Tue 04/02/2013
Three things for the presentation:
- main points
- sources
- what did you learn
10 minutes
Rule of St. Benedict
3 benedictine mottos
- pray & work
- peace - communal peace -- necessary or you’re going to have a horrible life
- god may be glorified in all things - focused on the intricacies of the work and even the prayer. If you make one mistake, you’re punnished
gathered seven times for prayer. How long did it take? It depends.
main: night office (before dawn - up to an hour), lauds (at dawn - up to an hour), vespers
lesser hours .. they could be quite short (15 minutes even)
compline didn’t go too long
it all depends on whether you have moments of quiet and mediation built in
in the middle ages they tended to add things -- tendancy was to multiply litergy to the point hwere there was a movement where they had elaborate liturgy -- litterally had shifts of monks doing 8 hours of liturgy
benedict says do all the psalms in one week .. leaniant comapred to what the forefathers did
but not continuously ...
in many ways traditional christian liturgy is very at home in the darkness. moving from darkness to light.
didn’t just say on Saturday night on vespers, we’ll start with psalm 1 and finish with compline the next sunday night ... instead, he organizes them towards where they fit in the day.
so you have psalms that talk about morning in the morning.
Psalm 94 (95) is in the morning becuase he thinks it’s worth sayhing every morning
Friday is a day of pennance, so you have penetential psalms on a friday.
psalms of resurrection beginning with vespers on Saturday night.
very important thing that benedict did
not to fight nature but to go with nature ... this is really a big part of the rule. not particularly strict
and seems to excommunicate people a lot, but it’s not really excommunication formally -- just put outside the community until you’ve repented enough
a bishop would have to do that anyway.
But it definitely should be a really punnishment -- you’re whole life is community and you want to be part of it
pray and work -- when you think of the monks day, it’s liturgical prayer, spiritual reading (lectio divina) -- and he has several hours of it build in to a day.
lextio divina is central to benedicts vision. Primarily reading the bible.
so your prayer is made up of the bible. Psalms, antiphons (a verse from the psalm itself that get’s repeated after a part of the psalm)
what probably happened is that a cantor sang the psalm and the monks responded with the antiphon. and usually they’re seasonal
when you’re reading scripture, you’re essentially reading it as a type of prayer -- you’re reading it slowly with the idea that the text will leand you to a state of prayer
might also be reading church fathers, lives of, etc.
During lent, everyone gets a book and you get it for all of lent. So you read it and you read it slowly and many times and well. Prayerful reading. Might spend an hour on just 2 or three sentences.
so that’s a big part of the day. Other part is some type of manual labour. In benedicts time, a lot of the labor would be chores/cleaning, cooking, farming/care for animals. These were probably the basic things that benedict envisioned.
Artisans in the monestary -- a skilled laborer ... just comes the latin word for having a skill. Any type of labor if it’s done in a particular spirit is going to be OK in the benedictine tradition.
They copying over of ancient writings is going to become extremely important. Really going to be the benedictines who are going to preserve ancient writings. And if they hadn’t done that, we would not have ancient roman writings at all.
If a roman writing makes it to 800, we still have it. .. if not, we do not have it.
so we owe a great debt to these monks for doing this -- and they did it because they thought it was important for the future.
This was an important form of manual labor. And you also needed to teach the boys to read. Benedict doesn’t say there has to be a school, but by accepting children and expecting them to be able to read, he implies it.
This is important because when civilization collapses, they become the main schools.
also had to educate the illiterate entrants. Rule is read to them -- so no assumption of literacy.
day is really seen in this threefold division of liturgy, sacred reading, and manual labor.
It’s all meant to be prayer. The liturgy is obviously prayer, but the other stuff is supposed to be done in the spirit of offering it up to God.
Treat the tools of the monastary the way you’d treat the chalice, patton, etc. So latrine buckets need the same care as the chalice you use during Mass.
Whole theology implicit there. All sorts of things that his audience would have understood. .. the Eucharist is a sacrifice, so your work is not a sacrifice -- offering to God
relationships are done in a way that makes it a type of prayer.
The whole monastery then is a school for the lords service.
Going through the rule now.
Why is this rule going to be so successful?
prologue is famous.. the monk is ultimately meant to be a student. Meant to listen to the master’s instructions. Take them to heart .. instructions of a loving father ..
Roman father was the pater familius ... head of the household .. expected to be obeyed.
uses military language a fair amount in the rule ... again, this is not new -- monks are the soldiers of Christ.
But this military language is very dear to the roman heart as well.
renunciation of the will. .. paradox of getting freedom by renouncing your will -- all voluntary (expect question of children)
why would it make sense to have parents give their boys over to the monastery? it was safe there -- difficult times. Also got to learn and read.
The average lifespan in the 6th century ... if you made it into your 40’s, you would have been considered to have a pretty good run. and so most people also unless they were from the very upper classes, did not expect to have very many career opportunities and reinvent themselves. They were born into a profession that they probably lived in and didn’t really expect to do something else. Or maybe they went into the army or became clergy, but they didn’t expect to “do anything they want.”
So people didn’t think they were really denying people choices by putting them in the monastery.
so benedict probably wasn’t going out looking for children -- people probably began to bring their boys there.
interesting dynamic -- older men trying to pray and boys being boys. Small community, so he gives the monks the right to keep an eye on the boys ... by the standard of the times, of course that meant corpral punnishment
Prologue very robust -- not very passive, is very scriptural. Emphasizes the relationshipo between master and disciple. Prayer before every work.
God is looking for spritual WORKERS ... not passive imagery at all.
Thiose yearning for life.
temptations -- dash them against the rock that is Christ. Very big emphasis is that you’re a listener but then you have to translate these holy t4eachings into action.
final paragraph ... school for the lord’s service.
have to learn the bible like you used to have to learn cicero.
listen, memorize, and if you’re bad you get beaten.
Discipline and obedience were very important in roman schools.
Content and learning it well.
There are things that you need to learn and the master will teach them.
unlike the roman school, this was more for “life long learners”
A lot of different people are going to have responsibility in the abbey. And that’s important.
chapter 1 -- the different types of monks
anchorites are the heros, but the real life monks are the cenobytes
doesn’t like the other two -- lack of discipline and lack of stability ... for him, you take a life-long voiw for the monastery.
chapter 2 - the abbot -- adressed only later in the augustine rule
Abbot is very important in this rule ... everything that you’d expect a parent to be.
Holds the place of Christ in the monastary.
the reason that you voluntarily put yourself under a rule is so that Christ is not an abstraction ... listen to christ by doing it in the form of listening in obedience to other person.
Very loaded -- when you think about Christ as a leader, he’s obviously important, but Christ also served his guys and also gave his life. He has the responsibility -- has to give his life for the community, which is very difficult and stressful.
he’s going to be judged for being the abbot. Has to answer for the others. going to die and be judged ... gonna get really discipled in the afterlife if he doesn’t do his job well.
Has to treat the monks fairly, but also as individuals who need different approaches.
Rule of St. Benedict and parenting -- books have been about that and also corporate life and the abbot.
And also corporeal punnishment.
Need to avoid favoritism is early emphasis. Because factions can start, etc. Before he was abbot, he had some people that he liked people more than others. But now he has to be above that. Not going to take people very long to start looking to see if he’s playing favorites. People aren’t stupid.
After talking about how powerful the abbot is, ch 3 -- talks about consulting the other monks.
On the one hand, there’s very much a master-disciple setup, but on the other hand, the youngest person has the best advice.
But then once he makes the decision, then they have to obey.
For lesser matters, just consult the seniors. Because we don’t need needless meetings. Just ask a few guys.
What touches all should be decided by all.
Chapter 4 - tools for good works. -- very important ... very influential ...
includes the 7 works of corpral mercy and 7 of spiritual mercy.
physical things but also psychological.
really a whole treatise on the christian spiritual life and it’s way. follows the 10 commandments.
never give a hollow word of greeting .. take your personal relationships seriously.
then he comes to obedience.
a lot of people think the hardest thing must be giving up stuff.
But a monk would say the hardest thing by far is obedience.
idea of giving up your ability to go where you want. might not have come as hard to 6th century people, but it’s still different to be obedient to an abbot.
has to come from love -- internal dimension to obedience. Sad life to do everything you’re supposed to and hate every minute of it.
To go from someone who has to be very obedient to someone who has to lead, it’s a very challenging thing!
--> not waiting for vengeance
talks of restraint of speech. chapter 6.
bendict is not really big on speech ... opportunity for sin ... not fond about people talking a lot.
chance to sin and to not be focused and to murmor and gossip.
silence is very important.
It is right that the master should speak and teach while the disciples should listen.
but of course people are going to talk. It’s the HOW
things to make people laugh -- really talking about inappropriate things.
chapter 7 - the steps of humility.
not necessarily a progression -- really just talking about the same thing in different ways.
last paragraph is really what the rule is about. as you mature, you’re not doing things out of fear anymore but out of love.
--> don’t need a rule anymore.
What really matters is after awhile you internalize this ... not just doing things because you’re afraid that god is watching -- doing it out of love.
.. to create the habbit -- natural to be good.
1st 7 chapters are the theology of the monastic life...
and then the arrangement of the divine office.
Why does he organize the office? everyone has stuff to do, but they know why they’re doing it and they know what they’re doing it for. And they’re not making big decisions about it. Which was a lot like early society in general. If you are x, do y .. just do it well.
expected to be virtuous in whatever your job ... are you going to do it with the right disposition?
Have some big decisions to make, but really it’s “are you going to do it?”
not asking you a lot .. just are you going to be good at it.
so this rule would have been very helpful for people who knew from a young age, “youp’re going to be a monk”
the liturgy is actually an objective thing -- it’s done a certain way.
there are new saints and variety of seasons, but you’re not making it up as you go along. Thing to do and do it well.
Setting it out for you -- and he’s also learned ... inherited 200 years of monastic thought.
and we learned from the beginning that just calling yourself a monk doesn’t do it .. yo need a fair amount of structure.
Takes it very seriously the 7 times of day.
chapter 9
--- oh god come to my assistance -- Cassian thinks that’s the key to prayer.
importance of the lord’s prayer (said several times a day).
Departure of the Alleluia -- you don’t use it during lent. In the middle ages, sometimes they had a mock coffin for the alleluia
during the easter vigil in monasteries, the youngest monk would apporach the abbot, ask for the word, and then they’d say the alleluia.
when you’re living an intense life, these little things become special, beautilful things.
makes sense to lay these psalms out -- don’t want to say a morning psalm in the middle of the afternoon.
Also has flexibility .... “or you know whatever you guys think makes sense”
chapters 19 and 20 are very important....
19 -- singing the psalms important -- in the office, you’re singing with the angels.
Eucharistic prayer 1 - used in his day -- mentions the gifts being taken up to heaven by angels.
prayer -- say very simple things ... ... short and simple ..
chapter 20 terse but very heavy.
no reading at night ... don’t want people reading out loud and getting really worked up
don’t want to sleep with your knives
way you correct your neighbor --- right out of augustine and out of the bible ...
care of the excommunicated. ... hard to do.
people have to work --
can come back three times to the abbey, but after that no... have to occupy the lowest place.
do things during the day -- they’re no electricity -- and you follow the rhythims of the day... and you go to bed when it’s dark
want to start praying before dawn -- yes for simbalism, but also to maximize the daylight.
the sun was everything.
The grand silence after compline -- really were not supposed to talk from compline to the beginning of the night office ... and that’s pretty much still true.
... and if you do, you’re really supposed to whisper.
.. symbolizes the silence of the tomb.
nothing is more important than the owrk of God -- devine office.
49- life a monk ought to be a continuous lent.
but not everybody can do that, so at least make an effort during lent to do things a little bit more.
do stuff during lent, but you gotta tell the abbot.
benedictine hospitality -- receive guests as if they were christ.
Very challenging. -- gotta break your routine to care of guests ... hard when you’ve been living a life of keep a routine.
rational process for receiving people ...(invents the word “novice”).
First test -- sit out there and knock on the door.
very gradual.
Get several times where you get a choance to leave ... told that this is the rule --
meant to not reward the impulsive.
not only romantic.
wants to let you know what you’re getting into.
very roman -- you do a written contract.
problem of priests -- they might think of themselves as better (“big shot”)
there were very few priests in the monastery -- benedict was not a priest.
ironically today, in modern benedictine rules, you have to be a priest to be abbot.
in the middle ages, it gets much more clerical.
election of the abbot -- not a pure democracy ... can have the brothers decide or have a group decide -- the greater and more sound part of the group.
What if bad guys elect a bad man? Hopefully, you get some outside intervention (bishop can get involved)
.. more qualities of the abbot.
66 - the porter -- should be older so that he’s not tempted to run off.
68 - assignment of impossible tasks .. have to explain that it’s hard but at a certain point, try to do it.
don’t defend another
71 - mutual obedience -- we all have to help each other.
72 - good zeal. In a monastery, you’re gong to have a lot of people really into it. But as we know (in any matter), there can be a good zeal and a bad zeal.
not just a matter of being zealous; it’s about having a good zeal.
73 - rule only for beginners. gives reading list. read the bible, read cassian (conferences and institutes)
lives of the fathers and the rule of Basil. We are lazy. We’re not going to do this right away (we should but we don’t).
benedictine rule seems very structured, but there’s a lot of room.. manual labor can be anything. Became great engineers, perfected farm techniques. Became great brewers. Generation after generation of relatively educated and smart guys passing on knowledge very diberately.
We see a combining of the desert tradition, the more moderate tradition of basil and augustine with the genious of roman organization. To have principles but exceptions.
moment of transition from antiquity to the middle ages.
* Break *
for next week, read 9th and 10th conferences on prayer.... availabe online. Also read intro to selner book.
benedict assumes people are going to be reading cassian’s conferences.
intro to wisdom of the celtic saints.
Cassian .. really a contemporary of augustine c. 360 - c. 435
not a household name but he’s very important for the whole history of western religion -- really is the one (writing in latin) who is going to really bring first hand a lot of the traditions of egyptian monasticism to the west.
probably born in what is now present day romania.
we don’t know much about his early life except that he was attracted to monasticism.
Sometime before the year 400 he left his native land and traveled with his friend to palastine. --> joined a monastery in bethlehem.
we probably woudl have never know about him if he had just stayed there but twice they made big, important journies to egypt.
spent a lot of time learning the way of life of the egyptian monks and their spiritual wisdom. Pondered this and wrote two great monastic works: 1) the institutes (origin of the 7 deadly sins) 2) the conferences. written in latin in the 420s.
After he left egypt, he moved to near marselles (modern day france) and founded some monasteries there. Probably encounter some monasticism that was already there -- doesn’t appear to have liked it very much.
soon after that, he died.
both the institutes and the conferences, they claim to summaries the monastic customs that he encountered while in Egypt. Writes it in a way as if he recorded an interview. Probably just presentation ...
The institutes is the shorter -- 12 books.
different types of things ... what the monks wore, what sort of food they ate -- very practical things.
And then the virtues of the monastic life ... humility and obedience.
remaing 8 books talked each about one of the deadly vices. part of talking about the vices is talking about the virtues.
so that was the institutes.
the conferences are divided into interviews or conferences on different themes. Constant prayer, chastitity, the role of grace in free will, lying. They pose questions and then the masters talk about them.
Really something that at first seems kind of half-hazard, but he actually follows a plan. Ultimate purpose is salvation, but the more immediate purpose is to achieve purity of heart -- relentlessly pursue the good. Not just decide good vs bad, but choosing between two goods where one is better.
To do that, one has to pay a lot of attention.
Importance of the spiritual elder. -- what the irish will call the annam cara -- “soul friend”
Disclose yourself completely ... need humility to do that.
benedict probably assumed that the monks would develop a relationshiop with a spiritual elder.
Humility makes discretion possible, if you practice that, it leads to purity of heart. and if you have that, it’s in anticicpation of the kingdom of God.
do this by talking about real problems.
one of the famous problems, criticizes augustine’s (doesn’t mention him by name) idea that one cannot do anything good without grace.
because he dared criticize augustine, the name of cassian got a little tainted in the West. IN the East, where they didn’t care about Augustine, he’s referred to as St. John Cassian.
because the monks had been asking themselves, if everything depended on God’s Grace, why adopt the harshness of monastic life.
Cassian’s dispute with augustine (caused him to be looked at with suspicion) is a reminder that he was not writing in a vaccum.
incalculable influence on monasticism.
benedict doesn’t mention Cassian’s name because he doesn’t want people distracted by the one dispute he had with Augustine.
may be one of the most influential non-famous people in the history of western religion.
Writing in latin, his works were more immediately accessible to western monasticsm ... specifically translated east/egyptian ideas.
Often created works in latin to express this monastic teaching.
cassian took evagrious’s teaching and made it more palitable by not using e’s tainted name.
Benedict said to read both institutes and conferences.
highly revered in many circles.
from about the middle of the 20th century, he has been consistantly view with sympathy among scholars.
benedict assumes you’ll read cassian.
when you read the conferences, be thinking about that and what actually is prayer .. what happens during prayer. what are we hoping for in prayer.
What do you want to happen in prayer? What is christian meditation?