Living The Rule - Benedict's Tools Ch. 4:29-33

I find it extremely difficult to read the Gospels and the Rule without coming to the conclusion that Christianity, and Benedict and The Rule of Saint Benedict, run completely across the grain of the world’s way of thinking and going about doing things.

We do not have to be Biblical scholars, theologians, or scholars on Benedict and The Rule to see this.

Even from a casual reading of the Gospels and The Rule, it is easy to garner that the post-modern Church lives in a way that is a wide cut away from the Christianity founded by Christ and lived by his Apostles and disciples beginning in those early years and following through until after the turn of the Twentieth Century.

The problem is not in finding a legitimate basis for granting some mental assent to what the Gospels and the other New Testament writings say. The problem is in honestly and sincerely emulating [imitating] these portrayed lives and their teachings clearly spelled out in these divinely inspired Writings and Sacred Traditions that have been handed down to our generation.

Not many modernites want to meet the Christ who said to the rich young man … If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. [Matthew 19:21] Not many modernites want to surrender their egos, wills, and personal ambitions to a life of complete dependence on one another as did the early believers where … All who believed were together and had all things common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. [Acts 2:44-45] Not many modernites want to meet the Apostle Paul who looks them in the eyes and says … Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. [1 Corinthians 13:1]

Not many, anymore, choose the Saints as their role-models. Perhaps because the Saints, without fail, lived lives that represent and promote the ideals contained in the above references?

In writing this piece, I am not thinking about the secular world outside the Church. I am not particularly thinking of the Protestant realm; though these issues apply on both sides of the Protestant/Catholic Divide. I am thinking more so about how the outside world has so made its way into the Church to lure and seduce until those outside the Church see little difference between themselves and us.

I have to continually remind myself of whom I am representing, both as a Christian and as an Oblate of Saint Benedict, and make every conscious effort to hopefully represent them in a way that they – the Lord Jesus, Abbot Saint Benedict, and all the Saints of all ages – are not offended by my example. I must not only give some mental assent to what Jesus tells me in the Gospels, the Apostles tell me in the Epistles, and Saint Benedict tells me in The Rule. I must accept it, integrate it, and practice it in this life I have been given to live in the Twenty-First Century. Saint Benedict’s Rule [based on Scripture] instructs me …

(29) Not to return evil for evil (cf 1 Thes 5:15; 1 Pt 3:9).

(30) To do no injury, yea, even patiently to bear the injury done us.

(31) To love one's enemies (cf Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27).

(32) Not to curse them that curse us, but rather to bless them.

(33) To bear persecution for justice sake (cf Mt 5:10).[1]

I readily admit that it is not easy to take these mandates at their face value and to integrate them as lifestyle reactions that keep me from retaliating toward those that render me evil, injure me in one way or another, show themselves as enemies of my physical and spiritual welfare, curse me, and persecute me.

I also admit that there are times when I fail to live up to these holy standards of conduct. I am doing much better now than at the beginning. But, even now, as the old ones were known to say when asked how they were doing … I fall down. And I get up.

Here, once again, we discover the importance of the Third Vow of Benedictine monks and Third Promise of Oblates of Saint Benedict … this business of committing ourselves to continual conversion of life – a continual conversion of our morals whereby we are slowly and progressively perfected in our image of the Image of God who gave himself so totally on the Cross.

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[1] Holy Rule 4:29-33

Hermitage Notes - Confirming The Truth

I remind myself often that the truth is what it is. 

The truth is the truth. 

Like it or not. 

Believe it or not. 

I admit that some truths are harder to grasp than others. Especially when our hearts have been hardened against the truth by the myriad of whatever and whichever tellers of preferential falsehood. 

They are further hardened by the life-choices that we make; choices that, at the outset, are out of harmony with the silent words of the still, small voice that speaks to us from the depths of our souls. 

The more we ignore this still, small, silent voice the easier it becomes for us to deny its presence within us – the easier it becomes for us to justify [and even boast] of the messes we make of ourselves. 

Ignorance of the truth … attempting to deny the truth … fighting against the truth ... embracing only those truths or parts of truths that appeal to us – these serve only as robbers of peace; both our interior peace and peace in the world we live in .. peace that we personally need ... peace that is influentially affective in the small pockets of the world where we reside.  

I would be less than honest if I said that faith-based rejection … some subtle … some overt … that comes from people that I thought were friends [and even more so from family relations] does not bother me. Displays of it still pains me these years later; not that my value as a person is heightened or lessened by the opinions of others – it is not. 

I cannot help but to think about something Saint Paul wrote … For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. [2 Corinthians 13:8] We, even in our rejection of the truth, are still confirming the truth.

Hermitage Notes - Continual Ongoing Conversion

God, by one means or another, plants seeds deep in our souls.

As the Faithful Gardener, God knows how deep to plant each seed. 

Some are intended to sprout and grow quickly. Others lay dormant for years before slowly developing. 

I have mentioned elsewhere that 2020 is making up to be a tremendous year of change – not that I approached the New Year with a list of resolutions. 

Any external manifestations of these changes will take shape only because they were first born and developed interiorly over time in the recesses of my soul. That we have entered into a new calendar year really has nothing to do with the development. 

God does not bind himself to time or to the measuring devices we have developed. His timing is not, more often than not, our timing. 

I cannot help but to think of something that Father Louis [Thomas Merton] wrote. 

“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.”[1]  

Merton’s quote makes me think of the Parable of the Sower. [Matthew 13] 

What kind of soil is my soul? Is it hard as concrete, shallow, a briar patch? Or is it good and well cultivated so the sown seed can grow and reproduce itself abundantly?  

God is too often slow, according to our way of thinking … when we want something and are pouring out of petitions and supplications. Then, when God asks something of us, we are quick to tell him that we are not ready … that we need more time before we surrender to his will. 

I cannot help but to think of something that Jesus said to his disciples when they inquired about greatness. Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 18:3] The older translation amplifies when it says unless you be converted. 

Conversion. 

Not just an initial emotional crisis reaction to the reality of the Cross of Christ but a life of continual ongoing conversion wherein we more and more resemble Christ. This is the Conversatio Morum at the center and soul of all that Benedict and his Rule stand for … one of the Solemn Vows of Benedictine monks and Solemn Promises of Oblates of Saint Benedict.

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[1] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 14

Hermitage Notes - Down In The Dirt

Love?

Love is a hard word. 

Even now. Perhaps especially now at this point in my life and understanding of things. 

Love God with the complete fullness of my being? Love my neighbor with the complete fullness of my being? How dare I say that I do when I know that I do not, when I know that there is yet much of me left to be converted? 

To say that I do would be the ultimate hypocrisy.

We are taught to do things [1] from a sense of obligation and [2] from a sense of guilt. 

God calls us to neither. 

God calls us to live, move, and have our being in himself ... whose nature is love. Any other motivation to choose and serve God ... obligation, guilt, or otherwise ... will always lead only to more of themselves, only in ever increasing degrees.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. [1 Corinthians 13:13]

What stands in the way of this love? 

The deadly wolves of Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth top the list of sins that stand in the way of this love. Then there is the long list of little foxes ... all those venial sins that are constantly nipping at us that stand in the way of this love.

Oh my. I am yet such a great sinner. 

People, in general no longer choose love. 

They choose, rather, what they make as a definition of love that suits their notions and preferences. 

Things get convoluted. The more convoluted things become, the more sore and angrier people become. Hence the problems that plague society. Hence the selfish physical and emotional wars that rage. Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. [James 4:1-2] 

I have to keep reminding myself that real, lasting, and meaningful change rarely happens from the top down. It happens down in the dirt where the roots are. I have made a choice. I choose to live down in the dirt. 

Saint Benedict tells me that I am to prefer nothing to the love of Christ.[1] [Holy Rule 4:21.] 

The love of Christ must come before all else.

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[1] HR 4:21

Living The Rule - Benedict's Tools 3

It is not my intention to write a scholarly commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict. There are already scholarly commentaries on The Rule. I do not have the necessary credentials to make such an attempt and, besides, there is no need in trying to reinvent the wheel.

My ambition is to allow these Biblical principles and values access to my personal will, wherein they are able to cultivate and convert me.

My ambition is to integrate these principles and values into the way that I am living my life in the Twenty-First Century. This, I believe, is what Saint Benedict insists that we all do. These principles and values, I believe, are what every follower of Christ is called to; whether or not an active association and identification as Benedictine is ever made.

I try, in writing these Oblate Reflections and Hermitage Notes, to avoid allowing any cynicism to bleed through. I try to avoid being critical. It is, at least I observe it to be so, that even those who look through analytical lenses at the issues that affect us modernites are quickly labeled as one or the other or a combination of both. I readily admit that it is practically impossible to write [or speak] in a way that does not “offend” people. I can make no apology to those who take offense at my understanding of Biblical morality and Theology.

I must also readily admit the caution that I use anymore in reading the ideas of anyone whose literary footprint is laid down this side of the last great Council [Vatican Council II]. I have, in this terribly divided age of liberalism, developed a preference for Pre-Vatican II material that bears the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Century movements of modernism and liberalism within the walls and halls of the Catholic Church are, to say the least, to be viewed with a lot of skepticism.

We were forewarned of these movements by Pope Saint Pius X [1903-1914]. Is it by chance that the Apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima occurred only three years after these warnings? I dare say that, in the realm of Divine Activity, nothing is left to chance.

There will always be the temptation to do the socially/politically correct thing and blend in. To become so in tune with the spirit of the age that written and spoken words simply settle into the soil of life as just more pieces of sand is to become purposeless and useless. I refuse to acquiesce to the spirit of this modern age.

Saint Benedict saw the prevailing worldliness [sinfulness] of the Sixth Century, sought refuge from the worldliness of the times in which he lived, and began what can be easily seen as a counter-cultural movement that significantly impacted the world in his time. His monastic model, governed by The Rule of Saint Benedict, also significantly impacted the Church. Oblation, for Oblates of Saint Benedict living in the world, is a personal offering of ourselves to live counter-culturally according to the precepts contained in The Rule.

I think the greatest failure that any of us can engage in, whether cloistered or living in the world, is to attempt making The Rule relevant to modern society. I continually remind myself that I cannot live by two sets of standards.

No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. [Matthew 6:24] Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. [Matthew 12:25] I know your works; you are neither cold or hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. [Revelation 3:15-16]

To live by The Rule, which we have already numerous times stated is to live according to the principles contained in the Gospel, is to live in complete opposition to the world. Saint Benedict, in this counter-cultural opposition to the world’s way of living, encourages me …

(20) To hold one's self aloof from worldly ways.

(21) To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

(22) Not to give way to anger.

(23) Not to foster a desire for revenge.

(24) Not to entertain deceit in the heart.

(25) Not to make a false peace.

(26) Not to forsake charity.

(27) Not to swear, lest perchance one swear falsely.

(28) To speak the truth with heart and tongue.

I think often of something that Father Thomas O’Connor said to me in one of our cherished conversations during my novitiate as an Oblate Novice. We were talking about growing in the grace of conversion … conversatio morum; one of the Solemn Vows of monks and Solemn Promises of Oblates. In his soft-spoken grandfatherly way, he told me, “Lectio. Read the Rule often. And read the New Testament, especially the Gospels, often. They are your most important resources. They will not fail you. They will help you grow.”

Father O’Connor counselled me to always see Scripture and The Rule as my primary Lectio Divina. [Lectio Divina (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word.]

Here, all these years later [I made my Final Promises in 2007], Father O’Connor’s words ring louder and truer than when they first passed through the gates of my hearing. 

There is a lot of reading that we can do without. Our Lectio, in Scripture and Rule, is, however, essential to our conversatio morum ... to our continual conversion. The neglect of it will always lead to spiritual immaturity, drought, withering, and possible falling away.

Hermitage Notes - Signs Of Human Desperation

Sadness, fear, anger, bitterness, emptiness, and futility.

These are the expressions that I read on the faces and, even deeper, in the eyes of people that I encounter virtually everywhere I go [in the world] these days. It is not just expressions on faces and in eyes. These expressions are too often vented through outward displays of rudeness, frustrations, and aggression.

It is not something that I am just now observing. 

I have been watching it for years. Every trip to town to tend to the normal matters of life grows increasingly more difficult and the value of our little hermitage-like cabin in the woods increases with every trip into what we refer to as the settlements.

These characteristic marks and signs of human desperation [evidence of an absence of the peace of God] are growing increasingly more prevalent. It seems, too, that the depths of these … sadness, fear, anger, bitterness, emptiness, and futility … grows continually deeper transcending the hierarchy of social statuses. 

Even physical prosperity cannot hold them at bay. 

How can they not prevail when the one who is the Author of Salvation and the Generator of faith, hope, and charity is neither perceived or received as the one who gives peace? 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. [John 14:27] 

The world offers only counterfeits that fail us in the here and now and lead us to eternal anguish in the hereafter. It is Christ who is able to provide us with real and lasting peace in our souls; peace that overcomes sadness, fear, anger, bitterness, emptiness, and futility in the here and now while leading us to eventual everlasting peace in the presence of God. 

Here, in these physical bodies, we are incapable of fully experiencing the peace of God. 

The soul-refreshing tastes of peace that we experience here in our physical bodies are only a preface, only a sample, only a foretaste, of the peace that is inherent in the beatific vision of God. 

Aging, and the realities associated with aging, are part of life. Of late, I have had to admit that I have no immunity to the aging process. I had a good visit with my primary physician this morning and have confidence that she will do a splendid job overseeing the medical aspects of this adventure.

The peace of Christ be with you.

Hermitage Notes - Escaping Modernism; An Act Of Spiritual Survival

Saint Benedict reminds me that my way of living is to be different from the world’s way of living.

He reminds me that my love of Christ must come before everything else. [Holy Rule 4:20-21] 

The Rule is hard. The Gospel, for that matter, is hard. What makes them hard is that the Gospel, and the Rule, are totally radical and counter-cultural. 

They cut squarely against the grain of the world and its way of thinking. They did in the liberal 6th Century time of Saint Benedict. They do now in our liberal 21st Century time.

They are especially hard as long as I am trying to live in some rationalized gray zone where I am constantly justifying and condoning my own sin and the sin of the world … unless I have bought into and had my conscience seared by the hot iron of some miserable and convoluted modern understanding of sin and sinful behavior that heretically modifies the severity and consequences of the nature of sin. 

Saint Louis De Montfort’s description of External, Presumptuous, Interested, and Critical Devotees of Mary easily and naturally find application, as well, to the Lord Jesus himself. [Mary does, after all, always lead us to Jesus.] 

External’s are persons whose devotion consists in outward practices; have an interest in external appearances but have no real interior fire in their spirit. 

Presumptuous Devotees are persons abandoned to their passions … lovers of the world, who under the fair name of Christianity conceal their pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction, injustice or some other sin. They sleep in peace in the midst of their bad habits, without doing violence to themselves to correct their faults, under the pretext that they are devout. 

Interested Devotees are those persons who take recourse only to gain some lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured of some illness, or for some other similar necessity. 

De Montfort’s Critical Devotees are those persons who are, for the most part, proud scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits, who have at heart some devotion, but who criticize nearly all the practices of devotion which simple people simply and holily render, because these practices do not fall in with their own humor and fancy. They call into doubt all the miracles and pious stories recorded by authors worthy of faith, or drawn from the chronicles of religious orders testifying to us of the mercies and powers of the most holy Virgin.  

Saint Louis De Montfort, though he lived between 1673 and 1716, seems to also point a prophetic finger toward the modern-day Church. 

I have come to see escaping the soul crushing tentacles of modernism as an act of spiritual survival.

The more earnestly I pursue integrating the values of the Gospel and the Rule of Saint Benedict into life in the 21^st Century, the more I realize the necessity to listen with the ear of the heart to those “authors worthy of faith” who lived, ministered, and wrote before the latter half of the 20^th Century where now, this side of that line of demarcation, so many heresies are being compounded and promulgated by the gross errors of modernism. 

Hermitage Notes - Stinkbugs, Heart Stuff, And A High Calling

Stinkbugs.

For weeks now. 

Not a day goes by that we do not discover at least one stinkbug in our little hermitage-like cabin. The big house next door isn’t having problems with them. Perhaps it is the color that we chose to paint our little domicile in the woods that invites them to seek refuge within these close and comfortable walls. 

Every time I see a stinkbug, I cannot help but to think of the time [Autumn of 1984 on the NW Kansas prairie.] when I bit down on one. It, unbeknown to me, had landed on my sandwich. 

Though experiencing the taste of a stinkbug is in a class all its own [It takes three days for the taste to finally turn loose of your taste buds.], when it comes to the “memorable” department, I put it right there beside my encounter with that mountain lion stalking my tent on the Cumberland Plateau and my way-too-close encounter with that huge rattlesnake over in the Florida panhandle. 

We are dealing with stuff on the backside of the heart cath that they did on me Friday. 

It is amazing what they can do these days. I have confidence in this team of women [beginning first with this one I’m married to] that are tending to my healthcare. 

I know this world is not my home. I do, however, want to hang around a while yet. There is a lot of love yet to be shared with loved ones. [I can think of no other good reason to want to stay on this rock that is overrun by sorrows and evils of every imaginable sort.] I get the sense, too, that there is yet a calling for me to fulfill. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. [Romans 11:29] Fluid? Yes. Irrevocable? No.

We are all called; each one with differing degrees of calling, each one spiritually gifted to live out the dimensions of their high calling in Christ to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. [Hebrews 3:13] 

I do not mind the rain. The gentle rain and the sound that it makes on the cabin roof makes for a very pleasant atmosphere.

Living The Rule - Benedict's Tools Chapter 4:10-19

There is, at the first, a great deal of novelty involved in uniting one’s self with a monastery. We discover ourselves involved in a romance of sorts.

The initial novelty of the romance wears off. It is here, at the point where the novelty is gone, that the work truly begins. It is here, after the novelty is gone, that our Solemn Promises [Obedience, Stability, Conversion of Life] begin to truly take on their meaning. Our romance with monasticism takes on the character of a good marriage. The consummated love affair continues and is ever deepening.

Benedict’s theme of ora et labora [prayer and work] was very attractive at the first. It was one of the elements of Benedict’s school that irresistibly drew me to his approach to living genuinely as a Christian. I needed what Benedict was offering me in the ora et labora department. I still do. Even more now than at the beginning. I must concede that conversatio morum [Benedict’s continual conversion of life] does not grow easier with age.

One of the fruits of the divine office [praying the liturgy of the hours] is the potential for a sense of mindfulness … a sense of sensitivity and awareness … that progressively captures us.

My life began revolving around and resembling the shape of Benedict’s example of living life centered in prayer and work. The Benedictine ora et labora theme was greatly assisted by the fact that I was newly self-employed and spent most of those income earning hours working alone. [Alone? The silence of solitude is never our enemy. It is always our ally. I think people fear and avoid solitude because it [solitude] causes us to realize things about ourselves that we honestly do not want to see and admit. Not only so. The Holy Spirit seems to have an affinity for entering into the silence and emptiness created by solitude. Hence, by entering into solitude, we set ourselves on a course for a head-on collision with God.]

I discovered quickly that the monastic performance of the Opus Dei was practically impossible to duplicate outside the monastic enclosure. [Benedict considered participation in the Divine Office … the Day-Hours of/for prayer … to be the work of God and the high calling of everyone that answers the call to monastic life.]

The world outside monastic enclosures simply does not run on a monastic time schedule that allows for an exact performance of the Day-Hours of Prime, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline according to Benedict’s prescription. I will not say that it is impossible to do it. I will say that, for the vast majority of us outside the enclosure, attempts at doing it are impractical. Some adaptation of the Opus Dei is necessarily in order for external members of the community. Some internal communities have, in fact, made adaptations to the structure of the Opus Dei and no longer strictly adhere to it.

Why such a strong emphasis on prayer?

The answer is very simple; because monastics realize that only through prayer can we possibly conquer the enemies of our souls that can [and will] deprive us of the beatific vision of God after we pass through the doorway of death where we hope to be joined together in perpetual fellowship with all the Saints of the ages. If prayer receives such high priority within the structured and controlled environment found within the cloister, how much more important is it, then, here outside the cloister where our senses and sensibilities are continuously bombarded by an environment that is carnally base, out of control, and cares not one iota for our senses and sensibilities?

The work of prayer will always lead us to the work of self-improvement; not self-improvement in the modernist ego-centered sense of it, but in the sense of Benedict’s conversatio morum [conversion of life]. The tools for good works listed by Benedict in Chapter 4 of The Rule are the plumb and level that evidence our positioning … vertically in our understanding of God’s holy expectations of us and horizontally in the way we exercise these expectations toward others. The plumb and level are used inseparably to measure our willingness to choose God’s will over our own will.

Here, in these next few verses, Saint Benedict adds to the list of tools telling his students …

(10) To deny one's self in order to follow Christ (cf Mt 16:24; Lk 9:23).

(11) To chastise the body (cf 1 Cor 9:27).

(12) Not to seek after pleasures.

(13) To love fasting.

(14) To relieve the poor.

(15) To clothe the naked.

(16) To visit the sick (cf Mt 25:36).

(17) To bury the dead.

(18) To help the troubled.

(19) To console the sorrowing.[1]

Benedict’s tools of good works remind me that there is more to Christianity than having a mere profession of faith. He reminds me that any profession or version of Christianity that is devoid of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy is no Christianity at all.

Benedict also [and always] reminds me that I have yet a long way to go in my own process of conversatio morum.

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[1] Holy Rule 4:10-19

Hermitage Notes - Two Kingdoms

Something appears to be amiss.

So here we are waiting on the phone to ring. 

Last night’s after-hours call was from the cardiologist. This morning it will be her nurse on the phone informing us regarding the next step in this process of having a heart Cath; something that will happen as soon as it can be made to happen [Tomorrow or Tuesday]. 

Ideals. Life-ideals. 

What code do we live by? What ambition motivates us? What are we honestly living for? 

I awoke thinking about kingdoms. 

There are only two. 

There is the Kingdom of God. There is the Empire [kingdom of men]. Two kingdoms. Two entirely different rulers. One Divine Ruler. One diabolical ruler. Two entirely different sets of moral standards.

In our own convolutions, we want the benefits of both worlds and are taught [as modern-day Christians] how to live on the margins of both. The dangerous thing about these margins is that Empire ideals have encroached and overrun Kingdom ideals to a large extent, so blurring the margins that it is practically impossible to see any real measurable difference in this class of people that are comfortable living their lives in the blur. 

[I can say this because I spent years embracing the blur as a norm. I can say this, too, because there are yet areas of blurriness that I recognize in my life.] 

Blurry people fail to present an accurate image of either kingdom. 

Jesus began immediately defining the differences between these two kingdoms in what we refer to as his Sermon on the Mount [Matthew chapters 5-7]. 

We can read Scripture with a bent toward bending it to suit our enculturated preconceptions. Or we can read Scripture with an open heart and mind. It is impossible to read the words of Scripture with an open heart and mind [Saint Benedict calls it listening with the ear of the heart.] without seeing an urgent necessity in departing from any lifestyle in these 21^st Century times that does not resemble that of Christ and those who dared to follow him in those turbulent 1^st Century times.

Which kingdom does my life more honestly represent?

Benedict's Tools Of Good Works - Chapter 4:1-9

The Rule?

Authority is a huge issue. That it is called a Rule is an instant turn-off to anyone that resists submitting to authority; especially the authority vested in the Church [Matthew 16:18-19]. 

Modernites, with a bent toward independence, easily dismiss The Rule before giving it so much as a casual reading, often using the argument that rules are just legalism and Christ came to set us free from legalism.

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. Spiritual tepidity, luke-warmness [Revelation 3:15-18], is difficult to find comfort in when The Rule is fuel for the Holy Spirit to use to inflame us with fervency.

Saint Benedict’s approach to living the Christian life is thoroughly rooted in Scripture; thoroughly rooted in the tried and proven principles of monastic expression that originated with the first Desert Hermits and developed into communities of monks living together in monasteries. Benedict’s little rule for beginners, a document one-third the length of the Regula Magistri [The Rule of the Master], yet very much resembling the content of The Rule of the Master, is remarkable in the fact that our personal process of conversatio morum [conversion of life] never exceeds the dimensions and perimeters constructed by this little rule.  

Monasticism was already flourishing in the East. Nothing included in The Rule of Saint Benedict was new information. Benedict did not have a vision or dream up a little book of rules to put his name on. He used what was already available to him, reduced it to something succinct and simple, adhered to it in his personal life, insisted upon it in his monasteries, and became known as the Father of Monasticism in the West. It is this same little rule for beginners that we [Benedictine monks, religious sisters, and Oblates of Saint Benedict] use to structure our lives.

It is hard to beat a good, thorough, and conservative examination of conscience.[1] Without one it is entirely too easy to insist that we have faith without also having an adherence to the historic morals that are inherent within the faith. Benedict’s little chapter on The Tools Of Good Works leads us to honestly examine ourselves in light of the revealed moral expectations of God. These tools are especially effective when combined with a good detailed examination of conscience.

(1) In the first place to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength...

(2) Then, one's neighbor as one's self (cf Mt 22:37-39; Mk 12:30-31; Lk 10:27).

Do I really love the Lord God with my whole heart, my whole soul, and my whole strength? Do I truly love my neighbor as myself? No. In all honesty, no, I do not. Dare any of us say that we do? Steer clear of anyone that says they do. They have already deceived themselves and will, given the opportunity, deceive you.

I do desire to love God with every ounce of my being and to love my neighbor as deeply as I love myself … despite the cost to myself. It is this honesty, coupled with this desire, that keeps me continually consecrating myself afresh to the journey of learning to love the Lord God and my neighbor as I should. Until I do arrive at a whole heart, whole soul, and whole strength love of God, I will continue to be subject to the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life mentioned by the Apostle John in his short epistle. [1 John 2:15-16]

(3) Then, not to kill...

Have I... Unjustly and intentionally killed a human being? Been involved in an abortion, directly or indirectly (through advice, etc.)? Seriously considered or attempted suicide? Supported, promoted or encouraged the practice of assisted suicide or mercy killing? Deliberately desired to kill an innocent human being? Unjustly inflicted bodily harm on another person? Unjustly threatened another person with bodily harm? Verbally or emotionally abused another person? Hated another person, or wished him evil? Been prejudiced, or unjustly discriminated against others because of their race, color, nationality, sex or religion? Joined a hate group? Purposely provoked another by teasing or nagging? Recklessly endangered my life or health, or that of another, by my actions? Driven recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or other drugs? Abused alcohol or other drugs? Sold or given drugs to others to use for non-therapeutic purposes? Used tobacco immoderately? Over-eaten? Encouraged others to sin by giving scandal? Helped another to commit a mortal sin (through advice, driving them somewhere, etc.? Caused serious injury or death by criminal neglect? Indulged in serious anger? Refused to control my temper? Been mean to, quarreled with, or willfully hurt someone? Been unforgiving to others, when mercy or pardon was requested? Sought revenge or hoped something bad would happen to someone? Delighted to see someone else get hurt or suffer? Treated animals cruelly, causing them to suffer or die needlessly?[2]

(4) Not to commit adultery...

Have I... Practiced the virtue of chastity? Given in to lust? (The desire for sexual pleasure unrelated to spousal love in marriage.) Used an artificial means of birth control? Refused to be open to conception, without just cause? (Catechism, 2368) Participated in immoral techniques for in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination? Sterilized my sex organs for contraceptive purposes? Deprived my spouse of the marital right, without just cause? Claimed my own marital right without concern for my spouse? Deliberately caused male climax outside of normal sexual intercourse? (Catechism, 2366) Willfully entertained impure thoughts? Purchased, viewed, or made use of pornography? Watched movies and television that involve sex and nudity? Listened to music or jokes that are harmful to purity? Committed adultery? (Sexual relations with someone who is married, or with someone other than my spouse.) Committed incest?  (Sexual relations with a relative or in-law.) Committed fornication? (Sexual relations with someone of the opposite sex when neither of us is married.) Engaged in homosexual activity? (Sexual activity with someone of the same sex.) Committed rape? Masturbated? (Deliberate stimulation of one's own sexual organs for sexual pleasure.) Engaged in sexual foreplay (petting) reserved for marriage? Preyed upon children or youth for my sexual pleasure? Engaged in unnatural sexual activities? Engaged in prostitution, or paid for the services of a prostitute? Seduced someone, or allowed myself to be seduced? Made uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances toward another? Purposely dressed immodestly?[3]

(5) Not to steal...

(6) Not to covet (cf Rom 13:9).

Have I... Stolen? (Take something that doesn't belong to me against the reasonable will of the owner.) Envied others on account of their possessions? Tried to live in a spirit of Gospel poverty and simplicity? Given generously to others in need? Considered that God has provided me with money so that I might use it to benefit others, as well as for my own legitimate needs? Freed myself from a consumer mentality? Practiced the works of mercy? Deliberately defaced, destroyed or lost another's property? Cheated on a test, taxes, sports, games, or in business? Squandered money in compulsive gambling? Make a false claim to an insurance company? Paid my employees a living wage, or failed to give a full day's work for a full day's pay? Failed to honor my part of a contract? Failed to make good on a debt? Overcharge someone, especially to take advantage of another's hardship or ignorance? Misused natural resources?[4]

(7) Not to bear false witness (cf Mt 19:18; Mk 10:19; Lk 18:20).

Have I... Lied? Knowingly and willfully deceived another? Perjured myself under oath? Gossiped? Committed detraction? (Destroying a person's reputation by telling others about his faults for no good reason.) Committed slander or calumny? (Telling lies about another person in order to destroy his reputation.) Committed libel? (Writing lies about another person in order to destroy his reputation.) Been guilty of rash judgment? (Assuming the worst of another person based on circumstantial evidence.) Failed to make reparation for a lie I told, or for harm done to a person's reputation? Failed to speak out in defense of the Catholic Faith, the Church, or of another person? Betrayed another's confidence through speech?[5]

(8) To honor all men (cf 1 Pt 2:17).

(9) And what one would not have done to himself, not to do to another (cf Tob 4:16; Mt 7:12; Lk 6:31).

The simple truth of the matter is that I cannot possibly image or reflect the light and love of Christ as long as I am disrespecting or defaming another; whether the disrespect and defamation is overt or done [even more insidiously] within the cloister of my heart. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” [John 13-34-35]

Herein [love] is the litmus test of our Christianity … that we love without discrimination, partiality, or self-imposed comfortable limits.

---

[1] A plain and sad reality is that you will likely not find a good detailed Examination of Conscience on the back table or in the foyer in modern Catholic churches.  Numerous are available online for download as pdf files.

[2] Questions in italics provided by a Detailed Examination of Conscience that explores both the literal and the implied contained in the various Commandments that support the Great Commandments emphasized by Jesus in Matthew 22:34-40.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

Hermitage Notes - How Should We Then Live

The battle is real.

The battle is hot. 

The intensity of the battle will only increase as modernism continues its advance in neutering the faith and morals handed down to us by our spiritual ancestors … the faith and morals attested to and recommended by the Saints … the faith and morals attested to and recommended by the blood of the Martyrs shed for the sake of the Gospel. 

Saints and Martyrs; flesh and blood testaments of the New Testament. 

The advances of modernism that are weakening the Church should be no surprise. The scandals of the 20^th Century that have so terribly scarred the beautiful face of the Church should not surprise us. The push by some of the bishops and priests to further liberalize the Church should not be surprising. 

His Holiness Pope Saint Pius X [Pontiff 1903-1914] labored faithfully to warn and protect the flock from the advances of modernist thought. “That We should act without delay in this matter is made imperative especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; but, what is to be most dreaded and deplored, in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they keep in the open. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, and, what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, animated by a false zeal for the Church, lacking the solid safeguards of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, put themselves forward as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the Person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious audacity, they degrade to the condition of a simple and ordinary man.”[1] 

Here we are now, a little over a century after His Holiness penned these words, engaged in a fully-fledged exercise of spiritual survival in an arena where modernism, now so thoroughly entrenched, is no longer content to be mischievous in the dark shadows but, rather, unashamedly flaunts and declares itself openly as acceptable and holy. 

The book, How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, by Francis A. Shaeffer [first published in 1976] was an eye-opener when I read it in 1980. The question, “How should we then live?”, in light of the continued development and advancement of modernism in the world [and more importantly in the Church] is well worth fresh reconsideration. 

1 Peter 3:1-13 [Pope Peter with pen in hand] talks about the atmosphere of scoffing and indulgence in lusts that will precede the Lord’s Second Coming. Peter poses the question, “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements melt with fire?

Saint Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle;

be our defense against

the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him,

we humbly pray;

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God,

cast into hell Satan

and all the other evil spirits

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

---

[1] The Encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis" Given by His Holiness Pope Saint Pius X September 8, 1907

Hermitage Notes - Making More Room For The Queen In 2020

I have been mulling on how Abraham was called to offer his son Isaac on an altar [Genesis 22] as an immolation but, once proving his obedience and devotion, was provided a ram as an alternative sacrifice.

Mary was also called to offer her Son on an altar [the Cross] as an immolation but, once proving her obedience and devotion to God, was not spared the deep heartache of her Son’s rejection, suffering, and death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. [Luke 2:22-35] 

Mary? 

On the Altar of the Cross, Christ gave the Church to his mother and his mother to the Church. [John 19:26-27] 

I do not know her as I ought. I do not know of her as my mind [cold intellectual assent] wants to know of her. Nor I do not know her as my soul [intimate spiritual experience] hungers to know her. 

I am spending time with Saint Louis De Montfort [1673-1716]. 

Saint Louis tells me that, “When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.”[1] 

Saint Louis tells me that, “In a word, God wishes that His holy Mother should be at present more known, more loved, more honored than she has ever been.”  

As true as this was when Saint Louis penned this work that lay hidden for so long [from 1716 until 1842], how much more true is it in our times where the Great Deluder is working overtime deluding people to believe that evil is good and good is evil while hell enlarges itself and opens its mouth without measure. [Isaiah 5:14]

Saint Louis tells me that Mary will play a significant role in the formation of the apostles of the latter times; that it will be these … those that intimately know, love, and honor the Mother … that will be empowered to remain faithful and persevere through the fiery trials of the End Times.

---

[1] True Devotion To Mary

Hermitage Notes - Seeing More Clearly

2020?

The numbers represent perfect eyesight. 

I have never had perfect eyesight. Even as a small child it has been necessary for me to wear eyeglasses to correct my vision defects in order for me to see clearly. 

I cannot help but to think of the blind man that Jesus healed. The blind man at Bethsaida [Mark 8:22] is me; he is all of us if we will only be honest about who we are and where we are in our vision of God. 

The way we see God [and ourselves in him] will affect every detail of life. The way we see God [and ourselves in him] will be the single most determining factor in how we perceive and respond to others. 

The truth of the matter is that we will never be able to fully comprehend God. Neither now or when we are finally allowed to look upon his perfection. No created being ever will. Only the God Man [Jesus] can fully know him. [This is part of the mystery regarding the Father/Son/Spirit.] 

Nothing in this reality should become an excuse used for refusing to develop in the grace of God. We have, after all, much at our disposal to assist us in understanding how God, who himself cannot be fully comprehended, expects us to live. 

Conversatio morum [conversion of life] is the call that goes out to every follower of Christ … monk, nun, or average pew sitter. Virtue must be cultivated and groomed. [Holy Rule 73:6]

The Saints show us by their examples. The safest course to take is always to follow the examples of the Saints. 

It seems rather obvious that a cloud of darkness has begun to overshadow the Church. How else can so many [in Holy Mother Church] be led to believe the diabolical lies that Satan and his followers are spinning? I continually remind myself that God does not change. His moral standards of conduct do not change to accommodate the whims of creatures, regardless of how “educated” creatures become.

2020? 

I see it as an opportunity to improve my vision. The thickening cloud of darkness demands it.