The Ten Benedictine Hallmarks

1. Christ-centeredness

In Chapter 72 of the Holy Rule, the last sentence is “Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ...” This means Christ should take priority, be the center of our lives. All our actions must be based on what He taught.

2. Ora et Labora 

Prayer is the rhythmic communication between God and us as a community and individually. Communal prayer can be the Mass or community prayers before events. Individual prayers are silent meditation, attentiveness to God and lectio divina, the slow purposeful reading of Scriptures or spiritual writings while listening for God within us.

3. Obedience

Obedience is a commitment to listening and putting into practice what is learned by “listening with the ear of my heart” (RB, Prologue). We respect the integrity of disciplinary methods of study with a zeal for truth, wherever it leads. We seek to understand each other and put into practice what we learn from one another.

4. Humility

Humility is the accurate knowledge of self, a pervasive awareness of God’s presence in our lives, and the overwhelming sense of God’s love which drives out fear (RB7). Humility recognizes a dependence upon others and creation itself. It recognizes our limitations without losing hope.

5. Community

Community is the selfless participation in the well-being of all through the fostering of the Common Good. The “Common Good” is respect for the person, concern for the social well-being and development of the group and the requirement of stability and security of a just order. Community is practical, open to human history and the global experience. It welcomes the wisdom of the past and global perspectives to enrich the now.

6. Service (love of Christ and neighbor)

Love means love of Christ and neighbor out of an astonished response to what we know and see as God’s amazing love for us first. This love is against all human selfishness and is in fact selflessness, which animates us and is our grounding principle. Love, in this sense, is a cultivated habit of mind and behavior as an action.

7. Hospitality

Hospitality is the openness to the other as the person of Christ in our midst (RB 53.1). We agree to put aside individual plans and preoccupations in order to let the unexpected person in, let them feel established and have their needs met. We bless and are blessed in the offering and receiving of hospitality.

8. Silence and Good Speech

In the prologue of the Rule it is said: “If you desire eternal life, keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit”. In chapter 6, St. Benedict said there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence. So important is silence that permission to speak should seldom be granted even to mature disciples. The Book of Proverbs says, “In a flood of words you will not avoid sin and the tongue holds the key to life and death.

9. Stewardship

Stewardship is based upon the Rule’s fundamental reverence toward thecreation that God has made. Stewardship is to regard all the tools ofour vocation as sacred vessels of the altar (RB 31.10). We encourage the creative and sustainable use of resources and their just distribution for the good of all.

10. Discipline

Discipline is the focusing of energy on what matters most in all areas of life. It is the hard work of stretching beyond the comfort level and being committed to mastery of all areas of our study. The goal is to move from an outward imposed discipline to a mature self-discipline in which a person possesses a robust love of learning and, in setting his

or her own goals, is able to imagine and pursue the steps necessary to achieve those goals.