Saint Benedict's Enduring Witness

A tremendous decline in fervor for monastic life happened during the latter half of the last Century.

An old Benedictine monk once told me that the beginning of the decline coincided with Vatican Council II [1962-1965]. Vatican II did bring about a lot of significant changes. Changes are still taking place as a result of that Council. Someone once coined the phrase, “Change is a good thing.” I’m not so sure that all changes are a good thing.

Whether or not Vatican II directly influenced the decline in monastic fervor is yet to be finally determined. There was a huge social revolution developing along the same timeline where we find this Council. I have no problem seeing how the sweeping changes of the Council, coupled with the social changes brought about by the 60’s Revolution, affected interest in and fervor for things monastic.

Dom Prosper Guerange, Abbot of Solesmes and author of a little book entitled THE MEDAL OR CROSS OF SAINT BENEDICT, gives us insight into Saint Benedict, into his life and work as the founder of Western Monasticism, and into the blessings attached to the Medal of Saint Benedict.[1] [The footnote takes you to a pdf of the book that can be downloaded.]

The small book was translated from the French and published in English in 1880.

One of the things pointed out by Dom Guerange is an ancient tradition which says that God revealed to Benedict that his Order should not disappear from the world’s stage until the Last Day, and that, in the fierce times preceding the Judgment, it should prove a support to the church and strengthen many in the faith.

In the zeal that accompanied my discovery of Benedict, my Oblate Novitiate, and Final Oblation in 2006, I could not help but to think that Saint Benedict, his Rule, and his monasteries offered the world, and the Church, the solution to their multiplied modern problems.

The solution is not an easy one.

There is nothing easy about structuring a lifestyle that is centered in and enlivened by the principles contained in the Rule of Saint Benedict. We progress and we regress. We fall down and we get up. There are times when we are neither up or down and honestly doing nothing but growing mold and going nowhere in particular.

The very first monastic principle is the hurdle that most people will never clear … the first stumbling block.

Simply put, the very first monastic principle is to withdraw from the world and the world’s way of doing things. This principle is not isolated to monasticism. It concerns all things related to Christ, the Church, and Christianity. Benedict's model of monasticism, when we see it for what it is, is a microcosm representing Christ and his Church.

Only in withdrawing from the world and its way of doing things are we truly able to see who we are … to see ourselves as God sees us and to seek him and him alone in the total package of the good, bad, and ugly of ourselves. It is terribly easy to see what we need to do and then run away from it because doing what we need to do requires much from us. 

Saint Benedict encourages inquirers that they “not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation.”[2]

I believed it during the early stages of my formation as an Oblate. I believe it even more so now.

Saint Benedict, his Rule, and his monasteries still offers the world, and the Church, the solution to their multiplied modern problems.

Pray for professions to the monastic life.

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[1] http://www.saintsbooks.net/books/Dom%20Prosper%20Gueranger,%20O.S.B.%20-%20The%20Medal%20or%20Cross%20of%20St.%20Benedict.pdf

[2] RB Prologue 48

Be Not Afraid

The turn of the Century was a terribly difficult time in my life.

It was, I think, the most difficult season that I have ever lived through. That is really saying something considering I have lived through several extremely difficult seasons that tried me. I have done things to generate the seasons. Others have done things to generate the seasons. Self-generated seasons are easier to deal with than seasons generated by the actions and attitudes of other.

The worst seasons in my life have been generated by the actions and attitudes of well-intentioned others that justify their actions and attitudes by dressing them in garments that have a faint closet-smell of Christianity but more honestly resembles [in my mind and reference] the odors that emanate from the stagnant water and sour soil found in our deep swamps where life is made practically untenable by the creatures that inhabit and thrive in these environments.  

That worst season in my life, at the turn of the Century, robbed me of a lot and inflicted deep emotional injuries upon me. That worst season was really the proverbial straw that finally broke the back of the camel.

It was also the catalyst for a lot of personal change. It was a time when, despite the other-people-generated personal hardships that almost robbed me of my faith, I found myself searching and inquiring deeper.

 I could not bring myself to reject God. I admit that I was plenty angry with him at the time. I was, after all, doing my best to follow his calling upon my life. It was easy to blame him for not orchestrating better results. I admit that I was plenty confused but I knew, without a doubt, that God [in the realty that we call the Trinity] was real. The problem was that I had arrived at a point where despite my personal frame of reference [all my systematic and practical theology coupled with all my experiences in Protestant pastoral ministry] I was reluctant [afraid is a better word] to trust God.

I was totally disillusioned with Protestantism [and especially the antics found in the independent charismatic arena], disassociated myself from practically everyone in my Protestant past, and entered into a life of seclusion. My mom and daughter were the only family members that knew where I was or how to contact me during those two years.

For all practical purposes, David had fallen off the face of the earth.

It was during that worst season of my life that I discovered the Rosary.

How did I, a disillusioned Protestant living in seclusion, discover the Rosary?

I cannot, at this point in time, recall anyone specifically recommending the Rosary to me. All that I knew about the Rosary came from all my former years as a Protestant where the Rosary [and anything Catholic] was summarily rejected and dismissed. I really have to conclude that it was the Holy Spirit and Our Lady that led me to the Rosary. 

It was, in discovering and learning to pray the Rosary, that I began to experience the deep emotional healing that I needed, healing that today allows me to harbor absolutely no malice or ill-will toward any of the players that caused me so much emotional trauma over the years that I labored for the Lord in pastoral ministry. I pray for them … thankfully pray for them … with gladness in my heart knowing that each of them was in part responsible for me being where I am now in full communion in the Roman Catholic Church. Deo Gratias. Thanks be to God.

Praying the Rosary salvaged my faith in God from where it had been made shipwreck on the rocky shore of life. It did more than salvage it. Praying the Rosary renewed and deepened my faith. Not only so, praying the Rosary introduced me to Our Lady … the Mother whom I had never personally known. This far this side of those difficult years, I have to accredit the Blessed Virgin as the one who led me to the Catholic Church. Mary led me back to the place where I could wholeheartedly place my trust in God.

I admit that the scars from the terrible emotional wounds are still there. There are times when I experience flare-ups from them but, for the most part, the debilitating effects of those wounds no longer control or dictate my course in life.

We are all facing something.

We are all going through something.

Some of our somethings amount to serious hardships and dire challenges that possess the potential to shake and rattle our faith. There is no shame in admitting that and it is honestly dishonesty on our part to put on a fake face and pretend that we are strong. God knows the somethings that beat on us. God understands our frailty. God made us. God knows us. God knows what we need. God, in his mercy, has provided everything that we need.

Are you a cradle Catholic in need of healing, direction, or a personal touch from God to renew your faith? Dig your Rosary out of the drawer where it has for such a long time lived out of sight and out of mind. Rediscover [or quite possibly discover for the first time as a Catholic] a love for praying the Rosary.

Are you a Protestant in need of healing, direction, or a personal touch from God? Do not be afraid of the Rosary. Do not be afraid of Mary. Do not be afraid of the gift of the Blessed Mother to us. Mary is the Mother of the Church. Mary is the Theotokos … the Mother of God. Mary is your Mother too even though you have not been introduced to her.

Mary … Our Lady … will embrace you where you are and help you at your point of need. I know. I was, like I said, a Protestant when I met my Mother.

Be not afraid.

“Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”[1]

Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

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[1] Isaiah 41:10