Tag: St. Benedict
St. Benedict’s advice for beating the blues
Acedia has two remedies, one is psalmody. As to the other… A while back, for whatever reason, I was most uncharacteristically doing battle with the devilish little megrim that is acedia. Actually, “doing battle” sounds romantic and pro-active. It would be more accurate to say I have been whining, and sitting before my oratory with… Read More ›
St. Benedict: Father of Western Monasticism
(CNA)On July 11, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the sixth-century abbot who gave Christian monasticism its lasting foundation in Western Europe. For his historic role as the “Father of Western Monasticism,” St. Benedict was declared a co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). St. Benedict is also… Read More ›
For the Feast of St. Benedict
3. Behold, today we celebrate the feast of our holy Father Benedict. What was Saint Benedict? Without a doubt a man like you, like him, like me. His flesh is the same as your flesh. You and he are both of the same material. Why therefore was he able to do what you are not?… Read More ›
Sunday Chapter talk on humility
You can’t escape the journey that is our lives. If it is attempted things usually get worse. That goes for life in the secular world as well as for those who are in religious and monastic life. Below is a talk I presented to the community at Sunday Chapter on an aspect of Humility as… Read More ›
Benedict of Nursia on the Value of Work
. . . One of [St. Benedict’s] most famous dictums was ora et labora: “pray and work.” His Rule served as the standard community rule for monasteries in the West for hundreds of years. Consistent with his dictum, the Rule of St. Benedict contains some wonderful passages about the value of work in addition to other… Read More ›
Remembering Saint Benedict
ROME, JUNE 11, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Nearly half a century has passed since the father of western monasticism, Saint Benedict, was declared patron protector of Europe. Throughout the Dark Ages of Europe following the fall of Rome, Scripture, patristic writings, classical literature, and scientific works that otherwise might have been forgotten or destroyed were kept safe… Read More ›
Pray Often and Read Often
For those who practice it, the experience of lectio sacra sharpens perception, enriches understanding, rouses from sloth, banishes idleness, orders life, corrects bad habits, produces salutary weeping and draws tears from contrite hearts . . . curbs idle speech and vanity, awakens longing for Christ and the heavenly homeland. It must always be accompanied by… Read More ›
Is It Time To Hunker Down?
As Ireland votes overwhelmingly for same sex marriage and the rest of the Western world, it seems, can’t wait to follow their example, is it time to throw in the towel in the cultural slugfest? As radical Islam advances giving us nightmares and as the economic “recovery” looks increasingly shaky is it time to hunker… Read More ›
Is It Time for the Benedict Option?
In the face of moral and social disintegration, St. Benedict established core communities of intentional disciples. The poet T.S. Eliot predicted that, after the disintegration of Western society, civilization would be conserved and restored by a new monastic movement. He was referring to the events at the end of the fifth century, when Benedict of… Read More ›
Passing of St. Benedict
24. It is not only the bygone ages that had reason to profit from the benefits of this Patriarch; our own age has many important lessons to learn from him. Let those first of all who belong to his numerous family learn – We do not doubt that they do – to follow daily ever… Read More ›