Benedictine Spirituality and Formation

AND let us open our eyes
to the deifying light . . .

et apertis oculis nostris
ad deificum lumen

The Holy Rule, Prologue, v. 8.

Saint Benedict .Sodoma, Monte Oliveto, c.1500.

1. THE LADDER
and
THE GARDEN

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THE monastic model of ascent through ascetical practice to the contemplative embrace of God is rooted and prefigured in the biblical images of:

THE LADDER (stairway/path) of ascent to God and

THE HEAVENLY GARDEN of delight in the divine presence.

IN the monastic tradition these two themes intertwine in an alternating rhythm of spiritual ascent always energized by mystical vision (or at least the virtue of hope). One never graduate from the ascetical path; and heaven itself is a dynamic progress into God,

ASCETICAL PRACTICE
(Conversatio in RB)

ἡ πρακτική
PRAKTIKÉ

“ACTIVE LIFE”

CONTEMPLATION
(KNOWLEDGE)

ἡ θεωρητική
(ἡ γνωστική)
THEÓRETIKÉ/THEÓRIA

“CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE”

[purification/purgation]

Observation and
understanding of the self:

elimination of vices
acquisition of virtues

[illumination]
ἡ φυσική
Physike

Contemplation
of the scriptures
and of creation

[union]
ἡ θεωλογική
(= ἡ θεωλογία)

Theologiké / Theologia

Knowledge
of God/Divine Nature

ALTHOUGH the notion of ascent to God is also frequently depicted as climbing a mountain (Sinai, Carmel, Tabor), the image of JACOB'S LADDER is a powerful image of heavenly ascent and descent; and it recurs in patristic depictions of martyrdom and very often in the monastic tradition

THE GARDEN is a very ancient metaphor for gentle rest in the Divine Presence. The ancient word for garden is Paradise. In the garden of Eden humanity is at peace with God and all of creation. In the prophets and psalms hope for human struggle and pain is found in the prediction that the desert will blossom and become a garden. The garden of the Song of Songs was interpreted by both Jewish Rabbis and Christian mystics as an icon of the union between the Divine Lover and His beloved spouse - His people. And in the Book of Revelation the final destiny of saved humanity is described as a lush garden with trees and flowing rivers.

BENEDICT associates Jacob’s Ladder with the ladder of humility that leads to Heaven (RB 7.5); however his description of heaven here (love) and at the end of the Instruments of Good Works (Eye has not seen...; RB 4.62) is extremely restrained in comparison with the Master.

IN the Rule of the Master both the Holy Art (RM 3) and the Ladder of Humility (RM 10) lead respectively to the garden-city of heaven (RM 3.83) and the heavenly rose-garden of the Passio Sebastiani (RM 10.92 ). Indeed, every step is explicitly called a “rung of the heavenly ladder.”

AT the conclusion of the Life of Benedict two of his disciples see in a vision the path by which Benedict ascended to heaven (Dial.Bk.2.37) - a clear allusion to Benedict’s Rule.

THE disciples, interpreters, and commentators on the life and Rule of Saint Benedict are too numerous to enumerate here. They include:

1. An examples of the image of an ascent back to - and even beyond - the primordial garden of Eden is found in the famous reading for Holy Saturday that is clearly influenced by the ascetical/monastic tradition of the early Church.

2. Romuald and (3) Bernard offer examples of the monastic cell as a return to paradise and the Song of Songs as a vision of the monastic goal.

4. And, finally, Dante depicts both Benedict and his disciples, Peter Damien and Bernard as guides up the ladder that leads to God and to the heavenly garden where the saints rejoice.

THREATS to the interconnectedness and harmony of the path of spiritual practice and the contemplative vision of heaven have been enumerated by Lassus. They include:

[1] The zeal for the extreme nature of a life that invites total commitment to God can be misused by superiors, thwarting the virtues that can arise from [moderate] oppression.

[2] Sectarian Drift: that is, deterioration of a community into a sect or cult. Appropriate discretion/discernment can be difficult.

Aretino, 1388, The Death of Benedict and the Disciples Vision of the Heavenly Path

The Garden of Eden, Fouquet, 1477

2. “CONVERSATIO” / “ASKESIS”
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
as A WAY of LIFE

MSS. Illum.

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BENEDICT does not employ the traditional monastic terms askesis or praktike, but instead uses conversatio to describe the elimination of vice and quest for virtue that constitutes the “monastic way of life”:

“Truly as we advance in this way of life and faith (conversationis et fidei), our hearts open wide,” RB Prol. 49

“[Hermits], no longer in the first fervor of their way of life . . .” (conversationis fervore), RB 1.3.

“Concerning all of these [Sarabites, Gyrovagues], and their most miserable way of life . . . ” (miserrima conversatione), RB 1.13.

“. . . brothers of good reputation and a holy way of life (sanctae conversationis) [are] to be appointed deans,” RB 21.1.

“One newly arriving to this way of life (ad conversationem) is not to be granted an easy entrance,” RB 58.1

“. . . the beginnings of this way of life (initium conversationis). But for those hastening to the perfection of this way of life (ad perfectionem conversationis) . . .” RB 73.1-2

As Benedict uses the term it implies both perseverance and stability.

RELATED is the verb convertere,“to convert,” that describes a fundamental transformation or change in one’s state of life. (e.g. RB 7.30; Prol. 38;

THE classical notion of virtue as a mean or balance is echoed in Benedict's Rule in the measure/mensura of correction in the disciplinary code (RB 30; RB 24), determining the proper amount of food (RB 39) and drink (RB 40) and especially in the admonition that everything is to be done with proper measure (RB 48.9)

ESSENTIAL in employing and adapting spiritual practices, as noted by Lassus, are discretion and balance, as well as formation for freedom in God, freedom as “human act,” and freedom in opening the heart.

3. THE RECEPTION of
NEW MEMBERS
Formation in Freedom

St. Benedict Receives Maurus and Placid, Sodoma, 1507

RB; RM 87-92

IN Chapters 58-61 of his Rule Saint Benedict describes the reception of new members to the monastery (c. 58), including the reception of child-oblates (c. 59), priests, (c. 60) and visiting monks (c. 61).

THE process of entry entails progress from entrance to guesthouse, then to novitiate. Then responsibility for formation lies with a senior skilled in winning souls, who watches for the four signs of a vocation. The novitiate is of three periods, testing stability, patience, and obedience. Implicitly linked to the eucharistic celebration, the vows are made at the altar: obedientia, stabilitas, conversatio morum suorum. The emphases on stability and obedience make it clear that the conversatio to which the monks commits himself is the way of life of a particular monastery

RECENT authors such as Lassus have stressed the importance of formation in freedom [c.6; c.9!], and freedom in opening the heart, as well as avoiding prophetic assurance by the formator that a candidate has a vocation.

THESE portions of the Rule of Benedict correspond to and contrasts with Chapters 87-91 of the Rule of the Master which is stricter and even encourages suspicion of those who wish to enter.

4. THE ART
of CONTEMPLATION
in THE RULE of BENEDICT

The Vision of Saint Benedict .Codex Benedictus

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ALTHOUGH he never uses the word contemplatio, Benedict recommends texts that define and recommend techniques of contemplation. In his Rule contemplation is experienced chiefly in brief glimpses of heaven and in the attainment of a love that is able to perceive Christ in members of the monastic community and to render fitting honor to them as Christ-bearers.

First, the monks learn to “see” Christ in the Abbot, “who is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery.” RB 2.2: Christi enim agere vices in monasterio creditor

But Christ must also be contemplated aurally and perhaps paradoxically in the voice of the youngest newcomers to the monastery, through whose counsel God often (saepe) indicates what is best for the community to do.

RB 3.3: (quia saepe iuniori Dominus revelat quod melius est)

Guests, too, are to be contemplated as Christ-bearers: on arrival and departure they “are to be received as Christ” and venerated with a bow or prostration, “because Christ is to be adored in them just as he is received in them”.
RB 53.1,7: Omnes supervenientes hospites tamquam Christus suscipiantur […]Christus in eis adoretur qui et suscipitur.

Similarly, monks visiting from another monastery may be the unexpected bearers of a prophetic message from Christ.
RB 61.4: “if [a visiting monk] reasonably and with humble charity criticizes or suggests something, the abbot should prudently consider whether the Lord may not have sent him for this very reason” (pro hoc ipsud eum Dominus direxerit).

The sick are “truly to be served as Christ Himself […] out of honor for God”
RB 36:1,4: sicut revera Christo ita eis serviatur […] in honorem Dei sibi servire.

Thus the monks are to “outdo one another in showing honor” that is, to honor others in community as the Christ-Bearers they are.
RB 72.4 ut honore se invicem praeveniant. (Rom 12:10)
[A vivid example of this is found in St. Gertrude's description of her own conversion.]

5. THE PROLOGUE
and CHAPTER 72
of THE RULE of SAINT BENEDICT

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IN the Prologue and in Chapter 72 of his Rule St. Benedict portrays the ascetical ascent to God as occurring within a community. In the Prologue the community is a gentle “School of the Lord’s Service,” whose members “run with unspeakable sweetness of love on the path of God’s commandments” (Ps 119:32).

IN Chapter 72 the contemplative embrace of God is an destiny towards which we are drawn pariter - together into eternal life (RB 72.12). The good zeal that enables the brethren to contemplate Christ in one another is very different from the competitive zeal described in Chapter 92 of the Rule of the Master.

6. THE LADDER
of
HUMILITY

RB; RM

BOTH Saint Benedict and the Master emphasize the importance of humility in monastic life. Following Saint John Cassian, they conceive of humility as a ladder or pathway that leads to God. For Benedict however - unlike his predecessors - this ladder not only culminates in love, but requires that love be present already at the third step or rung.
AS both medieval and modern authors, such as Lassus have pointed out, humility leads to the discovery of the truth concerning the self.

7. THE PATH of SAINT BENEDICT:
in The Dialogues
of GREGORY the GREAT

The Heavenly Path of Saint Benedict . Codex Benedictus

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POPE Gregory the Great is one of the first interpreters of the rich legacy of St. Benedict. He is the author of the Life of St. Benedict which comprises the second book of Gregory's famous Dialogues.

THIS book portrays St. Benedict's spiritual progress from solitary hermit to abbot of a community, and the last chapters depict his gradual transformation from zealous, miracle-working ascetic to receptive contemplative. At the very end his disciples receive a vision of the path (via) of Benedict's heavenly ascent (2.37) that is also his Rule (2.36).

8. OBEDIENCE
and
TACITURNITY

RB; RM

SAINT Benedict devotes chapters 5 and 6 of his Rule to the subjects of obedience and taciturnity. Both of these virtues enable the monk to grow in the art of contemplating through hearing (as in the ausculta of the Prologue) the other members of the community, especially the superiors, but also the whole community to whom obedience is due (RB 71) - such obedience being “the path by which we go to God.”
MODERN authors such as Lassus have described both the limits of obedience and the obedience superiors (and subjects) owe to the Church

9. THE ABBOT
as EXEMPLAR
of MONASTIC LIFE

St. Benedict, 1507

RB; RM

FOR Saint Benedict the abbot is expected to provide a model of monastic life that can be imitated by the members of the monastic community (RB 2; 64). He is the spiritual father of the monastery, but his role as spiritual guide is complex: he delegates this authority where the novices (RB 58) and excommunicated (RB 27) are concerned. WHETHER the abbot can or should serve as spiritual director for his monks is much debated, as modern commentators, including Lassus (ch 8), have noted.
A SOMEWHAT more sinister approach to the imitation of the abbot is found in of the Rule of the Master (RM 92), where precedence is always changed and the disciples are to imitate the abbot in order to attain the honor of succeeding him - the successor to be designated by the abbot on his deathbed.

10. CARE of THE SICK
and
THE YOUNG

St. Elizabeth, Cologne Master, late 14th c.

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IN his Rule Benedict repeatedly emphasizes sensitivity to the needs of the sick, the young, and the elderly. The compassion and “mutual Christology” Benedict encourages is best appreciated by comparing Chapter 36 of his rule with Chapters 69-70 of the Rule of the Master

11. THE INSTRUMENTS
of GOOD WORKS
and SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

St. Benedict Receives Maurus and Placid, Sodoma, 1507

RB; RM

IN the conversatio that is the monastic way of life there are implements or instruments, that is practices − moral and spiritual “tools” − that lead to virtue, especially the virtue of love, by way of obedience and humility.

12. ALTERNATING
RHYTHMS of
SPIRITUAL LIFE

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1) THE RHYTHM of OUR LIVES

ALL human experience can be conceived as a kind of alternating rhythm, a life-giving, energizing movement back and forth, between the the two poles of “activity” and “receptivity”:

ACTIVITY
speaking
searching
working

RECEPTIVITY
listening
perceiving
being

13. LECTIO DIVINA:
A LADDER of ASCENT and
A GARDEN of CONTEMPLATION

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CENTRAL to Christian monasticism is the ancient practice of LECTIO DIVINA. A method of prayer and contemplation inherited from Judaism, Lectio Divina was first clearly recommended as a practice for all Christians by the bishop St. Cyprian of Carthage in the third century, who described both ascent to God and spiritual adornment of the soul.

SAINT Benedict describes the daily practice of lectio divina in Chapters 4, 8, 38, 48, and 49 (sel.) of his Rule. The medieval monks Peter Damien and Guigo II depict lectio divina as ascent to the heavenly banquet and the divine embrace.

THE result of lectio divina is the practice of contemplative exegesis, again, a method of prayerful contemplation inherited from both Judaism and classical antiquity. Also called allegorical exegesis, this refers to the practice of contemplating the presence and purposes (logoi) of God in Sacred Scripture, in the unfolding of one’s own life, and in the movements of history. A medieval poem describes the interrelationship between the literal and mystical/allegorical senses:

Littera gesta docet,	The letter speaks of deeds;
quid credas allegoria,	allegory about the faith;
Moralis quid agas,	The moral about our actions;
quo tendas anagogia.	anagogy about our destiny

LITERAL (historical)	God in the Sacred Text	SACRED SCRIPTURE
MORAL (tropological)	God guiding us in our choices	OUR LIVES
ALLEGORICAL (christological)	God unseen in the events of our lives	HUMAN HISTORY
ANAGOGICAL (heavenly/eschatological)	God united to us for all eternity in Heaven	HEAVEN (beyond time)

14. THE RHYTHMS
of LITURGICAL PRAYER
Psalmodia / Oratio

St. Benedict Receives Maurus and Placid, Sodoma, 1507

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IN chapters 19 and 20 of his Rule Benedict contrasts the respective monastic practices of psalmody and prayer.
THE interrelationship between psalmody and prayer that Saint Benedict succinctly describes presupposes both the external liturgical practice and the inner spiritual interpretation of monastic spiritual practices found in the writings of the monks Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian.

15. MONASTERIES,
CONGREGATIONS,
and CONFEDERATIONS

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THE organization of Benedictine monks into semi-autonomous congregations that now comprise the Benedictine Confederation was a work of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

NEW monasteries continue to be founded, and the identification and manifestation of new monastic charisms is an ongoing task, and sometimes a source of concern. The shape and content of the different monastic congregations undergoes constant change.

16. MONASTIC RENEWAL
and REFORM

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TRADITIONALLY the concept of “monastic reform” has implied a return to a stricter or more literal interpretation. Saint Benedict, however, was a notable exception to this approach. His Rule adapts the stricter Rule of the Master in a human, compassionate direction

THE most recent and comprehensive movement of monastic renewal and reform occurred in the wake of the French Revolution, and has powerfully affected all Benedictine monasteries in the world today

6. THE RULE of BENEDICT
and
THE RULE of THE MASTER