Hagiography of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict (480-547)
http://christdesert.org/Saint_Benedict/index.html
Who is Saint Benedict?
Saint Benedict was born around the year 480 in the district of Nursia
(present-day Norcia), in Umbria, central Italy. He is regarded as the "Father of Western Monasticism" and is
"Co-patron of Europe" along with Saints Cyril and Methodius.
As a young man, Benedict was sent to Rome for studies but left after a short stay, desiring to dedicate his life
to God. He went to live in an isolated place near Subiaco, not far from the ruins of Emperor Nero's summer
villa, about fifty miles from Rome. Today the cave is the celebrated shrine called "Sacro Speco" (The Holy
Cave) and is one of Europe's most beautiful sanctuaries. At Subiaco, Benedict lived a life of solitude and prayer
for about three years with the support from a monk named Romanus. Benedict's time as a hermit was
interrupted for a short period when he became the superior of a group of unruly monks. Ultimately unhappy
with his guidance, they tried to poison him. He then withdrew to the cave at Subiaco once again.
Eventually, Benedict's sanctity attracted disciples and in time, twelve small monasteries were established
around Subiaco, with Benedict as the spiritual father of them all.
Around the year 530 Benedict left Subiaco with some of his disciples for Monte Cassino, halfway between
Rome and Naples, where he began a single, close-knit community on a mountain top. There he remained until
his death around the year 547. It was at Monte Cassino that Benedict completed his "Rule for Monks," basing
it on earlier monastic literature as well as his own original material. Today, the "Rule of Saint Benedict," as it is
commonly called, is considered one of the most important factors in the development of Christian Europe. In
time, the Rule became the norm for all monks and nuns in the West. During his lifetime, the monastery at
Monte Cassino grew and a foundation was made south of Rome, at Terracina. The monasteries at Subiaco
continued as well.
Benedict had a sister, Scholastica, who was consecrated to God from her youth and died shortly before her
saintly brother. Both of them were buried at Monte Cassino in the oratory dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
Saint Scholastica's feast day is on February 10th and Saint Benedict's is on March 21st and July 11th. The
March date is generally considered to be the date on which he died.
The life of Saint Benedict is found in "The Dialogues" written by Pope St. Gregory the Great some forty years
after Benedict's death. It is not a biography as we know the genre today, but the details supply us with a basic
outline of the life and times of Saint Benedict. Among the titles given to Saint Benedict over the centuries are
the following: "Messenger of Peace, Architect of Unity, Teacher of Culture and Civilization, Father of Western
Monasticism, Herald of the Christian Faith, and Father of the Whole of Europe." Today, Benedict's disciples,
both men and women, can be found on every inhabited continent of the world, leading lives dedicated to
"Prayer and Work," as the holy father Benedict taught in his rule and by his life.
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Chapter 4: The Tools for Good Works
1First
of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, 2and love your
neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27).
3Then the following: You are not to kill,
4not to commit adultery;
5you are not to steal
6nor to covet (Rom 13:9);
7you are not to bear false witness (Matt 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20).
8You must honor everyone (1 Pet 2:17),
9and never do to another what you do not want done to yourself (Tob 4:16; Matt 7:12; Luke 6:31).
10Renounce
yourself in order to follow Christ (Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23);
your body (1 Cor 9:27);
12do not pamper yourself,
13but love fasting.
14You must relieve the lot of the poor,
15clothe the naked,
16visit the sick (Matt 25:36),
17and bury the dead.
18Go to help the troubled
19and console the sorrowing.
11discipline
20Your
way of acting should be different from the world's way;
love of Christ must come before all else.
22You are not to act in anger
23or nurse a grudge.
24Rid your heart of all deceit.
25Never give a hollow greeting of peace
26or turn away when someone needs your love.
27Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false,
28but speak the truth with heart and tongue.
21the
29Do
not repay one bad turn with another (1 Thess 5:15; 1 Pet 3:9).
not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently.
31Love your enemies (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27).
32If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead.
33Endure persecution for the sake of justice (Matt 5:10).
30Do
34You
must not be proud,
be given to wine (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3).
36Refrain from too much eating
37or sleeping,
38and from laziness (Rom 12:11).
39Do not grumble
40or speak ill of others.
35nor
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41Place
your hope in God alone.
you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself,
43but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge.
42If
44Live
45and
in fear of judgment day
have a great horror of hell.

Commentary by Philip Lawrence, OSB, Abbot of Christ in the Desert

The tools for good works are short statements of how we are to live our lives as Christians, and therefore
as monks. There is nothing in these first 45 verses that the normal Christian should not strive to live--and if
the normal Christian strives to live this way, then we monks must also strive. Verses 1 through 9 are simply
the Ten Commandments seen in the eyes of the Gospel. Verse 10 begins to speak of renouncing ourselves
in order to follow Christ and this is the heart of the good works.

We come to the Monastery to follow Christ in the monastic way and we must renounce all other ways and
all other gods. Verse 11 speaks of bodily discipline. This is not popular today because it brings to mind all
kinds of physical penance of the past. Discipline your body, do not pamper yourself, but love fasting--all of
this goes together in our tradition. Our tradition says that to be a Christian or a monk is very difficult and
hard work and basically has nothing to do with how we feel about ourselves, but has to do with how we
live. To attain the inner freedom that is necessary to love everyone else and to accomplish the will of God
in all circumstances, bodily discipline is necessary. While most of us would not aspire to be weight-lifters,
we can recognize easily that a weight-lifter cannot just start off pressing 500 pounds. Rather, the weightlifter must train in order to be able to lift such a weight without bodily injury. The same is true of monastic
life and of the spiritual life. We must do the small tasks first so that we can be able to live more deeply.

In some Zen centers, it is said that the novice Zen monk or Zen practitioner must first learn to close doors
and to cook before there can be any thought of a deep spiritual life. The tools for good works are like that
also: simple advice that is difficult to follow in our lives because we want to get on to that which feels good
and makes us feel good about ourselves. Our approach must be simply to do the small and apparently easy
things until we do them truly well.

Verses 14 through 19 are the corporal works of mercy. Verses 20 and 21 remind us that the wisdom of the
Gospel is not in accord with the wisdom of the world. This is a necessary reminder today when there is
such an impulse to try to make everyone happy by changing the teachings of the Church. We need to be
aware in this context of the difference between the teachings of the Church as objective realities, and the
pastoral approach that is so often necessary to help persons understand the teachings. The love of Christ
that comes before all else keeps us from judging others and helps us find ways to speak of the Gospel that
do not dilute its strength yet at the same time show forth its wisdom for our human lives.

Verses 23 through 41 are again practical advice for a strong spiritual life that is lived in our actions. In verse
25 we have the admonition never to give a hollow greeting of peace. We must be cautious with this advice
because in the present time we judge the hollowness of a thing by how we feel about it. This is certainly
not the intention of the Rule. Rather, the Rule is asking us to choose the good of the other, even when I
feel total animosity toward the other. As Christians we are not to follow our feelings--and yet we must
acknowledge them. Thus, a person must be able to acknowledge the dislike of another person, even anger
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towards another person, and yet still choose in Christ to act in a manner that is truly a reflection of Christ's
love for us.

Verse 41 reminds us of the importance of placing our trust in God alone. Once again we encounter advice
that is very simple and very difficult. We want to place all our hope in God, but often we do so only when
there is no other possibility! We are invited to learn how to place this hope in God before we get to a
situation when we have no other choice.

We end this half of the Chapter on the Tools for Good Works with a recognition that all good comes from
God and that all we have that is good comes from God. We are capable of doing evil and that comes from
us, not from God. This should remind us of the tradition that we must always offer our sins to God, since
that really is all we have to offer that is singularly our own. We offer our sins to God with the hope that
God will transform our evil into good and transform us also into beings who do His will.

To live in fear of judgment day is only to be aware of the need for conversion in our lives. The reality of our
lives--at least for most of us--is that we want to serve God, but have not yet begun to do so in a complete
manner. We are still in the "active life" of purgation from our sinfulness, rather than in the "contemplative
life" where our whole focus is simply on loving more.

We must strive to develop in ourselves a deep horror of offending God, a deep repulsion towards
sinfulness, sensitivity towards the awfulness and ugliness of sin in our lives. We do this not to denigrate
ourselves, but to see reality as it truly is and to help us desire to change our ways and to love God more
and more deeply.

May God help us all grow in the awareness of God's love for us in Christ Jesus. May we come to live more
and more fully in the power of the Holy Spirit so that we may give glory to God our Father.
Chapter 4: Verses 46-end
46Yearn
for everlasting life with holy desire.
by day remind yourself that you are going to die.
48Hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do,
49aware that God's gaze is upon you, wherever you may be.
50As soon as wrongful thoughts come into your heart, dash them against Christ and disclose them to your
spiritual father. 51Guard your lips from harmful or deceptive speech.
52Prefer moderation in speech
53and speak no foolish chatter, nothing just to provoke laughter;
54do not love immoderate or boisterous laughter.
47Day
55Listen
readily to holy reading,
devote yourself often to prayer.
57Every day with tears and sighs confess your past sins to God in prayer
58and change from these evil ways in the future.
56and
59Do
not gratify the promptings of the flesh (Gal 5:16);
the urgings of self-will.
60hate
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61Obey
the orders of the abbot unreservedly, even if his own conduct--which God forbid--be at odds with what
he says. Remember the teaching of the Lord: Do what they say, not what they do (Matt 23:3).
62Do
not aspire to be called holy before you really are, but first be holy that you may more truly be called so.
by God's commandments every day;
64treasure chastity,
65harbor neither hatred
66nor jealousy of anyone,
67and do nothing out of envy.
68Do not love quarreling;
69shun arrogance.
70Respect the elders
71and love the young.
72Pray for your enemies out of love for Christ.
73If you have a dispute with someone, make peace with him before the sun goes down.
63Live
74And
finally, never lose hope in God's mercy.
75These,
then are the tools of the spiritual craft. 76When we have used them without ceasing day and night
and have returned them on judgment day, our wages will be the reward the Lord has promised: 77What the
eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9).
78The
workshop where we are to toil faithfully at all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery and stability
in the community.

Commentary by Philip Lawrence, OSB, Abbot of Christ in the Desert

Do we regularly take the time to yearn for everlasting life? Or are we caught up yet in the love of this life?
It is a challenge for us to truly desire everlasting life. And one of the ways to remind ourselves of this desire
is to remind ourselves that we are going to die. It seems to straightforward, and yet we do not want to
remember it too often!! Especially while we are young we are normally not interested in thinking about
dying. As we get older, at least for some of us, dying is a very pleasant thought because we trust that we
shall be with God finally and without the sometimes bitter struggles of this life.

One of the most ancient methods of the spiritual life is that of watching the thoughts and struggling with
them. Today not many persons practice this form of spirituality. Saint Benedict suggests it to us and
perhaps we need to accept the challenge to at least try this form of spirituality some time in our life. It is
so simple. Watch your thoughts. Take all the thoughts that are not in Christ and throw them on Christ. We
will spend a lot of time at the beginning throwing thoughts on Christ, but eventually there can be a deep
peace and tranquility. We are much more comfortable today accepting all of our thoughts and acting as if
they were from God. Our tradition asks us instead to place our thoughts in the light of Christ and throw
out all those that do not reflect his love and his light.

Another important and tried way of the spiritual life is to listen to holy reading and allow our lives to be
formed by that holy reading. In this reading God often calls us to pray. We must be prudent in what we
read, and we must be committed to reading Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the early monastic
writers and the writers approved by the Church. We can read other theologies and other ways of thinking
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that will lead us out of the Church and out of monastic life. We are invited to use real wisdom in choosing
what we shall read.

When Benedict asks us to obey the orders of the abbot unreservedly, he also gives a method of spirituality.
There is a deep and sure form of growth in truly accepting the obedience that we profess in our vows. We
can spend a lot of our life trying to make our own decisions and doing things our own way. There is peace
and tranquility when we finally hand ourselves over. It does not take away the pain of living nor the
struggle of making mature decisions, but it is done in an entirely different manner than before we
accepted obedience. Benedict obviously recognizes that we can have bad superiors, but this does not
make him shy away from asking for obedience.

Harbor neither hatred nor jealousy of anyone and do nothing out of envy. This advice is again quite strong.
We all have our bouts of anger, hatred, jealousy and envy. We are invited to accept them and not act from
them. The same with quarreling and with arrogance. How strong we shall become when we begin to take
these tasks of the spiritual craft seriously. When we are young we do not like them so well, but normally,
even in Monasteries, we are less interested in spiritual growth when we are young. Our passions are
stronger and reactions are in some sense more "primitive." The challenge is to grow and to mature and to
put on Christ and his way of acting and living.

We must recognize that these tools are given to us as challenges to incorporate in our lives. It can never be
said enough information and throughout our lives: if we are unhappy or angry or resentful, then we must
recognize that all of those feelings and attitudes come from us. We must battle them. When we have
achieved some peace and tranquility, then we are finally approaching a point in our life when we can make
more adult decisions. We want to be adults and yet often we act as children.

Saint Benedict tells us to stay in the Monastery and work at all these aspects of our lives. So often we think
that life will be easier if we just leave. If we are called by God to leave, then life will be different, but not
necessarily easier. So many monks leave monastic life when they are upset with something, when they are
angry, when they are resentful, when they are depressed, etc. Such leavings are not the leavings of
someone seeking God's will, generally, but the leavings of someone who no longer wants to stay and fight
for that inner freedom that will allow a strong decision in Christ.

Our whole world is infected with this running from place to place looking for that place where I will have
no problems. It is as though the whole world has gone insane and no longer recognizes that my happiness
comes from within me and no external situation can take it away as long as it is firmly anchored in God.
There can be much sadness and sorrow in my life, but always there is this foundation of seeking God's will.

There are many stories of the saints who have suffered incredible hardships and difficulties and who
remained steadfast in their joy and contentment because they were seeking God's will. And there are
plenty of stories also of saints who spent a lot of their life fighting against God's will and not accepting
what was given to them in their lives until a more advanced age.

Monks have chosen a monastic way of life. Benedictines have chosen a life under the Rule of Benedict.
How foolish for monks not to live as monks or for Benedictines not to follow the wise spiritual direction of
Saint Benedict!
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
May the Lord our God give us the wisdom of His Holy Spirit to guide us in our lives. May that Holy Spirit
strengthen us in the path of a virtuous monastic life.
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