Weekly Bulletin of the Catholic Community of The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 22 – April 25, 2010
This past week I shared the Rule of Saint Benedict with a student here who is attempting to grow more deeply in his Christian life. The Rule of Benedict was written about 1500 years ago! Largely a synopsis of the Holy Gospels, it was intended for ordinary men and women who set out in community to live genuine Christian lives in the deserts and mountains, as the life of the cities declined and decayed. Read on, and then perhaps begin to imagine what family life, school life – indeed the life of our community here would be like – what marvelous and life-giving transformation would take place if we chose to follow this rule. Make no mistake about it, we all follow or possess some rule for living. Happiness, meaning and wholeness: it’s all in the choosing! But first, here is a little biography of Saint Benedict.
At all the turning points of history God raises up great saints to ensure the fulfillment of the Church’s divine mission for the souls of men. Saint Benedict was born at Nursia in Umbria in about 480 and was sent to Rome to be educated, but soon left the world to live a solitary life at Subiaco. After two years as a hermit in a cave in the mountain he had acquired such a reputation that disciples came in numbers to join him and important Roman families entrusted him with the education of their children. A form of monastic life was organized by him in twelve small monasteries in which under his guidance as abbot the monks vowed to the seeking of God, devoted themselves to work and prayer. A few years later St. Benedict left the district of Subiaco to found on the heights of Campania the great abbey of Monte Cassino. There he wrote his Rule in which are wonderfully combined the Roman genius and the monastic wisdom of the Christian East.
Saint Benedict died in 547. He is the Patriarch of the monks of the West, not because he instituted monastic life in this part of the world but because he imbued it with his spirit, a new leaven which contributed greatly to the formation of Christendom in the Middle Ages. Even in our own days the influence of St. Benedict remains considerable and it is by no means confined to monastic houses.
- Listen carefully, my son (my daughter) to the master’s instruction, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.
- The labor of obedience will bring you back to God from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience.
- Every time you begin a good work, you must pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection.
- In God’s goodness he has already counted us as his children, and therefore we should never grieve him by our evil actions.
- Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God.
- See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life.
- If we wish to dwell in the tent of God’s kingdom, we will never arrive unless we run there by doing good deeds.
- They do not become elated over their good deeds; they judge it is the Lord’s power, not their own, that brings about the good in them.
- The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings.
- We must prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience.
- What is not possible to us by nature; let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.
- We must do now what will profit us forever.
- The good of all concerned may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love.
- We shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.
- We shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ, so that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom.
- He must point out all that is good and holy more by example than by words.
- Only in this are we distinguished in his sight: if we are found better than others in good works and in humility.
- More will be expected of a man to whom more has been entrusted.
- Above all, he must not show too great concern for the fleeting and temporal things of this world.
- The Lord often reveals what is better to the younger.
- Do not pamper yourself.
- Go to help the troubled and console the suffering.
- Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way.
- The love of Christ must come before all else.
- You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge.
- Rid your hearts of all deceit.
- Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love.
- Speak the truth with heart and tongue.
