Benedictine Wisdom 
Instruction on the Rule by the great early thinkers of the Benedictine order.
Bind the soul with the love of virtue
The soul at prayer should have before her a sacred image of the God-man, in his birth or infancy or as he was teaching, or dying, or rising, or ascending. Whatever form it takes this image must bind the soul with the love of virtue and expel carnal vices, eliminate temptations and quiet desires. Bernard… Read More ›
Scriptures need to be read and understood in the same spirit in which they were written
The Scriptures need to be read and understood in the same spirit in which they were written. You will never enter into Paul’s meaning until by constant application to reading him and by giving yourself to constant meditation you have imbibed his spirit. You will never understand David until by experience you have made the… Read More ›
Brief Rule of St. Romuald
Sit in your cell as in paradise; put the whole world behind you and forget it; like a skilled angler on the lookout for a catch keep a careful eye on your thoughts. The path you follow is in the psalms — don’t leave it. If you’ve come with a novice’s enthusiasm and can’t accomplish… Read More ›
Turning your attention to God
Therefore my advice to you, friends, is to turn aside from troubled and anxious reflection on your own progress, and escape to the easier paths of remembering the good things which God has done; in this way, instead of becoming upset by thinking about yourself, you will find relief by turning your attention to God… Read More ›
Self-knowledge is a step in knowing God
It is my experience that as long as I keep looking at myself, like Job, my eye is filled with bitterness. But if I look upward and raise my eyes to the help that comes from the divine mercy, then my former bitter vision gives way before the joyful sight of God. Then I say,… Read More ›
Live with Christ
Let this be for you the form of life, brothers, this is the true discipline of a holy way of life: to live with Christ by having your thought and desire [fixed] on the eternal homeland, and in this troublesome journey to refuse no task of charity for Christ. Follow the Lord Christ upwards towards… Read More ›
Never Doubt God’s Love or His Plans for Us
In the mind of Saint John Cassian, anger and sadness are two principal preventatives of prayer: “The disturbance caused by anger or sadness is, above all things, to be eliminated at its sources.” (Conferences 9.3) The reason for such emphasis is simple. Both anger and sadness represent a refusal on our part to accept a… Read More ›
To put nothing before the love of Christ
“To Christ belongs everything we can do; we live because he quickens us, we move and have our being because he enlivens us, we love because he first loved us. It was out of love he created and quickened us, nourished and guarded us; he led us to the bath of rebirth, renewed us, governed… Read More ›
Enter the Way of Mercy and Truth
The first step for the wretched person extricating himself from the depths of vice is the mercy which makes him merciful to the son of his mother, to be merciful to his soul, and thereby pleasing to God. In this way he emulates the great work of divine pity, being moved to tears with him… Read More ›
You Yourself are Within
Begin to recognize yourself, to love and possess yourself, to be kind to yourself, and you will be happy. If you desire to know yourself and to possess yourself, go into yourself, and do not search for yourself outside. Distinguish between what is around you, what belongs to you, and your self. The world surrounds… Read More ›