Diving Back Into the Rule of St. Benedict

We're diving back into the Rule of St. Benedict, picking up where our Stability Project left off before a Holy Week and Easter Week break. Last time we spent some time on what sort of stability we're seeking in the workplace, with some distinctions made between that and the stability St. Benedict sought in his monasteries. With those difference and similarities in hand, let's move on.

Before Holy Week the Rule concluded a series focused on the "degrees of humility." Now we switch gears to a series the I pretty much ignored for years. (Yes, I've been reading the Rule every day for quite a few years.) That series concerns the Divine Office - how and when it's prayed, or in the case of a typical Benedictine monastery, chanted.

Quick refresher: The regular daily activities of a monk can be summarized as either ora or labora: prayer or work. Of course, an individual monk can pray - as can we - wherever and whenever they choose. But communal prayer consists mainly of the reciting/chanting of the Divine Office throughout the day, with a special night session thrown in as well. While the Office is called the "work of God," by St. Benedict, there is also the practical work performed by monks each day. Monasteries support themselves. So every monk needs to chip in to keep the wheels of daily life turning.

Monks eat, so food must be raised, prepared, cooked, served. They wear clothes and sleep, so laundry needs to be done. Monasteries either expand or multiply when they take in new members. Monks themselves do most, if not all, the work needed in a monastery. Recently, the famous monastery of Nursia - the birthplace of St. Benedict - was destroyed by an earthquake. The monks had to rebuild from scratch. They do most of that work themselves. (They're doing it right now. If you're feeling generous, you might want to send a few US dollars their way.) They either have or gain the skills needed.

If you own a home, you know all about regular maintenance and special projects. Projects can be the type sprung on you (the boiler dies) or can be those planned based on a need to improve or add to the soundness or attractive appearance of your home. In the case of monasteries, these can be pretty large impressive structures needing lots of ongoing attention.

And, as you may know, different monasteries not only raise their own food, but specialize in items like cheese, jams, wine, beer, liquors, and various pious items that can made be sold to raise money to help maintain, expand, build, etc. It never ends, as long as the monastery attracts and supports monks. Never mind the fact that most if not all monasteries accept and entertain guests of all types. So the infrastructure needs to be intact to support regular visitors, secular and religious. Indeed, some monasteries actively solicit guests - again as a means of support for the monastery.

If you think about it, a monastery is quite an enterprise, simply on a practical level. Reading the Rule each day, you see how St. Benedict attempts to balance all the practical tasks that need doing and the regular activities scheduled throughout the day.

Of course, the religious activity of the monastery is the whole reason it exists. Monks sequester themselves from the outside world not because they're shy or don't like being with people, or can't "make it" in the outside world. They devote their lives to prayer - whether formal prayer like the Divine Office, or the offering up of their practical work to God as a form of prayer. And that devotion is directed at all of us. They and their sister religious work and pray for us. They can do this more often and more efficiently than we who, for example, have to raise families, defend our country, perform the work of public safety, produce products to feed, clothe and shelter our fellow man. If the practical world throws a curve ball at us in either our work or personal life, we may have an excuse to put off some bits of our spiritual activities. Monks have no such excuse.

Since the Divine Office holds pride of place in  the daily public prayer of monks, and since religious activity lies at the center of the whole purpose of monastic life, we can easily understand St. Benedict's extended, detailed focus in the Rule. It's part of the stability of monastic life. It's an essential part of the spiritual life of the monks. How and when it is prayed will therefore require careful planning. 

We in the outside world don't typically gather 7 times a day (lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, compline) for communal prayer, of course. That's why I mentioned that I had basically ignored the entries related to the praying/chanting of the Office for years. It was understandable, but a mistake. These days, as these entries roll around in order three times a year, I no longer skip over or gloss over them. We'll see why in our next few posts.