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.
Importance of loving others in community
Living with other people and learning to lose ourselves in the understanding of their weakness and deficiencies can help us to become true contemplatives. For there is no better means of getting rid of the rigidity and harshness and coarseness of our ingrained egoism, which is the one insuperable obstacle to the infused light and… Read More ›
The big results are not in your hands or mine
You are fed up with words, and I don’t blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and… Read More ›
Signs of self-love
Fickleness and indecision are signs of self-love. If you can never make up your mind what God wills for you, but are always veering from one opinion to another, from one practice to another, from one method to another, it may be an indication that you are trying to get around God’s will and do… Read More ›
Let go of past grievances
The words of our Lord cannot be ignored: “And when you are praying, let go if you have something against anyone in order that your Father in heaven may let go of your transgressions for you” (Mark 11:25). … So long as I cling to another’s fault, I perpetuate it. The malice has left the… Read More ›
The true self matures in solitude
There is another self, a true self, who comes to full maturity in emptiness and solitude – and who can of course, begin to appear and grow in the valid, sacrificial and creative self-dedication that belong to a genuine social existence. But note that even this social maturing of love implies at the same time… Read More ›
God’s providence is present in every situation
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.”‘ The reason for such emphasis is simple. Both anger and sadness represent a refusal on our part to accept a situation that… 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 ›
Remain at every moment in contact with God
The life of contemplation in action and purity of heart is, then, a life of great simplicity and inner liberty. One is not seeking anything special or demanding any particular satisfaction. One is content with what is. One does what is to be done, and the more concrete it is, the better. One is not… 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 ›
How to become Free
No matter how much we like the word “freedom” the reality can be a little frightening. “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” To become free we have to allow all binding attachments to be loosed. Freedom is nakedness, according to the ancient maxim, “Naked to follow the naked Christ.” For much… Read More ›