Remain in Me

Remain in Me

st. benedic t ’ s abbe y

Suggestions from the monastic experience for making a retreat at home

Ta bl e o f C o n t e n t s Greetings..................................6 Horarium..................................8 Libenter Excipe. . ..................... 11 Living by a Rule . . .................. 17 Liturgy of the Hours......... 21 Silence. . ..................................... 27 Lectio Divina......................... 31 Meals. . ........................................ 37 Fasting......................................43 Beaut y. . ......................................49 Journal..................................... 53

Nota Bene: We have provided in this booklet some links to further resources, which may be accessed via the digital version of this book by clicking links that look like this: kansasmonks.org

Greetings fr om the Retre at Master Peace be with you and welcome on behalf of Abbot James and the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey. In this booklet we share some of the proposals of our monastic life for you to consider taking up during your retreat-at-home.

The pandemic and the lockdown of monasteries and retreat centers provoked us to ask the question: What does it mean to go on retreat? It quickly became clear that the term “virtual” retreat only highlighted the need to engage the question more seriously.

Though one may use technology to facilitate certain aspects, a retreat cannot actually be virtual. It can only be done where you are. To retreat, in the Christian sense, is to enter more deeply into the truth of things, like taking a step back from a painting in order to see more clearly the whole of its beauty in which shines the harmony of each part. “Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16), not to escape the task before him but to love it more, by staying with the Father who gave it to Him. 6 • Remain in Me

Jesus invites us into the same relationship with reality : “Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” ( John 15:4).

We invite you to enter into these holy days with us not to escape our present situation, or to “get through it” until life “returns to normal”, but to enter more deeply into them. It is only in the reality the Father is giving to us hic et nunc (here and now) that we can take up the Lord’s imperative, meínate (μείνατε)!

Remain, stay, await, and meet in Him the source of our lives , who is our happiness .

It is our prayer for you that this is your experience during these days and e ver y day.

Sincerely in Christ and Mar y,

Fr. Jay Kythe Br. Angelus Atkinson Retreat Mastter Assistant 7

Hor arium My Time

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______

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Abbey Time CST UTC -6

5:25 AM 5:45 AM 6:20 AM 7:00 AM 7:45 AM 11:45 AM 12:10 PM 12:55 PM 1:30 PM 5:00 PM 5:25 PM 6:10 PM 6:30 PM 7:45 PM 8:00 PM

Event

Bell to Rise Vigils & Lauds Silence (Lectio Divina) Breakfast (optional) Work Assignments Midday Prayer Mass Lunch Work Assignments Vespers Silence (Lectio Divina) Dinner in silence w/ table reading Recreation (until 7 p.m.)

Compline Grand Silence

(Sundays begin with a 6:10 bell, with Mass at 10:00)

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Libenter Excipe To Freely Take Up

Libenter Excipe The pandemic brought to light certain monastic customs.

We have been asked to quarantine and distance ourselves from the outside world for the sake of our lives and the life of the world. St. Benedict calls this the cloister. We have been made to stay with the same faces and the same four walls every day.

St. Benedict calls this stability. We don’t have the final word on our work and our bodies. St. Benedict calls this obedience. And all of this invites us to change. St. Benedict calls this conversatio morum, or conversion of life, i.e. a willingness to change.

What kind of change? From fear to love. In front of the news that daily reminds us that death is a reality we cannot avoid, St. Benedict would have us “Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire” (RB 4:46).

The difference between the mentality which the Bible calls “the world” and that embodied in St. Benedict (that is to say, the Christian mentality) is that these are positive proposals which can help us on our way to eternal life. Pope Francis told us at the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi at the beginning of the pandemic, “Faith begins when we realise we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we flounder: we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars.” But recognizing our need for the stars and following their direction does not happen automatically, which is why St. Benedict, in the opening sentence of the Rule, invites the prospective monk to freely take up (libenter excipe) his advice, the advice of a loving father (pii patris).

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Therefore, during these days we invite you to freely take up the monastic proposals below in the monastery of your home. To help you do this we have included notes below on each of them to clarif y what it invites us to live (the star, so to speak). Understanding the reason for each tool will help to freely discern whether it has a value for you, and what living it will look like in your circumstances. This, in turn, helps us in being faithful to it. For instance, it may not be realistic for your family to pray all the Liturgy of the Hours. Knowing the value of remembering God at the beginning and ending the day can help you choose the ones to pray (e.g. morning prayer and evening prayer or compline).

Or perhaps you cannot do silence during the entire period set aside for it because of work obligations.

Understanding St. Benedict’s teaching on silence can help you stay in the spirit of silence during your work so that within this too you can carry the desire to remain united in Christ with everyone you encounter.

Most importantly, let us pay attention to the last tool St. Benedict gives in his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works”: “And finally, never lose hope in God’s mercy” (RB 4:74). To live by a rule is not to expect perfection from ourselves, but to follow an Other, to say “yes” (fiat) to His perfect love and discover its embrace. When we become forgetful we offer this too to Christ and ask for His embrace again, the grace of forgiveness. We do the same for others. There may be boredom, tears, and harsh words (this is true both for the children and the adults). This is part of the journey. It is an 13

opportunity to ask for and discover His grace and the depths of His mercy again.

And if we do use “the tools of the spiritual craft”, St. Benedict tells us, “...our wages will be the reward the Lord has promised: What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9)” (RB 4:75-77).

Suggestions • Read through this booklet before your retreat, together with anyone who may be participating with you, to understand why each proposal is made.

• Note what you will take up. E.g., praying the hours, a daily period of silence, etc.

• Note how you will take it up. E.g., which hours to pray, how to pray them together, when to do silence, etc.

• Post your personal Retreat Schedule: At the end of this you should have your own personal or household’s schedule (horarium) for your retreat. Tape this somewhere everyone participating can see it.

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Living by a Rule To Follow Another

Living by a Rule When the bells for prayer ring, St. Benedict tells us “the monk will immediately set aside what he has in hand and go with the utmost speed… Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God” (RB 43:1, 3).

A schedule or horarium makes concrete a rule of life by which I recognize and choose what is most important: what is the source of my life and what my life is for. For this reason the most important moments in a rule are moments of prayer, which center my days around the memory of God. What I pay attention to is what I follow, what determines what I think about, whether it is the cycle of psalms or the cycle of news and social media. Each of us can see for ourselves whether what we attend to closes our hearts or opens them to live life more intensely. St. Benedict invites the monk to “no longer live by [our] own judgment, giving in to [our] whims and appetites... [but rather] walk according to another’s decisions and directions…” (RB 5:12).

His Rule invites us to be freed from the tyranny of our own opinions and those of the powers that be, and entrust our lives to an Other who cares for me at every moment and event of the day. The bell interrupts my thoughts to give me an opportunity to say “yes” to God’s thoughts, to God’s life. In this way we not only can entrust ourselves to Him but also the lives of others, especially those who are suffering.

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Suggestions • Live this Together in Unity: • None of us are alone; no circumstance can erase the fact of our baptism by which Christ has chosen us. As a sign of this reality, as much as possible try to enter into the gestures on the horarium at the same time as the monastic community and the other retreatants or at the same time of day in your own time zone. Even if circumstances prevent this, offer your prayers and actions in union with us and the whole Church in Christ, the head.

• Schedule communal work. Organize household tasks (cooking, cleaning, etc.) so that everybody has something to do and try to schedule this to do at the same time together. If necessary, schedule individual work (e.g. job or school assignments). Do this at the same time with others in your household (or with us, during our work periods). Do the same for communal and individual recreation time as needed.

• Consider a Screen Fast: A screen offers a constant invitation to be somewhere else. It can make silence and prayer difficult or impede communal recreation. We suggest limiting screen time during this retreat. A fast reveals what is essential. Perhaps limit access to retreat resources and necessities. This is something to be discerned personally and with your household. By observing ourselves in action, we can see what is useful or not in helping us stay present.

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Praying the Liturgy of the Hours To Sing Praise Wisely

The Liturgy of the Hours In his Chapter on “The Discipline of Psalmody” (RB 19), St. Benedict writes that “We believe that the divine presence is everywhere… [and] beyond the least doubt we should believe this to be especially true when we celebrate the divine office. We must always remember, therefore, what the Prophet says: Serve the Lord with fear (Ps 2:11), and again, Sing praise wisely (Ps 46:8), and, In the presence of the angels I will sing to you (Ps 137:1)... let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices.”

Whether you are praying the Liturgy of the Hours (also called the Divine Office) with your spouse, your whole family, with a roommate, or by yourself, St. Benedict wants you to know that you are not alone. There is no such thing as a private recitation of the divine office. This is a time to learn to live in the communion of saints. We are in communion with those people we can see and those we do not.

This is possible because of Christ, because He took us into His life at our baptism. When we pray, we pray as the whole church – we, the church on earth, together with the church in purgatory, and the church in heaven, the angels and saints, in Christ our head, praising the divine presence of God who is always before us.

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Suggestions We do not speak these words like we would just any words. With these words we enter into dialogue with God. Here are some ways we can acknowledge this: • Prepare a space to orient worship and prayer. St. Benedict writes that “the oratory [the place to pray] ought to be what it is called, and nothing else is to be done or stored there” (RB 52:1). Preparing your own prayer table to face while you pray can be helpful in establishing a place of prayer. You can place a cloth on it of the appropriate liturgical color, a crucifix or simple cross in a prominent place, and two candles on either side. If you have an image or icon of Our Lady, place it there as well.

• Speak the words slowly and think about what the words mean.

• Pray in Choirs. If more than one person is present we embody this divine dialogue by taking turns praying the stanzas out loud. One group, “Choir 1”, prays the first stanza of each psalm. The other, “Choir 2”, responds with the second stanza, and they continue to alternate.

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Suggestions continued

• Pray in unison. Listen to each other and pray so that no single voice dominates.

When even our voices and breath move together in this way, it is a concrete sign of the one body of Christ united in the Holy Spirit (Spiritus means “breath” or “spirit”).

• Pray with your whole body. Whether we stand or sit we do it with energy and attention.

• Sing. We suggest singing recto tono, on a single pitch.

• Bow at the doxology (Glory be to the Father…) because we are in the presence of the glory of God the Father to whom we speak, the Son whose word resonates in us, and Spirit who moves us as one.

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Resources • For a detailed introduction on the hours, parts, and practice of this prayer, please see this article in Kansas Monks.

• For a video explanation of the above suggestions and demonstration see our video introduction to praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

• There are many useful websites and apps that provide the Liturgy of the Hours texts for the day such as: • Univeralis • iBreviary • Laudate (Apple/Android) That being said, it is often difficult to pray with screens – they easily distract our attention and tire our eyes. It is easier to enter into prayer with a book. There are two books/ sets typically used to pray in English. There is also an abundance of guides and tutorials on the internet.

• The Shorter Book of Christian Prayer contains Morning Prayer (Lauds), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline). This is a good place to begin.

• The Liturgy of the Hours Four Volume Set includes the Office of Readings (Vigils), Midday Prayer, and much more, including all the seasonal variations.

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Silence To Esteem the Divine Presence

Silence St. Benedict tells us: Let us follow the Prophet’s counsel… I have put a guard on my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words.

(Ps 38:2-3). Here the Prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence… Speaking and teaching are the master’s task; the disciple is to be silent and listen” (RB 6:1-2, 6).

It is easy to let the cloister of our home be filled up with either a cacophony of individual chatter (e.g. everybody talking over each other) or the silence of isolation (e.g. everybody doing their own thing in their room). What these have in common is they cut us off from each other.

The silence St. Benedict proposes is different. It is a silence that unites us because in it we recognize the Presence that is the source of our lives, the One each of our hearts desires. And if this recognition or awareness is not our experience silence becomes the place we ask for it to grow in us. For, who is the master St. Benedict speaks of? Jesus said, “You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt.

23:8). By practicing silence together we enter into dialogue with the mystery of God, our Father. We sit at the feet of the Master and listen.

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Suggestions We practice silence at particular times in the monastery and invite you to join us in them.

• Keep silence before Morning Prayer and after Compline, so that the first and last words of the day we hear and utter are given by God and spoken to God. This is called the Grand Silence.

• During the two periods set aside for personal prayer and Lectio Divina (see Horarium, p. 9) • As you consider what this may look like in your home, it may be helpful to remember that the disposition of silence is not just “not speaking,” but also speaking only what is essential.

For instance, it may be necessary to say a few words about the work to the brother you are working with. But these are kept to what is strictly necessary and come from the same posture of listening and attentiveness, which is the spirit of silence.

• Depending on the situation, it may not be possible to observe all of these times. If so, pick one period of time each day to do silence together.

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Lectio Divina To Remain in the Word

Lectio Divina Lectio divina is an ancient form of Christian prayer that involves a close and prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture. It is a way of encountering the Lord through the words of the Bible, leading to a powerful, enduring sense of the Lord’s presence in one’s daily life.

Selecting a Scripture passage: your director may suggest a passage to pray with, or you may select a daily or Sunday Mass passage. Some people pray through an entire Gospel or one of the other books of the Bible, taking short sections one at a time.

Start by putting yourself in the presence of God and by saying a prayer to the Holy Spirit to help you to open your heart to whatever the Lord wishes to give you in the Scripture passage. Now you are ready to enter into lectio divina.

“God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response.

As God gradually reveals Himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds through the whole history of salvation.”

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Steps of Lectio Divina First, read the passage (lectio) more than once— three times is recommended—very slowly, pausing at words that touch you in some way and letting them linger in your mind. Sometimes reading the passage out loud can help.

Second, meditate on the passage (meditatio). Ask questions of the text. Imagine yourself in the story or as one of the characters. Be aware of words or phrases that appear meaningful or mysterious. Find connections with events in one’s own life or with other parts of Scripture.

Third, pray over the passage (oratio). Let the previous two steps lead you to compose a prayer to the Lord, to speak to Him about the Scripture passage and your life. You may be moved to gratitude, adoration, petition, supplication, contrition, etc. Speak to the Lord about what is going on in your life as it connects to the passage.

Fourth, let the Holy Spirit work (contemplatio).

At this point, God takes over and responds. We must be receptive to all the different ways the Lord speaks to us. Sit in quiet gratitude for His loving Presence in your life and listen.

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Encountering God: ARRR Begin by placing yourself in the Divine Presence.

Remember, you are facing a God who loves you and desires a relationship with you.

Acknowledge: Dig deep and recognize your deepest feelings and emotions. Bring these into prayer, especially any negative emotions you may have. Ask questions of yourself: where am I today? Am I tired, lonely, angry, joyful, confused, not wanting to pray, etc.?

Relate: Speak to the Lord from the place of these emotions. Talk to Him as you would speak to a close friend. In expressing yourself, you are letting go and making space for a self-giving God. Receive: Listen to the Lord from a posture of receiving what He wishes to give you. The practice of lectio divina fits in well here, opening you up to the word He wishes to give you in lectio.

Respond: Make a resolution on how to live that word throughout the day. This has been called the “Fifth Step” of lectio divina.

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The Fifth Step of Lectio Take one some element from your time of lectio, for example, Jesus sitting at the well awaiting the Samaritan woman, walking on the road to Emmaus, or the father of the prodigal son embracing him, and focus exclusively on that. Imagine the scene and enter into it. Use that to ponder the meaning of the scene: Jesus thirsts for me, Jesus accompanies me through my life, the Father embraces me when I sin.

Stay with the deeper reality for an extended period of time, about 20-30 minutes. Sit comfortably, breathe at a regular pace, recall the initial scene when you are distracted, and stay there. Be at peace.

If your Scripture passage doesn’t lend itself to images, what word can you hold on to from the prayer? Stay with that word, repeating it softly, returning to it often.

Let this prayer word or the image be an anchor for you throughout the day.

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Meals To Share Life in Common

Meals A good rule includes time to be together, whether in conversation or absorbed in a common activity.

For most of us meals are the privileged place of spending time with one another. It is given as a moment for real communion, a fact reflected in our monastic architecture- our refectory is built parallel to the Abbey church, and both are preceded by a water font from which we bless ourselves and silently recall our baptismal election and unity before processing in.

This fact is so true for St. Benedict that the first sign of a brother who, through his worldly ways, has removed himself from the communion (excommunion) of the monastery, is that “he will not be allowed to share the common table” (RB 24:3).

This discipline is not given to punish so much as to make concrete what really happens to us when we affirm our ways over God’s ways, so to help the brother understand the nature of his fault and more swiftly enter into amending his ways and returning to the table.

Here at the monastery we speak at lunch and keep silence at dinner, listening together to a brother who reads something edifying for the heart and mind while we eat.

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Suggestions • If you are with others, eat meals together. If it is a “talking meal” have one conversation. Speak about what you have seen this day in your experience of this retreat. What has moved you? What has changed you? Why? What questions have these days provoked in you? Share and explore these together.

• If you are by yourself make meal time a special time of communion with our Lord. Set the table, perhaps light a candle, put attention into preparing your meal and take your time eating. Consider what your answer is to the questions above. Bring that to our Lord in silent, prayerful dialogue.

• Have table reading at dinner.

• We recommend reading the Gospel for the day, or a portion of it.

• If it is more appropriate for you to have a shorter table reading only for part of the meal, discuss struck you about that passage.

• Pick one person who can read well to read while others eat. If you are by yourself read your selection before beginning to eat. And then “chew on the Word” along with your food, slowly and thoughtfully.

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Suggestions continued

• St. Benedict provides further suggestions in his chapter on “The Reader for the Week”: Let there be complete silence. No whispering, no speaking–only the reader’s voice should be heard there. The brothers should by turn serve one another’s needs as they eat and drink, so that no one need ask for anything. If, however, anything is required, it should be requested by an audible signal of some kind rather than by speech… Brothers will read and sing, not according to rank, but according to their ability to benefit their hearers. (RB 38: 5-7, 12)

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Fasting To Educate Our Desire

Fasting In his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works” St. Benedict gives us the following: “Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ, discipline your body, do not pamper yourself, but love fasting” (RB 4:10-13).

The reason why fasting is something that can be good for us, and therefore lovable, becomes clearer in his chapter on “The Observance of Lent”: During these days, therefore, we will add to the usual measure of our service something by way of private prayer and abstinence from food or drink, so that each of us will have something above the assigned measure to offer God of his own will with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, let each one deny himself some food, drink, sleep, needless talking and idle jesting, and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing. (RB 40:5-7) Fasting at any time (not just during Lent) helps educate my desire for the parousia (advent) of Christ, that is his presence and arrival in my life- to experience what only the Christian can know- the experience now of the resurrection. Christ himself said his disciples will fast when the bridegroom (Christ) is absent. Therefore, when I fast I am praying with my body, Come, Lord Jesus! If I fast with this longing for the Bridegroom then indeed it will be permeated with joy. Like the lover in the Song of Songs I go out to seek Him who seeks me.

Joy is the fruit of this belonging.

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Suggestions • However you fast, freely take it up and remember why. If it feels like an imposition and just a duty to get through, stop and ask yourself why you are fasting. Ask for the Holy Spirit to enter into your fasting. To remind you for Whom you long in your fast. Pray, “Come Holy Spirit.”

• The USCCB articulates the basic norms for fast days: “When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal.”

One, of course, is free to do more. St. Benedict recommends seeking counsel from a superior first, though, to curb the possibility of “presumption and vainglory” (RB 49:9).

• Fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Wednesday is a traditional day of fast because it is the day Judas betrayed our Lord. It is a day on which Christ’s full divinity and humanity was veiled from us and we long to see Him as He truly is. The Church has us particularly fast on Friday, the day of our Lord’s death.

It is a day of great longing to see Him who is so hidden from our sight in the incomprehensibility of the Passion, when man killed God whom he did not know.

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Suggestions continued

• Move breakfast to lunch. Breakfast is whenever you break-fast. Consider making lunch your first meal of the day.

• Do not eat outside of communal times.

In his chapter concerning “Brothers on a Short Journey” (RB 51) St. Benedict essentially tells the brothers: don’t eat out (unless it is a special circumstance determined by the Abbot) on pain of excommunication. Why? Because where and with whom we eat expresses the place and people we belong to. And for us this place and people are found in Christ Himself. Therefore, the waiting of fasting becomes a waiting for Him, a praying for revelation- show me something new.

If we are not longing for the Bridegroom with all of our being – body, soul, and spirit – will we recognize Him at his advent, when He arrives?

Similarly, it has been said that if you do not know how to fast you will not know how to feast.

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Beaut y To Encounter the Mystery

Beaut y While St. Benedict is silent on the subject of contemplating art, the 1500+ year history of Benedictine monasticism has borne out the fact that art and beauty are very much at home with the monk and the monastery. Perhaps it is because, like the architecture of our monastery, art can make the invisible visible and point us to the infinite for which our hearts are made. Our own monastery walls are covered with works of art that are always there as an invitation to enter into what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls “the mysterious encounter known as prayer” (CCC 2567). The artistic genius gives shape and form to this encounter and so helps us more readily stand in awe before the mystery of God. For this reason throughout the booklet you will find the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone (12661337), especially drawn from his cycle on the life of Christ on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Italy.) The genius of Giotto expresses that mysterious meeting of heaven and earth revealed in the Incarnation when God, the inexpressible beyond which we long for, became flesh, became one of us and so became touchable, knowable. Giotto’s faces and figures show the sublime sweetness and grace of eternity within the pathos of our human experience.

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Suggestions • Art : Pay attention to the paintings in this booklet. Look at the details in each painting. Look at the faces, the hands, the gestures in each. What do they show?

What do they point to? How does it help you see more of the mystery of Christ?

• Music: Select a work of music, perhaps related to the liturgical season (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Sacred Paschal Triduum, Easter, Ordinary Time). Consider reading an introduction to the piece to prepare.

Then listen together in silence in one sitting, away from distractions, paying attention to movement of the music and words (if it has any). You may consider: • Bach – St. Matthew Passion • Bach – Violin Partitas • Beethoven – Concerto in C major – op.56 • Beethoven – String Quartet in A Minor – op. 132 • Brahms – Symphony no. 4 in E Minor – op.98 • Chopin – Nocturns • De Victoria – Tenebrae Responsories • Dvorak – Serenades op. 22 and op. 44 • Dvorak – Stabat Mater op. 58 - Leggende op. 59 • Mozart – Mass in C Minor • Mozart – Requiem • Pergolesi – Stabat Mater • Rachmaninov – All-Night Vigil • Schubert – Piano Trio no. 2 – op. 100 - Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2

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I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you.

Remain in my love. john 15:1-9

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Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: It is high time for us to arise from sleep (Rom 13:11). Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out this charge: If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts (Ps 94:8). And again: You that have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 2:7). And what does he say? Come and listen to me, sons; I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Ps 33:12). Run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you (John 12: 35). the rule of st. benedict prologue: 8-14

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Therefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord’s service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love. Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.

Never swerving from his instructions, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom. Amen. the rule of st. benedict prologue: 45-50

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Images used in this booklet are by Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), from a series of frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel – Padua, Italy

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