Medieval Monastic Library From the beginning the monastic way of spirituality has emphasized the importance of reading and study. Here's why: studying the old books safeguards your spirituality from being merely a subjective, emotional and ephemeral experience. Knowledge ground prayer in reality. The old books are the ones that have stood the test of [...]
Three Monks Three Vows The Benedictine monk or nun takes vows of Stability, Obedience and Conversion of Life. There is much that can be learned from the three vows not only for the life of the professed religious, but for the layperson who wishes to follow Christ more closely and fully. I'll be writing [...]
Cloister, Mont St Michel, France When I lived in England I made my annual retreat with the small community of Benedictines at Mont St Michel. The architecture is a Gothic marvel of economy and engineering brilliance. The lower levels with thick walls support common rooms with thinner walls and pillars and the whole living [...]
In the present world the suggestion of obedience is met with incomprehension. That one should submit one’s entire will to another individual is not only a social error, but an anti-social horror. Obedience is a blasphemy in a world of individual freedom, and yet all the wise ones tell us it is only through obedience that [...]
Stability means "God is not elsewhere."
Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight, UK
This post is an excerpt from my book St Benedict and St Therese, The Little Rule and the Little Way. Go here to learn more. Benedict of Nursia was born around the year 480 in the Umbrian province of Italy. According to his biography, written by Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Benedict was born into a ‘family of [...]
My first encounter with St Benedict was through the life of a Benedictine oblate who lived in a little cabin in the woods near Bob Jones University. June Reynolds was a quiet, prayerful, joyful and bookish person. When I went to study at Oxford she loaned me some money and she also shared the Benedictine life [...]