St. Benedict on my mind. A Benedictine oblate blog

For Benedictines, yesterday, March 21, was the solemnity of the Passing of Our Holy Father Benedict. “Benedictine Daily Prayer — A Short Breviary” has a fine divine office for the day.

It is common to gain an understanding of religious orders by studying the life of the order’s founder or reformer. But we have little, if any, of what we would consider biographical material for St. Benedict. Perhaps one of the reasons is that St. Benedict is so ancient compared to the other founders of the major religious orders. For example, St. Dominic (Dominicans) and St. Francis of Assisi (Franciscans) lived about 700 years after St. Benedict. To get a sense of how long 700 years is, if St. Francis was born today, Benedictine monks would have been around since about the year 1350.

St. Ignatius Loyola (Society of Jesus — Jesuits) lived 1,000 years after St. Benedict.

Regardless of that, we consider that we “know” St. Benedict and become Benedictines by living according to his Rule — a small book. (And, of course, members of other religious orders also follow the written guidance and teachings of their founders.)

With yesterday being a St. Benedict solemnity(1), I spent more time than usual thinking about his life.

Judging by the Rule of St. Benedict, he thought the Bible. When a thought came from his mind (or out of his heart) that thought was the Bible. His Rule is filled with either quotes of God’s word or allusions to sacred scripture. St. Benedict's Rule also describes how his monks could live in loving harmony with each other.

St. Benedict’s love for God’s truth and desire that his community be based in love are simply the two greatest commandments in the law — love for God and love for our brothers and sisters.

St. Benedict crafted those two great pillars of the Christian faith into a practical guide for daily community life.

The Rule’s power helped cast a new European civilization and the Rule's deep spiritual mysteries are still bringing people into the Benedictine family today.

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Footnotes:

This blog was revised March 24, 2009 to modify the example of 700 years. It took me a couple of days to think of a better example than the one in the original blog!

The picture is of one of the fragrant annual orange blossoms at St. Leo Abbey in Florida, USA, this time of year.

(1) “A solemnity is a principal feast in the Liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. Solemnities commemorate an event in the life of Jesus, Mary or the saints.” Reference.

Do you know who passed this way? A Benedictine oblate blog

"Six days before [St. Benedict] died he gave orders for his tomb to be opened. Almost immediately he was seized with a violent fever that rapidly wasted his remaining energy. Each day his condition grew worse until finally on the sixth day he had his disciples carry him into the chapel, where he received the Body and Blood of our Lord to gain strength for his approaching end. Then, supporting his weakened body on the arms of his brethren, he stood with his hands raised to heaven and as he prayed he breathed his last.

"That day two monks, one of them at the monastery, the other some distance away, received the very same revelation. They both saw a magnificent road covered with rich carpeting and glittering with thousands of lights. From his monastery it stretched eastward in a straight line until it reached up into heaven. And there in the brightness stood a man of majestic appearance, who asked them, 'Do you know who passed this way?' 'No,' they replied. 'This,' he told them, 'is the road taken by blessed Benedict, the Lord's beloved, when he went to heaven.'"

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Quote from, “Life and Miracles of St. Benedict,” (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, n.d.) Adapted and quoted in "Benedictine Daily Prayer," p. 1830.

Picture is The Snowflake Cluster versus the Cone Nebula Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, P. S. Teixeira (CfA). Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Scholastica on Study and Love. A Benedictine oblate blog

St. Scholastica’s name means “she who has leisure to devote to study.”(reference). She is most well known because God honored her love for her brother, St. Benedict, near the end of her life by bringing a severe storm that kept St. Benedict from leaving her and returning to his monastery.(1)

By tradition St. Scholastica is the twin sister of St. Benedict although Pope St. Gregory the Great’s “The Life of Our Most Holy Father Saint Benedict” does not mention that fact.

St. Scholastica’s brother, St. Benedict, founded twelve monasteries near Subiaco (about 30 miles east of Rome) beginning about 510 AD. Of those original monasteries founded by St. Benedict (before he founded Monte Cassino in about 530 AD), the only monastery that remains today is the one named Santa Scolastica, after St. Benedict’s sister (reference).

Study has been a long resident at Santa Scolastica. Its large and famous library collected over centuries also still exists. Italy’s first printing press was built at Santa Scolastica in 1463 (reference). With the Italy’s first printing press came Italy’s first printed book and the first printed Greek characters anywhere in the world. The style of the Greek font used is still called “Subiaco type” (reference).

When St. Benedict wrote his Rule for how monks should live in monasteries and be guided by an Abbot, he began the Rule with the word “Listen.” Monks, nuns, and sisters following the Rule spend several hours a day in study in their time consecrated to God. Lectio divina (divine reading) is often associated with the monastic life.

All Benedictine monasteries are established as schools for the service of the Lord — surely these most basic elements of St. Benedict’s monastic life — listening and studying in the leisure of God’s time also honor St. Scholastica’s life-long character of silent study of God’s ways and reliance on God’s love.

And could we speculate that the mild nature of the monastic life established by St. Benedict which is often credited with helping St. Benedict’s Rule becoming nearly the universal rule in the West was also influenced by his gentle sister? I like to think so.

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Footnote

(1) We cannot mention love and St. Scholastica without recalling the following account from St. Gregory’s “Life of St. Benedict.”

“CHAPTER XXXIII
Of the miracle wrought by his sister Scholastica.

“GREGORY

“Who was ever, Peter, in this life more sublime than Saint Paul, who, notwithstanding, three times craved of our Lord to be free from the pricks of the flesh, yet could not obtain it? To this purpose, I must tell you a passage concerning the venerable Father Benedict, that there was something he desired and was not able to accomplish.

“His sister Scholastica, who was consecrated to God from her very childhood, used to come once a year to see him; unto whom the man of god was wont to go to a house not far from the gate, within the possession of the Monastery. Thither she came one day according to her custom, and her venerable brother likewise with his disciples: where, after they had spent the whole day in the praise of God and pious discourses, the night drawing on, they took their reflection together.

“As they were yet sitting at table, and protracting the time with holy conference, the religious woman, his sister, entreated him saying: "I beseech you, leave me not this night, that we may talk until morning of the joys of the heavenly life." To whom he answered: "What is this you say, sister? by no means can I stay out of my Monastery.

“At this time the sky was serene, and not a cloud was to be seen in the air. The holy woman, therefore, hearing her brother's refusal, clasped her hands together upon the table, and bowing her head upon them she prayed to Almighty God. As she raised up her head from the table, there began such vehement lightning and thunder, with such abundance of rain, that neither venerable Benedict nor his Brethren were able to put foor out of doors. For the holy woman when she leaned her head upon her hands, poured forth a flood of tears upon the table by which she changed the fair weather into foul and rainy.

“For, immediately after her prayers, followed the inundation, and the two did so concur that, as she lifted up her head, the crack of thunder was heard, so that in one and the same instant she lifted up her head and brought down the rain.

“Then the man of god perceiving that, by reason of thunder and lightening with continual showers of rain, he could not possibly return to his monastery, was sad and began to complain, saying: "God Almighty forgive you, sister, what is this you have done?" To whom She mad answer: "I prayed you to stay and you would not hear me; I prayed to Almighty God and he heard me! Now, therefore, if you can, go forth to the Monastery and leave me." But he not able to go forth, was forced to stay against his will.

“Thus it fell out that they spent the night in watching, and received full content in spiritual discourse of heavenly matters. By this it appears, as I said before, that he desired something which he could not obtain; for if we consider the mind of the venerable man, he would, without doubt, have had the fair weather to continue in which he set out. But, contrary to what he willed, he found a miracle worked by the courage of a woman in the strength of Almighty God. And no wonder if at that time a woman were more powerful than he, considering she had long desired to see her brother. For according to the saying of Saint John: "God is charity," and with good reason she was more powerful who loved more.

“PETER

“I confess that I am wonderfully pleased with that which you tell me.”

A single ray continues, monastically. A Benedictine oblate blog

The last two blog posts were about St. Benedict and the shepherds who both saw the bright glory of the Lord in the night sky.

In addition to seeing the glory shine all around, St. Benedict also had a very monastic vision at the same time. He saw the entire world represented in a single ray of light. This event may have helped guide or confirm St. Benedict’s vision in the Rule of St. Benedict(1) of a Christian life that combines the material and spiritual into one life devoted to seeking God.

Benedictine monasticism for monks, nuns, and sisters is well known for its ordered, humane, yet deeply spiritual ways.

Ora et labora (prayer and work) — although the specific term is not used in the Rule of St. Benedict — is often used as the guiding principle of those living by the Rule — particularly oblates.

I hope I see all my ora et labora — all my world — in that single ray of light — that would be very Benedictine during this Advent.

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Footnote:

(1) St. Benedict’s Rule became the foundation of Western monasticism and that monasticism preserved and then was a major cause of the development of Europe. It has been said that other than the Bible, the Rule of St. Benedict has been the most important book for the development of Western civilization.

St. Benedict who saw the whole world during the dark nights of the collapse of the Roman Empire might be the perfect person to help rebuild and redevelop Europe in the light of Christ that combined prayer and work.

St. Benedict & the Shepherds. A Benedictine oblate blog

When Jesus was born shepherds living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flocks saw the glory of the Lord. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone all around.

About 500 years later, the mighty empire that crucified that glory was dying and could not keep a candle lit in Rome, while Jesus continued to give new birth in everlasting light.

St. Benedict was born into the darkness of the collapsing Roman Empire, but like the earlier shepherds, he too saw the glory of the Lord one night - the light filled the entire sky like the day. Then immediately, St. Benedict also saw the whole world represented in a single ray of light.

The earlier shepherds were afraid when they first saw the glory of the Lord, St. Benedict was not. St. Benedict wrote in Chapter 7 of the Rule on the illumination of love:

"Having climbed all these steps of humility,
therefore, the monk will presently come to that
perfect love of God which casts out fear."

In lectio divina and silence my wife and I prepare to celebrate Christ's light during this Advent. We pray to see the world only by Christ's singular light and to praise his glory with all our love.

The world in a ray of Light. A Benedictine oblate blog

The Rule of St. Benedict does not mention Advent, but the Life of St. Benedict, by St. Gregory the Great gives this account of St. Benedict when he saw the whole world in a single ray of light:

"CHAPTER 35
"How the whole world was represented before his eyes:

"Another time, Servandus, Deacon and Abbot of that Monastery which was built by Liberius, sometime a senator, in the Campania, used often to visit him, for being also illuminated with grace and heavenly doctrine, he repaired divers times to the Monastery that they might mutually communicate one to another, and, at least with sighs and longing desires, taste of that sweet food of the celestial country whose perfect fruition they were not as yet permitted to enjoy. When it was time to go to rest, venerable Benedict went up to the top of the tower in the lower part of which servandus the Deacon had his lodging, and from which there was an open passage to ascend to the higher. Over against the said tower was a large building in which the disciples of both reposed. While as yet the Monks were at rest, the man of God, Benedict, being diligent in watching, rose up before the night office and stood at the window making his prayer to Almighty God about midnight, when suddenly, looking forth, he was a light glancing from above, so bright and resplendent that it not only dispersed the darkness of the night, but shined more clear than the day itself. Upon this sight a marvelous strange thing followed, for, as he afterwards related, the whole world, compacted as it were together, was represented to his eyes in one ray of light."


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Picture Credit:

APOTD, May 1, 2003
The Energetic Jet from Centaurus A
Credit: M. J. Hardcastle (Univ. Bristol), et al.
X-ray; Chandra Observatory, NASA / Radio; NRAO, VLA

Benedict likes Benedict in the future of Europe

There are many monastic gems in the Pope's writings about St. Benedict. In the following article, you can pick out your own. One of my favorites is, "St. Benedict's work and his Rule led to "a true spiritual ferment which over the course of the centuries - well beyond the confines of his homeland and his time - changed the face of Europe and created, with the collapse of political unity, a new spiritual and cultural unity, that of the Christian faith shared by the people of the continent""

The increasing number of oblates is the result of a similar spiritual ferment which can be seen moving through the world now.


All of the following is a quote from the Vatican Information Service (VIS):

ST. BENEDICT: FATHER OF MONASTICISM, PATRON SAINT OF EUROPE
VATICAN CITY, 9 APR 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during this morning's general audience to St. Benedict of Nursia, "the father of western monasticism, who with his life and work exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilisation and culture". The audience, held in St. Peter's Square, was attended by 20,000 people.

The most important source for the life of the saint, the Pope explained, is the second book of "Dialogues" written by St. Gregory the Great, in which Benedict features as the "shining star" who shows the way out of the "dark night of history", in other words, the crisis of values and institutions caused by the fall of the Roman empire.

St. Benedict's work and his Rule led to "a true spiritual ferment which over the course of the centuries - well beyond the confines of his homeland and his time - changed the face of Europe and created, with the collapse of political unity, a new spiritual and cultural unity, that of the Christian faith shared by the people of the continent".

St. Benedict was born to a wealthy family around the year 480. He went to school in Rome but before completing his studies retired to a monastic community in Enfide. Subsequently he spent three years in a cave at Subiaco where he "underwent the three fundamental temptations that all human beings face: self-affirmation and the desire to place oneself at the centre, ... sensuality, ... and anger and revenge". This, said the Holy Father, was because "St. Benedict was convinced that only by overcoming these temptations would he be able find the right words to give others in their situations of need".

In the year 529 the founder of the Benedictine Order moved to Monte Cassino, "a height that dominates the surrounding plains and is visible from a distance". This was a symbolic decision on the saint's part, said the Pope, because "monastic life has its raison d'etre in withdrawal and concealment, but a monastery also has a public role in the life of the Church and of society".

Throughout his life St. Benedict "was immersed in an atmosphere of prayer, the main foundation of his existence. Without prayer there is no experience of God, but Benedict's spirituality was not an interior life divorced from reality. In the disquiet and confusion of his time, he lived under the gaze of God and with his own gaze fixed upon God, though without losing sight of his daily duties and the concrete needs of mankind".

St. Benedict died in 547. His famous Rule "provides useful advice not only to monks but to everyone seeking guidance on their journey to God. For its precision, its humanity, and its sober discernment between what is essential and what is secondary in spiritual life, the Rule has maintained its illuminating power up to today".

In 1964, Paul VI named Benedict as patron saint of Europe. "Having just emerged from a century profoundly marked by two world wars and following the collapse of the great ideologies, ... Europe today is searching for its own identity", remarked Pope Benedict.

"In order to create a new and lasting unity", the Pope concluded, "political, economic and juridical measures are necessary, but it is also necessary to generate an ethical and spiritual renewal which draws on the continent's Christian roots. Without this vital lifeblood, man remains exposed to the danger of succumbing to the ancient temptation of seeking redemption alone, a utopia which in 20th century Europe ... caused a retrocession without precedent in human history".
AG/ST. BENEDICT /...VIS 080409 (610)