Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. (Heb 12:2)

When engaged in the Work of God, always press in the direction of mindfulness.

Of course, we want to press in the direction of mindfulness at all times, because we know we are always in the presence of God. But as beginners, we can put our greatest effort into being mindful during liturgical prayer as a starting point.

Chapter 20 Reverence at Prayer

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly. (Ps. 86:3)

Keep your prayer short and pure.

Why? Because this is your heart reaching out to God with longing and devotion. We have all read or heard beautiful and inspiring prayers that are not short! Whatever good effect they may intend or inspire, they are meant to elevate the hearer rather than express the deepest, most humble cry of the author. St. Benedict reminds us that we are communicating with God in prayer, not with each other. Your prayers to God are best short and genuine--the title of a book by Anne Lamott suggests what this might be like-- Help Thanks Wow.

Chapter 31 Qualifications of the Cellarer

Now a bishop must be . . . temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money (1 Tim 3:2-3)

In our monasteries, we are all a part of leadership, as well as of those led. Even as beginners, we must aspire to the personal qualities listed here: wise, mature in conduct, temperate, not gluttonous, not proud, excitable, stingy, or wasteful, but God-fearing and like a parent to the whole community. . . . Above all let the cellarer be humble.”

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Chapter 32 The Tools and Goods of the Monastery

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (Jn 1:3)

We abjure the disposable, and honor the tools we are given. We reject “throwaway culture.” Also, when using goods, we take care of them as if they were God’s alone. While we are beginners. A little further along, we will take care of them because we can’t help loving them.

Chapter 33 Private Ownership

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. (Acts 4:32)

Consider the difference between needs and wants in your own life.

Private ownership, says St. Benedict, is ‘a detestable vice.’ Given that language, we should not rush past this one, even though it does not seem directly applicable to a community who have separate homes and incomes.

We have principles of spending based on our upbringing, and the values of our current community. One of these might be ‘affordability.’ We have all heard people say, ‘Well if you can afford it, it is a nice thing to have.’ But what counts as affordable depends on the size of your bank account, not on the value of the thing itself.

Teasing out the line between needs and wants is something each of us must do for our own situation, and it is a process that continues as long as we live! The action item for this pass through the Rule is to begin to consider the difference in your own life.

Chapter 35 Weekly Kitchen Servers

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. (Jn 13:13-14)

The message for us this time through the Rule may be that everyone must participate in the most menial of tasks, which should be organized so as not to be a burden on any one person, and also allow even those with disabilities to serve.

Chapter 39 The Quantity of Food

The one who observes a special day, observes it to honor the Lord. The one who eats, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. And the one who does not eat, refrains from eating to honor the Lord; yet he, too, gives thanks to God. (Rom 14:6)

Keep your food and drink simple and cheap.

There is a certain refinement about eating and drinking that accompanies a more expensive style of living. Having the taste to distinguish between good wine, and better wine. Being able to appreciate the superiority of fresh-squeezed orange juice over powdered drink mix. Many people find this kind of refinement to be morally neutral, or even desirable, as an expression of good taste.

St. Benedict stresses frugality. While he wants everyone to have enough, he doesn’t want anyone to develop or admire this kind of taste.

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Chapter 40 The Quantity of Drink

He causes grass to sprout for the animals and vegetation for the work of man, to bring forth bread from the earth. And wine, which cheers man’s heart, to make the face shine from oil, and bread, which sustains man’s heart. (Ps 104:13-14)

Whatever its level now, reduce your alcohol consumption.

Wine cheers our hearts, the Psalmist says, and St. Benedict does not deny it, but he warns against allowing drunkenness to creep in. He offers the model of the desert Mothers and Fathers, who drank no wine at all.

Chapter 41 The Times for Community Meals

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that (Tim 6:7-8)

Move toward eating less frequently.

In the Rule, there is one meal a day, or sometimes an additional collation. It is surprising how much of our food consumption is for fun, rather than for need. Taking into account your individual needs, do what you can to reduce eating for fun.

Chapter 42 Silence after Compline

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (Ps 62:5)

Accept silence as a gift, and enjoy it as often as possible.

It is in the silence of our hearts that we are most able to experience the presence of God. External silence is a prerequisite for ‘heart silence,’ especially for beginners.

Chapter 43 Tardiness at the Work of God or at Table

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. (Col:3:23)

Make attending the meetings of your monastery the highest priority.

As we do not daily pray and eat together in our monastery, for us, this implies a sacred commitment to the time established for the group to be together, either in person, or virtually. While it is better to come in late than not to appear at all, it is best to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to attend. Either way, we are demonstrating where the community stands in our list of priorities.

Chapter 44 Satisfaction by the Excommunicated

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. (Heb 13:17)

Take responsibility for your own failures.

We have all experienced the requirement to be obedient to authorities we did not choose. Our parents, teachers, the police, etc. Benedictine obedience is chosen, not imposed. When we fail our community through lackluster attendance or practice, we need to make satisfaction. The nature of this satisfaction should be considered by the group, but most especially by the one who needs to make it.

Chapter 48 The Daily Manual Labor

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. (Prov 31:27)

The daily routine must include manual labor, as well as reading and the psalms.

Nowadays one can work hard for hours without ever getting out of a chair. Manual work is a reminder of the basic needs of life (chopping wood, hauling water) and is also a tonic because it requires interacting with Creation.

Spiritual reading (lectio divina) also must have its own time on the schedule. If you have spent time today musing over a psalm, and also mopping the floor, it was a day well spent!

Chapter 49 The Observance of Lent

Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. (Daniel 9:3)

Step up your game.

Lent is a time to step up your game, whether you are giving something up, or taking something on. As Lent approaches, the community may ponder what it means to them as a group. Are we going to initiate a practice we mean to continue after Easter? Are we going to make a considerable sacrifice for the benefit of others? This will be fun, trust me. And after a few years, the meaning will change!

Chapter 50 Those Working at a Distance, or Traveling

Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them. (Ps 119:164-165)

Do not neglect liturgy, even if it is inconvenient to you or to others. Even if you are in a meeting.

This takes consistency and perseverance. As you press in this direction, one intermediate step might be to recite the one psalm you have memorized from Sext, say, or Vespers, at the appropriate hour. Another adaptation would be to pray the hour a little early, if you know that you will be in a meeting at noon. But keep pushing toward praying the Office in its entirety.

Chapter 51 Those on a Short Journey

Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way. (Proverbs 3:6)

Avoid occasions that may tempt you away from your community or your practice.

Nowadays, ‘eating out’ includes a quick trip to a fast food drive-through. In St. Benedict’s day, eating was almost always a social event, and an invitation to eat required reciprocity. As a member of a monastic community, your priority is to the values and practices of that group. Creating obligations outside of that group is perhaps an issue your monastery should discuss.

Chapter 52 The Oratory of the Monastery

. . . when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. (Mt. 6:6)

Keep the oratory a place for worship

The oratory is the place for beautiful things, and for silence. It is good for you to have a place that is only used for attending to the Lord. If you do not have such a space, you might have a particular posture for liturgical prayer, or a ritual that distinguishes that prayer time from the rest of the day.

Chapter 53 The Reception of Guests

I was a stranger and you took me in (Matt 25:35)

Be on the lookout for the poor and the stranger to welcome.

“The greatest care should be shown in the reception of the poor and travelers, because Christ is received more especially in them, whereas our awe for the wealthy itself gains them respect.” (RSB, Ch53)

While there is no physical monastery that might receive guests, we all have the opportunity for guests in our lives, and these guests are not already our personal friends.

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Chapter 55 The Clothing and Footgear of the Community

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt 6:25)

Personal belongings, including clothing and bedding, should be kept to a minimum.

What this means will vary from person to person, but all of us should routinely ask ourselves if any particular belonging is really necessary.

Chapter 57 The Artisans of the Monastery

If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:11)

Do not become proud about your skills, or your ability to bring in money. Do not allow making a profit to become the highest good.

From childhood, many of us have been taught that our identity is defined by our work, and work does develop the identity in a direction. In our monastery, our work is to purify our souls and build up the Reign of God; all else is secondary.

This is another way of rejecting the values of the world.

Chapter 66 The Porter of the Monastery

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is 55:8-9)

Keep an unmistakable boundary between the world and the community; also welcome the guest into the community.

We want to always be attending to the invisible realities, not distracted by ‘the world. It is a task that requires considerable resolution. It is not good for your soul to go about outside because you will inevitably be tempted to go along with a world-view and lifestyle that you have become a monastic to resist. Guests are welcome, as long as they accept the world-view and lifestyle of our monastery--at least for the duration of their stay.

Chapter 67 Those Sent on a Journey

. . . everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Rom 14:23)

Don’t read trivial gossip on Twitter, etc. And certainly do not share trivial gossip from Twitter with others!

Everything not oriented toward holiness is a distraction from holiness. So listening to idle talk, watching something evil--even playing phone games!—is to be avoided. And when it cannot be avoided, you may want to make amends, or ask a blessing from the community.

Chapter 68 Assignment of Impossible Tasks

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil 2:14-15)

Try to do as you are asked.

If you are asked to do something, do not be hasty in saying, “Oh, that is too much for me.” It may be God has something for you to learn in your failure, if you fail. But you can return to the community, and admit it is beyond you.

Chapter 69 The Presumption of Defending Another

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Never participate in factions in the monastery.

Your allegiance is first to God, and then to the community. Do not speak or act in a way to undermine either.

Chapter 71 Mutual Obedience

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22)

Obeying one another is a high priority--consider carefully before you don’t.

You may even want to consult someone about this, so you are not following your own will. Obedience, in this new world we are creating, is a blessing.

Chapter 72 Good Zeal

I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.…(Phil 3:13-14)

All aboard the train bound for Glory!

No one gets a ticket unless everyone does! Let’s keep pressing in the direction of holiness, helping our sisters and brothers when they feel faint.

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Appendix

Prayer

Silent contemplation

Christians have practiced silent contemplation before God since the time of Christ, and others from other traditions have practiced it since long before then. The following is one way for beginners to get started. There are elements of this practice that resemble learning how to ride a bicycle; that is, some physical skills to learn before you can take off with joy.

Set a timer for a length that is not intimidating. If ten minutes sounds like too much, make it five. You can always continue in silence when your timer goes off, if you like.

If you can, sit in a quiet spot. This is especially important when you are getting started, and are easily distracted by noise.

Attend to your breathing. Do you feel it in your chest? Or perhaps in your nose, as the air enters? Over time, you may be able to move your awareness of your breath to your belly. You can practice this anytime you are not being social. We find a long car trip to be a good time to practice.

When you notice you are distracted from your breathing, go back to it. This is the core of the practice. You will be distracted, and have to return to noticing your breath over and over. Don’t bother blaming yourself, because you are learning something new. Did you blame yourself for not recognizing the letter ‘a’ when you were learning to read?

Those are the basics. It may be helpful to start every session with a phrase that has meaning for you, such as “In You I live and move and have my being.” (Acts 17:28), or “You are closer to me than I am to myself.” (St. Augustine, (Confessions III, 6, 11) Build up the amount of time you spend in silent worship as you are able, and if you can, sit down to silence more than once a day.

Once you are routinely praying in this manner for ten or more minutes once or more each day, you may want to put some effort into remaining physically still. When a joint starts to ache, or an eye starts to itch so much that you are distracted from your breathing, direct your attention to the spot of the discomfort instead of moving to relieve it. You will be surprised at the result, we think!

Physical and external stillness support inner stillness. You will be drawing your attention back to the breath for the rest of your life, although maybe not as frequently in years to come. For a further discussion of this kind of prayer, we recommend The Cloud of Unknowing.

Cordelia and Daphne are starting such a practice together. Cordelia has sat in silence before, but not for a long while. She is disciplined and goal-oriented, and now she is frustrated with her inability to keep her attention on her breath the way she used to. Daphne is not so disciplined. She was the kind of child who could stare out a window for an hour. She also has trouble keeping her attention on her breath, because she is not aware of where her attention is. When their time is up, Cordelia is upset with herself, and ashamed. Daphne feels as if she just woke up from a nap. Both of them were immersed in the Holy, although neither of them knows it yet.

Lectio Divina

As you have seen in the Rule, Benedictines are instructed to spend hours every day in lectio, and in memorizing Scripture. This may well be the most fun part of the practices. When you are getting started, you may want to choose a Scripture passage, or a piece of visual art, and set your timer again. Ask the Holy Spirit for help, and then muse on the object you have selected. THIS is the time to hold up thoughts and watch them glitter! Stay with them until the glittering ceases, and you get bored. Stay with the object until a new understanding arises. This may take weeks, or minutes. If it stops being fruitful, switch to another passage or object. You can always return. For more on this practice, Holy Longing offers an eight-part, self-guided series.

Liturgical prayer

St. Benedict calls this the Opus Dei; or the Work of God, and it is central to Benedictine life in an enclosed monastery. For us, living under our several roofs, it is also central, although it may not be communal in the sense of being in the physical presence of others. It is communal, in the sense of the global community. Someone, somewhere, is praying the Divine Office every hour of the twenty-four. When we share in the Divine Office, we are making the invisible realities visible.

Most of us learned to read for information, and this kind of prayerful reading may be difficult--Oh yeah, I remember that part from yesterday; got it; let’s move on--but it can be learned. Spending time studying a psalm outside of liturgical prayer can help you become aware of new heights, depths, and breadth. One useful technique is the Jewish method for creating midrashim; commentaries on the text that are meant to supplement rather than replace a more literal meaning. Midrash can be a conversation over time with other interpreters. It can turn on a single word--what if the word ‘us’ in that passage means all of humanity? What if it refers to all of Creation?

Jacob Neusner distinguishes three midrash processes:

Paraphrase: recounting the content of the biblical text in different language that may change the sense;

Prophecy: reading the text as an account of something happening or about to happen in the interpreter’s time;

Parable or allegory: indicating deeper meanings of the words of the text as speaking of something other than the superficial meaning of the words or of everyday reality, as when the love of man and woman in the Song of Songs is interpreted as referring to the love between God and Israel or the Church as in Isaiah 5[36] and in the New Testament.[37]]

Once one psalm opens up for you, the next one will be easier to study. Again, this is a practice, and it is to be hoped that whatever you learned about the psalm you chose will be overthrown, or elaborated on, next time you consider it.

Fasting

St. Benedict does not order you to fast, he orders you to love fasting! This is another thing that takes practice. Doing without means deprivation of something you are used to taking for granted, like regular meals. Grace is alive in every moment, but we are so easily distracted by the habitual call of this or that desire.

Consider two friends, taking a bus trip. The bus leaves very early in the morning, and Alice, who says she absolutely cannot start a day without coffee, doesn’t have time for a cup. Beatrice does not have that relationship with coffee, and as the bus rolls through the dark, and the sky begins to lighten, and they can see the sun about to come over the distant hills, Alice and Beatrice are experiencing the moment differently.

Alice, we can imagine, is preoccupied with the absence of coffee, very aware of how she feels, and not happy about it. We don’t know what is going on with Beatrice, but it is not that. She has the opportunity to be alive to grace, not because she doesn’t drink coffee, but because that is not her issue.

One strength of the Rule is that it requires practices that break our habit of putting our own comfort first.

Alice sighs in resignation. There will be no coffee at least until the next stop. She looks over Beatrice’s shoulder at the rising sun, and realizes she has a choice here: to continue to obsess over the thing she wants that she cannot have right now, or to notice the great big beautiful world we live in. Or--she can do both. She is a person with an urgent desire for coffee, living in a great big beautiful world. The bus rolls on.

Alice discovers she can direct her attention to the sunrise, or to her desire. For the first morning in a long time, her attention is not totally consumed by the quest for coffee, although the desire is still there. Huh, she thinks. It is possible to start a day without coffee, and look at what the morning out there has to offer! Wow.

The enforced asceticism has given Alice an opportunity to confront her own self-absorption. Beatrice may be aware of the sunrise, or engulfed in her own version of self-absorption. She might be wondering if she remembered to lock the front door, and be worried about burglars.

This morning nudges Alice toward God. Being free of the compulsion to seek comfort gives one the freedom of God’s world. Working at getting free of the compulsion is how we teach ourselves how little that comfort means, and our true relationship to God.

Works of mercy

Whatever you do that proceeds from faith and kindness to another, is a work of mercy. Getting up in the middle of the night to comfort the baby; not reminding your husband that he forgot to put out the trash again; preparing the food for a funeral lunch. These are the small works of mercy we are called to perform every day. More heroic versions are also available, which you are sure to uncover in your own life.

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Adopt a regular liturgical prayer schedule and keep the appointments.

Why? Here is a partial list of reasons:

1. You are reminded several times a day that your immediate desires are not as central as they seem.

2. You are brought into contact with the Word frequently

3. In community, you are reminded that we go to God as a community, not as individuals.

4. The Bible says to.

Liturgical prayer is clearly central to St. Benedict. He call it Opus Dei—the Work of God. The current author is ignorant of what that kind of prayer meant in his day, but we do know that a thousand years later, St. Teresa of Avila had to struggle to get her monks to appreciate any other sort of prayer. She advocated “mental” rather than vocal prayer. This turn toward silence is, in our experience, beneficial. It may help to hear St. Augustine’s take on prayer: So that we might obtain this life of happiness, he who is true life itself taught us to pray, not in many words as though speaking longer could gain us a hearing. After all, we pray to one who, as the Lord himself tells us, knows what we need before we ask for it.

Why he should ask us to pray, when he knows what we need before we ask him, may perplex us if we do not realise that our Lord and God does not want to know what we want (for he cannot fail to know it), but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give us. His gift is very great indeed, but our capacity is too small and limited to receive it. That is why we are told: Enlarge your desires, do not bear the yoke with unbelievers.

The deeper our faith, the stronger our hope, the greater our desire, the larger will be our capacity to receive that gift, which is very great indeed. No eye has seen it; it has no colour. No ear has heard it; it has no sound. It has not entered man’s heart; man’s heart must enter into it.

In this faith, hope and love we pray always with unwearied desire. However, at set times and seasons we also pray to God in words, so that by these signs we may instruct ourselves and mark the progress we have made in our desire, and spur ourselves on to deepen it. The more fervent the desire, the more worthy will be its fruit. When the Apostle tells us: Pray without ceasing, he means this: Desire unceasingly that life of happiness which is nothing if not eternal, and ask it of him who alone is able to give it.1

Praying the liturgy, therefore, enlarges our capacity for receiving the gift of Presence.

Much of these chapters will be useful for understanding St. Benedict’s point of view, and if you are part of a community that can pray together, you may want to see what they hold that would work for your group.

1

St. Augustine, from a letter used in the Office of Readings on Sept. 1

Humility is the prime virtue for St. Benedict, and progress in it is the key to spiritual growth. He portrays it as a ladder with twelve rungs.

The first rung is to never forget that God is always with you.

Credit: James Goodwin Clonney

One way to think about this is, “behave yourself, for God is watching!” Another way is a little more complicated. God is always with you, says St. Benedict. St. Augustine puts it: You are closer to me than I am to myself. Wow. It takes a while, living with this thought, to absorb the implications. You might want to repeat it to yourself as you settle into silence (you do practice silence, right?) Because this is your first pass through the Rule, do not spend too much time on the other rungs.

St. Benedict tells us that having reached the twelfth rung we will arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear, and through this love and habitual persistence, all these practices will become effortless--”out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue.”

We are building habits, delighting in virtue, out of love for Christ.

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Credit: Mark Rothko

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies (Ps. 34: 12-13)

Train yourself to avoid needless talk.

This is always going to be a work in progress. The great battle is between orienting toward holiness, and toward distraction. Chatting with your elderly mother is probably not needless talk, but humane kindness. As you contemplate this directive, think about how your speech embodies the Reign of God, or deflects attention from that Reign.

We have all been in a situation of emotional strain when someone broke the tension with a wisecrack. This kind of joking is unacceptable to St. Benedict, because it has the effect of diminishing the holy, and of magnifying distraction.

To you have I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens; my eyes. . . like the eyes of a servant on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God (Ps 122:1-X)

Obey out of love

Everything in the Rule begins from a desire to conform to the will of God because the will of God is our highest aspiration. The superior, who is wiser than you, stands in for God in your life. Who is your superior? Put yourself under obedience to someone wiser. Together, you will seek the truth, and the practices that reveal that truth to you. Just like an athlete, you may find some of these practices uncomfortable, but you do them knowing it is for your good and for your ambition to be close to God.

St. Maximilian Kohl expresses this well. In the Office of Readings for August 14, the church quotes his letter: It is obedience and obedience alone that shows us God’s will with certainty.

God himself is the one infinite, wise, holy, and merciful Lord, our Creator and our Father, the beginning and the end, wisdom, power, and love – God is all these. Anything that is apart from God has value only in so far as it is brought back to him, the Founder of all things, the Redeemer of mankind, the final end of all creation. Thus he himself makes his holy will known to us through his vice-gerents on Earth and draws us to himself, and through us – for so he has willed – draws other souls too, and unites them to himself with an ever more perfect love.

See then, brother, the tremendous honour of the position that God in his kindness has placed us in. Through obedience we transcend our own limitations and align ourselves with God’s will, which, with infinite wisdom and prudence, guides us to do what is best. Moreover, as we become filled with the divine will, which no created thing can resist, so we become stronger than all others. (Emphasis in bold added)

Obey out of love. Consult your motivations, and purify them in this direction.

Credit: Mike Jumapao

Work while you have the light (Jn 9:4)

Imagine that one year you make a resolution to get into shape. Perhaps you’ve been sedentary for a long while, or perhaps you used to be a runner and wish you still were. It makes sense to go to an expert for a workout plan that will gradually increase your strength and stamina.

Robert Frank

If your resolution is instead to live according to the Gospel, this chapter will be gold for you.

There are some seventy ‘tools’ listed, which can be overwhelming. Starting at the beginning, consider each one with deliberation, aware of your internal reaction. The first one to strike you as having a practical application to your own life is the one to focus on.

These are tools, appropriate for different purposes, rather than a To Do list. It is through the use of these tools that you will come to understand their value.

An example: Why do you stand for the reading of the Gospel during Mass? Probably you stand out of respect for the Word, in communion with the congregation. But when you first attended Mass, if you were old enough to stand, you probably stood because your parents did. Your physical posture was being trained before your intellect.

It is the same with the Tools of Good Works. You cannot judge their value before you have put them into practice; still, it is good to start with the tools you are most motivated to use. Experience will make you more willing to take a chance on other, less obviously valuable practices.

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If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts (Ps 95:8)

Listen in conference even to the least likely.

For us, this directive seems natural. We modern people believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and that one must give this opinion a certain respect, even if we disagree. This was not the approach in the sixth century. Those of lower rank were to obey those of higher rank without expressing an opposing view.

St. Benedict was not living in a modern political democracy, where we understand all people as created equal. So where did he get this idea?

It came from his faith life. “God often reveals to the younger what is best,” he says. This same thought is present in the practice of modern-day Quakers, whose decision making depends on consensus as insurance that their way forward is indeed the will of God.

For us, this means that we have to “listen with the ear of our heart” even to the people we are inclined to dismiss. This takes practice!

Credit: Jim Goldberg

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Everyone needs community. It is particularly essential for new monastics, who are entering unknown territory. In St. Benedict’s day, it was the duty of the abbot and the more experienced monastics to guide newer seekers as they trained the heart, mind, and body to heal the soul. In our day, authority is more widely dispersed. A monastery may be made up of five or six seekers, who confer together in order to increase their understanding and improve their practice. The key point here is that in order to foster spiritual growth you need to consult with others.

Another strength of a community is that it helps you sand off your rough edges when you rub against the rough edges of someone else! And of course, loving thy neighbor requires neighbors. Your Benedictine practice group is the shallow end of that pool.

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Orazio Gentileschi

Listen

“The fact that we cannot close our ears as we close our eyes . . . may be taken as a sign of our radical openness to the world.”1 Listening is more than hearing, but begins there. The power to attend to the song of life, and differentiate between elements, is not to close ourselves to the world, but to understand better. “Catching the rhythm of the song of life that rings though the world might mean I have to gently open myself more to the surrounding situation, to other people, and even to my own deepest reality.”2

Radical (as in, down to the roots) openness. What hinders you from listening? It could be that—

• You are formulating your reply

• You are in a hurry

• You have a strong emotional reaction that deafens you

• You already know the answer

• You are thinking about the next thing on your to-do list

• You are not interested

• You are distracted

No blame attached, here! We all have to work on listening better. What might you do to better listen to the Word, or to the words? We hope this is a topic you can share with someone, and listen to their take on it.

Obey

“To you have I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens; my eyes. . . like the eyes of a servant on the hand of her mistress.” (Psalm 122) The key thought here is “your wish is my command,” as the genie said to Aladdin. How might you have already experienced this kind of obedience? Perhaps to a newborn, perhaps to the dying. Think of a time when your own desires were subordinate to the will, or need of another, and understand that from now on your will and desires are subordinate to the Benedictine understanding of the will of God.

This idea needs some elaboration. The rules that follow are not like the sign on the inside of the door of your retreat room, that tells you to strip the bed and where to put the trash. We follow those rules because we value the institution and the relationships we have there. That will not be good enough for this project--we follow these rules because our heart calls us to do it in love.

If your heart is not calling you on some particular rule, spend some time with that.

Obedience to the Rule will allow you to develop monastic habits of living, and these in turn will change your perspective. For example, the memorization of Scripture will stock your mind with concepts and phrases which will spring to mind when you need them to express an idea. The fact that you have a Biblical example will shape that idea, and perhaps show you a side of your own thought that you hadn’t considered before.

Obedience is not oppression. Keeping a vow is a kind of obedience. When we marry, we make a vow to our partner before God. To stay married, we must be obedient to that vow that we ourselves made.

It is only in the extreme cases that obedience involves a clash of wills. And for us, if there is a clash between our wills and the Holy, who do we really want to come out on top?

In community, you may want to ask each other about what obedience has meant, and what it could mean.

These small communities will adapt the key characteristics of cenobitic living described in the Rule to the needs of a new age. They will be cenobites, living under a Rule and a superior. Their cenobium will be their community, the Rule their guidebook to a life seeking God and their superior will be a commitment to obedience as practiced in new forms in their community.

The new communities will be small, to facilitate deep sharing, commitment and mutual support. They may gather in-person, virtually, or both. They will make a strong commitment to meet regularly and to make their community meetings the highest priority.

The groups will read the Rule together, discussing what call to action they see in each paragraph. This is not a “one and done” activity, but in each iteration, as the monastics mature, they will find more that is relevant for their lives.

The kind of Benedictine faith community we envision is for anyone, married or single, carrying a mortgage or paying rent, caring for children or parents. As the world no longer resembles sixth century Italy, this adaptation is for a community that does not live under the same roof.

Fifteen hundred years ago, people were more concerned with being in community than in fostering independence. Over time, in the West at least, we have prioritized self-reliance and individual freedom of choice, and developed the habits of mind that support that point of view. St. Benedict’s Rule was designed to take communally and hierarchically inclined people deeper into their own hearts, where, as St. Augustine says, they will find that God is closer to them than they are to themselves. The goal, as Benedict explains in the chapter on humility, is to arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear, and through this love and habitual persistence, all these practices will become effortless--”out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue.”

Modern people have different challenges, but the same goal. Thus, what follows is not a prescription, but an example of how one might study and form the rule in modern life. This is not relativism: we are not saying that each individual decides for themselves what is best. There is one Holy Spirit, moving in each one of us, like the leaven in the dough. And like the working of yeast, there is a different effect on wheat flour, barley flour, or mixed with water malt and hops!

We hope you will take what is useful from the following, using it as a model to deeply ponder what meaning the Rule might have in the life of your community. It is not necessary to understand how Benedict’s practices will mold and hone you, but to know that you have 1500 years of companions who have sought God in this way. It will require the monks to get out of their comfort zones, over and over.

First, find a copy of the Rule online or in a book. You will need it to continue with this series.

Photo by Hannah Busing

Monasticism is simultaneously a desire to be transformed into the image of the creator God on the deepest level as well as a pouring out of healing service in imitation of Christ to embody the Reign of God. To be a monk is to live this faith in all aspects of life. This simultaneous going in and going forth is a source of healing for the world. As each individual is transformed and made whole the world is also transformed and made more whole. As each individual works to build the Reign of God in the world others come to join the effort and the Reign of God becomes present. This is the two-fold work of the monastic.

In a culture that worships achievement, money, fame and status far more than the transcendent, monastics are frequently isolated. Discerning a monastic call outside of the rare institutions that have maintained the traditional structures of monasteries is made even harder by arcane and exclusionary requirements. The concept of a monastic beyond walls or institutions is not commonly understood.

When a society is unable or unwilling to recognize or nurture the monastic call everyone suffers. Individuals who have the gift of leading people toward God and a deeper faith are not encouraged. On a broader level, the lack of a recognized monastic call contributes to a profound fracturing of any sense of community, of a common bond as a people. It is in the support for a monastic calling that people are able to develop their gifts for the healing and transformation of themselves and others.

Much has been written about the Rule, from a variety of angles, from textual historical analysis to musing on the thematic content. Here, we regard the Rule as a call to action.

St. Benedict, by the accounts we have, intended his Rule as an aid for those who want to live out the Gospel. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (Jn 7:37) Benedict shows us how to live out Jesus' teaching, and become streams of living water ourselves (Jn 7:38).

You may already know that the written record of the life of St. Benedict is sparse. All we know of biographical detail comes from Pope Gregory, whose writing is unlikely to have been motivated by the understanding of historical accuracy we expect today. Pope Benedict XVI explains “In accordance with the ideas of his time, by giving the example of a real man - St Benedict, in this case - Gregory wished to illustrate the ascent to the peak of contemplation which can be achieved by those who abandon themselves to God.”1

As a young man, Benedict traveled to Rome to study, but became disgusted with the habits of life he found there. The Roman Empire was collapsing, and its values and institutions were in chaos. Eventually Benedict retreated to a cave, and lived alone with God for three years. Later, he founded several monasteries, and compiled a rule of life for monks we now call the Rule of St. Benedict, which he wrote based on his experience governing small groups of monastics, to provide the underpinning of spiritual growth for monks after his death. The Rule is based on a deep understanding of both Gospel values and the human condition. It sets out a code of behavior to help mold monastics into the selfless followers of Christ they aspire to be.

For 1500 years Benedictine monasteries have interacted with the rest of society in a variety of ways. They provided schools, hospitals, and marketplaces, as well as producing laboriously created copies of the most valuable books in their possession. More recently, Benedictine monastics have gone out from their monasteries “on mission;” working in schools and hospitals throughout the world.

Benedictines have never turned their backs on people. What they have always rejected is a ‘worldly’ focus that denies the centrality of Jesus’ assertion that the will of the Father is paramount and trustworthy. To that end, they abjure private ownership, stress the importance of collective worship and the expression of love of neighbor. This is a radical, transformative vision that we can build on today, as our own values and institutions are in confusion.2

As the institutions of vowed religious life are shrinking, as the age of the average monastic moves past three score and ten, there is an opportunity for a renewal of Benedictine life among what the religious establishment calls the laity. Regular people with jobs and families who also have a deep thirst for the ‘fountain of living water.

One of St. Benedict’s rules for monastics is to sleep in their daywear, but not to wear their knives in bed, lest they be cut. This is not obviously applicable in our day. Over the centuries, the Rule has been reinterpreted as material conditions and the expectations of seekers have changed. Personal privacy is much more important now, and the Rule’s prescription for dormitory living has largely been abandoned.

The fundamental principles of the Rule offer us a vision of how to live, based neither on the political bedrock of the left or the right, but on--to put it succinctly--the Word of God. To live in the reality of God.

You have nothing to prove before God. The Holy One loves you just as much if you do not follow Benedictine practices as if you do follow them.

So, why do it? Maybe because your ears are blocked, your antennas are dirty, your eyes are shut; or whatever analogy works for you. You do not sense the constant flow of that love, and Benedictine practices will help you get the wax out of your ears. They will help you wake up and notice that the reality we see is undergirded by an invisible reality out of which it sprang.

Or maybe you do sense that invisible reality, and want to live up to it. Benedictine practices are also for you.

The practices come under three headings:

Prayer

Fasting

Works of mercy

Prayer, understood broadly, is your intent to attend to God. Remember Moses and the burning bush? The bush didn’t impose itself on him; he had to turn aside and look. (Ex. 3:4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”) One wonders how many burning bushes we all have walked past without stopping.

Any time you turn aside to look, you are praying, whether you are attending to God in an inner room, or under the stars, or in company with others. You may be still, you may be walking, or you may be handing a buck to that guy on the street.

Is it possible to attend to God at all times? Maybe. Let’s practice, and find out!

For Benedictines, there are three major types of prayer, not counting the spontaneous expressions that may happen at any time.

• Silent contemplation is a quieting of the noise in one’s head in order to better hear God.

• Lectio divina is a prayerful meditation on a scripture, a work of art, or the view out your window.

• Liturgical prayer is the opus dei; work of God. It involves finding oneself and one’s community in psalms sung to God, and readings, many times during the day.

Fasting can be understood as any sort of doing without, which is commonly called asceticism. Asceticism is a great teacher, and is of help to Benedictines throughout their spiritual development. For beginners, it is a speedy and effective way to get out of our comfort zone, and our decrepit mindset.

Works of mercy are works of love. Dom Hubert van Zeller uses the analogy of a lighthouse, which, no matter where the light is pointed, finds objects of compassion. “It is as though God were to halt the revolving light at a particular moment and point it at a particular object of compassion. What we have to do is learn to follow God’s light of compassion as we go round and round from the centre of the lighthouse which is love. There are objects of compassion in every direction if only we take the trouble to look.”

Metanoia is an major word in the New Testament. It is translated as “repent” as in—Repent and believe in the Gospel, in Mark. But metanoia is not fundamentally an act of will in turning to God. It begins with the stunning realization that there is no turning away from God! The Prodigal Son experiences this when, alone with the pigs, he “came to his senses,” in Jesus’ words.

Let’s start with a story.

Once upon a time, there was a priest chosen by lot to enter the holiest part of the temple. His name was Zechariah, and there he met an angel.

The angel Gabriel told him he was to father a child. Zechariah was filled with shame that he would not be able to fulfill the will of God. Knowing that it is impossible to hide anything from the Holy, he says—There is no way. I am impotent and my wife is menopausal. We cannot have a child.

He may also have thought to himself—Where were you twenty years ago when we needed you? The biological facts were incontrovertible; in the Real World, his fathering days were over.

The angel, who knows that everything that exists, including biology, has its being inside the Holy, looks sourly at the man. But Gabriel does not walk out on Zechariah. —It will happen as I have said, and you are going to shut up until you come to your senses. Or something like that.

Imagine what the next year was like for Zechariah. His understanding of what was fundamental and what was contingent was shattered, and he couldn’t talk to anyone about it. His understanding of the Holy had been nested inside his understanding of the material, and now he had to reverse this order. The Real World was the Holy, and everything he had taken as fundamental was actually subsumed in this reality. It must have been a very difficult time.

Naming his son John was the sign that he understood, and he regained the ability to speak.

—Blessed be the God of Israel! He has come to his people and set them free!

Zechariah has been set free, and he uses his freedom to celebrate the greatness of God. He gives his fiat, for what it is worth, to the angel’s prophecy about John.

And then, at the end of the prayer we call the Benedictus, he reflects on his own experience.

—In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

This is now his conviction. This is the Real World.

That’s the story. The metanoia of Zechariah did not occur during the meeting with the angel, but over the following months, while he endured an enforced social isolation.

St. Benedict imposed a social isolation upon himself. Supported by the monk Romanus, he spent three years in a cave. It was in that cave where his conversion, his metanoia began. Yet Benedict, when the time came to write down a handbook of the tools of holiness, did not write—Do as I did. Go away from everyone. Based on a lifetime of experience with seekers, he wrote—Live as one. Go to God together. Seek the necessary social isolation together!

Thousands upon thousands of seekers have followed his advice for hundreds of years. The exact details of how they put his Rule into practice have shifted over time, but the intent to go to God together never has. The following posts are meant to be a help to modern people who want to be Benedictine in this sense, and join in the community on its way to metanoia.

This does not mean that everyone is always kind and good to everyone else, although we all try. The inevitable friction inherent in community is one way of sanding the bumps of self-deception off of each of our souls. Benedictines believe in working out their salvation together.

Let’s get started—together!