Living The Rule - The Abbot Part Four

Right is right.

Wrong is wrong.

Someone has to stand in a place of authority determining right from wrong.

The Abbatial Office holds this place of authority within the confines of the monastery. The Abbot must perform the responsibilities of the office without partiality while representing Christ and the Deposit of Faith entrusted by Christ to the Church. He is, too, representing the Holy Father Saint Benedict and the Rule of Saint Benedict compiled by the Founding Abbot of the Order of Saint Benedict.

The Abbot is not alone in his endeavor.

All of us that hear and answer a call to enter the school founded by Saint Benedict, whether we are professed through Solemn Vows or promised through Solemn Promises, shoulder some of the responsibility to carry the burden of living, promoting, and protecting the precious truths entrusted to us. This business of living, promoting and protecting the truths entrusted to us by Christ is, for every Christian, the essence of what it means to be a Christian.

Abbot Benedict says,

For in his teaching the Abbot should always observe that principle of the Apostle in which he saith: "Reprove, entreat, rebuke" (2 Tm 4:2), that is, mingling gentleness with severity, as the occasion may call for, let him show the severity of the master and the loving affection of a father. He must sternly rebuke the undisciplined and restless; but he must exhort the obedient, meek, and patient to advance in virtue. But we charge him to rebuke and punish the negligent and haughty. Let him not shut his eyes to the sins of evil-doers; but on their first appearance let him do his utmost to cut them out from the root at once, mindful of the fate of Heli [Eli], the priest of Silo [Shiloh] (cf 1 Samuel 2:11-4:18). The well-disposed and those of good understanding, let him correct at the first and second admonition only with words; but let him chastise the wicked and the hard of heart, and the proud and disobedient at the very first offense with stripes and other bodily punishments, knowing that it is written: "The fool is not corrected with words" (Prov 29:19). And again: "Strike thy son with the rod, and thou shalt deliver his soul from death" (Prov 23:14). [1]

Saint Benedict brings the account of Eli, the priest of Shiloh, and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to recollection. I think that [and this is purely thinking on my part as I watch the trends that are happening in the Church today] if ever there was a Biblical story that should be read by our Bishops and Priests, this is it.

Why this recollection?

Saint Benedict was reminding himself, Abbots that would come after him, and all of us for that matter that Eli had, to use an old Biblical expression, settled on his lees. Eli had grown comfortable and complacent. His sons exercised themselves excessively and Eli refused to correct their actions. The sad, utterly catastrophic results of this comfortable and complacent lack of correction is spelled out in the story.[2] Eli’s sons died in battle. Eli fell backward from his stool, broke his neck, and died. Worse, though, is that the Philistines defeated Israel in battle and captured the Ark of the Covenant.

We should constantly remind ourselves of why Benedict of Nursia, as a young man, renounced the world to live in a cave at Subiaco. Why did he? Simply because he was disgusted with paganism and its prevalence in the 6^th Century.

To say that paganism is more than alive and well in the 21^st Century is an understatement. It has become the accepted social norm, is growing in popularity, and elements of it have the protection of the courts. Our modern age, from a moral perspective, resembles Benedict’s day. It is not at all difficult to recognize the effects of paganism working within the modern Church.[3]

Maybe we all need to be looking for a cave?

Benedict designed his monastery as a place where a person could go and, as best as humanly possible, leave the world and its paganism outside. He designed his monastery as a place where a person could honestly and seriously wrestle with himself, whip his demons, and grow in the likeness of Christ.[4]

Out here, living in the world as an Oblate of Saint Benedict, the onus is on us. We owe it to ourselves to do what we must in order to live, promote, and protect the truth we have been entrusted with.

Know the truth. Live the truth. Promote the truth. Protect the truth. Regardless. Regardless of the best efforts of paganism to lure us into its darkness. Regardless of those bishops and priests that choose to color outside the lines of historic Church doctrine and dogma.

The Apostle Paul did not mince words when he said,

 “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement does the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’ Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.”[5]

... To Be Continued ...

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[1] Holy Rule 2:23-29

[2] 1 Samuel 2:11-4:18

[3] The Amazonian Synod and the Pachamama. Really?

[4] Conversatio Morum [Conversion of Life] is much more than learning to live by the Rule. The Rule is a guide to establish an environment where deep, meaningful, change is continuously occurring.

[5] 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 NRSV

Living The Rule - The Abbot Part Three

Measuring people, a process that includes personal observation and spiritual discernment, is a necessary part of life. It is part of life in general. It is also an important process in the Christian life.

How does a statement like this square with Christ’s statement in Matthew 7:1-5 regarding judging others? Christ said,

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye, while the log is in your own eye?’ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

When I read the Rule, when I read the Scriptures for that matter, I cannot help but to realize the necessity to search for character traits in others, even in others who offer some type of profession of faith.

It is not done to nit-pick. It is not done to establish some type of “Big I – Little You” platform. It is done largely for safety and personal protection. Character and behavior traits, especially the traits considered to be the fruit of the Spirit[1], are reasonable qualifiers. There is also the “interior witness” of the Holy Spirit that is best not ignored. Listen with the ear of the heart to what the Holy Spirit is saying.

Determining qualifying character and behavior traits is particularly clear in the New Testament in regard to determining the eligibility of Bishops and Deacons.[2] This is also particularly clear in the Rule regarding appointment to positions of service within the monastery.

We will ever be, to some degree, making judgments about people.

The Apostle Paul tells us that those who are spiritual discern all things.[3] Other translations use the words judge or judgment rather than discern.

There is truth. There is error.

It behooves us to know the Scriptures. The New Testament did, after all, come to us from the Appointed Magisterium of the Early Church. It behooves us to know what the Catechism teaches regarding the Deposit of Faith. It also behooves us, as Oblates of Saint Benedict, to study, know, and daily apply the Rule to our lives in a way that leads us deeper into the truth and farther away from error.

A recent article from one of the leading conservative Catholic publishers[4] insists that none of us are exempt from the duty to repudiate error in the current moral morass that surrounds us. Repudiating error necessarily means knowing the truth and being able to spot error.

The danger, inherent in this process, is allowing our judgments of others to elevate our correctness and perceived personal value before God in such a way that we begin looking down upon them from a perch of superiority. It is easy, in our correctness, to discover ourselves conceited and swollen with pride. We do well to continually remind ourselves of the destructive nature of this deadly sin[5] that always precedes and precipitates a fall of grace.

Abbot Benedict insists that humility[6] is the only antidote for a prideful superiority complex.

He also strictly forbids favoritism in the Holy Rule.

Abbot Benedict wrote of himself, of Abbots that would follow in his place, and to all of us desiring to follow the principles stated in the Rule saying,

Let him make no distinction of persons in the monastery. Let him not love one more than another, unless it be one whom he findeth more exemplary in good works and obedience. Let not a free-born be preferred to a freedman, unless there be some other reasonable cause. But if from a just reason the Abbot deemeth it proper to make such a distinction, he may do so in regard to the rank of anyone whomsoever; otherwise let everyone keep his own place; for whether bond or free, we are all one in Christ (cf Gal 3:28; Eph 6:8), and we all bear an equal burden of servitude under one Lord, "for there is no respect of persons with God" (Rom 2:11). We are distinguished with Him in this respect alone, if we are found to excel others in good works and in humility. Therefore, let him have equal charity for all, and impose a uniform discipline for all according to merit.[7]

My motivation for writing these reflections if very basic.

I believe that the principles contained in the Rule of Saint Benedict offer the same remedial aid to people in the 21^st Century that they did to those first followers of Benedict in the 6^th Century. I desire, as an Oblate of Saint Benedict living in the world, to shoulder my own equal burden of servitude.

In so believing and doing, these pages that appear at Oblate Reflections are merely my own attempt to [1] understand more fully and integrate more practically these principles into my own life in the 21^st Century, and [2] hopefully communicate these principles in such a way that others dwelling outside the walls and halls of Benedictine monasteries discover these values and implement them as a way of life.

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[1] Galatians 5:22-23

[2] 1 Timothy 3:1-13

[3] 1 Corinthians 2:15

[4] National Catholic Register, The Silence of the Church Deafens the World

[5] Pride is always listed first in the list of Capital Sins

[6] Holy Rule Chapter 7

[7] Holy Rule 2:16-22

Living The Rule - The Abbot Part Two

This reflection picks up where we left off with

https://myoblatereflections.blogspot.com/2019/04/living-rule-abbot-part-one.html .

The Abbot is, without a doubt, the central authority figure in the monastery.

His is a great responsibility, one that he will ultimately give account for when he faces the Christ whom he represents before the brothers.[1] 

Those that hear the voice of God calling them to life within Saint Benedict’s School of the Lord’s Service are dutifully bound to submit to the authority of the Abbot and the Holy Rule.[2]

One of the things that I immediately garner from the relational aspect represented here concerns personal accountability. I see this personal accountability factor not only here but throughout the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Solemn Vows, Monastic Professions, are, in one respect, a total surrender of the will. Professed brothers [and sisters] willingly submit themselves for life. Their will is to no longer serve themselves but to serve God in the community formed by the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Abbot, and the community within the monastery for all the remaining years and days of their lives.[3]

The Solemn Promises for Oblates of Saint Benedict, though not binding under pain of sin like the Solemn Vows of our cloistered brothers and sisters, are yet a weighty matter not to be entered into lightly.

“Just as the monk takes these three vows[4] at the time of profession, so does the Oblate implicitly promise at the time of Oblation to live by these values through the commitment to "dedicate myself to the service of God and neighbor according to the Rule of St. Benedict" (Oblation ceremony).  These promises of Oblation, while not binding under pain of sin, should be taken seriously as part of a carefully discerned lifelong commitment.”[5]

Oblation, for Oblates, is much like marriage … intended for life.

With what strictness will Oblates of Saint Benedict be judged when at last we are called to give an account of our stewardship of the Deposit of Faith and the relational guidelines that are at the heart of the Rule of Saint Benedict?

We, as Oblates, should be careful to not make light of the “not binding under pain of sin” that is mentioned. All of us … Monk, Nun, Oblate, Average Joe … will be called to give account for the truth that we know. The truth that we know will play a role when we are unavoidably called to give account. “For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.”[6]

Consider these few verses from the Holy Rule regarding the Abbot.

When, therefore, anyone taketh the name of Abbot he should govern his disciples by a twofold teaching; namely, he should show them all that is good and holy by his deeds more than by his words; explain the commandments of God to intelligent disciples by words, but show the divine precepts to the dull and simple by his works. And let him show by his actions, that whatever he teacheth his disciples as being contrary to the law of God must not be done, "lest perhaps when he hath preached to others, he himself should become a castaway" (1 Cor 9:27), and he himself committing sin, God one day say to him: "Why dost thou declare My justices, and take My covenant in thy mouth? But thou hast hated discipline, and hast cast My words behind thee" (Ps 49[50]:16-17). And: "Thou who sawest the mote in thy brother's eye, hast not seen the beam in thine own" (Mt 7:3).[7]

Abbot Benedict was writing these words to himself. He was writing these words to every Abbot that would come after him. 

Not only so. 

What is being said here of the Abbot is applicable to all of us regardless of where we fit in the grand scheme of things. What is being said here is applicable to all of us regardless of which pew or chair we normally sit on.

To be continued.

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[1] Holy Rule Chapter 2:1-10

[2] Holy Rule Prologue

[3] Holy Rule Prologue 50

[4] Obedience, Stability, Conversatio Morum

[5] OBLATE FORMATION BOOKLET for Oblates of Saint Benedict affiliated with Saint Vincent Archabbey

 1995, revised in 2002 and 2013

[6] 2 Corinthians 5:10

[7] Holy Rule 2:11-15

Hail, Favored One

The Advent Season … this Season on the Church Calendar that has historically been referred to as Little Lent, is only days away.

The Blessed Virgin Mary figures significantly into the Nativity Narrative. Much is lost when her role in bringing salvation to the lost world of humanity is downplayed. We do well to remember and honor her. Her role in the Nativity, a role that includes her Immaculate Conception and preservation from Original Sin, is a significant one.

The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated annually on November 21^st … Thursday of this week. The Feast commemorates the presentation of the Blessed Virgin as a child by her parents in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Before Mary's birth, her parents received a heavenly message that they would bear a child. In thanksgiving for God's gift of Mary's birth, they brought her to the Temple to consecrate their only daughter to The Lord. 

Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.

As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was 3 years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.

Westerners, especially Protestant Westerners, make very little of a feast like this.

Personally?

I discovered, as a former Protestant convert to Catholicism, that I was missing out on a lot. I think a lot of important stuff, too, is being neglected in “modern” Catholicism. Maintaining a finger on the pulse of the times does not require us to turn away from what we hold true and dear about the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church.

The Eastern Church, however, was quite open to this feast and even somewhat insistent about celebrating it.

The Feast stresses important truth about Mary. From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God. She herself became a greater temple than any made by hands. God came to dwell in her in a marvelous manner and sanctified her for her unique role in God’s saving work.

At the same time, the magnificence of Mary enriches her children. They … we … are temples of God and sanctified in order that we might enjoy and share in God’s saving work.

Ave Maria!

Hail, favored one!

Hail, Christ-Bearer!

Hail Mary, full of grace, and chosen by the Father as Theotokos … Mother of God … Mother of the Church … our Mother!

Immaculate Mary your praises we sing!

A Benedictine Confiteor

The Penitential Act, something that we refer to as the Confiteor [Latin for “I Confess”] is an important part of the Liturgy of the Mass.

Not only publicly in collective worship. It also serves an intimately important role in our private worship as an element of prayer.

The Confiteor calls us to reflection and examination of conscience. It calls us to reckon with our fallen nature. It beckons us to depend upon not only the grace and mercy of God but also the efficacious intercession of the Communion of Saints.

Implicit in the Confiteor is our obligation to pray for one another as fellow pilgrims on our journey toward eternity and the just rewards to be experienced when we pass through the doorway of physical death.

Today’s English translation of The Confiteor is fairly basic and simplified.

I confess to almighty God

and to you, my brothers and sisters,

that I have greatly sinned

in my thoughts and in my words,

in what I have done

and in what I have failed to do,

through my fault,

through my fault,

through my most grievous fault;

therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,

all the Angels and Saints,

and you, my brothers and sisters,

to pray for me to the Lord our God.

The Confiteor, as translated into English from the Breviarium Monasticum in 1925 and included in the Monastic Diurnal, is not so concise. [See NOTE below.]

I confess to God Almighty,

To blessed Mary ever Virgin,

To blessed Michael the Archangel,

To blessed John the Baptist,

To the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,

(to our blessed Father Benedict)

To all the Saints,

And to you,

Brethren,

That I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed:

By my fault,

By my own fault,

By my own most grievous fault.

Wherefore I beg blessed Mary every Virgin,

Blessed Michael the Archangel,

Blessed John the Baptist,

The holy Apostles Peter and Paul,

(our blessed Father Benedict)

All the Saints,

And you, brethren,

To pray for me to the Lord our God.

Is the concise English version an improvement or does the reduction take substance away from the older?

Personally, with my affection for and commitment to “things distinctively Benedictine”, I prefer the older Benedictine Confiteor.

[NOTE] This may be of particular interest to Benedictines that do not prescribe to Roman Catholicism: Lancelot Andrewes Press offers copies of The Monastic Diurnal, according to the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, with additional rubrics and devotions for recitation in accordance with The Book of Common Prayer.

The Hook That Got Me

My discovery of Saint Benedict and his Rule came on the heels of quite a bulk of time spent studying the Celtic Saints, the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and eremitical life in Eastern cultures.

The Rule of Saint Benedict is thoroughly Biblical. It is also thoroughly rooted in historical expressions of Christian monasticism. It also happens that, as it was then and as it is now, and, while we are instructed to practice a spirit of ecumenism in keeping with the prescriptions of Vatican II, the Rule of Saint Benedict is thoroughly Catholic.

Other groups have embraced and modified the Rule to satisfy the polemics of their denominational settings.

Regardless of what other groups do or make of the Rule, there is no escaping the Catholicity of the Rule of Saint Benedict. The single greatest evidence of this Catholicity is at Mass in the monasteries. Oblates of Saint Benedict that are not “Catholic” are not to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

It is not a matter of disrespectfulness toward anyone. 

It is a matter of respect for the Truth who is embodied in the bread and wine on the altar at the consecration. The Catholic Church is duty-bound to safeguard the Truth [and truths] entrusted to her.

I was not a full-blown Catholic when I discovered the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Benedictine monastic charism. I had, in fact, accomplished my Novitiate as an Oblate Novice [2005] and been received as an Oblate at Saint Bernard Abbey [2006] before entering the Catholic Church [2007].

Make no mistake about it. There is nothing easy about walking out of Protestantism and into Catholicism. Those were terribly trying times.  

My [our] transition was a gradual one that began shortly after the turn of the millennium and came to its major point of definition at the Easter Vigil in 2007 where Shirli and I were officially received into the Catholic Church after completing the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.

I am convinced that there were Protestant associates that would have preferred that I chose to look at life through the bottom of a bottle of bourbon. That would have been something that they could have rationalized and made some justification for. But to sell out and become Catholic? That is not reasonable to the Protestant mind.

What was the selling point?

What was the hook that got me?

What was it that so thoroughly convinced me to change “church” camps and give myself as an offering to this expression of Christian monasticism that Saint Benedict founded in the 6^th Century?

The answer is a simple one.

There was something that bled through the writings of monks dead and gone. This same something was evidenced between the written lines of living monks and a few other living Catholic writers. This something was vastly evidenced in the lives of the monks that I met at the abbey when I first visited Saint Bernard Abbey.

This something that hooked me was [and remains] a deep and irrefutable sense of interior peace and joy that comes only through a life of prayer where the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is always the central focus.

Commemoration of all the Departed of the Order of Saint Benedict.

Yesterday, on the old calendar, was the Feast of all Benedictine Saints.

Today, on the old calendar, is the Commemoration of all the Departed of the Order of Saint Benedict.

It's great that All Saints and All Souls [celebrated November 1st and 2nd] are part of the Church Calendar. The sad reality is that these days are little appreciated in these modern Church times here in the United States.

The proof of this lack of appreciation, and perhaps lack of understanding, is evidenced in how pitifully attended Masses on these days are.

People are clamoring for reform in the Catholic Church.

Reform?

I have no problem with reform as long as it does not avoid or, in numerous instances, completely eliminate the foundational truths upon which the Church is built.

I cannot help but to think of the historic reforms within the Order of Saint Benedict. These were always a return to more basic and stricter observances of the Rule that Saint Benedict compiled as a guide for use in his monasteries.

Perhaps I'm too much of a nostalgic. I cannot, however, help but to appreciate the distinctive historical nuances that have, for all these centuries, made Benedictine's Benedictine.

The explanatory note in this copy of the Monastic Diurnal says ... "On this day is said the Office of the current Feria or Feast, and also the Office of the Dead for all the Departed of the Order."  The importance of this day is such that, if it falls on Sunday or one of the other Feasts, it is transferred to the day after.

Lest we forget the roots and foundations passed on to us by our Benedictine fathers and mothers.

Collect:

O GOD, the Giver of Pardon and the Author of man's salvation: we humbly beseech thy mercy to grant that the brethren of our Congregation, who have departed out of this world, blessed Mary ever Virgin and all thy Saints praying for them, may attain to the fellowship of everlasting blessedness. Through Christ our Lord.

For the repose of the souls of Father Thomas O'Connor, Father Edward Markley, and Father Howard Mossier ... three Benedictine priests from Saint Bernard Abbey that had [and continues to have] a significant influence on my life.

[Photo - Abbey Cemetery at Saint Bernard Abbey, Cullman, AL]

The Feast Of All Benedictine Saints

Today is the day [historically] that Benedictines respectfully remember those black habited men and women Benedictines that have been canonized as Saints.

The Saints, in a social-media driven world in dire need of role models, are a huge deal. They show us the way. The lives they lived casts illumination upon the paths that our feet travel.

Their examples of Christian faith and loyalty stand in direct contrast to the dismal darkness of our time that is portrayed as the “good life” to be desired and sought after. 

Their example, if only applied, is the remedy for the modern ills that plague the Church.

There is no contraction in their words and actions. Their words and their deeds bear witness to one another. It is one thing to preach a good line. It is altogether another thing to live a good line. 

The Saints show us how to do both. The Rule of Saint Benedict, in Chapter 2 [The Qualities of the Abbot] insists that pointing out what is good and holy is best done more by example than by words [RB 2:12].

The lives of the Saints are a continual reminder that I yet have a long way to go in my own Conversatio Morum where the fruit of this conversion process is always a closer representative modeling of the one who is The Way, Truth, and Life.

With choirs, both today and throughout the Benedictine ages, I offer this hymn in remembrance and respect.

Avete Solitudinis Claustrique Mites

Hail dwellers in the solitude

And in the lowly cloister cell,

Who steadfast and unshaken stood

Against the raging hordes of hell.

All wealth of gold and precious stone

And glories all of rank and birth

You cast away and trampled on,

With all low pleasures of this earth.

The green fields and the orchards grew

The simple fare whereon ye fed.

The brook was drink enough for you,

And on the hard ground was your bed.

Around you dwelt the venomed snakes,

And fiercest monsters harboured near.

All foul forms that the demon takes

You saw, but would not yield to fear.

Far, far beyond all earthly things

Your burning thoughts would wing their flight,

And hear the holy whisperings

Of angels in the heavenly height.

Thou Father of the heavenly host,

Thou glorious Son of Mary maid,

Thou Paraclete, the Holy Ghost,

To Thee be praise and glory paid.

Collect: [Monastic Diurnal]

GRANT we beseech thee, Almighty God: that the example of the holy Monks may stir us up to amendment of life; that we may imitate the holy actions of those whose solemn festival we celebrate. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.