Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 1.5
What you will learn
- Identify what in a monastic rule can be carried into ordinary life and what cannot.
- Describe historical ways lay people have kept a rule: oblates, third orders, the prayer book, the Methodist rules and Orthodox prayer rules.
- Apply the principles of measure, regularity and service to a person with a job and a household.
- Draft the outline of a small rule with a floor and a ceiling.
The big idea
Monastic rules were written for people who had left ordinary life, yet lay Christians have used them for centuries. The adaptation works by keeping the principles and changing the details. Principles such as fixed times of prayer, regular reading, honest work, rest and hospitality can be kept by someone who has children, a job or an illness. Details such as hours of rising or the manner of fasting must be rebuilt around the duties of that person’s life.
Key terms
- Oblate
- A lay person who is formally associated with a monastery and tries to live by the spirit of its rule.
- Third order
- An association of lay people attached to a religious order, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans or Carmelites, who follow a rule suited to their state in life.
- Prayer rule
- In Orthodox usage, the set prayers a person agrees with a spiritual father to say each day, often morning and evening.
- Vocation
- A calling. In Christian teaching a person is called to particular duties, such as marriage, parenthood or a trade, as well as to prayer.
- Floor
- A minimum practice to be kept even on the worst day, such as one psalm and one prayer.
- Ceiling
- The fullest practice a person would attempt on a good day or in a good season, beyond the floor.
Background
From early centuries, ordinary Christians have borrowed from monastic practice. The prayer hours that developed in monasteries influenced the prayer of cathedral churches, and lay people attended or joined in. In the Middle Ages, groups of lay people attached themselves to monasteries and to the mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, and followed simplified rules suited to married life. These groups are still active today.
The Reformation changed the setting without ending the need. Protestants closed many monasteries but kept the idea of ordered daily prayer. Luther provided household prayers. The Church of England produced the Book of Common Prayer. Puritans developed family worship and personal diaries. John Wesley gave his followers detailed rules for the Methodist societies. Orthodox lay people in the same centuries kept their prayer rules, often given by a spiritual father. In every tradition the question was the same: how can the discipline of the cloister be carried into a house, a shop or a field?
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: What can be carried over
Several principles carry over directly. The first is regularity: prayer at set times, not only when moved. The second is measure, which Benedict names discretion, a pattern matched to the person. The third is the union of prayer with work and service, as in Basil. The fourth is welcome of guests. The fifth is review and counsel, since no one keeps a rule well alone.
These principles do not depend on a monastery. A mother with a newborn can keep a three-line prayer. A nurse on nights can shift the hours. What matters is the habit of return to God at fixed points, however small the points.
Step 2: What must change
Some things cannot be transferred. A monk can rise at three in the morning because the whole community sleeps early. A parent cannot. A monk can fast on a fixed diet because the kitchen serves it, and a person who must feed children or who has a medical condition cannot always follow the same fast. A monk has no spouse to consult. A lay person’s rule must be made with the family in mind and not at the family’s expense.
The right test is vocation. Paul writes that each should lead the life that the Lord has assigned (1 Corinthians 7:17), and he assumes that husbands and wives have duties to each other (1 Corinthians 7:3-5). A rule that undermines a person’s duties, such as time with a child or care for a parent, has misplaced the order of love.
Step 3: Historical models for lay people
Several models are worth knowing. Oblates and third-order members, Catholic, keep short offices and a few commitments. Orthodox Christians usually keep a modest prayer rule, with morning and evening prayers from a prayer book, and increase or reduce it with the guidance of a spiritual father. Anglicans have the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. Lutherans have the household prayers of the Small Catechism. Wesley’s General Rules told Methodists to do no harm, to do good and to attend upon the ordinances of God, which included public worship, the Lord’s Supper, family and private prayer, Scripture and fasting.
These models differ in tradition and detail but share a pattern: a small daily core, a weekly day for worship and rest, an annual cycle of seasons and a person who gives counsel.
Step 4: A floor and a ceiling
A useful way to draft a rule is to write two versions. The floor is the least that would still count as keeping faith with the rule on a day of illness or crisis. The ceiling is the most a person might do in a good season. Most days fall between them. The floor protects against all-or-nothing thinking, which is the most common reason for quitting. The ceiling gives room to grow without making the plan unrealistic.
Both versions should be small enough to survive the worst week in the year. A rule that works only in a quiet month is a plan for a different life.
- Which of my duties must the rule never reduce?
- What is the smallest practice I could keep on my hardest day?
- Who in my household would be affected by my rule, and have I asked them?
- Am I copying a monastic detail that does not fit my situation?
- Which tradition’s model attracts me, and what draws me to it?
- What is the first practice I would add, and what is the second?
Examples
A rule for a parent of small children
The floor: one verse of a psalm in the morning and the Lord’s Prayer at bedtime. The ceiling: a short evening office when the children are asleep and a longer reading on Sunday. The rule changes when the children grow. (A constructed example.)
A rule for a shift worker
A security guard builds his day around his rest and not around the clock. He prays when he wakes, on his break and before he sleeps, whatever the hour. His fixed point is the order of the three prayers, not the time on the clock. (A constructed example.)
A rule that crowded out a family
A man adopts a two-hour morning rule and leaves his wife to manage the children alone. After a year she says she feels abandoned. He shortens the rule and begins to pray with her. (A constructed example. Compare the lesson on withdrawal from responsibility in the earlier course.)
Different perspectives
The Catholic view
Catholic teaching holds that all the baptized are called to holiness, whether in marriage, work or religious life. The Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) speaks of a universal call to holiness. Lay Catholics keep rules through oblation, third orders and the Liturgy of the Hours.
The Orthodox view
Orthodox teaching on lay life stresses that monastic and lay Christians seek the same goal, though in different ways. Lay people typically keep a prayer rule suited to their state, adjusted with the help of a spiritual father, and are warned not to take on the monastic rule without guidance.
The Protestant view
Protestants teach that ordinary callings are holy and that the home and workplace are places of service to God. Luther and Calvin both stressed vocation. Many Protestants keep a daily quiet time, family devotions or the weekly cycle of worship, with no formal rule.
The critical view
Some Christians, and some scholars, doubt whether a practice designed for monks can be useful to others, and warn that borrowed forms can become a performance. The reply from the traditions is that the aim is not copying but adaptation, and that review and counsel guard against empty form.
Why it matters
Most readers of this course are not monks and will not become monks. The adaptation question decides whether the material is used or admired and put aside. A rule that fits the life of its keeper is more likely to be kept, and a rule that is kept shapes attention. The floor and ceiling method gives a beginner a way to plan realistically.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Adapting a rule means watering it down.
Correction: Adaptation matches a rule to a person’s duties. Benedict himself adjusted the rule for the weak. A rule that cannot be kept helps nobody.
Misunderstanding: A real rule must include fasting and early rising.
Correction: These are common in monastic rules, but they are not essential. Some people are ill, pregnant or on medication and should not fast. Others have no control over their sleeping hours. A rule should serve the person’s vocation.
Misunderstanding: Ordinary Christians do not need a rule.
Correction: Not every tradition uses that word, but nearly every tradition encourages daily prayer, Scripture, and a weekly day of worship and rest. Those together are a rule in practice.
Knowledge check
Name three historical ways lay people have kept a rule.
Examples: Catholic oblates and third-order members, who follow rules adapted for their state; Orthodox lay people with a prayer rule agreed with a spiritual father; Anglicans with the daily offices in the Book of Common Prayer; Lutherans with household prayers; Methodists with Wesley’s General Rules. Any three are correct.
What principles of a monastic rule carry over into lay life?
Regularity of prayer, measure or discretion, the union of prayer with work and service, welcome of guests, and review with counsel. These do not depend on a monastery and can be kept by a person with a family and a job.
What is the floor and ceiling method?
It means writing two versions of a rule. The floor is the least that counts as keeping the rule on the hardest day. The ceiling is the most attempted in a good season. The floor guards against all-or-nothing quitting, and the ceiling allows growth without making the plan unrealistic.
Why should a lay person’s rule consider the household?
Because a person’s vocation includes duties to a spouse, children, parents and employers. A rule that neglects these has put a private practice ahead of love. The test of a rule is whether it helps the person love God and neighbor better, not only whether it is kept.
Think it through
- What would your floor be for a week of illness?
- Which duties in your life are most easily crowded out by a rule?
- Whom would you ask to read your draft rule and tell you if it is realistic?
Independent assignment
A floor and a ceiling
In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Draft a daily rule in two versions: a floor and a ceiling. Include times, lengths, places and the items to be done (prayer, reading, any other practice). Then list the people who would be affected and what you would need to discuss with them. Put the date of your first review at the bottom. Do not post it.
Further study
- Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict Read chapter 73 and the short chapters on the weak and the sick.
- Martin Luther, The Small Catechism Read the household prayers and the table of duties.
- John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions Read sermons on the use of money and on the means of grace.
- Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Read selectively for a lay-friendly approach to the interior life.
- 1 Corinthians 7:17 Each should lead the life assigned.
- Colossians 3:23 Work as for the Lord.