Raccolta Prayers - Prayer for the Preservation of the Faith

O My REDEEMER, will that terrible moment ever come, when but few Christians will be found animated with a spirit of faith? that moment when, provoked to indignation, Thou wilt remove from us thy protection? The vices, the evil habits of our children, have perhaps irrevocably moved thy justice this very day to vengeance!

O Thou who art the author and finisher of our faith, we conjure Thee, in the bitterness of our hearts, humbled and contrite, not to permit the beautiful light of faith to be extinguished in us.

Be mindful of thy mercies of old, cast a compassionate regard upon that vine which Thou hast planted with thy right hand, which was bedewed with the sweat of the Apostles, watered with the precious blood of thousands upon thousands of martyrs and the tears of so many generous penitents, and made fruitful by the prayers of so many confessors and innocent virgins.

O divine Mediator, have regard for those zealous souls who incessantly raise their hearts to Thee and pray for the maintenance of that most precious treasure, the true Faith.

Suspend, O most just GOD, the decree of our reprobation, turn away thine eyes from our sins, and fix them on the adorable blood, shed upon the Cross as the price of salvation, and daily pleading for it, on our behalf, upon our altars.

Oh, preserve us in the true Catholic Roman Faith.

Infirmities afflict us, annoyances wear us away, misfortunes oppress us: but preserve to us thy holy faith; for, endowed with this precious gift, we shall willingly bear every sorrow, and nothing can affect our happiness. On the other hand, without this supreme treasure of the faith, our misfortunes will be unspeakable and immense.

O good JESUS, author of our faith, keep it pure; keep us safe within the bark of Peter, faithful and obedient to his successor, thy Vicar here on earth, that so the unity of holy Church may be preserved, holiness fostered, the Holy See kept free and protected, and the universal Church extended, to the advantage of souls.

O JESUS, author of our faith, humble and convert the enemies of thy Church; bestow on all Kings and Christian Princes, and on all the faithful, peace and true unity; strengthen and maintain all in thy holy service, to the end that we may live by Thee and die in Thee.

Ah! My JESUS, author of our faith, in Thee I would live, and in Thee would I die. Amen.[1]

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[1] Raccolta, #58, Prayer for the Preservation of Faith.  300 Days, once a day. (See Instructions.) Leo XIII, April 11, 1888. 

Living The Rule - Tools Of Good Works Conclusion

That these guidelines for living in community are called a Rule is an instant turn-off to anyone that resists submitting to authority. Modernites, with a bent toward independence, easily dismiss The Rule before giving it so much as a casual reading.  

It is not enough to say that we have the Scriptures as our guide. It is not enough to think of ourselves as or claim to be monastics or lay-monastics.

The modern Christian world is affected by many who use the Scriptures to preach a modern-day gospel that is far from the plainly revealed counter-cultural gospel contained in the Scriptures. There are also a few … perhaps well-intentioned and perhaps, at the same time, greatly deceived … who profess to be lay-monastics that, in the light of Saint Benedict’s definition of the various types of monks[1], are clearly presenting themselves as either modern-day Sarabaites or Gyrovagues.

Saint Benedict specifically points out that we need the Scriptures. He also, in addition to the Scriptures, refers us to solid guides that will ensure that we are not led astray in our understanding of how to interiorize and integrate this way of life.[2]

Our modern-day monastic philosophy of life must necessarily be influenced by the Scriptures, the theology and way of life of the Fathers of the Church, as well as a clear understanding of historic monasticism. The Rule of Saint Benedict directs us toward these, and when we honestly pursue them, we cannot help but to blush for shame at being so slothful, so unobservant, so negligent.[3]

Personally, I discover a lot of encouragement in the way The Rule definitively defines what is and what is not Christian behavior; in how it challenges me to keep pressing forward and upward in my own process of growing in grace that Benedict refers to as conversatio morum or conversion of life. Spiritual tepidity, luke-warmness [Revelation 3:15-18], is difficult to discover any comfort in when The Rule supplies fuel for the Holy Spirit to use to inflame us with fervency.

Where authority is concerned, one of the very first things to understand about Saint Benedict and the Rule of Saint Benedict is that there is absolutely nothing presented by the Saint in his rule that is contrary to the plain teachings of the Scriptures. Were it not so based, how could it have possibly survived these past fifteen centuries? It would have long ago passed from sight and been buried over by the dust of time.

Saint Benedict tells us that we are to love chastity, to hate no one, not to be jealous, not to entertain envy, not to love strife, not to love pride, to honor the aged, to love the younger, to pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ, to make peace with an adversary before the setting of the sun, and never to despair of God's mercy.[4]

What an indictment against carnal human behavior! It is an indictment that applies during times of ease and even more so during times such as this Covid-19 crisis that exacerbates excitability and stretches people to extremes. Remember that Benedict is writing to groups of people that are voluntarily living in compact and intense religious communities that are essentially microcosms of the Church and of Christianity as a whole.

When we see monastic communities, and the values that govern monasticism, as models for the entire Church, then we realize the imperative to acquire and to emulate these values in our daily lives as followers of Jesus. Easy Christianity … easy self-centered beliefism that primarily does little to change us personally and secondarily does nothing to change the world at large ... becomes a plague to be avoided at all cost.  

Saint Benedict finishes this chapter regarding the tools of good works by saying, Behold, these are the instruments of the spiritual art, which, if they have been applied without ceasing day and night and approved on judgment day, will merit for us from the Lord that reward which He hath promised: "The eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him" (1 Cor 2:9). But the workshop in which we perform all these works with diligence is the enclosure of the monastery, and stability in the community.[5]

Benedict describes these tools of good works as the instruments of the spiritual art that assist in maturing[6] his students, provided they are applied without ceasing day and night[7]. The community formed within the stable environment of the monastery becomes the workshop where these tools are used in a lifelong effort to achieve the purposes and ends of monasticism.[8]

What response can I personally offer to the spiritual direction given in this chapter of The Rule of Saint Benedict?

I can only conclude that it is not enough to simply say that I believe in Jesus Christ. There must, as the fruit of this profession of faith, proceed the development of the fruit of this profession. I must daily examine myself to ensure that I am indeed progressing along the monastic way and check myself in areas that are either weak or in opposition to the spiritual direction given by the holy Father and Abbot.

I must take even more seriously to heart the injunction of the Apostle Paul where he says, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will.”[9]

I must, as well, consider even more seriously where the Apostle James talks about the relationship that exists between faith and works.[10] Realizing that even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead[11], I must even more so yield myself to the works that prove my faith to be indeed alive within me.

Having concluded this chapter on the tools of good works, we now begin Benedict’s little chapter on Obedience.

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[1] Holy Rule Chapter 1

[2] Holy Rule Chapter 73

[3] Holy Rule 73:7

[4] Holy Rule 4:64-74

[5] Holy Rule 4:75-78

[6] Herein we see the Monk’s Vow and the Oblate’s Promise to Conversatio Morum or Conversion of Life.

[7] Herein we see the Monk’s Vow and the Oblate’s Promise to Obedience.

[8] Herein we see the Monk’s Vow and the Oblate’s Promise to Stability.

[9] Philippians 2:12-13

[10] James 2:14-26

[11] James 2:26

Hermitage Notes - The Dream

I usually have dreams when I sleep. I am unable to remember practically 100% of them.

On a few rare occasions I have discovered myself at times, in places, doing things where something [like that crop duster flying in the distance out on the NW Kansas prairie] triggered the memory as some kind of affirmation that I am indeed where I am supposed to be and doing what I am supposed to be doing.

I think of the dream now and then. Not often. Just now and then.

It was a one-time dream, one that I awoke from and pondered on in the starlit darkness of that little one room off-grid cabin in Manitoba that September in 2005. It was an odd dream, one that, unlike most of my dreams, was as memorable as if it was a lived experience.

In the dream I came upon a small stream while walking through a semi-mountainous forest. There was something inviting about the little trickle of a stream. Something called to me. I stepped into the shoe-sole deep trickle and began following it to see where it took me.

The stream gradually became wider and deeper … ankle deep, calf deep, knee deep. The deeper and wider the water, the more the geography changed. The deeper and wider the water, the darker colored the water became until I could no longer see beneath the surface. Still, the invitation to follow remained distinct.

I pushed on until I could no longer feel the bottom and had to swim.

I thought about swimming for what appeared to be the safety of the shore but could not. I swam toward the invitation until, with my own strength exhausted, I began to sink.

There was no fear. There was only this irresistible invitation.

I held my breath as I sank beneath the surface. When I could no longer hold my breath, I breathed in and inhaled the deep and dark water. It was then that I could see through the dark murkiness. It was then that I felt total peace and complete freedom. But only for an instant.

There, in that instant, I awoke.

The invitation? I still sense it.

Note: The dream occurred during the time that I had just begun discovering monasticism, was seriously considering converting to Catholicism, and was thinking about the personal repercussions that these choices would bring.

Hermitage Notes - For The Sake Of Sanity and Sanctity

Today is the 103^rd Anniversary of the Apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima. It is also Day 59 of our self-imposed hunker down on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I keep reminding myself that everything that happens to us is God’s will either directly or permissibly.

This is not to say that God ordains the immoral activities of humans. 

It is to say that even in the midst of immoral human actions and activities, God can, and will indeed, use these violations of his moral laws to bring about sanctity in the lives of those affected by actions of immorality.[1] We either allow them to continue to diminish us, thereby increasing our personal devastation, or, to our betterment, we do the hard work of allowing them to mold us into better images of Christ.

The choice is mine, then, in all arising difficult matters, to discern what I need to do in my life in order to be as perfectly centered as possible where God’s revealed will is concerned.

Seen purely as a natural phenomenon, the virus has sent the entire world and its economy into a tailspin. Global humanity is snatching at straws. For all its advancements in science and technology, the world still has not arrived at any reasonable working solution for the effects of the virus. One thing that this virus has done, with certainty, is that it has created definite lines of philosophical division as a secondary effect.

Overcoming the lines of philosophical division created by Covid-19 will likely be more difficult than discovering a vaccine for it. The cure for the primary physical effects of the virus are a matter of science. The cure for the secondary social effects is a matter of walking in love.[2] This love inoculation is a hard one to take and it has to be renewed daily to be of any lasting effect. 

A refusal to walk in love is a choice to walk in hostility, faction, and division.

Whether directly sent by God as a plague on modern society for its sins[3], or permissibly allowed by God to cause humankind an opportunity to consider their lives and turn from their sins, this microscopic modern-day virus is a tool in the hand of God. The social ramifications of its tilling teeth have begun to manifest. The grand outcome of its cultivating effect is, however, waiting in the shadows.

Though we exercise a few practical precautions when going out among people to take care of our necessaries, the Covid-19 tool has not been a significant life and routine changer for us personally. It has, though, been a very real clarifier of intention and purpose for us here in our little hideaway hermitage-like cabin in the woods.

At this point, having more thoroughly than ever before embraced the peace that is found in solitude, there seems to be only one positive direction for us to travel. That direction leads away from the surrounding meanness and mania[4] and deeper into the sanity and sanctity of solitude that we have discovered and thrive in.

And this we do for the sake of our own sanity and sanctification.

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[1] Romans 8:28

[2] 1 Corinthians Chapter 13

[3] Some insist that God does not do this. I beg to differ. The 10 plagues sent on Egypt are one example. Consider 1 Samuel 5 where God smote the people of Ashdod with emerods [tumors thought to be hemorrhoids]. Consider the numerous times that the Israelites, because of their choice to reject God and his moral laws, were overtaken by their enemies and led away into captivity.

[4] Most obviously and painfully portrayed in the lives of people who profess to be Christians while aggressively promoting political and religious hostility and division.

Hastening On - Exile Or Living As A Stranger

The encounter with The Rich Man is full of challenge[1], so much so that people go to great lengths to justify themselves and their material wealth. Yet, despite the efforts at self-justification, the words of Christ still stand for all time and eternity.

Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.[2] How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God![3] Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.[4]

Peter began to say to him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time … and in the age to come eternal life.[5]

It is not just the modern day “prosperity gospel” preachers that find ways around this important teaching. They like to go into their thirty, sixty, one-hundred-fold increase line just before insisting that the best way to get “your” increase is to support “their” ministry with a generous donation. A lot of people skirt their way around it. Many dismiss it as … that was for those early followers but it no longer applies to us now. Jesus surely would not tell us to do that in this day and age with all that we have going on.

A few have read or heard those words of Jesus, taken them to heart, lived them to the fullest, and made significant enduring impacts on the Church and the world outside its walls.

Others, a much larger body, have entered into monastic lives, both in monasteries and as hermits in solitude, to live entirely for the love of God with one eye on reparation for their sins and the other eye on the eternal rewards of heaven. These too, though mostly unseen and forever anonymous except to God, the angels, and the Saints, also made a significant enduring contribution to the Church and to the world through the continual lifting up of the praises and prayers of the Opus Dei.

Saint John Climacus tells us that no one will enter the heavenly bridechamber wearing a crown unless he makes the first, second and third renunciation. I mean the renunciation of all business, and people, and parents; the cutting out of one’s will; and the third renunciation, of the conceit that dogs obedience.[6]

We are not called to stop caring. We are not being told to replace compassion with apathy so that the trials and injuries of others have no effect on us. Nor are we called to accept, without feelings, the trials and injuries that are part of our own life of experiences.

We do, however, discover a calling to a pathway that takes us to a place of dispassion in our lives where we are no longer controlled by our passions. Dispassion is the ability to harness our human emotions so that our emotions no longer rule us. Dispassion allows us to hold the things of the world at arm’s length and use them without becoming inordinately affectioned toward them. We make our emotions subjective in order to realize, enter into, and experience some degree of personal union with God, if but for a moment. These moments, some refer to them as ecstasies, elude our ability to describe them.

Westerners make reference to the state or condition of contemplation. Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and Basil Pennington[7] [Trappist Monks] were instrumental during the latter half of the past century in awakening and reintroducing something that had been lost and covered over by a millennium of the dust of time since the Great Schism of 1054. Catholicism rejected hesychasm [as it is known in the Eastern Church], which encouraged individual experiences of the divine. As a result, hesychasm disappeared from Western culture but survived because the Orthodox church embraced and preserved this tradition of quiet meditation that dates back to the beginnings of the Christian Church.

Saint Benedict [A.D. 480-547], often referred to as the Father of Monasticism in the West, would have necessarily been familiar with the Eastern and Desert models of monasticism. Abbot Benedict, in drawing up his little rule for beginners[8], was well versed in the rules that preceded his.[9] The Rule of Saint Basil was written for a monastery that he founded in 356 [over a hundred years before the birth of Benedict] in Cappadocia [Turkey]. The Conferences and Institutes of Saint John Cassian [A.D 360-435] were also included in Benedict’s recommended reading list for his students.

Benedict was also familiar with the Regula Magistri [or Rule of the Master] made up of its 95 chapters and apparently used it as a guide in writing his rule. Benedict’s rule appears to be a succinct rewrite of the Regula Magistri. Benedict restricts his rule to 73 short chapters as a base. Though there is an emphasis on moderation, a life of moderation for the students in his monastery would not have been a major departure from the lives of those Eastern and Desert role models and monastic traditions that Benedict looked to as examples.

Saint John Climacus compliments the teachings of Saint Benedict and fills in a lot of the blanks that are left open in his rule. The 3^rd Step on his Ladder of Divine Ascent is about exile and living as a stranger.

Exile means that we leave forever everything in our own country that prevents us from reaching the goal of the religious life. Exile means modest manners, wisdom which remains unknown, prudence not recognized as such by most, a hidden life, an invisible intention, unseen meditation, desire for humiliation, longing for hardship, constant determination to love God, abundance of charity, renunciation of vainglory, depth of silence.[10]

What we modernites see as strictness[11] in this way of life should, of urgent necessity in our modern times, be seen as love of good spiritual fathers and directors caring for and directing the souls of their children to heaven. Are we not, after all, but strangers and sojourners passing through this temporal place where we have no enduring city[12] on our way to either heaven and total union with God or eternal damnation in hell with its eternal punishment? Are we not, after all, directed to the difficult work of working out our salvation with fear and trembling?[13]

Most people will largely reject this way of life saying that it is just too hard of a way to go. Understandably so. It is an especially hard way to go when we begin to see that everything about monasticism is contrary to everything the world teaches. It is especially hard considering that the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life[14] are powerful agents with their roots deep in the human ego.

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[1] Mark 10:17-31

[2] Vs. 21

[3] Vs. 23

[4] Vs. 24-25

[5] Vs. 28-30

[6] Ladder, Step 2, paragraph 9

[7] These writers had a significant influence on me during those early years of my journey from Protestantism to Catholicism. [2001-2007]

[8] Holy Rule 73:8

[9] Holy Rule 73:5

[10] Ladder, Step 3, paragraph 1

[11] Holy Rule, Prologue 45-50

[12] Hebrews 13:14

[13] Philippians 2:12

[14] 1 John 2:16

Hastening On - Detachment

I cannot help but to think of Jesus leading the way as I consider this second step set forth by Abbot John Climacus in his Ladder of Divine Ascent.

The refrain from that old hymn of my childhood years reveals the detachment that the Second Person of the Trinity had to put into effect in order to leave behind the glory that was already his in order to enter into this earthly realm … this world full of misery and grief … in order to save us from the consequences of sin.

Out of the ivory palaces … into a world of woe … only His great eternal love … made my Savior go.[1]

His example, from the very moment of his Incarnation in the one who was the Immaculate Conception and all the way to his Ascension, shows us the way to live. His life, his words, his example – there simply is no other way, regardless of the denials and attempts of humans to dismiss the reality and necessity of The Cross of Christ as the means to enjoy the favor of God both here and in eternity.[2]

We have, to a great extent, been conditioned to love the world. The world, after all, does provide us with opportunity for social status. It does promise us fortune. It does entice us with fame. The world promises everything that inflates ego and promotes pride. Every manner of inordinacy, every possible sin, originates in the “I want, I desire, I will” of the human ego. It was this ego that the archenemy used to coax the couple in the garden to sin.[3] The archenemy tried to use this tactic against Jesus during his great fast[4] before beginning his public ministry.

He is still using this tactic and we are warned to be on guard against it.[5]

The great tragedy of our times is the rejection and casting aside of the traditional morals and norms that have been foundational in our western society. The erosion of these historic foundational morals and norms, as part of the elevation of secular humanism with its grasp on practically every human institution [including institutions that are part of the Church], is having a dire effect on the Church. Sin, in many cases, is no longer sinful … or at least not as sinful as it once was. Consciences are being seared as with a hot iron.[6]

Abbot John Climacus tells us that all who have willingly left the things of the world, have certainly done so either for the sake of the future Kingdom, or because of the multitude of their sins, or for love of God.[7]

One of the things that stands out in studying monasticism in those earlier centuries is how entering monasticism as a penitent because of the multitude of one’s sins was a very real and reasonable reason to enter monastic life; regardless of the monastic school – Eastern, Western, or Desert. Men [and women] undertook and lived long years of hard penances. Why? First, the Church taught that hell is a very real place and the eternal dwelling place for unrepentant practicing sinners. It also helps to have an understanding of the doctrine of Purgatory. It helps to understand the historical teaching of the Church that even when the eternal consequences of sin are forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession, temporal justice must still be served either here during physical life or there in the afterlife in Purgatory before entering into the pure love and glory of God.

Those entering into monastic life understood that they were engaging in a war against their ego; they understood that theirs would be an interior battle of conversion that would not be an easy or short battle.

Saint Benedict tells inquirers, “This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.”[8]

The first rung of Abbot John’s Ladder calls us to recognize and renounce our love of the world and its grasp upon us. The second rung of Abbot John’s Ladder calls us to detach ourselves from the world and sever our attachments to it.

Saint John Climacus describes different people groups and tells us that “the Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity. The lover of God is he who lives in communion with all that is natural and sinless, and as far as he is able neglects nothing good. The continent man is he who in the midst of temptations, snares and turmoil, strives with all his might to imitate the ways of Him who is free from such. The monk is he who within his earthly and soiled body toils towards the rank and state of the incorporeal beings. A monk is he who strictly controls his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature.”[9]

Saint Benedict tells his students that “no one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. To their fellow monks they show pure love of brothers, to God, loving fear; to their abbot, unfeigned and humble love. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.”[10]

It is one thing to recognize the things that are keeping us from achieving even small steps in Christian perfection and another thing altogether to begin letting go of attachments – whether the attachments are an outright prideful love of sin or an unhealthy attachment to things that hold our attention and keep us from focusing on God.

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[1] Ivory Palaces, Henry Barraclough, 1915

[2] Acts 4:12

[3] Genesis 3:1-5

[4] Matthew 4:1-11

[5] 1 John 2:15-17

[6] 1 Timothy 4:2

[7] Ladder, Step 1, paragraph 5

[8] Holy Rule, Prologue 3

[9] Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 1, paragraph 4

[10] Holy Rule 72:7-12

Hastening On - Renunciation

I must ask myself every day, “Why am I here if it is not to seek God himself and cultivate Christian virtues?”

Saint Benedict tells his students that his rule is only a beginning place, that by observing it in monasteries, we can show that we have some degree of virtue and the beginnings of monastic life.[1] The holy abbot goes on to insist that those students of his that would hasten on to the perfection of monastic life[2] needed to build upon the foundation constructed by his rule.

Our wise abbot goes on in Chapter 73 to suggest some reliable building resources for his students to use in building upon the foundation laid by the good abbot. I consider it noteworthy that Saint Benedict did not recommend any of the contemporary authors of the liberal time in which he lived … a time of liberalism and moral corruption that he fully renounced when he, as a young man, chose a cave for his home and lived there in solitude as a religious hermit.

Saint Benedict realized the importance of and promoted historical Catholic orthodoxy over modern liberal interpretations that possessed no merit in summoning anyone along the true way to reach the Creator.[3] He urged his students to dig in, cultivate the Christian virtues, and live as observant and obedient monks[4] lest, in following lesser guides, they prove themselves to be shameful, slothful, unobservant, and negligent.[5]

To live a life hastening on to perfection is the aim of our Benedictine Vows and Oblate Promises. Saint Benedict gives us a firm foundation with his rule and points us toward those who can help us continue our progress in cultivating and developing orthodox Christian virtues. Reading, according to Benedict, is important. What we read, according to Benedict, will have a definite bearing on the way we understand faith and doctrine, view life, and go about living. Benedict insists that as we are influenced so we will influence others.

In this age of modernism, where so many winds and waves of opinions are blowing and pounding, my attention has been drawn more and more to the lives and writings of men and women whom the Church long ago declared Saints – men and women whose lives were lived as oblations … as offerings unto the Lord. There is substance in their lives. There is credibility in their witness. Their lives and witnesses challenge me. Their lives and witness are like looking at the sun in comparison to looking at my own dim life and witness.

Saint John Climacus, talking about the reasons people come to the monastic life, tells us that all who have willingly left the things of the world, have certainly done so either for the sake of the future Kingdom, or because of the multitude of their sins, or for love of God. If they were not moved by any of these reasons their withdrawal from the world was unreasonable. But God who sets our contests waits to see what the end of our course will be.[6]

We all [as Christians] begin this journey of hastening on to perfection … this universal call to seek and to know God regardless of our personal state in life … for reasons similar to those mentioned by Saint John Climacus. The outcomes of these beginnings are yet to be seen. A lot can happen between beginning and end. The journey can easily be interrupted and cut short by numerous bewitching invaders.[7] How easy it is to reclaim and make our own again what we once renounced with contrition.

God waits. God watches. He waits and watches to see what we do with the course that is laid out for us.

Entering into monastic life, whether as a cloistered brother or sister, as either a lay or canonical hermit, or as an Oblate or Tertiary living outside the monastery, is an act of renouncing the world and its man-centered system. It is untenable to think that we can continue to give our affections to any worldly man-centered system while, at the same time, giving ourselves to the higher order revealed in and through Christian monasticism. These disconnects from the world [renunciations] , and from the world’s way of thinking, are necessarily part of monastic spirituality.

It is not just a renunciation of the world outside the monastery walls. It is also a renunciation of the world inside the monk inside the monastery walls. It is this world inside the monk that is the battle ground. It is this interior battle that we ourselves enter into when we embrace monastic principles. We bring with us the stains of the world when we enter into our vocation. Even after years of ora et labora, vestiges of the world are still sunk deep within us like the tips of belligerent splinters that refuse to come out without some hard digging.

I will also dare to say that these same disconnects [renunciations] are inherently intended as proofs of the Christian experience in general. Love not the world, neither the things of the world.[8] As those who follow Jesus, we are not of this world any more than he was of this world.[9] The difference is that not all Christians have monastic vocations.

Yet, all Christians, despite their vocations, are called to model the life of Christ. We are all called to develop Christian virtues. We are all called to produce the fruit of the Spirit. We are all called to serve one another. We are all called to prayer. We are all called to penance. None of these can be accomplished without practicing renunciation.

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[1] Holy Rule 73:1

[2] 73:2

[3] 73:4

[4] 73:6

[5] 73:7

[6] The Ladder of Divine Ascent

[7] Galatians 3:1

[8] 1 John 2:15

[9] John 17:16

Living The Rule - The Tools For Good Works 9

Saint John Climacus asks us, "So who is a faithful and wise monk?"  He answers the question by saying, "He who has kept his fervour unabated, and to the end of his life has not ceased daily to add fire to fire, fervour to fervour, zerl to zeal, love to love."[1]

Monastic spirituality is not an easy way to go. 

Not when taken seriously. 

Not when we have a Rule and seasoned guides to lead us. 

In light of a Rule and guides, we are not, in choosing this monastic pathway as a way of life, left to our own imaginations and notions. We cannot, for the sake of our souls, imitate Hophni and Phineas in choosing only the portions that suit our tastes,[2] live as the Sarabaites and Gyrovagues described by Saint Benedict,[3] and, in the end, go out of this life to meet God having accomplished nothing more than affirming others in the errors of their ways.

The way is difficult.

The way is long.

The farther we go, the steeper the climb becomes if we are indeed daily living to add fire to fire, fervour to fervour, zeal to zeal, love to love as those who are faithful and wise monastics. The same holds true for Christians in general if they are sincerely endeavoring to be followers of Jesus.

Saint Benedict offers encouragement when he says to us, “Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in 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.”[4] 

Abba John Climacus tells us in The Ladder of Divine Ascent that “All who enter upon the good fight, which is hard and narrow, but also easy, must realize that they must leap into the fire, if they really expect the celestial fire to dwell in them.”

I do not know about easy. I do know that the hard and narrow way becomes easier as we interiorize this way of life rather than merely mulling it over in our minds.

In his chapter on The Tools of Good Works, Saint Benedict tells his students …

Obey the commands of the Abbot in all things, even though he himself (which Heaven forbid) act otherwise, mindful of that precept of the Lord: "What they say, do ye; what they do, do ye not" (Mt 23:3). Not to desire to be called holy before one is; but to be holy first, that one may be truly so called.  To fulfil daily the commandments of God by works.[5]

Obedience may indeed, and of necessity, begin as an exteriorly motivated performance … the Bible says … the Rule says … the catechism says … therefore I yield and obey. Exteriorly motivated obedience is legitimate obedience, immature though it be. It must, however, develop into something interiorly generated as the fruit of our faith. As long as we are still weighing these principles to determine whether or not they are worth living, whether or not they are applicable to our lives, we are yet far from the childlike docility that is the nature and character of true obedience.[6]

I always feel a deep sense of reluctance when writing these reflections. It is not so much a reluctance to spend time reflecting and writing. The sense of reluctance is in placing the outcome on a blog for the entire world to see. The sense of reluctance is in “sharing” them in groups made possible by the genius of internet technology. There is a side of me that constantly asks, “Where is the humility in that?”

It would, in all honesty, be much easier for me to live in anonymity as a recluse.

Yet, even with these hermit traits that make long seasons in solitude a friendly ally, I realize the importance of community and recognize the dangers inherent in isolation where lack of personal accountability can lead a person in dangerous directions. So, these reflections become public [1] where monastic minded peers can hold me accountable, [2] to perhaps encourage other likeminded peers as they walk their monastic pathway, and [3] maybe, just maybe, introduce a passerby to this way of life.

There is definitely a “works” element involved. I am merely doing my best to be obedient and faithful to the vocation that I said yes to when I signed my Promises on the altar at the Abbey in September of 2007. If anyone discovers something in these reflections that encourages and helps them along their way, it is only because the One who bestows the celestial fire has kindled some illumination to bring his warmth and light.

Let us, then, as those seeking to be faithful and wise, continue on living daily adding fire to fire, fervour to fervour, zeal to zeal, love to love.

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[1] The Ladder of Divine Ascent

[2] Sons of Samuel.

[3] Holy Rule 1:6-11

[4] Holy Rule, Prologue 48-49

[5] Holy Rule 4:61-63

[6] Matthew 18:3 Unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.