Catholic Spirituality Part 2 – Benedictines

As a born and raised Protestant, Catholicism and Catholic religious orders are a bit of a mystery. In the interests of self-education, following is the second in a three-part series on prominent Catholic orders and their distinctives.

Who is Benedict?

Benedict (c. 480-547) was born around the year 480 in the Umbrian province of Nursia in Italy after the fall of Rome in A.D. 410 and the official end of the Western empire in 476. It was a dangerous and turbulent time. In his biography of St. Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) described Benedict’s family as one of high station. He was sent to Rome but soon abandoned his studies, leaving the city that he felt was too corrupt. Several years later he went to an area near the town of Subiaco where he lived as a hermit in a hillside cave for three years. There he was “discovered” by others who recognized his holiness and wisdom. He founded the monastery of Subiaco, which still exists today, along with eleven other monasteries on this hillside. Benedict left the area when a jealous local priest attempted to poison him through the gift of tainted blessed bread! Benedict then traveled to Monte Cassino in the imposing mountains of the central Italian Apennines where he formed a new community and remained there for the rest of his life. Benedict had a sister, Scholastica, who had established herself nearby with her own community of nuns. It was said that they met together once a year. Benedict died in 547. Forty years after his death the monastery was destroyed by the Lombards. Today the relics of St. Benedict may be found at the abbey of St Benoit-sur-Loire in France.

What did he do?

Benedict is most known for the creation of a monastic rule. He wrote this rule for the monks of his own monastery at Monte Cassino, having no thought of establishing a monastic rule or that would be adopted by others. Yet, within a century or two after his death in 547, Benedict had become the patriarch of Western monasticism and his Rule the most influential in the Western Church. By the high Middle Ages, most of the monasteries of the West followed his Rule, as do many to this day. Benedict would be astounded indeed to know that fifteen centuries later you and I would look to his Rule for guidance in our own lives.

Through his Rule Benedict reveals wisdom and understanding along with a very astute knowledge of human behavior. But most of all the Rule reveals Benedict’s love for his brothers, his love of Christ and his desire that his monks, and us by extension, follow Christ’s way to eternal life.

 

“Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out this charge: If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts.” (Prologue 9 and Psalm 95:8)

 

The Inspiration: The Rule of St. Benedict

In the sixth century Benedict designed what he termed “a little rule” in order to help the monastic community that he founded to better love God, self and each other by providing some guidelines on how to live a spiritual life in community. The rule covers topics like

* Prayer and worship
* Forming healthy relationships
* How to use time and maintain a balanced life
* Personal conduct
* Leadership and authority
* Hospitality, service and possessions

 
The Rule itself fosters a way of life that is rooted and grounded in Christ and becomes a tool that we can use to find a center of stability and balance so needed in today’s world. The Rule is designed for ordinary people who live ordinary lives. It was written to provide a model of spiritual development for the average person who intends to live life beyond the superficial or the uncaring.

The Rule of St. Benedict is still the most foundational piece of monastic spirituality in the Western world. The Rule (as it is usually called) is about community living—a day-to-day basic guide originally written for Christian men who wanted to be monks, telling them what to do, how to be Christ-followers in that unique way, and how to get along with each other. Today, people who are committed to monastic values of all kinds turn to the Rule—both lay people and members of vowed religious orders, Catholics as well as Protestants.

The Rule of St. Benedict is not only the basic guide for living for monks of various orders (Benedictine, Cistercian, et cetera), but is also the inspiration for today’s neo-monastic movements in cities around the world. It establishes a way of life rooted in the Gospel and grounded in the scriptural principles of charity, humility, stability, and faithfulness. The Rule sets forth an outline for Christian discipleship drawn from the heart of Jesus’ ministry—the call to follow Christ, to be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit, and to become living witnesses to the grace of God in the world. Every aspect of Benedictine spirituality flow from it.

Here are just a few spiritual practices that draw their wisdom from Benedict:

1. DISCIPLINE

“Arise without delay,” Benedict writes in the Prologue to his Rule. “Let us open our eyes to the Divine light and attentively hear the Divine voice, calling and exhorting us daily.”

2. HUMILITY

A monk is to be humble, and in his humility, he finds joy and even humor. As Benedict says, “by means of his very body [he] always shows his humility to all who see him: that is, in work, in the monastery, in the garden, on the road, in the field, or wherever he may be … with head always bent down and eyes fixed on the earth, he always thinks of the guilt of his sins and imagines himself already present before the terrible judgment seat of God.”
 
This may not seem like much to laugh at, or to find joy in, but it can be. Personal humility combined with God’s judgment can seem at times like preparing for a typhoon by purchasing an umbrella. There’s not much to do but laugh.

3. WORK

Before Benedict in the sixth century, work was done by people who had no choice but to do it. In the Roman Empire, slaves were acquired to do as much of the physical work as possible, and getting one’s hands dirty with manual labor was seen as a curse one was born into. But with Benedict, work became prayer, not to be distinguished from other kinds of mental prayer. Your hands are praying while building a table. Your body is praying not only in kneeling before the altar but in sweating in the fields to produce daily bread. Work was made holy by St. Benedict. 

Benedict’s language emphasizes the unity of the human person in a way that was once commonly understood—that is, when a person was believed to respond to God with body/soul (without distinction) all at once. Benedict reminds the monks: “to fall often to prayer,” as in, literally, to one’s knees.

Plenty More

Numerous other spiritual principles have their origins in Benedict’s great Rule.

Hospitality, for instance, was practiced more in the medieval monasteries than anywhere else at that time. There were times and places when and where the only safe place where a man could find refuge—and be treated kindly as a welcome stranger—was in the monasteries.

And then there is spiritual reading, or lectio divina. Visit almost any Benedictine monastery at meal time and you’ll be treated to a form of this ancient tradition practiced out loud, when a designated monk reads while the others eat. In the refectory the reading is done by one of the brothers, while everyone else eats in silence. The Rule puts it this way: “There is to be complete silence, so that no whisper nor any voice other than that of the reader be heard there. Whatever is wanted for eating and drinking the brethren should pass to one another, so that no one need ask for anything. If, however, something is wanted, it should be asked for by some sign or sound rather than by speaking.” Sometimes this takes place throughout the meal, other times only for part of the time.

 Further reading:

Monk Habits For Everyday People

 

Sources:

http://www.explorefaith.org/livingspiritually/benedictine_spirituality/the_rule_of_st._benedict.php

http://www.stbenedictstoolbox.org/