July 17-31

Excerpts from
THE RULE OF BENEDICT: INSIGHTS FOR THE AGES
Joan Chittister, OSB

CHAPTER 38. THE READER FOR THE WEEK
March 17 - July 17 - Nov. 16

Reading will always accompany the meals. The reader should not be the one who just happens to pick up the book, but someone who will read for a whole week, beginning on Sunday. After Mass and Communion, let the incoming reader ask all to pray for her so that God may shield her from the spirit of vanity. Let her begin this verse in the oratory: "O God, open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise (Ps. 51:17)," and let all say it three times. When she has received a blessing, the reader will begin her week of reading.

Let there be complete silence. No whispering, no speaking-only the reader's voice should be heard there. The members 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. No one should presume to ask a question about the reading or about anything else, "lest occasion be given to the Evil One (Eph. 4:27; 1 Tm. 5:14)." The prioress, however, may wish to say a few words of instruction.

Because of Communion and because the fast may be too hard for her to bear, the one who is reader for the week is to receive some diluted wine before she begins to read. Afterward she will take her meal with the weekly kitchen servers and the attendants.

Members will read and sing, not according to rank, but according to their ability to benefit their hearers.

In the course of the meal, the monastics are to concentrate on two things: the words of the reading and the needs of their neighbors. It is an astonishing demonstration of the nature of the entire Christian life frozen in a single frame.


CHAPTER 39. THE PROPER AMOUNT OF FOOD
March 18 - July 18 - Nov. 17

For the daily meals, whether at noon or in mid-afternoon, it is enough, we believe, to provide all the tables with two kinds of cooked food because of individual weaknesses. In this way, a monastic who may not be able to eat one kind of food may partake of the other. Two kinds of cooked food, therefore, should suffice for all, and if fruit or fresh vegetables are available, a third dish may also be added. A generous pound of bread is enough for a day whether for only one meal or for both dinner and supper. In the latter case the cellarer will set aside one third of this pound and give it to the community at supper.

Should it happen that the work is heavier than usual, the prioress may decide - and she will have the authority-to grant something additional, provided that it is appropriate, and that above all overindulgence is avoided, lest anyone experience indigestion. For nothing is so inconsistent with the life of any Christian as overindulgence. Scripture says: "Take care that your hearts are not weighted down with overindulgence (Lk. 21:34)."

The young should not receive the same amount as their elders, but less, since in all matters frugality is the rule. Let everyone, except the sick who are very weak, abstain entirely from eating the meat of four-footed animals.

Everybody needs something in life to make the rest of life doable and uplifting. The important thing in the spiritual life is that while we are creating penances for ourselves to build up our moral fiber we are also providing possibilities for ourselves to build up our spiritual joy.


CHAPTER 40. THE PROPER AMOUNT OF DRINK
March 19 - July 19 - Nov. 18

"Everyone has their own gifts from God, one this and another that (1 Cor. 7:7)." It is, therefore, with some uneasiness that we specify the amount of food and drink for others. However, with due regard for the infirmities of the sick, we believe that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient for each. But those to whom God gives the strength to abstain must know that they will earn their own reward.

The prioress will determine when local conditions, work or the summer heat indicates the need for a greater amount. She must, in any case, take great care lest excess or drunkenness creep in. We read that monastics should not drink wine at all, but since the monastics of our day cannot be convinced of this, let us at least agree to drink moderately, and not to the point of excess, for "wine makes even the wise go astray (Sir. 19:2)."

However, where local circumstances dictate an amount much less than what is stipulated above, or even none at all, those who live there should bless God and not grumble. Above all else we admonish all to refrain from grumbling.

Growth is not an accident. Growth is a process. We have to want to grow. We have to will to move away the stones that entomb us in ourselves. We have to work at uprooting the weeds that are smothering good growth in ourselves. Benedict doesn't tell us how much to eat. He simply provides the food and trusts us to make a choices to discipline ourselves somehow, some way, so that we do not sink into a mire of self-satisfaction so thick that there is no rescue for our sated souls.


CHAPTER 41. THE TIMES FOR MEALS
March 20 - July 20 - Nov. 19

From Easter to Pentecost, the members eat at noon and take supper in the evening. Beginning with Pentecost and continuing throughout the summer, the members fast until mid-afternoon on Wednesday and Friday, unless they are working in the fields or the summer heat is oppressive.

On the other days they eat dinner at noon. Indeed, the prioress may decide that they should continue to eat dinner at noon every day if they have work in the fields or if the summer heat remains extreme. Similarly, she should so regulate and arrange all matters that souls may be saved and the members may go about their activities without justifiable grumbling.

From the thirteenth of September to the beginning of Lent, they always take their meal in mid-afternoon. Finally, from the beginning of Lent to Easter, they eat towards evening. Let Vespers be celebrated early enough so that there is no need for a lamp while eating, and that everything can be finished by daylight. Indeed, at all times let supper or the hour of the fast-day meal be so scheduled that everything can be done by daylight.

It isn't that Benedictine spirituality is meant to be lax; it is that it is meant to be sensible and it is meant to be serene. What is the use of making up difficulties when all we really have to do in life is to learn to bear well what must, under any circumstances, be borne.


CHAPTER 42. SILENCE AFTER COMPLINE
March 21 - July 21 - Nov. 20

Monastics should diligently cultivate silence at all times, but especially at night. Accordingly, this will always be the arrangement whether for fast days or for ordinary days. When there are two meals, all will sit together immediately after rising from supper. Someone should read from the Conference or the Lives of the early Church writers or at any rate something else that will benefit the hearers, but not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, because it will not be good for those of weak understanding to hear these writings at that hour; they should be read at other times.

On fast days there is to be a short interval between Vespers and the reading of the Conferences, as we have indicated. Then let four or five pages be read, or as many as time permits. This reading period will allow for all to come together, in case any were engaged in assigned tasks. When all have assembled, they should pray Compline; and on leaving Compline, no one will be permitted to speak further. If anyone is found to transgress this rule of silence, she must be subjected to severe punishment, except on occasions when guests require attention or the prioress wishes to give someone a command, but even this is to be done with the utmost seriousness and proper restraint.

The constantly blaring music, the slammed door, the ceaseless, empty chatter in the hall, the constantly harsh voice all break the peace of the heart and agitate the soul.Day after day, month after month of them thickens the walls of the mind until it becomes impossible to hear the talk within us that shows us our pain and opens our mind to the truths of life and the presence of God.


CHAPTER 43. TARDINESS AT THE OPUS DEI OR AT TABLE
March 22 - July 22 - Nov. 21

On hearing the signal for an hour of the divine office, the monastic will immediately set aside what she has in hand and go with utmost speed, yet with gravity and without giving occasion for frivolity. Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the Opus Dei.

If at Vigils anyone comes after the Doxology of Psalm 95, which we wish, therefore, to be said quite deliberately and slowly, she is not to stand in her regular place in choir. She must take the last place of all, or one set apart by the prioress for such offenders, that they may be seen by her and by all, until they do penance by public satisfaction at the end of the Opus Dei. We have decided, therefore, that they ought to stand either in the last place or apart from the others so that the attention they attract will shame them into amending. Should they remain outside the oratory, there may be those who would return to bed and sleep, or, worse yet, settle down outside and engage in idle talk, thereby "giving occasion to the Evil One (Eph. 4:27; 1 Tm. 5:14)." They should come inside so that they will not lose everything and may amend in the future.

At the day hours the same rule applies to anyone who comes after the opening verse and the Doxology of the first psalm following it: she is to stand in the last place. Until she has made satisfaction, the monastic is not to presume to join the choir of those praying the psalms, unless perhaps the prioress pardons her and grants an exception. Even in this case, the one at fault is still bound to satisfaction.

It is a lesson to be relearned in a modern age perhaps. There is nothing more important in our own list of important things to do in life than to stop at regular times, in regular ways to remember what life is really about, where it came from, why we have it, what we are to do with it, and for whom we are to live it.


CHAPTER 43: TARDINESS AT THE OPUS DEI OR AT TABLE-continued
March 23 - July 23 - Nov. 22

If someone does not come to table before the verse so that all may say the verse and pray and sit down at table together, and if this failure happens through the individual's own negligence or fault, she should be reproved up to the second time. If she still does not amend, let her not be permitted to share the common table, but take her meals alone, separated from the company of all. Her portion of wine should be taken away until there is satisfaction and amendment. Anyone not present for the verse said after meals is to be treated in the same manner.

No one is to presume to eat or drink before or after the time appointed. Moreover, if anyone is offered something by the prioress and refuses it, then, if later she wants what she refused or anything else, she should receive nothing at all until she has made appropriate amends.

In a world of fast food drive-through restaurants, multiple family schedules, and three-car garages, the family meal has taken a decided second place in the spiritual and social formation of the culture. In Benedictine spirituality, however, the sacramental value of a meal is that the human concern we promise daily at the altar is demonstrated in the dining room where we prepare and serve and clean up after one another.


CHAPTER 44. SATISFACTION BY THE EXCOMMUNICATED
March 24 - July 24 - Nov. 23

Anyone excommunicated for serious faults from the oratory and from the table is to prostrate herself in silence at the oratory entrance at the end of the celebration of the Opus Dei. She should lie face down at the feet of all as they leave the oratory, and let her do this until the prioress judges she has made satisfaction. Next, at the bidding of the prioress, she is to prostrate herself at the feet of the prioress, then at the feet of all that they may pray for her. Only then, if the prioress orders, should she be admitted to the choir in the rank the prioress assigns. Even so, she should not presume to lead a psalm or a reading or anything else in the oratory without further instructions from the prioress. In addition, at all the hours, as the Opus Dei is being completed, she must prostrate herself in the place she occupies. She will continue this form of satisfaction until the prioress again bids her cease.

Those excommunicated for less serious faults from the table only are to make satisfaction in the oratory for as long as the prioress orders. They do so until she gives her blessing and says: "Enough."

The ancients tell the story of the distressed person who came to the Holy One for help. "Do you really want a cure?" the Holy One asked. "If I did not, would I bother to come to you?" the disciple answered. "Oh, yes," the master said, "most people do." And the disciple said, incredulously, "But what for then?" And the Holy One answered, "Well, not for a cure. That's painful. They come for relief."

CHAPTER 45. MISTAKES IN THE ORATORY
March 25 - July 25 - Nov. 24

Should anyone make a mistake in a psalm, responsory, refrain or reading, she must make satisfaction there before all. If she does not use this occasion to humble herself, she will be subjected to more severe punishment for failing to correct by humility the wrong committed through negligence. Youth, however, are to be whipped for such a fault.

To fail to prepare the prayer, to pray poorly, and sloppily, to read the Scripture to people who do not have books and to read it without care, without sense, without accuracy is to strike at the very core of the community life. It is a fault serious enough to undermine the spiritual life of the community. It is not to be endured.


CHAPTER 46. FAULTS COMMITTED IN OTHER MATTERS
March 26 - July 26 - Nov. 25

If someone commits a fault while at any work - while working in the kitchen, in the storeroom, in serving, in the bakery, in the garden, in any craft or anywhere else-either by breaking or losing something or failing in any other way in any other place, she must at once come before the prioress and community and of her own accord admit her fault and make satisfaction. If it is made known through another, she is to be subjected to a more severe correction.

When the cause of the sin lies hidden in her conscience, she is to reveal it only to the prioress or to one of the spiritual elders, who know how to heal their own wounds as well as those of others, without exposing them and making them public.

Everybody needs somebody to whom they can reveal themselves without fear of punishment or pain. Everybody, at sometime in life, wrestles with an angel that threatens to overpower them. Contemporary society, with its bent for anonymity and pathological individualism and transience, has institutionalized the process in psychological consulting services and spiritual direction centers. Benedict would have approved. He wanted people to work skillfully with the souls of others. He would probably also have found some of it unnecessary. What we need, he says, are people in our lives who care enough about us to lead us through life's various stages gently.


CHAPTER 47. ANNOUNCING THE HOURS FOR THE OPUS DEI
March 27 - July 27 - Nov. 26

It is the prioress' care to announce, day and night, the hour for the Opus Dei. She may do so personally or delegate the responsibility to a conscientious member, so that everything may be done at the proper time.

Only those so authorized are to lead psalms and refrains, after the prioress according to their rank. No one should presume to read or sing unless she is able to benefit the hearers; let this be done with humility, seriousness and reverence, and at the bidding of the prioress.

The stress on our responsibility to call ourselves to prayer is an insight as fresh for the twenty-first century as it was for the sixth.


CHAPTER 48. THE DAILY MANUAL LABOR
March 28 - July 28 - Nov. 27

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the community should have specified periods for manual labor as well as time for prayerful reading.

We believe that the times for both may be arranged as follows: From Easter to the first of October, they will spend their mornings after Prime till about the fourth hour at whatever work needs to be done. From the fourth hour until the time of Sext, they will devote themselves to reading. But after Sext and their meal, they may rest on their beds in complete silence; should anyone wish to read privately, let her do so, but without disturbing the others. They should say None a little early, about midway through the eighth hour, and then until Vespers they are to return to whatever work is necessary. They must not become distressed if local conditions or their poverty should force them to do the harvesting themselves. When they live by the labor of their hands, as our ancestors and the apostles did, then they are really monastics. Yet, all things are to be done with moderation on account of the fainthearted.

Benedictine spirituality exacts something so much harder for our century than rigor. Benedictine spirituality demands balance. Immediately after Benedict talks about the human need to work, to fill our lives with something useful and creative and worthy of our concentration, he talks about lectio, about holy reading and study.


CHAPTER 48. THE DAILY MANUAL LABOR-continued
March 29 - July 29 - Nov. 28

From the first of October to the beginning of Lent, the members ought to devote themselves to reading until the end of the second hour. At this time Terce is said and they are to work at their assigned tasks until None. At the first signal for the hour of None, all put aside their work to be ready for the second signal. Then after their meal they will devote themselves to their reading or to the psalms.

During the days of Lent, they should be free in the morning to read until the third hour, after which they will work at their assigned tasks until the end of the tenth hour. During this time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read the whole of it straight through. These books are to be distributed at the beginning of Lent.

Above all, one or two elders must surely be appointed to make the rounds of the monastery while the members are reading. Their duty is to see that no one is so apathetic as to waste time or engage in idle talk to the neglect of her reading, and so not only harm herself but also distract others. If such a person is found - God forbid - she should be reproved a first and a second time. If she does not amend, she must be subjected to the punishment of the Rule as a warning to others. Further, members ought not to associate with one another at inappropriate times.

Benedictine spiritualiyt says life is to be struggled through and worked at and concentrated on and cultivated. It is not a matter of simply going through it and hoping that enough of the rust of time is removed by accident to make us burnished spiritual adults.


CHAPTER 48. THE DAILY MANUAL LABOR-continued
March 30 - July 30 - Nov. 29

On Sunday all are to be engaged in reading except those who have been assigned various duties. If anyone is so remiss and indolent that she is unwilling or unable to study or to read, she is to be given some work in order that she may not be idle.

Those who are sick or weak should be given a type of work or craft that will keep them busy without overwhelming them or driving them away. The prioress must take their infirmities into account.

The sight of a grandmother in a garden or an uncle on a lawn mower, an old monastic tatting lace or a crippled young man lurching stiffly to the office may be just what the rest of us need to begin again down our healthy but tiresome paths.


CHAPTER 49. THE OBSERVANCE OF LENT
March 31 - July 31 - Nov. 30

The life of a monastic ought to be a continuous Lent. Since few, however, have the strength for this, we urge the entire community during these days of Lent to keep its manner of life most pure and to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times. This we can do in a fitting manner by refusing to indulge in evil habits and by devoting ourselves to prayer with tears, to reading, to compunction of heart and self-denial. 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 our own will with the joy of the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 1:6). In other words, let each one deny herself some food, drink, sleep, needless talking and idle jesting, and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing.

Everyone should, however, make known to the prioress what she intends to do, since it ought to be done with the prioress’ prayer and approval. Whatever is undertaken without the permission of the prioress will be reckoned as presumption and vainglory, not deserving a reward. Therefore, everything must be done with the prioress’ approval.

Benedict counsels the zealous to submit themselves to the scrutiny of wisdom so that the spiritual remedies they fancy have the merit of the tried and the true, the sensible and the measured. It is so easy to ply extremes and miss the river of tradition. This chapter reminds us that the purpose of personal restraint is to develop us, not to ravage our energies or confuse our perspective on life.