Tag: St Benedict
Living out the Rule
The community as envisaged by Benedict does not operate according to the standards of this age . . . . Benedict resists any tendency which would lead his monks to do any of the following: to be more concerned about “transitory earthly trifles” than the kingdom (Rule of St. Benedict [RB] 2:33-36) to become protective… Read More ›
Let us listen in particular to St Benedict’s voice
A representative man and a real giant of history, St Benedict is great not only because of his holiness, but also because of his intelligence and industry, which succeeded in giving a new course to the events of history. We will recall only the essential elements of his interesting and adventurous life. Born about 480… Read More ›
Let Us Listen First of All to the Voice of Monte Cassino
What can it say to us, what does it want to say to us, this outstanding monument of religious spirit and of humanity? Three times it was destroyed and three times it rose again from its ruins, remaining a mystical centre of inexpressible value for Italy, Europe and the world. There came up here the… Read More ›
An Invitation to Interiorness
In short, therefore, it can be said that St Benedict’s message is an invitation to interiorness. Man must first of all enter himself, he must know himself deeply, he must discover within himself the aspiration to God and traces of the Absolute. The theocentric and liturgical character of the social reform advocated by St Benedict… Read More ›
St. Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monastism
[St. Benedict] . . . perfected the form of this project at Monte Cassino and wrote it down in the “Rule”, his only work that has come done to us. Seeking among the ashes of the Roman Empire first of all the Kingdom of God, Benedict perhaps unknowingly scattered the seed of a new civilization… Read More ›
The Danger of Servitude
The danger of servitude, especially to the electronic media, is not only that it wastes time and incapacitates, but it also serves as a channel through which evil thoughts about which St. Benedict speaks (cogitationes malas, RB: 4:50), enter the mind of the monk or nun (or lay person) and thence pass through to the… Read More ›
Listening Carefully
. . . it is Christ who speaks through human agents-the less overpowering they are, the more attentively the abbot must strain to hear what they say. The same principle applies here that Benedict enunciates concerning the poor: The terror that great ones inspire assures them of respect (53:15), but it is in listening carefully… Read More ›
Living in Community is not just for Monks
We talk a lot about being “community” and we use the term a great deal in general terms; the parish community, the city as a community, the monastic community. But do we think any further on what it actually means? Michael Casey, OSCO, talks a great deal about the subject in his book Strangers to… Read More ›
Pastor’s Reflection: Return to the ‘Hill’
(St. Meinrad Archabbey and Seminary and Belmont Abbey) As I prepare this reflection, the Faithful of the Diocese are looking forward to Deacon Ben Roberts’ ordination to the priesthood on June 6th. On June 3″, I noted the completion of 14 years as a priest. A couple of weeks ago, I officiated a wedding in… Read More ›
Caricature of Contemplation
Thomas Merton was adamant that television — at least American television — was a danger for any who are interested in progressing further in the practice of contemplation. He expresses himself on the subject with characteristic verve, a little acerbity, and a not-untypical degree of exaggeration. “The life of a television-watcher is a kind of… Read More ›