daily cycle of evening prayer (Vespers) and morning song (Matins) and the other hours of prayer; the weekly cycle moving from Sabbath to Sabbath; and the yearly cycle of feasts and seasons] now recognized as the old Jewish cult preserved by the Church was… preserved in a way by necessity— as the completion of the Eucharist, without which the application of the Eucharist to time or any real sanctification of the life of this world would be incomplete. The Eucharist does not replace the liturgy of time, since by nature it is the manifestation in this aeon of another Aeon, it is the communion of the faithful in eternal life, in the Kingdom of God already ‘come in power.’ It cannot abolish the liturgy of time, because then time would be really emptied and deprived of meaning, would be nothing but ‘intervals’ between celebrations of the Eucharist. Thus the new cult, an eschatological cult in the deepest sense of the word, required for its real fulfillment inclusion in the rhythm of time, and combination within this rhythm with the liturgy of time, as the affirmation of the reality of the world which Christ came to save. But, it can be objected all this is simply theological ‘interpretation.’ Is it possible to find support for what has been said in the fact, of the early Christian liturgical tradition?