March 31

Easter Sunday

A hymn from Benedictine Daily Prayer for Lauds on the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord:

The golden dawn has spread her rays,

The heavens now resound in praise,

The earth exalts in jubilee

While Darkness groans in agony.

For He, the King with glorious strength,

Has crushed death's power with mighty arm,

He trampled darkness underfoot

And freed those who were languishing.

Although enclosed beneath a stone,

Well sealed and guarded carefully,

He rose triumphant in his might,

the glorious Victor over death.

Dissolved is all the agony,

And sorrow of the world below;

"The Lord is risen as he said,"

The shining angel testified.

Creator of all things, we pray

In this, our joyful Paschal time:

Defend the people whom you saved,

From falling prey to sin's deep death.

To you, O Lord, who rose again,

To Father and to Paraclete,

May we give glory and all praise,

Both now and for eternity. Amen.

Alleluia! The Lord has risen, as he told you, alleluia.

Br. Chad 2013

March 30

Holy Saturday

There are times when liturgical time must take a priority over other schedules, and the four month cycle of reading the Rule is not intended to fit into the Church Year in any particular way.  I will, then, set today's reading aside to honor this Holy Saturday.

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday:

Today there is a great silence over the earth, for the King sleeps.  

The earth has trembled and fallen still, for the Lord sleeps in his fleshly nature; 

in the netherworld his is arousing those who have slept for ages.  

God is dead in the flesh, and has shaken Sheol to its foundations.

He goes to seek our first parent like a lost sheep.

"I bid you: Awake sleeper! I did not create you to lie bound in hell.

Arise from the dead, for I am life to those who have died.

Rise up, work of my hands, my likeness, made in my image.

Rise, let us go hence.

"For your sake I put on your lowly shape.

For your sake I came to earth and to the underworld.

See the spittle on my face--
it was for you, that you might have the breath of life again.

See my cheeks reddened by the blows--
it was for you, that you might be remade in my image.

See my torn back--
it was for you, that I might take the burden of sin from your shoulders.

See the nail-marks in my hands--
it was for you, because once you put your hand to the forbidden tree.

"Arise, let us go hence.  

I have a heavenly throne prepared for you,
and the cherubim shall bow down before you."

Br. Chad 2013

March 29

Good Friday

Chapter 48 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict March 29 (Ch. 48 pt. 2)

Ora et Labora is the ancient Benedictine motto.  "Pray and Work."  Chapter 48 "On the Daily Manual Labor" is one reason why it seems appropriate to add "Study" to the motto's translation.  Our Father Benedict clearly considers reading to be an essential component of the work a Benedictine is to do each day.

We see in this passage the creating of conditions by which ever further spiritual formation can take place throughout the year.  And, as is needed, a support system is provided for those who may resist such ongoing formation.  As Sr. Joan writes, "Study is hard work.  It is so much easier to find something else to do in its place than to stay at the grind of it."  Remaining open to the Spirit's creative energies within us through engagement with the wider world of ideas is a beautiful disposition of the Benedictine heart.

On this Good Friday, let us open ourselves to the Church's experience of this darkest of days and to the ways in which this aspect of the Paschal mystery plays out in our lives and in the world.

Br. Chad 2013

March 28

Maundy Thursday
*The Paschal Triduum begins at sundown today

Chapter 48 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict March 28 (Ch. 48 pt. 1)

One of my favorite lines in all of Sr. Joan's commentary on the Rule is from today's reading.  She writes, "Benedictine spirituality exacts something so much harder for our century than rigor.  Benedictine spirituality demands balance."

The story of Jesus' visit to Martha's home in Chapter 10 of St. Luke's Gospel is instructive here.  Martha welcomes Jesus and his entourage in, offering them hospitality, but is "distracted by her many tasks" to the extent that she begrudges her sister, Mary, her seat at Jesus' feet.  This passage is often used to extol the virtues of overt religious devotion over and against the vice of being a busybody, but far more than this simplistic dichotomy is at play here.  Jesus' affectionate admonition to Martha contrasts the "many things" about which she is "worried and distracted" with the "only one thing" of which there is need.  To be "worried and distracted" implies that one's attention is absent from one's actual environment.  Presence is the "one thing" that is needed if one is to, like Mary, listen to what the Lord is saying.

Rigor often holds one's attention hostage to a set of expectations around what must be done.  Those who value rigor too highly often direct their efforts toward human-made goals at the expense of presence in each moment.  Yet it is only in each moment that the voice of Christ can be heard.

What Benedictine balance affords us is the opportunity to move from sleep to prayer to study to work in a way that needs only the "one thing".  When it is time to work, we listen to what the Lord is saying through our work.  When it is time to stop working and pray, we leave our work, perhaps undone, and listen to what the Lord is saying through the Office.  It is not magic, nor is it easy, but such is the balanced life that shapes the Benedictine soul.

Br. Chad 2013

March 27

Wednesday in Holy Week

Chapter 47

The Rule of St. Benedict March 27 (Ch. 47)

Sr. Joan Chittister opens her commentary on Chapter 47 by describing Benedictine prayer as "regular and artistic."  I find much resonance with this characterization.

Prayer in the Benedictine tradition is literally regular, in that it conforms to a rule, a regula.  Its starting place is not extemporaneous, but formal.  It begins with a signal and proceeds with a carefully defined series of hymns, Psalms, and readings, and it is put to the religious superior to see to it that this is so in each Benedictine community.

Along with the regulation of prayer, Chapter 47 also tasks the superior with attending to the quality of its aesthetic presentation in the community.  This is the Opus Dei after all, the Work of God, and should be approached with a measure of beauty and excellence.

There are shadow sides to both of these elements that every healthy Benedictine community must acknowledge and address, however.  Regulations and artistry can become idols.  The sneering, upturned nose of the aesthete or the conformist's obsessive anxiety are every bit as damaging to our Father Benedict's intentions as haphazardness and ugliness.  We are to strike a balance in prayer that frees our hearts from the swirling chaos of our environments without shackling them to idols made by human hands.

Br. Chad 2013

March 26

Tuesday in Holy Week

Chapter 46

The Rule of St. Benedict March 26 (Ch. 46)

One delightful aspect of community life is the wealth of stories that accumulate over the years.  One such story I overheard at St. Gregory's Abbey in Michigan had to do with the instructions in this chapter.  It seems that a procedure for "com[ing] immediately before the Abbot and the community" after breaking something took on the form of kneeling with the broken item in hand at the entrance of the place where the community would gather next.  So, if the next community gathering is prayer, one would kneel at the entrance of the chapel, if a meal, one would kneel at the entrance to the refectory, and so on.  One day, many years ago, a brother was cleaning the bathroom before lunch and happened to break the toilet seat.  So, as the community and guests, of which there happened to be a large number that day, came silently into the refectory after the lunch bell, they had to walk past this brother kneeling with a toilet seat.  I was told that the procedure was modified after that.

Chapter 46 calls each member of the community to take responsibility for any fault they contribute to the common life, whether through a small, inconsequential accident or a "sin-sickness of the soul."  Our Father Benedict desires to cultivate a climate of trust and intimacy in the community.  Without trust, the community is poisoned by cycles of deception, suspicion, and accusation.  Without safe intimacy, the individual suffers the soul-killing trajectory of hidden guilt, self-loathing, and hardness of heart.

Br. Chad 2013

March 25

Monday in Holy Week

Chapter 45

The Rule of St. Benedict March 25 (Ch. 45)

In July of 2011 I spent two weeks at St. Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan as a part of their Summer Vocation program.  I saw the instructions from Chapter 45 (aside from the last sentence) play out several times during my time at St. Gregory's.  Almost every member of the community, including the Abbot, at one point or another, made a mistake on a Psalm tone or on a reading and immediately performed a small, quick genuflection toward the Superior.  This little action seemed to be the beginning and the end of the matter, and I felt it to be refreshing to have such a clear procedure for addressing mistakes rather than a muddled series of apologies and/or reprimands and/or passive-aggressive silence and/or cloying assurances.

As our Father Benedict indicates, the issue for the offender is that of humility, which, in truth, needs not speak a word of excuse or defense.  And the issue for the Superior and community is that of holding the space for that humility to manifest without undue commentary or judgment.

Br. Chad 2013

March 24

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

Chapter 44

The Rule of St. Benedict March 24 (Ch. 44)

The oratory and the table are the two pillars of common life in a Benedictine monastery, and when one member violates her responsibilities to the community, she endangers the very life she has vowed to uphold.  Without explaining away the harshness of Benedict's instructions here, I hear in this chapter a call to consider how profoundly our personal spiritual health affects the common life we have vowed to share with others.  As Sr. Joan writes in conclusion to her commentary today,

This chapter forces us to ask, in an age without penances and in a culture totally given to individualism, what relationships we may be betraying by selfishness and what it would take to cure ourselves of the self-centeredness that requires the rest of the world to exist for our own convenience.

Br. Chad 2013

March 23

Feast of Gregory the Illuminator

Chapter 43 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict March 23 (Ch. 43 pt. 2)

Sr. Joan Chittister's commentary on this second half of Chapter 43 is worth reading in full.  Do so here. She writes,

In Benedictine spirituality, . . . the sacramental value of a meal is that the human concern we promise daily at the altar is demonstrated in the dining room where we prepare and serve and clean up after one another.

and further,

The meal becomes the sanctifying center that reminds us, day in and day out, that unless we go on building the community around us, participating in it and bearing its burdens, then the words, "family" and "humanity" become a sham, no matter how good our work at the office, no matter how important our work in the world around us.

Presence at table is an imperative in any household that seeks to walk the path of our Father Benedict.  By "presence" I mean fully awake, conscious engagement with the realities at hand, seen and unseen.  This is true in a household of one or in a household of many.  The Benedictine is to honor the table as a sacramental focal point wherein the invisible is manifest among the visible.

Br. Chad 2013

March 22

Chapter 43 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict March 22 (Ch. 43 pt. 1)

An intention that undergirds each and every one of our Father Benedict's instructions is to further spiritual formation.  The instructions in this passage are no exception. Discipline is applied to the latecomer, not because he really messes up the vibe, but because "nothing . . . [is to] be put before the Work of God."  As a person who is rarely early, I can easily recognize the preferences and choices that result in my being tardy, and, if I'm honest, they are nearly always self-interested in nature.  I find what Sr. Joan writes to be true, that "Tardiness . . . denies the soul the full experience of anything."

As Benedictines, we are called to consciously prefer and choose the Opus Dei, the communal praying of the office, over whatever else seems to demand our time and attention.  Again, Sr. Joan's words resonate:

No matter how tired we are or how busy we are or how impossible we think it is to do it, Benedictine spirituality says, Stop. Now. A spiritual life without a regular prayer life and an integrated community consciousness is pure illusion.

Br. Chad 2013

March 21

Feast of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
Feast of the Passing of our Holy Father Benedict (Roman)

*Today is the enthronement of Justin Webly as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury*

Chapter 42

The Rule of St. Benedict March 21 (Ch. 42)

Silence is a diversity.  I have heard the silence of anger burning.  I have heard the silence of paralyzing fear or guilt.  I have heard the silence of hopeful anticipation and the silence of green beauty.  I have heard the silence of safety and contentedness in the presence of loved ones and of the Beloved.

The silence after Compline is to be a fertile silence into which are planted words of peace and gentleness from Holy Scripture.  It is to be a silence of soul as well as sound, blooming with joy and love among the community.

Noise is also diverse.  We are each settled upon, like many-splendored moss-covered stones in misty, damp Ireland, by the noises that fill the atmosphere of our lives.  But we, unlike stones, are able to adjust the air in which we live.  We can shut the laptop, turn off the television, put down the smartphone.

Let us not simply watch or read about today's events in our Church, but let us find the silent place within ourselves to offer our sincere prayers for our new Archbishop, that he may, in silence, hear the voice of the Spirit in the midst of all the commotion.

Br. Chad 2013

March 20

Chapter 41

The Rule of St. Benedict March 20 (Ch. 41)

" . . . the Abbot's foresight shall decide on this.

Thus it is that he should adapt and arrange everything

in such a way that souls may be saved

and that the brethren may do their work without just cause for murmuring."

"If you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea."

Mark 9: 42

I hear a similar teaching in this passage from the Gospel and the above quote from chapter 41.  We are all given to care for the spiritual well-being of all with whom we are in relationship, and the choices we make in our relationships are to serve in clearing the way for the Work of Grace.  When we ignore this responsibility in favor of small-minded self-interest, we contribute to the proliferation of obstacles in the paths of the little ones.

Br. Chad 2013

March 19

Feast of St. Joseph

Chapter 40

The Rule of St. Benedict March 19 (Ch. 40)

"Above all else I urge that there should be no murmuring in the community."  These are our Father Benedict's concluding words to this chapter, and they show what is his highest priority regarding the amounts of food and drink consumed by the community.  More than anything else, it's important that those who follow the Benedictine way are content with what is provided for them.  This principle of contentedness goes well beyond food and drink to the heart of what we are about: the relinquishing of our prejudgments and desires in favor of the Spirit's guidance in our lives.  St. Joseph's life stands before the Presence as a testament to the beauty that comes from a life lived in such a way.  May we follow in his footsteps on this day, opening ourselves to hear from Spirit and freely follow where she might lead.

And from here on out, at the meals shared by the Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation, we shall measure our drinks by the hemina!

March 18

Feast of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Chapter 39

The Rule of St. Benedict March 18 (Ch. 39)

"There is nothing so opposed to the Christian character as over-indulgence."

This seems like an awfully bold claim for our Father Benedict to insert nonchalantly into the Rule.  Perhaps he's utilizing hyperbole to emphasize "Our Lord's words, 'See to it that your hearts be not burdened with over-indulgence,'" but what if he isn't?  Why would he claim that this behavior holds the highest rank among things that oppose the development of the Christian character?

For an answer to this question I turn to a concept that would have been central to St. Benedict's thinking as a monk in the 6th century.  It is an understanding of human formation that comes from the Egyptian desert fathers, and would be popularized in the generation or so after our Father Benedict through St. Gregory the Great.  It is the notion of the deadly passions (sins).

Evagrius Ponticus was a late 4th century Egyptian monk and ascetic from whom we learn about eight deadly passions that form a logismos, or train of thought.  For Evagrius, each passion leads a person further and further away from what is real, beginning with the most basic needs of survival and moving to the essence of what makes us distinctly human (divine union).  His formulation of this train of thought begins, as does every other formulation, with gluttony, which is the first among the "Passions of Desire."  These are ways we misuse our natural impulses, and they include fornication and love of money in turn.  Then come the "Passions of Reaction", which are passions directed against others and include depression, anger, and listlessness (later, accidie).  Finally, Evagrius lists two "Passions of Sense of Self", which are a fantasy of self: vainglory and pride.

So, back to Chapter 39 and our Father Benedict's claim that "nothing is so opposed to the Christian character as over-indulgence."  Over-indulgence, or gluttony, is the gateway passion.  It is the most basic misuse of our natural impulses and the easiest.  But as such, it has the power to divert our path without us even knowing it and place us in a prison of the most base, least developed experience of a human being.  Moving past gluttony, then, is essential if one is to be formed in the likeness of Christ and experience our true identity hidden in God.

Br. Chad 2013

The information about deadly passions is from Prior Aelred's lectures at St. Gregory's Abbey during the Summer Vocation Program of 2011.

March 17

Fifth Sunday in Lent (in the Church) St. Patrick's Day (everywhere else)

Chapter 38

The Rule of St. Benedict March 17 (Ch. 38)

In my experience, one valuable aspect of practicing verbal silence at meals is that it eliminates many of the problems that common meals provide for new or socially awkward people.  Some might not find it easy to make their way into the life of the tables we share, and this Benedictine practice clears the way for everyone's full participation in that life.

Another valuable aspect of this practice of silence at meals is that it can open the door to what Thich Nhat Hanh calls "mindful eating".  He describes the mindful eating of a carrot:

You may like to smile to it before you put it in your mouth. When you chew it, you are aware that you are chewing a piece of carrot. Don't put anything else into your mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in. 

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.

 We will need some training, indeed.  Thanks be to God for the school of our Father Benedict.

Br. Chad 2013

March 16

Chapter 37

The Rule of St. Benedict March 16 (Ch. 37)

The first sentence of this chapter offers a small window into the intentions behind St. Benedict's Rule, and I think this window gives us a view of an answer to a common question, "Why would anyone want to commit her life to living in this way?"

The natural dispositions of a human being, as good as they can be in certain circumstances, are not a basis on which to build a healthy, whole person or community.  This chapter, for example, deals with the emotional tendencies most people show towards the very young and the very old.  It's clear, however, that not everyone is identically disposed towards children or the elderly.  So by formalizing a good disposition and imbuing it with the authority of the Rule, our Father Benedict frees the value of "special kindness towards these times of life" from dependency on an individual's affectionate emotion, and places it in relationship to an individual's vow of obedience under the guidance of his Superior.

This, to me, is true freedom when I consider my experience under the tyranny of emotional dispositions as a measure of "health" and "wholeness."

Br. Chad 2013

March 15

Chapter 36

The Rule of St. Benedict March 15 (Ch. 36)

As our ministry of prayer takes root deep in our lives, the outgrowth of that ministry connects us to each other, to the Church, and to the World in bonds of compassion and love.  This compassion is practiced through acts of care for the physically sick among us, as we had the opportunity to experience in the wake of Br. Rawleigh's stroke in October.  Our brother's time in the hospital, at rehab, and in recovery back at home has shown us that the lessons of this chapter in the Rule are timeless.  Br. Rawleigh truly is "Christ in person" to us and to many more.  During those first weeks, he received our love and compassion with grace and was more than reasonable in the requests he makes of our time and attention.  And we were all graced with an "abundant reward" from being in his holy presence during his time of need.

Let us continue to open ourselves, through our prayers and service on behalf of those who suffer, to be clear channels for the healing love of God.  And let us seek to receive the true blessing of the living Christ, who is ever present in the sick and the poor.

Br. Chad 2013

March 14

Chapter 35 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict March 14 (Ch. 35 pt.2)

This passage is one that has changed little in practice over the last 1500 years among Benedictine monasteries.  It is a simple, yet powerful, ritual . . . a changing of the guard of sorts.  It functions to give an eternal perspective on what might otherwise be seen as only a human endeavor.  Such sanctification of the mundane is one genius of the Rule.  A Benedictine finds her true life in God through each and every aspect of the day--nothing is "secular"; nothing is profane.

To imbue the details of our experience with an awareness of the Divine Presence is a goal of Benedictine community.  The slow, daily work of obedience whittles away at the illusion that our life is our own, that we do anything outside the purview of our life in God.  And it is in the small things of everyday life, in a 3 x 5 card laminated in a drawer in the dining room, that we find the secret hidden in plain sight.

from St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, MI

Br. Chad 2013

March 13

Chapter 35 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict March 13 (Ch. 35 pt.1)

I'm struck by the opening lines of this chapter:

Let the brethren serve one another, 

and let no one be excused from the kitchen service . . .

For this service brings increase of reward and of charity. 

Kitchen service is among the least specialized or esoteric practices in the monastery, yet the formational value of overtly serving one's sisters and brothers in this way is high.  During the first week of my stay at St. Gregory's Abbey in July of 2011, the abbot of the community served as one of the kitchen servers--standing at the back of the refectory, clearing each plate, each cup, each piece of silverware as we finished, eating his meal after everyone else was dismissed.  I saw clearly how such service acts to demolish any class system.

We would all do well to attend to the ways in which we can offer humble, charity-growing service in our own contexts. 

Br. Chad 2013

March 12

Feast of St. Gregory the Great

Chapter 34

The Rule of St. Benedict March 12 (Ch. 34)

In this chapter our Father Benedict demonstrates compassion and generosity rather than reprimand and austerity in response to the infirm and needy within the community.  It is with a disposition of gentleness that we are to treat ourselves and each other along the Benedictine path, especially when one of us falls behind.

Our endeavors together are not in the service of an ideal or even of a vow or promise made.  Our practices, animated by our clear intention, are designed to transform us into beings who are fully at home where God is at home.  And if we are to be transformed at all, we must begin from where we actually are right now.  Let us be present to our weaknesses and humble enough to acknowledge them.  Any other posture--pride, shame, defiance, resentment--sets our feet upon a path of our own making that leads far from our true home.

Br. Chad 2013

March 11

Chapter 33

The Rule of St. Benedict March 11 (Ch. 33)

Our national culture places an unqualified positive value on a practice that our Father Benedict here calls a "most wicked vice."  Private ownership generates within a human being a phenomenon that Americans value as a firm foundation on which to build a stable society.  St. Benedict looks at this same phenomenon and instructs that it is "to be cut out of the monastery by the roots."

This striking contrast prompts me to step back and question how it is that private ownership has generated within me the phenomenon that our Father Benedict sees as so wicked and destructive.  How have the roots of this vice infiltrated the soil of my soul in which the Gospel has been planted?  Is the Gospel kept from growing and bearing fruit because of them?  And how does one pull up the roots while living outside of a monastery?

The Gospel according to St. Luke narrates an exchange between Jesus and a "rich ruler" who asks Jesus, the "good teacher," what he must do to inherit eternal life.  The story is a picture of just how a human being can be kept from the full life of God by the vice of private ownership.  The ruler finds that his possessions have shackled themselves around his identity and that removing them from his heart, mind, and soul is more than he can do.  May God do "what is impossible for mortals" and save us from his fate, rich as we are.

Br. Chad 2013

March 10

Chapter 32

The Rule of St. Benedict March 10 (Ch. 32)

In a society built upon the proliferation, consumption, and discarding of commodities, I hear from this chapter a radically alternative way of relating to physical property.  Caring for the things we have, treating them as God-given gifts and responsibilities, orients our lives within an economy wherein enoughness and generosity are the operative values.

The victims of a hurricane or severe winter storm that cuts off their supply of electricity or fuel face the question of necessity in a critical way.  When we are unable to take our possessions for granted, we are forced to recognize the ways in which our property relates to our values.  At once our inability to charge our mobile devices seems like a silly, childish concern next to the needs of our elderly neighbors for food, water, and heat.

What if our everyday values reflected the sacrifice and charity that normally manifests only in times of crisis?  This is the economy of enoughness and generosity that our Father Benedict desires to nurture among us.

Br. Chad 2013

March 9

Feast of St. Gregory of Nyssa

Chapter 31 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict March 9 (Ch. 31 pt 2)

This second half of Chapter 31 conveys to me a spirit of hearth and home that our Father Benedict seeks to instill in the Benedictine community.  The gentle organization and the humble carrying out of the duties of cellarer remind me of households I have known wherein love, courtesy, and peace describe the family culture.  There are no power plays, no passive-aggression weaving through the daily interactions.

The cellarer's instructions here point to the heart of Christian authority as self-sacrificial service.  The cellarer serves in the idiom of Christ in the midst of a needy community.  Matthew 20: 25-28 lays it out:

But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Br. Chad 2013

March 8

Chapter 31 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict March 8 (Ch. 31 pt 1)

A modern equivalent to the role of the cellarer might be that of the business manager in an office.  It is the person who oversees the maintenance of supplies for everyone, of all that is physically needed for sustaining of the work at hand.  But there's a twist in our Father Benedict's instructions for the cellarer that one would not expect to find in the job description of a business manager.

St. Benedict instructs the cellarer to "take the greatest care of the sick, of children, of guests and the poor . . ."  It is not the efficiency and profitability of the monastery that is to shape this person's priorities, but precisely the opposite.  The steward of community resources is to "take the greatest care of" those who are a drag on the very systems that provide the resources.

This is a picture of the "beloved community" spoken of by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wherein property is in the service of life, not life in the service of property.  This is the radical reorientation in Jesus' teaching around the issues of true greatness and power wherein the greatest is the least of all, without any power and without any resources of her own.

Br. Chad 2013

March 7

Feast of Perpetua and her companions

Chapter 30

The Rule of St. Benedict March 7 (Ch. 30)

I will leave reflecting on this chapter to one who is far wiser than I.  I encourage you to read all of Sr. Joan Chittister's commentary on Chapter 30, which concludes,

The real lesson of the chapter is not that young people should be beaten. The continuing value of the chapter is that it reminds us quite graphically that no one approach is equally effective with everyone. No two people are exactly the same. In bringing people to spiritual adulthood we must use every tool we have: love, listening, counsel, confrontation, prayer that God may intervene where our own efforts are useless and, finally, if all else fails, amputation from the group.

The real point of this and all seven preceding chapters of the penal code of the Rule is that Benedictine punishment is always meant to heal, never to destroy; to cure, not to crush.

Br. Chad 2013

March 6

Chapter 29

The Rule of St. Benedict March 6 (Ch.29)

It isn't clear whether "a brother who through his own fault leaves the monastery" is a brother who has just been expelled by the Abbot a la Chapter 28, or whether St. Benedict is changing the subject to address all members who may leave, by their own will or not.  In any case, it is worth noting that our Father Benedict does not make a clear distinction that would exclude the expelled from the provisions for re-entry here in Chapter 29.

After all the time and effort and pain that the community has spent to bring the defiant back to the path of their vows, and after the best efforts of the most skilled "physicians" have failed to heal, one would think that the Rule would say, "That's it.  We wash our hands of you."  But it doesn't.  It says that this process may happen, that the community must be willing to bear the painful burden of failed corrective measures and expulsion up to three times for an individual.

Think of an employee in an organization whose recalcitrant behavior forces her boss to take her through a carefully conceived, skillfully implemented, and very costly series of disciplinary measures intended to bring the employee back to good standing.  But her recalcitrance remains firmly fixed, and she is ultimately fired.  If that former employee were to come back a year later claiming to have learned her lesson, who would expect that organization to offer her a job?  And to do it three times?

This is a lavish mercy.  This is true sacrifice.

Br. Chad 2013

March 5

Chapter 28

The Rule of St. Benedict March 5 (Ch. 28)

To begin, let us set aside the remarks about physical punishment; they are a stumbling block for our understanding. As Sr. Joan writes,

Beating people with the rod is considered neither good pedagogy nor good parenting now, and the notion of whipping full-grown adults is simply unthinkable.  Times have changed; theories of behavior modification have changed; the very concept of adulthood has changed; this living of the rule has changed."

But she continues,

What has not changed, however, is the idea that human development demands that we grow through and grow beyond childish un-control to maturity and that we be willing to correct things in ourselves in order to do it, whatever the cost.

This is the essence of St. Benedict's theory of correction for faults.  If one is to follow upon this path, the defiant self-will must be relinquished, and there is only so much anyone else can do to inspire and encourage its relinquishment.  When, after all the measures at the disposal of human community are undertaken to loosen one's obstinate grip, there comes a point when one must be released from the care of the community to make one's way with clenched fists through the world outside.  To do otherwise would force the community to distort around the defiant one, to accommodate the anomaly like organs accommodate a tumor.  Any leader who would knowingly allow such tumors to grow and harm the body does not follow in the footsteps of our Father Benedict.

Br. Chad 2013

March 4

Chapter 27

The Rule of St. Benedict March 4 (Ch. 27)

After all the apparent harshness of the last four chapters, St. Benedict shows clearly in Chapter 27 that love is the motivation behind these corrective measures.  The superior is to teach the wayward by means of a threefold approach, "reprove, entreat, rebuke", in order to bring about correction for the good of all.  The practice of excommunication in the Rule, then, is the opposite of outright banishment where the superior is concerned; it is a process of full and diverse engagement.  We see in this chapter that, rather than removing the offender from the realm of concern, the offender is set in the place of highest concern where the most valuable resources of the community, its wise elders, are set in motion to heal and restore.

This is the deep compassion of our Father Benedict.  There is no vindictiveness or punitive motives at play, but love that is willing to bear the burdensome effects of an offender's recalcitrance.  In fact, the Rule reminds the superior that "what he has undertaken is the care of weak souls and not a tyranny over strong ones."  It is to be the disposition of Benedictine authority to care for the weak and struggling, not to cater to the compliant and righteous.

Br. Chad 2013

March 3

Chapter 26

The Rule of St. Benedict March 3 (Ch.26)

The act of relieving pain is alluring to many of us.  We see someone hurting and we want to provide some help, something that will take away the discomfort we perceive.  In and of itself, this impulse is laudable.  It has the potential to heal and comfort.  But, more often than we care to admit, the impulse to relieve pain derives from our own self-interest -- to relieve our own guilt, our own discomfort, to meet some need within ourselves to be needed, helpful, effective.

There comes a time when we must learn to distinguish between our interests and the interests of others, if our life is to become a source of true health and healing in the world.  Until we learn to do so, we live  under the delusion that all of our impulses to help are pure and all our motives to relieve pain are true.  Under this delusion we have very little idea what effect our behavior actually has on the one in pain, nor do we really care, because we get what we need from the transaction -- the relief of guilt, comfort, the feeling of being needed, helpful, effective.

To act from within this delusion, our Father Benedict understands, is as insidious and destructive to community life as the faults that warrant excommunication.  When I cannot resist inserting myself into a healing process that is being directed by a wise physician, I jeopardize the effectiveness of the cure.  As Sr. Joan writes, "It is not supportive to take away a person's heart medicine simply because they do not like the taste of it.  It is not supportive to fail to set a broken leg simply because the setting will be painful."

Br. Chad 2013

March 2

Feast of St. Chad, Bishop of Lichfield

Chapter 25

The Rule of St. Benedict March 2 (Ch. 25)

Sr. Joan Chittister writes in her commentary on Chapter 25 that our betrayal of community can come to a point when

Benedict's rule calls for the group whose life we affect to say, "Enough," to quit bearing us up on the litter of community, to quit rewarding our selfish and surly behavior with security and affirmation and a patina of holiness.  Excommunication, for all practical purposes, says "You want to be a world unto yourself? Fine. be one."

Sometimes it takes drastic measures for us to recognize the extent to which our life depends upon community.  We take for granted the benefits that community affords, and it isn't until those benefits are removed that we are made to face the implications of our behavior.  Our Father Benedict instructs that the excommunicated work alone and prohibits the customary blessing exchanged between monks in passing as well as the common blessing of the food because these things bring into sharp relief the reality of life outside of community.  I hear an implied question: "Is life outside really what you desire?"

The profession rite for The Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation begins with the question, "What is it that you desire?" to which the candidate replies, "To dedicate my life to Holy God through the vows of Stability in this community of canons, Conversion through the monastic way of life, and Obedience according to the Rule of our Holy Father Benedict."  There is nothing in the rite about this way of living being the only true path to God.  But it is the path I have stood up and declared as my own, and I have taken vows that place my feet firmly upon it.  It is not with vengeance or a spirit of retribution, then, that the rule makes provision for dealing with those who wander from the path.  It is to bring us back to the first question we answered when we approached it in the first place.

Br. Chad 2013

March 1

Chapters 23 and 24

The Rule of St. Benedict February 29 (Ch. 23)

Chapter 23 above is the first of eight chapters dealing with consequences for faults.  No one wants to talk about the dark side of community life, when earnest good intentions can no longer be assumed.  We would that human evil remain an abstraction, an idea we can rail against on Facebook, but never encounter within our own homes.  As soon as we open ourselves to living in community, however, we open ourselves to the possibility that someone will betray the trust that makes community possible.  To betray is to make use of that which is derived from a community--resources, information, security, relationships--against the interests of that community.

These chapters are St. Benedict's 6th Century prescription for dealing with such betrayal in order to preserve the health of his communities.  I will not be concerned with the specific means of correction or punishment, as they have little to offer us in the 21st Century, but I believe there is much to be gained from listening carefully with the ear of the heart, even as we move through these eight difficult chapters.

Notice with me the nature of the offenses our Father Benedict lists here in Chapter 23: obstinacy, disobedience, pride, murmuring, contemptuousness.  These are attitudes that we can all find living within ourselves at one time or another.  What is so harmful about them within a Benedictine community is that they indicate an unwillingness to be moulded, to be transformed.  They are ways a human heart digs its heels in and refuses to budge.  Such a posture cannot be ignored, if Benedictine community is to remain an association of unified intentions.

The Rule of St. Benedict March 1 (Ch. 24)

As we see above, the faults we are dealing with here are betrayals of community life.  They involve drawing benefits from a community while behaving in such a way that threatens the community's health.  As such, St. Benedict fixes the consequences for these faults squarely at the heart of Benedictine community life, at the table and in prayer.

The connotations of the word "excommunication" in our current understanding are distracting, if we seek to understand the spirit of our Father Benedict's instructions.  This is not excommunication in the idiom of banishment to eternal damnation.  This is not a bishop cutting off a Roman Catholic nun from her church for political reasons.  This word is used here to indicate a far more literal dynamic, that of being "excluded from the common" aspects of life in the monastery.  And, depending on the seriousness of the fault as judged by the religious Superior, this excommunication is applied in degrees toward a two-fold end: the preservation of community health and the restoration of the wayward member.

This is the original "natural and logical consequence" method of parental discipline put in place by a father who loves us.

Br. Chad 2013