The Rule of Saint Benedict
by St. Benedict
List Price: $9.95
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 037570017X
Publisher: Vintage
The Vintage Spiritual Classics Series
The Vintage Spiritual Classics
present the testimony of writers across the centuries who have pondered
the mysterious ways, unfathomable mercies, and deep consolations afforded
by God to those who call upon Him from out of the depths of their lives.
These writers are our companions, even our champions, in a common effort
to discern the meaning of God in personal experience.
"God is our home but many
of us have strayed from our native land. The venerable authors of these
Spiritual Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions
home."
--Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The questions, discussion
topics, and background information that follow are designed to enhance
your group's reading of the six works that make up the first series in
Vintage Spiritual Classics. We hope they will provide you with a variety
of ways of thinking and talking about these ancient and important texts.
We offer this word about the act of reading these spiritual classics.
From the very earliest accounts of monastic practice--dating back to the
fourth century--it is evident that a form of reading called lectio divina
("divine" or "spiritual" reading) was essential to any deliberate spiritual
life. This kind of reading is quite different from that of scanning a
text for useful facts and bits of information, or advancing along an exciting
plot line to a climax in the action. It is, rather, a meditative approach,
by which the reader seeks to taste and savor the beauty and truth of every
phrase and passage. There are four steps in lectio divina: first, to read,
next to meditate, then to rest in the sense of God's nearness, and, ultimately,
to resolve to govern one's actions in the light of new understanding.
This kind of reading is itself an act of prayer. And, indeed, it is in
prayer that God manifests His Presence to us.
St. Benedict, the sixth-century father of Western monasticism, set down
what quickly became the most famous and enduring guide for those in search
of spiritual fulfillment through life in community. Though still consulted
by monks, priests, and nuns today, The Rule of St. Benedict has always
been perceived as having broad application beyond convent or monastery
walls. Beautifully woven together with apposite quotations from the New
Testament and the Hebrew Bible, its message for a world seemingly in desperate
quest of radical autonomy is clear: without love of neighbor and diminishing
of self, the search for God will be fruitless.
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1. The explicit purpose of
Benedict's Rule was to teach monks and their superiors how to live the
monastic life. Today, nonmonastic readers approach the Rule in order
to think about changing their lives. How does such a guidebook compare
to bestselling books of counsel like Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way
or Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? How
would you compare the underlying assumptions of today's self-help culture
with those of Benedict's philosophy?
2. Benedict places great emphasis
on the importance of silence and solitude as well as the importance
of the community setting. How do you understand the importance of silence
and solitude? How do we learn to become comfortable with silence, and
with being more thoughtful and sparing in our use of words? How does
Benedict suggest we go about trying to hear the word of God in silence?
3. Norvene Vest has written,
"The key to Benedictine spirituality lies in the word 'ordinary.' Benedict
insists that no moment is too small for nearness to God. Life in Christ
does not necessarily involve something dramatic or heroic. It may simply
engage the everyday stuff of my lifeÉ.Whatever my present circumstances,
Christ will meet me there."1 She also points out that Benedict's emphasis
is not so much on renunciation, as an attentiveness to what we are given.
Is there a sense of relief in the realization that God doesn't require
the impossible? If you have read The Desert Fathers, how does
this concept of the "ordinary" compare to their approach to the spiritual
life?
4. What roles do prayer, communal
praise (through the singing of the psalms), manual work, and holy reading
play in Benedict's approach to God? How, living outside a monastic setting,
might you begin to integrate the various parts of the Benedictine way?
How might the order and discipline of monastic life be adapted to a
busy, worldly, secular life? Notice that we are told, "It is called
a rule because it regulates the lives of those who obey it" [p. 7];
does bringing a deliberate sense of order to the ordinary tasks of each
day free the mind to contemplate the things of the spirit?
5. Benedict exhorts his readers
to "Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell. Yearn
for everlasting life with holy desire" [p. 13]. The concept of hell
is more foreign, less visceral and immediate, to those of us who live
in a secular society than it was for Christians in Benedict's time.
What is your idea of hell? Has the concept of hell in today's world
been replaced simply by a fear of death? What is your notion of a punishment
that is an incentive to change one's life?
6. What is your response to
Benedict's instructions on "The Tools for Good Works"? Notice that much
of Benedict's counsel is taken directly from the Gospels and Epistles.
What is the Benedictine approach to the opposition between the flesh
and the spirit? How important is the concept of physical discipline?
How do you interpret Benedict's statement on behavior: "Your way of
acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ
must come before all else" [p. 12]?
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