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.
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 ›
Heresy of Individualism
The heresy of individualism: thinking oneself a completely self-sufficient unit and asserting this imaginary ‘unity’ against all others. The affirmation of the self as simply ‘not the other.’ But when you seek to affirm your unity by denying that you have anything to do with anyone else, by negating everyone else in the universe until… Read More ›
Patience
First of all, we honor one another. Then, he goes on (and he is very realistic): infirmitates suas sive corporum sive morum patientissime tolerent. We tolerate, with the greatest possible patience, the infirmities of body and of the way of morum—the way of acting, functioning, the way we present ourselves, the way we live. We… Read More ›
How Deep are Our Convictions?
Faced by the supercilious contempt of friends as well as the hatred of our avowed enemies, and wondering what there is in us to hate, we have considered ourselves and found ourselves quite decent, harmless and easygoing people who only ask to be left alone to make money and have a good time. The keystone… 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 ›
Reality is to be Sought in Unity
They can only conceive one way of becoming real: cutting themselves off from other people and building a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and other men. They do not know that reality is to be sought not in division but in unity, for we are ‘members one of another.’ Thomas Merton New Seeds… Read More ›
A Burning Love
Benedict goes on to describe this. It is really a description of what he sees as a way of spirituality, a way of growth into the fullness, a way of going into God. Hunc ergo zelum ferventissimo amore exerceant monachi. The monk is to make this zeal his own with a most fervent, burning love…. Read More ›
The Creator Exalts His Creation
Created as we were to the image and likeness of the Creator, we fell through our sin from God into ourselves, and fell from ourselves beneath ourselves into such an abyss of unlikeness that no hope was left. But there came the Son of God, eternal Wisdom; he bowed his heavens and came down. He… Read More ›
Consolations from God
There is many a consolation to relieve the torment of a guilty conscience. God is kind and does not let us be tempted beyond our strength. Especially at the beginning of our conversion, he anoints our wounds with the oil of mercy so that the acute nature of our sickness and the difficulty of the… Read More ›
Our Culture is Geared to Avoid Silence
Now let us frankly face the fact that our culture is one which is geared in many ways to help us evade any need to face this inner, silent self. We live in a state of constant semiattention to the sound of voices, music, traffic, or the generalized noise of what goes on around us… Read More ›