I’m blogging here a previous paper that I wrote for my churchhistory course at Bakke Graduate University. It was written for my first course, in May 2006.

Part 2

Benedict’s Rule

Benedict’s Rule consists of four major sections. The first is foundational, inviting the individual Christian to follow the Lord’s call to monastic life. The second describes the structure and content of liturgical prayer. The third outlines the structures and practices of the common life, and the final section revisits the basic theology of monastic life with a particular emphasis on love[1].

Describing the Rule’s unique approach to monastic life, Episcopalian priest Brian Taylor writes:

Benedict of Nursia wrote a Rule of life that partially adapted existing rules for monks. His originality was in creating a lifestyle that demanded one’s all and yet recognized human weakness. He asked for a holy single-mindedness to be lived out through balance and moderation. […]

Balance, zeal and moderation are the qualities of The Rule of St. Benedict that make it a humane approach for imperfect human beings who seek the perfection of God in their lives. In this sense, Benedict’s Rule is incarnational – it works with people as they are in this world, calling them to what they can become in Christ.

Benedict did not add to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He simply provided a way of seeing Christ’s continual incarnation in this world. It is these qualities that commend The Rule of St. Benedict to ordinary folk like me.[2]

Another of the gifts that the Rule leaves its readers is its flexibility, as even among modern-day Benedictine monasteries the Rule is interpreted uniquely from monastery to monastery.

Unlike other religious leaders, Benedict wrote only one rule of life, not one for men, one for women, and another for lay people. He wrote one rule that can be lived by men and women inside and outside the monastery as monks, nuns, and lay people.

Benedict’s Rule is eminently flexible, allowing each monastery to find its own charism[3].

In the lyrical novel The Cloister Walk, poet and Benedictine oblate Kathleen Norris writes of her introduction to the Rule in this way:

Benedict is refreshingly realistic in his understanding and acceptance of people as they are. […] The Rule surprises people who expect the ether that often wafts through books on spiritual themes, the kind of holy talk that can make me feel like a lower life form. Benedict knows that practicalities – the order and times for psalms to be read, care of tools, the amount and type of food and drink and clothing – are also spiritual concerns. Many communal ventures begun with high hopes have foundered over the question of who takes out the garbage. Over and over, the Rule calls us to be more mindful of the little things, even as it reminds us of the big picture, allowing us a glimpse of those who we can be when we remember to love. Benedict insists that this remembering is hard work needing daily attention and care. He writes for grown-ups, not people with their heads in the clouds. “No one shall be excused from kitchen duty,” Benedict says, making exceptions only for the sick or those people engaged in the urgent business of the monastery. Today, that means that the Benedictine scholar with the Ph.D. scrubs pots and pans alongside a confrere who has an eighth-grade education, the dignified abbot or prioress dishes out food and wipes refectory tables after the meal.[4]