Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 1.4
What you will learn
- Describe who Benedict of Nursia was and how his Rule is organized.
- Explain Benedict’s emphasis on moderation, discretion and stability.
- Identify what the Rule says about prayer, work, reading and guests.
- Explain why the Rule became the foundation of Western monasticism and a guide for lay people.
The big idea
Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 to c. 547) wrote a short rule for monks that became the foundation of Western monasticism. It is notable for its balance. Benedict asks for steady prayer, regular work and sacred reading, in a community under a wise abbot, without heroic extremes. He calls the monastery a school for the Lord’s service and says that he intends nothing harsh or burdensome. For ordinary Christians, the Rule is the best-known example of a rule that measures what a person can actually keep.
Key terms
- Abbot
- The head of a monastery. In the Rule the abbot acts in the place of Christ in the community but is told to govern with care and to take counsel.
- Discretion
- The ability to judge what is fitting for a particular person and time. Benedict calls it the mother of virtues.
- Stability
- A monk’s promise to remain in one community for life, and not to wander from place to place.
- Opus Dei
- Latin for the work of God. Benedict’s name for the common prayer of the monastery, the Divine Office.
- Lectio divina
- Sacred reading. In the Rule it is reading of Scripture and other holy writings done slowly and prayerfully, apart from the hours of common prayer.
- Oblate
- A lay person associated with a monastery who tries to follow the spirit of the Rule in ordinary life.
Background
Benedict was born near Nursia in central Italy around 480. According to Gregory the Great’s Dialogues, the main early source for his life, he left his studies in Rome, lived for a time as a hermit at Subiaco, and later founded a monastery at Monte Cassino, where he died around 547. Gregory’s account is a work of edification with miracle stories, and historians read it with care. The Rule itself is the stronger evidence for his teaching.
The Rule has a Prologue and 73 short chapters. It draws on earlier writings, in particular an anonymous work known as the Rule of the Master, as well as Cassian and Basil, and the Bible. Benedict says in his last chapter that it is only a small beginning for those hastening to perfection, and he points readers to the Scriptures, the church fathers, Cassian’s writings and the rule of Basil for more. The Rule’s modesty is part of its character.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: A school and a measure
The Prologue invites the reader to listen with the ear of the heart. It calls the monastery a school for the Lord’s service and says that, in establishing it, Benedict hopes to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. He adds that if some strictness is needed for correcting faults or keeping love, the reader should not run away in fear, because the way is narrow at the beginning.
Measure is a recurring theme. Benedict sets amounts of food and drink, of sleep and of clothing, and in each case leaves room for the weak, the sick and the old. He wants the strong to have something to strive for and the weak nothing to run from. In chapter 64 he says that the abbot should use discretion, called the mother of virtues, so that the strong have something to desire and the weak do not flee.
Step 2: The Work of God
Chapters 8 to 20 set out the daily prayer of the community. They arrange the psalms across the week and give a pattern of night vigils and day hours: Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. Benedict cites the Psalms, including the words of Psalm 119:164 about praising seven times a day, to explain why the hours are set as they are. He wants the Psalter prayed through in a week and says that earlier monks managed it in a day, a remark that shows he is making concessions for weakness.
Benedict writes that nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God. He also gives directions on reverence. Chapter 20 asks that prayer be short and pure unless prolonged by the inspiration of divine grace. It is a guide for people who pray daily for years, not a call for display.
Step 3: Work, reading and hospitality
Chapter 48 begins with the line that idleness is the enemy of the soul and sets out the monks’ day: set hours for manual labor and set hours for sacred reading. The seasons change the hours, so that the schedule is adapted to the year. Benedict allows lighter duties for the weak. Lent is a time for extra reading, and each monk is to receive a book to read through.
Chapter 53 says that all guests who arrive should be received as Christ, recalling Matthew 25:35. The abbot and community greet them, pray with them and wash their feet. Hospitality is not an interruption of the monastic life. It is part of it.
Step 4: Stability and obedience
A monk promises stability, conversion of life and obedience. Stability means staying in the same community and not looking for a more comfortable place. Obedience means listening, and the Rule also asks the abbot to listen to the youngest in the community when the matter is serious, because God often reveals the better course to the younger.
These promises are not marks of an ordinary Christian. They do show what the Rule values: staying put, listening and being willing to be taught. Lay readers adapt these virtues to their own settings, for instance by staying faithful to a practice during dull weeks.
- Where in my life do I demand too much of myself, and where too little?
- Who is the weakest person I deal with, and do my habits take account of them?
- What would it mean for nothing to be preferred to prayer in my day?
- What would my schedule look like if idleness and busyness were both treated as enemies?
- How do I receive guests and strangers: as an interruption or as Christ?
- Am I tempted to leave a practice when it becomes dull, and what would stability require?
Examples
A Benedictine day
A monastery rises early for vigils, prays Lauds at dawn, works in the morning, prays Terce, Sext and None through the day, reads in the afternoon and gathers for Vespers and Compline. The pattern is shaped by seasons, with longer hours of work in summer and more reading in Lent. (A general outline, not a detailed timetable.)
A lay oblate
A schoolteacher is attached to a monastery as an oblate. She prays morning and evening from a short form of the Hours, reads a few verses of the Rule each day and visits the monastery once a month. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
The Catholic view
Catholics honor Benedict as the father of Western monasticism and as patron of Europe, a title given by Pope Paul VI in 1964. The Rule is followed by Benedictine, Cistercian and Trappist communities, and lay Catholics use it as oblates.
The Orthodox view
Benedict lived before the division between East and West, and Orthodox Christians in the West honor him as a saint. Orthodox monasticism generally follows the Eastern fathers and Basil rather than Benedict, but the Rule is respected as an ancient and sound expression of the monastic tradition.
The Protestant view
Protestants criticize the idea that monastic vows are a higher state, and the Reformers closed monasteries in many lands. Yet many Protestants admire the Rule, and some Protestant communities and writers have used it for its balance of prayer, work and hospitality.
The scholarly view
Historians describe the Rule as a work of practical moderation, partly borrowed from the Rule of the Master, which is longer and stricter. Scholars debate the order in which the two rules were written. Most now hold that the Master came first.
Why it matters
Benedict is the clearest example of a rule built around what people can really do. His insistence on measure, on a place for the weak and on welcome of strangers corrects the common idea that serious practice means extreme practice. A student who reads even a few chapters will see how ordinary life, with its meals, tasks and guests, can be turned toward God without leaving it.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Benedict’s rule is a harsh system of punishments.
Correction: The Rule does include penalties for faults, and they belong to its time. But its stated aim is nothing harsh or burdensome, and it repeatedly provides for the weak.
Misunderstanding: The famous phrase ora et labora, pray and work, is in the Rule.
Correction: The phrase is a later summary. The Rule speaks of the Work of God, manual labor and sacred reading, but does not contain those words.
Misunderstanding: The Rule is only for monks and cannot be used by others.
Correction: It was written for monks, but lay people have used it for centuries, as oblates or by borrowing its ideas of moderation, hospitality and steady prayer.
Knowledge check
Who was Benedict, and what is the Rule?
Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 to c. 547) was an Italian monk who founded the monastery of Monte Cassino. He wrote a Rule of a Prologue and 73 chapters for monks living in community. It became the foundation of Western monasticism and is valued for its balance and moderation.
What does Benedict mean by calling the monastery a school for the Lord’s service?
He means a place where people learn by repeated practice under guidance, not a place of punishment or testing. The monastic life trains the heart in prayer, obedience and love. He states that he intends to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome.
What are the main parts of the monastic day in the Rule?
The day has three parts: the Work of God, meaning the common prayer of the hours; manual labor; and sacred reading. The proportions change with the seasons, and rest, meals and sleep are provided for. Guests are received as Christ.
Why does Benedict value discretion?
He calls it the mother of virtues because it adjusts the rule to the strengths and weaknesses of each person. The abbot should arrange things so that the strong have something to strive for and the weak do not run away. Without discretion, zeal can do harm.
Think it through
- What would a measured rule look like for someone with your health, family and job?
- Does your own tradition take hospitality as seriously as chapter 53 does?
- Why might a rule that provides for the weak actually help the strong?
Independent assignment
A reading of the Rule
In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Read the Prologue and chapters 48 and 53 of the Rule in the library edition. Copy one sentence from each. For each, write two sentences about what it asks and how you might apply it in your own day. Then say where you disagree with the Rule, and why. Do not post this.
Further study
- Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict Read the Prologue and chapters 8 to 20, 48 and 53.
- John Cassian, The Institutes Benedict recommends Cassian. Read Book 2 on the night and day prayer.
- John Cassian, The Conferences Read the conference on discretion.
- Psalm 119:164 Seven times a day I praise you.
- Matthew 25:35 I was a stranger and you took me in.
- Matthew 11:30 My yoke is easy.