Rule 
Articles and posts specifically teaching the Rule of St. Benedict. Articles divided into two categories: Benedictine Wisdom, the teaching of the Benedictine Fathers; and Instruction, teaching by more modern day Benedictine scholars.
I have found him whom my soul loves
‘I found him,’ the soul says, ‘I found him’, though previously he sought and found me like a stray sheep, like a lost coin, and in his mercy anticipated me. He forestalled me, I say, in finding me when I was lost. He anticipated me, though I deserved nothing. He found me astray, he anticipated… Read More ›
He lives only for others
Someone who takes pity and lends, who is disposed to be compassionate, quick to render assistance, who believes that there is more happiness in giving than in receiving, who easily forgives but is not easily angered, who will never seek to be avenged, and will in all things take thought for his neighbor’s needs as… Read More ›
Disobedience separates the soul from God
By the sin of disobedience man began to be at odds both with God and with himself, and by the just judgement of God, he who did not want peace with God did not find peace in himself. As it is written, ‘You have set me against you, and I am become a burden to… Read More ›
Everything depends on the quality of our acts
Our being is not to be enriched merely by activity and experience as such. Everything depends on the quality of our acts and our experiences. A multitude of badly performed actions and of experiences only half-lived exhausts and depletes our being. By doing things badly we make ourselves less real. This growing unreality cannot help… Read More ›
A Chance to Choose
In our being there is a primordial yes that is not our own; it is not at our own disposal; it is not accessible to our inspection and understanding; we do not even fully experience it as real (except in rare and unique circumstances). And we have to admit that for most people this primordial… Read More ›
The Actions of the Trinity in Us
Let us consider ourselves, and the actions of the Trinity in us, from the beginning of the world until the end. Let us see how that Majesty upon whom lie both the administration and the governance of the ages has been concerned not to lose us forever. Indeed he had made all things mightily, and… Read More ›
We must dare to be saints by the power of God
Easter is the mystery of our redemption. We who have died and risen with Christ are no longer sinners. Sin is dead in us. The Law has no further hold on us. And yet this is not as simple as it sounds. Our new life in Christ is not a permanent and guaranteed possession, handed over… Read More ›
My soul find what you were seeking
My soul, say to God: ‘Who are you, Lord, that I may know you?’ You alone are what you are and who you are, that is, that than which nothing greater can be thought, nor anything better, nor more joyful. You are life, wisdom, light, truth, goodness, eternity, the one whom all need that they… Read More ›
Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord
There is confidence everywhere in Ash Wednesday, yet that does not mean unmixed and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of possible disaster. Let us emend for the better in those things in which we have… Read More ›
Where is God?
Do you ask: if all things are in him, where is [God]? I can answer nothing more inadequately than this: what place can contain him? Do you ask where he is not? I cannot even answer that. What place is without God? God is incomprehensible, but you have learned a great deal if you discovered… Read More ›