{Practicing Benedict} Receiving Guests, Receiving Christ
“Any guest who happens to arrive at the monastery should be received as we would receive Christ himself, because he promised that on the last day he will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me… As...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} When new clothing is issued
“When new clothing is issued, the old should be immediately returned to be put in store for distribution to the poor. Two tunics and two cowls should be enough for each member of the community to...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} Do not disappoint me…
“When the decision is made that novices are to be accepted, then they come before the whole community in the oratory to make solemn promise of stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience …...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} Offering the Child
“If parents who are from the nobility want to offer to God in the monastery one of their children, who is too young to take personal responsibility, they should draw up a document like that described...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} Compassion and Sober Judgment
“The abbot or abbess, once established in office, must often think about the demands made on them by the burden they have undertaken and consider also to whom they will have to give an account of their...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} Gentle Piety, Warm Charity
At the entrance to the monastery there should be a wise senior who is too mature in stability to think of wandering about and who can deal with the enquiries and give whatever help is required. This...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} The Good Spirit
“It is easy to recognize the bitter spirit of wickedness which creates a barrier to God’s grace and opens the way to the evil of hell. But equally there is a good spirit which frees us from evil ways...
View Article{Practicing Benedict} The Finale: A Beginning
The purpose for which we have written this rule is to make it clear that by observing it in our monasteries we can at least achieve the first steps in virtue and good monastic practice. Anyone,...
View ArticleA Letter to St. Benedict, on his Feast Day *
My Dearest Benedict, You and I didn’t meet in the regular way. I wasn’t making lifelong vows in a sacred space, a cross pressed to my chest, holy fingers on my forehead. Instead, I was soaking in an...
View ArticleTo St. Benedict, on his feast day (A repost from last year)
My Dearest Benedict, You and I didn’t meet in the regular way. I wasn’t making lifelong vows in a sacred space, a cross pressed to my chest, holy fingers on my forehead. Instead, I was soaking in an...
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