July 28

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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

July 27

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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

July 26

Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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

July 25

Feast of St James, the Apostle

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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 or the next-highest ranking member of the community.  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

July 24

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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

July 23

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 43 pt. 2

Within Sr. Joan Chittister's commentary on this second half of Chapter 43 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

July 22

Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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