St. Benedict: School for the Lord’s Service
Br. Geoffrey Tristram
I love St. Benedict’s window. Here stands a simple, bearded monk, holding a book in his hands. But that book, his famous Rule, was like dynamite! It would help save Western civilization from the ravages of the Dark Ages. I believe its insights and guidance can still help save us today. Benedict, patron saint of Europe, and one of my heroes. In my 20s I spent almost two years of my life as a novice in the Benedictine monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium. It is there that I came to know and love St. Benedict and his Rule.
The first important thing to say is that the Rule was designed for ordinary human beings, not for spiritual gymnasts! That is why so many people who are not monks are drawn to his wisdom and practical spirituality. What is at the heart of the Rule? If you are seeking a closer relationship with God, Benedict recommends, and helps us to develop what he called the “conversion of life.” His great insight was that the best way to grow in our conversion in Christ was through living in community, with all its trials and frustrations. Reading Benedict, it feels like individual salvation and conversion of life was essentially a team effort! You can’t do it on your own.
To this end, he wanted to found what he called a “school for the Lord’s service.” He talks of the underlying aim to move the soul along the stream that leads to God, but that this moving of the soul happens best when mediated in human community. And of course, that truth is not simply for those living in monastic communities. It is true for all of us, whatever our community may be - our families, our co-workers. It is the presence of other people in our lives who help to form us and, in Benedict’s terms, help save us from ourselves. Theologian Rowan Williams puts it in startling terms: he says, “Benedict recognized how the barriers of egotistical fantasy are broken down by the sheer brute presence of others!” Whatever community you are in, I think you will know what that’s about!
It is the presence of other people in our lives who help to form us and, in Benedict’s terms, help save us from ourselves.
In our society today, which is so broken and fragmented, with growing hostility to those who are “different from me,” a planet in distress, so much isolation and loneliness, perhaps a new Dark Age, Benedict, and also in all humility our own community of SSJE, offer a vision of an alternative world, governed by the Spirit of Christ; a vision of health, balance, wholeness and ecology, in a world badly out of kilter.
We are in the Easter season, and Christ is risen. If you long right now to become more fully alive in Christ, and if you are seeking ways to follow Christ more closely, I commend to you the Rule of St Benedict. Start with his Prologue, where we get to meet this extraordinary man and his vision. It ends with these words which I love: “As we progress on this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.”
Blessed Benedict, pray for us.
Questions for Reflection
Benedict emphasized the role of community in conversion of life.
Reflecting on your own experiences, how has being part of a community helped you to grow in faith?
In what ways has community helped you become more aware of your own limitations and potential for growth?
The Rule of St. Benedict was designed for ordinary people, not spiritual elites.
How do you think the wisdom in Benedict’s Rule can be applied to your own daily life?
Are there specific practices or teachings from the Rule that you find particularly helpful in your spiritual journey?
