Benedictine Wisdom 
Instruction on the Rule by the great early thinkers of the Benedictine order.
Our proper occupation is knowing and loving God
Our proper occupation is knowing and loving God, and, not least, delighting in such knowledge and love. We have been made in the image and likeness of God for the sake of this knowledge and love; and by means of them we are made new and formed again to God’s image and likeness: through understanding… Read More ›
Pray Often and Read Often
For those who practice it, the experience of lectio sacra sharpens perception, enriches understanding, rouses from sloth, banishes idleness, orders life, corrects bad habits, produces salutary weeping and draws tears from contrite hearts . . . curbs idle speech and vanity, awakens longing for Christ and the heavenly homeland. It must always be accompanied by… Read More ›
The Heart Must Be Cleansed to See God
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). This is a great promise, my brothers, and something to be desired with all one’s heart. For to see in this way is to be like God, as John the Apostle says, “Now we are all sons of God, but it has… Read More ›
The Blessing of God
Among the blessings of God, some are the blessings of creation, others of restoration, and others of day-to-day consolation. The blessings of creation are that we were created in the image and likeness of God, that in him we live and move and have our being and are his offspring, and that by his gift… Read More ›
Self-centeredness
By abusing free choice, man diverted his love from the changeless good, God, and, blinded by his own self-centeredness, he directed his love to what was inferior. Thus withdrawing from the true good and deviating toward what of itself was not good, where he anticipated gain he found loss, and by perversely loving himself he… Read More ›
Love of God, neighbor, and self
Although there is an evident distinction between love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self, a marvelous bond nevertheless does exist among the three, so that each is found in all, and all in each. None of them can be possessed without all, and when one wavers they all diminish. Someone who does… Read More ›
By love we make our journey
Eternal life is knowing the true God; the true way to it is to love with one’s whole heart. Love, then, is the way, truth the life; truth is the image, love the likeness; love is the price, truth is the prize; by love we make our journey, in truth we stand fast. Moreover, since… Read More ›
Wisdom teaches all things
By its anointing, wisdom teaches all things. Then, by having affixed the seal of God’s goodness to us, it imprints and conforms to itself by this anointing everything calmed and gentled within us. If it finds any hardness, any rigidity, it pounds and crushes it until this person, having received this wholesome happiness of God… Read More ›
Who can pluck us out of His hand?
It is good for me to be troubled, Lord, as long as you are with me, better than reigning without you, of feasting without you, of being glorified without you. It is good for me to embrace you in tribulation, to have you with me in the furnace, better than being without you even in… Read More ›
Not Two but Three Comings of the Lord
We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible. In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming all flesh will… Read More ›