September 7

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 7

In these final words of the Prologue to his Rule, our Father Benedict declares his intention to establish a school for God's service.  In this school we learn to become a fit dwelling for our "homely and courteous" Lord.  I will let Dame Julian of Norwich describe the experience:

For truly, it is the greatest joy that could be, as I see it, that he who is highest and mightiest, noblest and worthiest, is the lowest and meekest, homeliest and most courteous.

He cometh down to us, to the lowest part of our need. For he despiseth nothing of what he hath made. And he disdaineth not to serve us in the simplest offices that belong, in kind, to our body, for love of the soul that is made to his own likeness.

Although the curriculum in St. Benedict's school may seem difficult, we are never left alone in our need.  The entrance to the way of salvation cannot but be narrow, yet with the help of God's grace and the movement of God's Spirit among us, "our hearts expand and we run the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love."

Let us, then, enroll in our Father Benedict's school and learn how to receive the "familiar" Presence of Christ within.

Br. Chad

September 6

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 6

In a sentence, our Father Benedict states the purpose of Benedictine community: to "prepare our hearts and our bodies to serve [God] under the guidance of holy obedience" (translation by Patrick Berry OSB).  Therefore, "Conscious in this undertaking of our own weakness let us ask the Lord to give us through his grace the help we need."

We respond to our Lord's instructions by our deeds, and Christ patiently waits every day for us to do so.  Each day is new, and the kind expectation of the Lord does not grow weary even when, through our long habit of resistance, we feel sure God's patience is spent.

Sr. Joan shares a counterintuitive story:

"God," the elder said, "is closer to sinners than to saints."  "But how can that be?" the eager disciple asked.

And the elder explained: "God in heaven holds each person by a string.  When we sin, we cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot--bringing the sinner a little closer. Again and again sin cuts the string--and with each knot God keeps drawing the sinner closer and closer."

Even our weaknesses take us to God if we let them. 

Br. Chad

September 5

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 5

Our Father Benedict begins this passage by connecting the actions of the wise builder on the rock of Jesus' instructions to those who attribute all good in themselves to God (from yesterday's reading).  It is to the rock, not to our actions, that St. Benedict desires to fix our attention.  And it is our clear perception of God as the wise, patient source of all goodness that frees us to become who we are called to be: channels of Divine power and love in the world.

God's part each day is to show the way and to provide ongoing grace for our journey.  Our part each day is to listen, change our inner orientation (metanoia-repent, convert), and obey.

Br. Chad

September 4

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 4

Our Father Benedict continues here to demonstrate from Holy Scripture the conditions in which God is at home, both in the human soul and within a community.  But, he instructs, it is vitally important that neither the soul nor the community develop pride as a result of its purity.  Yes, we must cast temptations from the sight of our hearts and dash them against Christ before they gain a foothold within us, but it is imperative that we simultaneously cultivate the humility that attributes no glory to ourselves, but to the Name of God alone.

Heartfelt good intentions are not enough, if we hope to dwell within God's tent.  Without faith, relational trust in the presence and work of God, our efforts become the tools of our pride.  Our "goodness" becomes the property of our self-interest.  Yet, truly good works flow from a life surrendered to the order of God's household.

Our Father Benedict seeks to establish such an order in our daily lives.  By it, through the grace of God, we are slowly formed into people who dwell in God's tent, who are fully at home where God is at home.

Br. Chad

September 3

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 3

To God's call for a worker among the multitude who desires true life that lasts forever I have answered, "I am he."

This true life is the Resurrection here and now in my life.  But if I am to walk on the path of life, I must experience the death of my old ways of being and know the power of God who raises to new life.  I must give myself over to Christ's own difficult, painful, life-giving cycle.  

There is, indeed, nothing sweeter than the compassionate voice of our Lord calling us, hand outstretched, inviting us to place our feet on his path of life by way of death.

I will have life.  I desire to see good days.  I will keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile.  I will turn away from evil and do good.  I will seek after peace and pursue it.

Your eyes are upon me.  Your ears are open to my prayer.  Thank you for whispering your "Behold, here I am" within me before I could so much as open myself to call upon you.

Br. Chad

September 2

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 2

Let us open our eyes to the deifying light,

let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us,

"Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

Our Father Benedict seeks here to inspire in us a disposition of urgent attention so that we may perceive our true selves in God's "deifying light."  This urgency is set against our own lethargy and tendency to harden our hearts to the light and voice of God.  It is set against procrastination and ambivalence--the thought that we can fulfill our calling without giving our all.

St. Benedict strikes this tone at the outset of the Rule because one's disposition at the beginning of a journey sets one's course.  As we begin again, let us do so with earnest, eager, urgent attention to what the Spirit is saying in the actual circumstances of our real lives.

Br. Chad

September 1

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue pt. 1

Listen carefully, my child,

to your master’s precepts,

and incline the ear of your heart.

Receive willingly and carry out effectively

your loving father's advice,


that by the labor of obedience


you may return to God
 

from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.

Thus begins the Rule of St. Benedict, one of the most influential documents in the history of Western Civilization.  These words have been read aloud in countless languages, in empires long passed and in nations young and old, among humble wood and towering stone, for fifteen centuries.

To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,


whoever you may be,


who are renouncing your own will


to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,


and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.

Imagine yourself, somewhere along that winding trail of history, hearing as one that has come from the fields as a peasant, or as a noble from the manor on a hill, to the gate of a Benedictine monastery.  You’ve been given food and lodging in the guest quarters, and you’ve been received among the novices where you have studied, eaten, slept, and been instructed for several weeks.  When the time arrives that you have shown yourself ready, you are brought into a common room, you sit down, and the Rule is read aloud to you by your Novice Master.  There is no doubt that it is “you” to whom St. Benedict’s “words are now addressed.” 

What might you have heard that first time?  What would have captured your imagination or cut you to the quick?  What would have scared you?  What would have offered comfort?

As you sit in that room, you hear that your first priority along the Benedictine way is to develop the capacity to listen with the ear of your heart to the Voice of God in your every given circumstance.  Your second priority is to learn to obey that Voice rather than your own.  

You hear that this capacity is to be developed and obedience is to be learned through receiving the loving advice of your Holy Father Benedict.  This advice calls you into an ordered life that holds a gentle balance between prayer, work, and study that will slowly and persistently shape you into a new person, a fully realized being who dwells in the very Presence of God.

Br. Chad