November 1

All Saints' Day

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 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 we have stood up and declared as our own, and we have taken vows that place our feet firmly upon it.  In the context of a vowed life, it is not with vengeance or a spirit of retribution 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 our path in the first place.

Br. Chad

October 31

Eve of All Hallows

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 24

As we saw yesterday, 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 discipline put in place by a parent who loves us (RB: Prologue).

Br. Chad

October 30

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 23

Chapter 23 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.

Br. Chad

October 29

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 22

Long ago Benedictines saw fit to re-imagine this chapter and adopt cells for sleeping quarters in monasteries rather than the dormitory Benedict describes here.  The re-imagining of the Rule is far from unprecedented.  The process of adaptation must be careful, however, to preserve the spirit behind the specific instructions when the specifics are set aside.

In the case of the Canon Communities of St. Benedict, Benedictine life is re-imagined once again.  Here the very notion of living in a monastery is set aside, but what is preserved is the mutual support and encouragement along the path of Benedictine spiritual formation, which, I believe, is the spirit behind this chapter.

Ours is to be a community in which gentle encouragement is the posture the members assume with each other.  We each have a "bed" out of which we struggle to rise, and we each have a kind nudge to apply to a brother or sister.

Br. Chad

October 28

Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, apostles

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 21

One can't spend much time exploring Benedictine spirituality before encountering the issue of authority in the Rule.  St. Benedict is not shy about the topic, and his intentions for community hinge upon a very specific vision of how authority is to be held and exercised.

This chapter about deans is a good example of this vision.  Authority is never held for its own sake, but for the sake of the community.  And one function of Benedictine authority is to empower others to develop into the people they are created to be.  When a member of the community is created to be a leader, then those in authority must empower that person to lead, and the way that a person is empowered to lead is by being given a share in the authority of the community.  The provision in this chapter for the appointment of deans is a mechanism by which such empowerment takes place in Benedictine community.

Our Father Benedict is a wise and able abbot who understands that the well-being of a community is enhanced by the sharing of authority for the sake of all.  But he also understands that with the distribution of power comes the lust for power, and that all authority must be kept closely in check if it is to remain Christlike rather than Caesar-like.

Br. Chad

October 27

The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 20

I've always balked a bit at St. Benedict's analogy comparing God to a Roman noble in this chapter, yet I now find myself able to relate to the relational dynamic I think he's trying to capture.  Two elements of this dynamic play out in my life every day.

First, it plays out through the sanctification of physical space for prayer.  I step out of my casual way of being and into a formal one.  Having taken religious vows and been clothed with a habit, I experience this difference in the simple act of putting on and taking off my habit.  I also enlist the aid of sacred objects such as icons, crucifixes, beads, and stones along with candles and incense to create a sense of space that is set apart from, say, my toiletries or computer.

Second, it plays out through the brevity of prayer that our Father Benedict describes.  My audience with the Divine is always open, and I am always met with a gracious and joyful welcome, but this welcome is a quality within God, not a reflection of my unique favorability.  I don't need, then, to puff myself up with words or linger like a beggar hoping for alms of Divine Grace.  I can move quickly in and out of prayer that is, in Benedict's words, "short and pure," without delusions about my role or my place in the Universe.

Br. Chad

October 26

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 19

In my experience, there comes a point in the practice of praying the Daily Office, after processing and deconstructing all of the ways in which the Psalms challenge our personal and cultural notions of prayer and propriety, when my mind feels restored to childlike trust in the words.  I move among the verses like I move among a forest, breathing deeply the scent of pine, climbing over rocks, drinking from a brook, resting on a log.  I am free from my need to understand the details of the ecosystem.  I don't pretend that I am a tree or let my body decompose into the topsoil in order to belong here. I am a part of the same creation.  It is made for me, and I for it.

Our Father Benedict uses the word "harmony" to describe the intended relationship between our mind and our voice when we chant the Psalms.  He could have used the word "unison" or implied a clear hierarchy between the psalmody and our mind, but he did not.  Harmony is a good fruit of a relationship between distinct entities.  We are not to pretend that we are not who we are when we pray. We are to be precisely who we are in the sight of the Godhead and all Angels, and we are to walk slowly and deliberately into the forest of verses like a child among the pines, without apology and without excuse, but with wonder and peace.

Br. Chad