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.
In filling myself, I had emptied myself
If what most people take for granted were really true—if all you needed to be happy was to grab everything and see everything and investigate every experience and then talk about it, I should have been a very happy person, a spiritual millionaire, from the cradle even until now…What a strange thing! In filling myself,… Read More ›
Christ is present to those rejected and unwanted in this world
Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others who do not belong,… 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 ›
Some Thoughts on Sunrise
Sunrise: hidden by pines and cedars to the east, I saw the red flame of the kingly sun glaring through the black trees, not like dawn but like a forest fire. Then the sun became distinguished as a person, and he shone silently and with solemn power through the branches, and the whole world was… Read More ›
Suffering becomes patience only when it is carried beyond itself
If there is no overt cause, the probability is that our pain has a providential purpose. We endure for the Lord’s sake, exactly as the martyrs did. It may seem as though every day is an encounter with death, but we must learn to pray with that ancient hero of patience: “Even if he kill… Read More ›
When does one begin to live fully?
The fact that our being necessarily demands to be expressed in action should not lead us to believe that as soon as we stop acting we cease to exist. We do not live merely in order to ‘do something’ – no matter what. Activity is just one of the normal expressions of life, and the… Read More ›
God’s love does not depend on us
One of the qualities we find emphasized in the ancient accounts of the martyrs was their joy. There is no question of finding pleasure in pain. Rather it is the joy that comes when everything is lost but love perdures. We always suspect that love attaches itself to our good qualities and we fear that… Read More ›
Self-Discovery
Discovering the contemplative life is a new self-discovery. One might say it is the flowering of a deeper identity on an entirely different plane from a mere psychological discovery, a paradoxical new identity that is found only in loss of self. To find one’s self by losing one’s self: that is part of ‘contemplation.’ Remember… Read More ›
A humble man is not afraid of failure.
A humble man can do great things with an uncommon perfection because he is no longer concerned about incidentals, like his own interests and his own reputation, and therefore he no longer needs to waste his efforts in defending them. For a humble man is not afraid of failure. In fact, he is not afraid… Read More ›
Have Hope
Even though we have the power to destroy the whole world, life is stronger than the death instinct and love is stronger than hate. It does not make logical sense to be too hopeful, but once again this is not a question of logic and one does not look for signs of hope in the… Read More ›