Eunice Antony, OSB. We each hunger to make a meaningful contribution to our world. 0000005209 00000 n
The website of Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas tells us, Modern monks like to point out that first word in the Rule is to Listen,which cant be done while talking! What do I make (or make possible) with the precious energy of my life? You can learn more about her in her Living Spiritual Teachers Project profile. You can order a free copy of Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press, by clicking here. Monastic Spirituality. The resulting collection of ten core values - love, prayer, stability, conversatio, obedience, discipline . Benedict's community might well be called a formation community in which all, including the abbot and other superiors in the community, are in the process of being formed all of their lives into the likeness of Christ by attentive listening to the word of God, and a loving response to that word mediated into the life of the community by Christ's own offer of friendship through the communication of the Holy Spirit. As. The Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century AD, still holds great relevance for our lives today. The word "Benedictine" is relatively modern; it scarcely existed before the 17th century. The monk needs time along and needs time in community. Of all creatures, the human person is in fact the neediest. Humility helps us accept our gifts and talents joyfully while letting go of our false selves. All these helping ministries place value on the confidentiality of the relationship and may lead to increased personal wellbeing and a more fruitful and productive life. Only after we have come to understand our desires are we capable of relinquishing them in service of others. The Augustinian identity may be summed up as "The Search for God Together" by means of a Community through which we share our faith and life in a nurturing environment, and out of which is mutually generated our wholehearted service to society, the Church and world. They regard Saint Benedict as their founder and guide even though he did not establish a Benedictine Order as such. Brendan Rolling, OSB of St Benedicts Abbey of Atchison, Kansas quotes Abbot Martin Veth: To will what God wills and because He wills it, this is the essence of patience. Listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through scripture and through the insights of others. This invitation to listen came to Benedict from the heart of the Old and New Testament traditions. The monk's listening is to be modeled after the prayer of Jesus who spent long hours listening and attentive in the presence of his heavenly Father. If he gets the grandeur of God in place, he is apt to get the rest of monastic life in place too. It is not one of the distinguishing characteristics of early monastic life. One of the sure signs of monastic maturity is the honest acceptance of one's need for other people in community. The Sisters of St. Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana explain the importance of community life in Benedictine practice on their website. Sister Joan Chittister is an extraordinarily prolific writer and among the most famous living Benedictines. Gymnasts practice routines, yoga students practice poses, swimmers practice strokes, and tennis players practice their serves. Life in common is the Benedictine monastic path toward God. to the Rule is a good way to summarize the goal of Benedictine spirituality and prayer. It is one among many schools that speak to contemporary hearts, yet it is particularly unique in its lasting impact on Western Christianity. Kyle T. Kramer explains in his 2011 article for America Magazine that hospitality, for a Benedictine, means to welcome all others as Christ, to recognize that despite vast differences, the diverse human family is part of the same God-given belonging, and we need one another to survive and thrive. This means facing our fears, letting prejudice and certitude die in us, and rooting ourselves in the love of God, the alpha and omega of the entire creation, the force that pulls everyone and everything toward a center that can hold. Benedictines hold strong convictions, but experience shows strident, uncompromising voices tend to foster arguments, tensions, and hostilitiesnot peace and love. %%EOF
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[CDATA[ Benedict reminds us of our priorities: prayer, contemplation, balance and the importance of everything we do. (February 22, 2023). It shows itself in the way (emphasis mine) you put up with the many things of your daily life, sickness, death, war, persecution, mishaps and misfortunes of every kind. In other words, without awareness of God and without gratitude, indeed, without the interweaving of all these practices into our lives, patience cannot exist. The rule is marked by a strong sense of the individual monk's personal worth and dignity. is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. St. Benedict speaks of steps in humility, comparing them to the rungs of a ladder which we climb one by onean image that implies not a strict order of ascent but a more general sense of movement growth. Gymnasts do routines, yoga students practice poses, swimmers practice strokes, and tennis players practice their serves. It is a pathway to deeper prayer, good decisions guided by keen discernment, and an active life of service to others. The ideal of this pattern of conversion is meant to be incarnated in a special way for the community in the abbot, who is expected to be a symbolic center exercising a centripetal force that draws individuals into a truly Christian community of life for God and others in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. From the middle of the 20th century there appeared in Europe, America, Africa, and elsewhere monastic foundations that, drawing their inspiration from ancient sources, tended to return to forms of monastic life that are simpler and more contemplative. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Benedictine writers often appealed to methods of prayer and asceticism that were foreign to the monastic tradition. It appeared little by little wherever the Church took root, a spontaneous manifestation of the Holy Spirit urging Christians to become monks in response to the counsel given by Jesus in the Gospel: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions , follow me " (Mt 19.21). What makes spiritual direction distinctive is its Ancient Tradition. Benedictine spirituality took shape long before the split between Eastern and Western branches of the church in the 11 th century and the further divisions that resulted from the Reformation in the 16 th century. Directly translated, Lectio Divina means divine reading. <<8F8BC2AF36339D4C919A3718E673BE78>]>>
He neither innovated nor broke with tradition. Jean Chanon, who was a mentor for Ignatius in methods of prayer at the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat. Benedictine obedience is ultimately directed not to other humans or to ourselves, but through the agency of others and the deepest yearnings of our own hearts, in love, to God. Although well into the middle years of an average life span, I am a rank beginner, a mere toddler in Benedictine practice. praying the Divine Office) as well as regular silent . Benedictine spirituality is rooted in the cultivation of good habits. It insists that God is present in our world and active in our lives. "Let everyone that comes be received as Christ" is one of the most familiar and oft-quoted phrases of the Rule. The Benedictine practice of Liturgical prayer is one of Benedictine spiritualitys most visible, unmistakable hallmarks. He does not harbor illusions of grandeur but senses that all of his life is simply gift. Patience does not relieve us of our natural feelings of aversion, irritation, and indignation, but it controls and rises above these feelings Our Lord felt the natural impulse to avoid suffering, but He set aside and refused to listen to this feeling: Father not my will but Thine be done.Where does this patience show itself? Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy in 480 and died in 543. Monsignor Charles Pope seems to be saying in the blog post, A Reflection On the Benedictine Vow of Stability for Community in Mission of the Archdiocese of Washington (DC), that stability of heart is the Benedictine practice our chronically unstable contemporary society most desperately needs. Obedience is a concept 21st-century souls dont generally like to consider. St. Benedicts chapter on humility is one of the longest in the, The Benedictine practice of Liturgical prayer is one of Benedictine spiritualitys most visible, unmistakable hallmarks. Fr. It is that same balance that has made it attractive today to those countless lay men and women who are not living vowed lives in a monastery but who are associated with Benedictine monasteries as oblates attempting to live their lives in the secular world according to the spiritual values set out in the rule. An essay by the Sisters of St. Marys Monastery in Rock Island, IL explains that the Benedictine practice of humility is the opposite of humiliation. While there are times allotted for prayer and for work, ultimately there is to be no division between the two. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. His books includeGratefulness,A Listening Heart, and most recently, a new autobiography,i am through you so. That kind of movement toward moderation is especially important as we live the open and complex questions. Poet/Writer. A particular spirituality is a specific system, or schema of beliefs, virtues, ideals and principles which form a particular way to approach God and therefore all life in general. Cultural Producer. By integrating their prayer and work, they manifest Christ's presence in society.". 0000000742 00000 n
Lynne Smith elaborates, All this service is sacred and to be done with reverence service is seen as a form of prayer, a way of seeking God. This practice is also linked inextricably to gratitude, as we give thanks for the ways we can serve and for those who serve us. Which value speaks to your heart most strongly at this time and why? It is only in a secondary sense that Benedict himself, speaking through the rule, and the abbot of the community are masters. A monk should be above all a good listener. It is specified solely by a commitment to God sanctioned by public vows. The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (Latin: Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict.They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits.They were founded by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century monk who laid the foundations of . Stability It sets up a framework of life, an institution, of which the essential and constitutive elements are firmly determined: life in common under the government of a superior called an abbot, who has the help of a prior and other officials and takes counsel of the whole assembly of monks, even the youngest in the community. It is humility that makes us happy with what we have, willing to have less, kind to all, simple in our bearing, and serene within ourselves. It only takes 2-3 minutes to read her article. 2. Benedictines carry on a monastic tradition that stems from the origins of the Christian monastic movement in the late third century. . Because I couldnt find relevant, simple answers online to the questions, What is Benedictine Spirituality? and What are Benedictine practices? I decided to publish this summary of 23 habits Benedictines seek, through lifelong practice, to cultivate into a lifestyle. Prosperity and ties with temporal society often led monasteries, especially the larger ones, to depart more or less from certain fundamental observances required by the rule, notably separation from secular society, real simplicity of life, and manual labor. These prayers, which included the saying or chanting of the psalms, can be experienced in our Daily Office. Being in right relationship is wholly other than being in the right relationship. It isnt about finding the right person for me; its about being the right person to others in the way I show respect to them, in the way I accept their humanityeven their weaknesses and irritating personality traits. Columba Stewart OSB, the 73 brief chapters of the RB make up four major sections. Benedictines say mindfulness is as much as a Christian and biblical concept as it is a Buddhist one. Many Oblates rely on Give Us This Day, a monthly prayer book with simplified daily prayer for morning and evening, to help us participate in the Divine Office when we are away from the monastery. Saint Gregory has written that Saint Benedict, in entering his solitude, had no other desire than "to please God alone", "soli Deo placere desiderans." These simple words, better than any others, explain the monastic vocation. Successful organizational leaders practice self-mastery and teamwork. This springs from a desire to please God, or to seek God, as the Rule puts it (chapter 58). Anglican spirituality is an ecclesial spirituality because Christian spirituality is all about life in Christ, which necessarily means life in His Body. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else." Prayer is essential to a Benedictine lifestyle. Jesus said "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." (see Matthew 25: . 480 to 547 CE in Italy. It underscores the tenets of Care ethics in conjunction with Benedictine Spirituality. But if they are rich communally, they must be rich for the many people who are poor not only materially but also intellectually, culturally, spiritually, and humanly. It requires that a monk listens intently to the voice of God as it is manifested in the Sacred Scriptures and the teachings of his superiors. BARTH, KARL (18861968), Swiss Reformed theologian, described by Pope Pius XII as the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquina, A term used to cover a literally bewildering variety of states of mind. Emerging out of the high middles ages, it emphasizes the humanity of Jesus Christ as the mystery of God's presence in human flesh. The first word of the Rule of Benedict is Listen. The Benedictine practice of listening is the heart of Benedictine spirituality, for not only are we instructed to listen constantly to one another in community, to leaders, to guests, to the sick, to our inner selves, and most of all, to God, we must also attend to [what we hear] with the ear of the heart. As Good Samaritan Sister Clare Condon writes, Listening with the ear of the heart can be a scary experience because it can call me to radical change, to a transformation of my limited human perspective. Contact. Monastic life was punctuated by the rhythms of prayer during the hours of each day. https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/benedictine-spirituality, "Benedictine Spirituality The whole spiritual life of the monk consists in listening to God by "inclining the ear of the heart." In Benedictine practice we acknowledge the primacy of God and look for God in the ordinary events of each day. Among the many available lists of core Benedictine values, I find that of Saint Johns Abbey to be one of the most helpful. 6 Characteristics Of Benedictine Spirituality . Through contemplative prayer, the monk becomes an emptiness so there is space for God as well as space for others. In monastic life public prayer is only one observance among those which help the monk seek God. [], [] is both. (Six Hallmarks of Benedictine Spirituality) by Fr. We go forth into the world as contemplatives in action, discerning God's desire for our lives here, now, and acting on God's invitation. For Benedict, prayer had a particular structure and process. 0000002422 00000 n
BARTH, KARL You will likely recognize the timeless quality of the values which has caused them to endure for centuries and continue speaking to the many layers of our human experience (personal, familial, communal and societal). Co-Director of the Spirituality Center. Hence the spirituality that we find implicit in the Rule of Benedict was dependent in many ways on earlier sources, though he was certainly wise in what he incorporated and what he left behind. It continues today as an institute for Benedictine students and others who wish to obtain graduate degrees in philosophy, theology, liturgy, and monastic studies. It may be an old liqueur but it has a well-deserved place in the modern bar. The primary prayer of all Catholics is the Eucharistic liturgy in which they celebrate and share their faith together, in accord with Jesus' instruction: "Do this in memory of me."The Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council decreed that "devotions should be so . The second characteristic of the monastic vocation is that it demands a life of which a privileged part is given to prayer. Rather, it is a series of embodied practices that forms the monk over the course of a lifetime to make space for the guest. Benedictine monastics make a three-fold commitment to stability, conversion (conversatio), and obedience. To be empowered by anything less than the God of love is to risk evil zeal in the name of vengeance. 4. Much research has been devoted to this topic, ranging from practical to academic. Benedictine spirituality is practical and profound. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Even the Cistercians, who in the 12th century had intended to return to a faithful observance of the rule itself, added numerous statutes. Continue to Prayer and Community: Benedictine Spirituality (Part 2). Benedicts wisdom and commentary has provided the foundation for Benedictine communities throughout the centuries, and continues to influence many of us in the community of St. Pauls. While everyone has their values and principles, the spiritual person knows that one-size does not fit all. Teaching Artist. Father Mandonnet then lists three characteristics that are concerned more especially with the will. Benedictine Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. We prefer concepts like freedom and independence. Just because these spiritualities are different does not mean they are contradictory. It includes reading, reflecting, responding to and resting in the Word of God not in a scholarly way, not to make a sermon to preach to others, but simply to nourish and deepen our own relationship with the Divine. It is one among many schools that speak to contemporary hearts, yet it is particularly unique in its lasting impact on Western Christianity. Humility fosters stronger, healthier connections within communities by breaking down the artificial barriers between individuals. Through spiritual direction, individual and group ministerial reflection, and writing, Sam companions Christian leaders as they re-discover the sense of calling and giftedness at the heart of Christ-centered ministry. Benedict's treatment of obedience must be understood in light of his understanding of authority. ." This practice is not particular to Benedictines, however. Sam Rahberg is former Director of the Benedictine Center and a spiritual director in St. Paul. c. smith, The Path of Life (Ampleforth, England 1995). What gives the Rule of Benedict its exceptional quality has commonly been called its "discretion," in the double sense of the word: discernment and moderation. Humility is also a dominant theme in Benedictine spirituality; in fact it is closely related to contemplation. Obedience is an act of letting go of the egoistic will. But, we keep practicing, because we hope that eventually, with faithful practice, that our way of being present to others will be as rich and meaningful as Chopins Nocturns are mysteriously rich with meaning when played by the virtuoso Arthur Rubinstein near the end of his life. Out of these . Dominican preacher and mystic; b. Strasbourg, c. 1300; d. there, June 16, 1361. Having the mind of a beginner, being receptive to starting anew, starting fresh, starting overthis, too, is a Benedictine practice. For most of us, though, stability can have a figurative element beyond our experience with a [], 2023 Benedictine Center of St. Pauls Monastery, Core Values: Benedictine Spirituality (Part 1 of 3), Prayer and Community: Benedictine Spirituality (Part 2 of 3) - Benedictine Center, Lectio Divina and Preferring Christ: Benedictine Spirituality (Part 3 of 3) - Benedictine Center, My Day with the Sacred Fire | Benedictine Center, Saturated with Peace: Experiencing Personal Retreat | Benedictine Center, Wholehearted Living as the Lamed Vav | Benedictine Center, Practicing Sustained Lectio Divina | Benedictine Center, What Discernment Means to Me | Benedictine Center, Sabbath: Well-being, Not Endless Work | Benedictine Center, Moderation and Rhythm: A Benedictine Help Against Social Isolation | Benedictine Center, Stability: The Benedictine Value of Locatedness | Benedictine Center, The Erector Set: Adapting to Others | Benedictine Center, Sharper: Benedict's Tools for Good Works | Benedictine Center, The Benedictine Commitment to Learning | Benedictine Center, We Dare To Hope (Part 1 of 2) | Benedictine Center, We Dare To Hope (Part 2 of 2) | Benedictine Center, Life, A Continuous Advent | Benedictine Center, Rooted in Love: My Sustained Lectio Divina | Benedictine Center, Just Wave: Following that Holy Nudge | Benedictine Center. Adrian also writes, This kind of wisdom is why St. Benedicts Rule continues, after more than 1,500 years now, to stir the hearts of men and women who want to live their lives entirely for Christ. In other words, Benedicts Rule stirs the hearts of those who want to live each day fully. . Thus the rule refers frequently to the "divine commandments" and often cites the Bible, particularly the gospel. Benedicts rule calls us to a daily rhythm of listening, obedience, and conversion of life. Mindfulness is a trending word these days yogis, psychologists, educators, physicians, and practically everyone else is talking about the importance of quieting our busy minds in order to become more aware of the present moment. Benedict shows us the value of ordering our day around communal prayer (i.e. Listen here: Hence they are rich compared with many who come to the monastery for help. Benedictine simplicity of life is understood properly with the reality of Christ and his mission in mind. 1. Benedictine Abbeys and Priories in the U.S. Benedictine University: Narrative Description, https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/benedictine-spirituality. In this, affective piety and the contemplative study of the mysteries of God were no longer so strictly united as in the preceding centuries, in which the patristic tradition had been preserved. If a monk's life is not grounded in God, he is tempted to put himself in the place of God. One of the primary characteristics of a spiritual person is openness. In The Rule of Benedict for Beginners, Wil Derkse reveals how elements from Benedictine spirituality and the Benedictine lifestyle may be . He realizes that attachment to oneself and one's talents or goods brings anxiety, a bondage that ties the human spirit down to the earth and allows no enlargement of either one's horizons or one's heart. It is rather the fact that monastic existence is a form of religious life having not secondary or ministerial purpose. In no way am I qualified to be a teacher of the Benedictine way of life. It was considered as proposing a spiritual program, while daily life was regulated by "customaries," to which succeeded, from the beginning of the 16th century, "Declarations" and "Constitutions" as well as the "Ceremonial." Some of the key characteristics of Benedictine spirituality include: Liturgy of the Hours; Lectio Divina (prayerful reading of Scripture) Eucharist; Benedictine Spirituality includes the willingness to: Seek God; Use the Gospel and the Rule of Benedict as a guide; Listen to one another . 0000000820 00000 n
22 Feb. 2023
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