The Benedictine Handbook

Part One

Saint Benedict’s Rule

A Short Introduction

It may seem extravagant today to suggest that not only monks and nuns but also ordinary laymen and lay women of the twenty-first century can learn something invaluable about themselves and about how to live their lives on this earth by reading what St Benedict wrote in the sixth century and by taking it to heart. Yet in considering that strange proposition we might start by looking at the actual use of the Rule throughout the ages, and reflecting that it has been alive and active through all the centuries that have elapsed since it was written. During all that time it has provided spiritual inspiration to countless monks and nuns in their desire to dedicate their whole being to God. During all that time it has also stretched out beyond the walls of the monasteries. It has given spiritual inspiration and encouragement to many of the laity who have been associated as oblates with Benedictine abbeys throughout the world. And now in this present age it has gone even further than that.

Since the Second Vatican Council the Rule has acquired a new lease of life among the laity. There have been young lay movements in the Church that have adopted St Benedict’s Rule to provide them with structure and guidance in their way of life. There have been lay groups at parochial and national level who have found in it much of the spiritual inspiration that they seek in their desire to lead lay lives in more faithful service of Christ and of their fellow men and women. There have been groups in other Churches, Anglican, Episcopalian, Protestant, who have recognized in the Rule a seminal document from the days before the schisms and sad divisions of Christianity and find in it a source of spirituality untainted by the rancour of division. There are Buddhists in open, peaceful dialogue with Christianity who have found in the Rule of St Benedict echoes, affirmations and analogies which correspond with something in their own search for self-understanding, for community, for harmony and for ultimate meaning in their journey of life. All this evidence of a new life for the Rule among the laity is no dream but solid fact of what has actually already happened. It raises the deep and interesting question about what it is in the Rule that can span the centuries in this way and still provide spiritual inspiration for the future.

The Rule was written by St Benedict for his monks to guide them in their search for God through their life of dedication. Whatever the sources and influences that went into its creation, it has a simplicity and directness of appeal which is still powerful. It is without pretension and is written in the rough, common Latin of the time, which is far from the polished sonority of classical Latin but which has a deeply attractive rhythm of its own. St Benedict had an ear for the music of words. He also had an insight into the hearts of human beings in their search for self-knowledge and truth and meaning in life. There are parts of the Rule which are simply regulations, so necessary to make community life harmonious and possible. There are parts which are disciplinary, which are there – in Benedict’s own words – because they are ‘demanded reasonably for the correction of vice and the preservation of love’.¹ Yet, even when he is dealing with the control of real wickedness, it is never stern regulations that matter to him but the ultimate supremacy of prayer and love. Thus he recommends that, when all other means have failed to correct wrongdoing, the abbot should turn to something ‘which is still more powerful’ than any disciplinary measures, ‘namely the personal prayer of the superior and of all the community that the Lord, who can do all things, may himself bring healing to the delinquent’.²

The real heart of the Rule, however, and the power which has kept it alive and relevant to Christian life today is not the regulations and practical directions for community living, valuable though they are. The heart of the Rule is in the chapters of spiritual guidance which are so full of the timeless wisdom of scripture. Outstanding among these are the Prologue, Chapter 4 on guidelines for Christian living, Chapter 7 on humility, the chapters of guidance for the abbot in the exercise of authority and Chapter 72, which in a few short sentences summarizes the whole spirit of the Rule. In these chapters and in many other passages which could be quoted, St Benedict writes as though speaking in intimate dialogue with a young aspirant who is seeking his advice. His manner, and his very words, are couched in this vein so that he seems even to be offering himself more as a spiritual companion than as a masterful leader in the journey of life. He achieves this through reflections of great depth on our relationships with our creator, our redeemer, on our use of the world we live in, on our interaction with each other, on our considered assessment of ourselves and our place in the universe, on freedom from vice and egomania, on our search for a peace and a fulfilment which is free from arrogance, greed, anger and all that disturbs the inner tranquility of ‘that love of God which in its fullness casts out all fear’.³

There is one other point to be made and it is perhaps the most important of all. St Benedict does not speak on his own authority. He is personally formed on the word of God in scripture and his language is shot through with scriptural phrases and concepts. Even when he is not actually quoting scripture there is usually a scriptural echo in his words. The whole power of the Rule, then, comes from the word of scripture and that is what makes its message timeless, participating, as it does, in the richness of the word of scripture which is ever old and ever new.

A Note on the Text

In the Latin text of the Rule the sentences in each chapter have been numbered. This may sometimes be a help to scholarly study. This translation, however, is intended to be read holistically as an experience of sacred reading which is close to prayer or meditation. References can nevertheless be made to it by chapter and paragraph. Where references to the text have been made in this book they have followed that pattern.

Patrick Barry OSB

Notes

1. See Prologue, last paragraph.

2. See Chapter 28.

3. See Chapter 7, last paragraph.

Saint Benedict’s Rule

A New Translation for Today

Patrick Barry OSB

CONTENTS

Prologue to the Rule

1 Four approaches to monastic life

2 Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess

3 Calling the community together for consultation

4 Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice

5 Monastic obedience

6 Cherishing silence in the monastery

7 The value of humility

8 The Divine Office at night

9 The number of psalms at the night office

10 The night office in summertime

11 Vigils or night office on Sunday

12 The celebration of solemn Lauds

13 Lauds on ordinary days

14 The celebration of Vigils on feasts of saints

15 When the Alleluia should be said

16 The hours of the work of God during the day

17 The number of psalms to be sung at the hours

18 The order for reciting the psalms

19 Our approach to prayer

20 The ideal of true reverence in prayer

21 The deans of the monastery

22 Sleeping arrangements for the community

23 Faults which deserve excommunication

24 Different degrees of severity in punishment

25 Punishment for more serious faults

26 Unlawful association with the excommunicated

27 The superior’s care for the excommunicated

28 The treatment of those who relapse

29 The readmission of any who leave the monastery

30 The correction of young children

31 The qualities required by the cellarer

32 The tools and property of the monastery

33 Personal possessions in the monastery

34 Fair provision for the needs of all

35 Weekly servers in the kitchen and at table

36 The care of the sick in the monastery

37 Care for the elderly and the young

38 The weekly reader

39 The amount of food to be made available

40 The proper amount of drink to be provided

41 The times for community meals

42 The great silence after Compline

43 Late-comers for the work of God or in the refectory

44 The reconciliation of those excommunicated

45 Mistakes in the oratory

46 Faults committed elsewhere

47 Signalling the times for the work of God

48 Daily manual labour

49 How Lent should be observed in the monastery

50 Those whose work takes them away from the monastery

51 Those on local errands or work

52 The oratory of the monastery

53 The reception of guests

54 The reception of letters and gifts in the monastery

55 Clothing and footwear for the community

56 The table for the superior and community guests

57 Members of the community with creative gifts

58 The reception of candidates for the community

59 Children offered by nobles or by the poor

60 The admission of priests into the monastery

61 Monastic pilgrims from far away

62 The priests of the monastery

63 Community order

64 The election of an abbot or abbess

65 The prior or prioress of the monastery

66 The porter or portress of the monastery

67 Those who are sent on a journey

68 The response to orders that seem impossible

69 No one should act as advocate for another

70 The offence of striking another

71 Mutual obedience in the monastery

72 The good spirit which should inspire monastic life

73 This Rule is only a beginning

Notes

Prologue to The Rule

LISTEN, CHILD OF GOD, TO THE GUIDANCE OF YOUR teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure that it pierces to your heart, so that you may accept with willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father. It is not easy to accept and persevere in obedience, but it is the way to return to Christ, when you have strayed through the laxity and carelessness of disobedience. My words are addressed to you especially, whoever you may be, whatever your circumstances, who turn from the pursuit of your own self-will and ask to enlist under Christ, who is Lord of all, by following him through taking to yourself that strong and blessed armour of obedience which he made his own on coming into our world.

This, then, is the beginning of my advice: make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that you attempt. Persevere and do not weaken in that prayer. Pray with confidence, because God, in his love and forgiveness, has counted us as his own sons and daughters. Surely we should not by our evil acts heartlessly reject that love. At every moment of our lives, as we use the good things he has given us, we can respond to his love only by seeking to obey his will for us. If we should refuse, what wonder to find ourselves disinherited! What wonder if he, confronted and repelled by the evil in us, should abandon us like malicious and rebellious subjects to the never-ending pain of separation since we refused to follow Him to glory.

However late, then, it may seem, let us rouse ourselves from lethargy. That is what scripture urges on us when it says: the time has come for us to rouse ourselves from sleep.¹ Let us open our eyes to the light that can change us into the likeness of God. Let our ears be alert to the stirring call of his voice crying to us every day: today, if you should hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.² And again: let anyone with ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.³ And this is what the Spirit says: Come my children, hear me, and I shall teach you the fear of the Lord.⁴ Run, while you have the light of life, before the darkness of death overtakes you.⁵

It is to find workers in his cause that God calls out like that to all peoples. He calls to us in another way in the psalm when he says: Who is there with a love of true life and a longing for days of real fulfilment?⁶ If you should hear that call and answer: ‘I’, this is the answer you will receive from God: If you wish to have that true life that lasts for ever, then keep your tongue from evil; let your lips speak no deceit; turn away from wrongdoing; seek out peace and pursue it.⁷ If you do that, he says, I shall look on you with such love and my ears will be so alert to your prayer that, before you so much as call on me, I shall say to you: here I am.⁸ What gentler encouragement could we have, my dear brothers and sisters, than that word from the Lord calling us to himself in such a way! We can see with what loving concern the Lord points out to us the path of life.

And so to prepare ourselves for the journey before us let us renew our faith and set ourselves high standards by which to lead our lives. The gospel should be our guide in following the way of Christ to prepare ourselves for his presence in the kingdom to which he has called us. If we want to make our lasting home in his holy kingdom, the only way is to set aright the course of our lives in doing what is good. We should make our own the psalmist’s question: Lord, who will dwell in your kingdom or who will find rest on your holy mountain?⁹ In reply we may hear from the same psalmist the Lord’s answer to show us the way that leads to his kingdom: anyone who leads a life without guile, who does what is right, who speaks truth from the heart, on whose tongue there is no deceit, who never harms a neighbour nor believes evil reports about another,¹⁰ who at once rejects outright from the heart the devil’s temptations to sin, destroying them utterly at the first onset by casting them before Christ himself.¹¹ Such a follower of Christ lives in reverence of him and does not take the credit for a good life but, believing that all the good we do comes from the Lord, gives him the credit and thanksgiving for what his gift brings about in our hearts. In that spirit our prayer from the psalm should be: not to us, O Lord, not to us give the glory but to your own name.¹² That is St Paul’s example, for he took no credit to himself for his preaching when he said: it is by God’s grace that I am what I am.¹³ And again he says: Let anyone who wants to boast, boast in the Lord.¹⁴

The Lord himself in the gospel teaches us the same when he says: I shall liken anyone who hears my words and carries them out in deed to one who is wise enough to build on a rock; then the floods came and the winds blew and struck that house, but it did not fall because it was built on a rock.¹⁵ It is in the light of that teaching that the Lord waits for us every day to see if we will respond by our deeds, as we should, to his holy guidance. For that very reason also, so that we may mend our evil ways, the days of our mortal lives are allowed us as a sort of truce for improvement. So St Paul says: Do you not know that God is patient with us so as to lead us to repentance?¹⁶ The Lord himself says in his gentle care for us: I do not want the death of a sinner; let all sinners rather turn away from sin and live.¹⁷

Well then, brothers and sisters, we have questioned the Lord about who can dwell with him in his holy place and we have heard the demands he makes on such a one; we can be united with him there, only if we fulfil those demands. We must, therefore, prepare our hearts and bodies to serve him under the guidance of holy obedience. Conscious in this undertaking of our own weakness let us ask the Lord to give us through his grace the help we need. If we want to avoid the pain of self-destruction in hell and come to eternal life, then, while we still have the time in this mortal life and the opportunity to fulfil what God asks of us through a life guided by his light, we must hurry forward and act in a way that will bring us blessings in eternal life.

With all this in mind what we mean to establish is a school for the Lord’s service. In the guidance we lay down to achieve this we hope to impose nothing harsh or burdensome. If, however, you find in it anything which seems rather strict, but which is demanded reasonably for the correction of vice or the preservation of love, do not let that frighten you into fleeing from the way of salvation; it is a way which is bound to seem narrow to start with. But, as we progress in this monastic way of life and in faith, our hearts will warm to its vision and with eager love and delight that defies expression we shall go forward on the way of God’s commandments. Then we shall never think of deserting his guidance; we shall persevere in fidelity to his teaching in the monastery until death so that through our patience we may be granted some part in Christ’s own passion and thus in the end receive a share in his kingdom. Amen.

CHAPTER 1

Four approaches to monastic life

WE CAN ALL RECOGNIZE THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN the four different kinds of monk. First of all there are the cenobites. These are the ones who are based in a monastery and fulfil their service of the Lord under a rule and an abbot or abbess.

Anchorites, who are also known as hermits, are the second kind. Their vocation is not the result of the first fervour so often experienced by those who give themselves to a monastic way of life. On the contrary they have learnt well from everyday experience with the support of many others in a community how to fight against the devil. Thus they are well trained in the ranks of their brothers or sisters before they have the confidence to do without that support and venture into single combat in the desert relying only on their own arms and the help of God in their battle against the evil temptations of body and mind.

Sarabaites are the third kind of monk and the example they give of monasticism is appalling. They have been through no period of trial under a rule with the experienced guidance of a teacher, which might have proved them as gold is proved in a furnace. On the contrary they are as malleable as lead and their standards are still those of the secular world, so that it is clear to everyone that their tonsure is a lie before God himself. They go around in twos or threes, or even singly, resting in sheepfolds which are not those of the Lord, but which they make to suit themselves. For a rule of life they have only the satisfaction of their own desires. Any precept they think up for themselves and then decide to adopt they do not hesitate to call holy. Anything they dislike they consider inadmissible.

Finally those called gyrovagues are the fourth kind of monk. They spend their whole life going round one province after another enjoying the hospitality for three or four days at a time at any sort of monastic cell or community. They are always on the move; they never settle to put down the roots of stability; it is their own wills that they serve as they seek the satisfaction of their own gross appetites. They are in every way worse than the sarabaites.

About the wretched way of life that all these so-called monks pursue it is better to keep silence than to speak. Let us leave them to themselves and turn to the strongest kind, the cenobites, so that with the Lord’s help we may consider the regulation of their way of life.

CHAPTER 2

Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess

ANYONE WHO ASPIRES AS ABBOT OR ABBESS TO BE superior of a monastery should always remember what is really meant by the title and fulfil in their monastic life all that is required in one holding the office of monastic superior. For it is the place of Christ that the superior is understood to hold in the monastery by having a name which belongs to Christ, as St Paul suggests when he writes: You have received the spirit of adopted children whereby we cry abba, Father.¹ That means that the abbot or abbess should never teach anything nor make any arrangement nor give any order which is against the teaching of the Lord. Far from it, everything he or she commands or teaches should be like a leaven of the holiness that comes from God infused into the minds of their disciples. In fact they should remember that they will have to account in the awesome judgement of God both for their own teaching and also for the obedience of their disciples. They should be well aware that the shepherd will have to bear the blame for any deficiency that God, as the Father of the whole human family, finds in his sheep. However, it is also true that, if the flock has been unruly and disobedient and the superiors have done everything possible as shepherds to cure their vicious ways, then they will be absolved in the judgement of God and may say with the psalmist: I have not hidden your teaching in my heart; I have proclaimed your truth and the salvation you offer, but they despised and rejected me.²

Any, then, who accept the name of abbot or abbess should give a lead to their disciples by two distinct methods of teaching – by the example of the lives they lead (and that is the most important way) and by the words they use in their teaching. To disciples who can understand they may teach the way of the Lord with words; but to the less receptive and uneducated they should teach what the Lord commands us by example. Of course, whenever they teach a disciple that something is wrong they should themselves show by the practical example they give that it must not be done. If they fail in this they themselves, although they have preached well to others, may be rejected and God may respond to their sinfulness by saying: Why do you repeat my teaching and take the words of my covenant on your lips, while you yourself have rejected my guidance and cast my words away?³ And again: You noticed the speck of dust in your brother’s eye but failed to see the beam in your own.⁴

They should not select for special treatment any individual in the monastery. They should not love one more than another unless it is for good observance of the Rule and obedience. One who is free-born should not, for that reason, be advanced before one coming to monastic life from a condition of slavery, unless there is some other good reason for it. If such a reason is seen by the abbot or abbess to be justified they can decide on a change for any member of the community. Otherwise all must keep their proper place in the community order, because whether slave or free we are all one in Christ and we owe an equal service in the army of one Lord, who shows no special favour to one rather than another.⁵ The only grounds on which in Christ’s eyes one is to be preferred to another is by excelling in good works and humility. The abbot or abbess, then, should show equal love to all and apply the same standards of discipline to all according to what they deserve.

They should make their own the different ways of teaching which the Apostle Paul recommended to Timothy when he told him to make use of criticism, of entreaty and of rebuke.⁶ Thus in adapting to changing circumstances they should use now the encouragement of a loving parent and now the threats of a harsh disciplinarian. This means that they should criticize more sternly those who are undisciplined and unruly; they should entreat those who are obedient, docile and patient so as to encourage their progress; but they should rebuke and punish those who take a feckless attitude or show contempt for what they are taught.

A monastic superior should never show tolerance of wrongdoing, but as soon as it begins to grow should root it out completely to avoid the dangerous error of Eli, the priest of Shiloh.⁷ Any who are reliable and able to understand should be admonished by words on the first and second occasion; but those who are defiant and resistant in the pride of their disobedience will need to be corrected by corporal punishment at the very beginning of their evil course. It should be remembered that scripture says: a fool cannot be corrected by words alone;⁸ and again: strike your child with a rod whose soul will by this means be saved from death.⁹

Reflection on their own high status in the monastery and the meaning of their title should be ever present to the abbot or abbess. This will make them aware of what is meant by the saying that more is demanded of those to whom more is entrusted.¹⁰ They should reflect on what a difficult and demanding task they have accepted, namely that of guiding souls and serving the needs of so many different characters; gentle encouragement will be needed for one, strong rebukes for another, rational persuasion for another, according to the character and intelligence of each. It is the task of the superiors to adapt with sympathetic understanding to the needs of each so that they may not only avoid any loss but even have the joy of increasing the number of good sheep in the flock committed to them.

It is above all important that monastic superiors should not underrate or think lightly of the salvation of the souls committed to them by giving too much attention to transient affairs of this world which have no lasting value. They should remember always that the responsibility they have undertaken is that of guiding souls and that they will have to render an account of the guidance they have given. If resources are slender for the monastery they should remember this saying from scripture: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you also;¹¹ then also there is the text: nothing is lacking for those who fear him.¹²

It should be very clear to superiors that all who undertake the guidance of souls must in the end prepare themselves to give an account of that guidance. However many the souls for whom they are responsible all superiors may be sure that they will be called to account before the Lord for each one of them and after that for their own souls as well. Frequent reverent reflection on that future reckoning before the Good Shepherd who has committed his sheep to them will, through their concern for others, inspire them to greater care of their own souls. By encouraging through their faithful ministry better standards for those in their care, they will develop higher ideals in their own lives as well.

CHAPTER 3

Calling the community together for