On Building Community

In legislating discipline for faults or wrong doing, Benedict seems to feel that it is best to let the offender set his own consequences. For instance, if someone seems determined to be isolated from the rest of the group--Benedict suggests that punishment should be separation from community.

If my actions and words are disrupting my ability to be part of community, Benedict suggests that maybe I am asking to be separated from everyone for a short while to give me time to think and reflect in silence. Actually not much different from our current concept of time out.

Sr. Catherine, OSB

Correction of Faults

I tend to be a wimp when it comes to dealing with interpersonal issues. Benedict gives us a three strikes policy for issues in community.

When someone is disruptive to community, Benedict asks that the person be addressed privately. Giving the opportunity for the person to change. If that does not work, the person is to be disciplined publically. If the person is still unwilling to change, Benedict advocates expelling the person from the community.

I have had times when my own behavior has been destructive to myself and others around me. The wisdom of giving the offender three opportunities to amend has provided me with the strength needed to continue to grow.

Sr. Catherine

On the Dailiness of Life

There is a certain discipline needed to be able to share a room with another person, even a good friend. There are opportunities for compromising and for learning to be accepting of a roommate's quirks and for growth on everyone's part.

Chapter 22 of the Rule talks about the sleeping arrangement of the community. Benedict is painstakingly precise about how the monks should sleep. His preference if for the community to share one room and to sleep fully-clothed--ready to get up for prayer in the middle of the night.

Benedict provides one additional reason for the sleeping arrangement. He wants to provide some support and encouragement for the members who might find waking early harder to take than others. Being a person who loves early mornings I can appreciate how different persons can help ease one another into the day.

Sr. Catherine, OSB

Sharing the Burdens of Office

Leadership can be a demanding task--whether it be parenting, supervising, advising, or monitoring. It can quickly become a 24/7 task. This fact was true even in the 6th century.


Benedict built in some ways for the superior of the community to be able to share some of the responsibilities of leadership with other members. He created the office of "deans". Deans were similar to monitors to whom he could entrust some of the daily responsibility.



The Deans were not to be a law unto themselves, however. They were to be people of humility who would willingly carry out the orders of the superior and lead through service and example. They were truly to be the helpers of the abbot and of the community.



Sr. Catherine, OSB

Short Prayer

We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. (RB 20.3)

Most people don't need to know me long to realize that I am a talker. I firmly believe that if few words are good then a multitude of words must be much more meaningful.

When it comes to prayer, though, I have always been fascinated by silence and stillness. Even as a child, prayer was one of the few times when I could just be still and not need to do anything. Benedict reminds us in Chapter 20 of the Rule that God already knows what is in our hearts and what our needs are. God does not need us to explain in detail what we need. God just wants us to be still and be open to his love and will for us.

Sr. Catherine, OSB

Having Our Minds in Harmony with Our Voices

...and let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices. (RB 19.7)

I have always longed to be a person of integrity. A person who says what she means, acts on her principles and has no real separation between thought, word and deed. This image is an ideal, of course. As much as I would like to be totally in sync with all my actions it will probably never occur in my lifetime.

St. Benedict, however, provides a method for me to be a person of intergrity in at least one area off my life--prayer. In his instructions on prayer in this chapter, I find a key to being totally myself before God at all times. The key is humility.

May I always remember who I am before God in prayer.

Sr. Catherine, OSB

The Flexibility of the Rule

In the passages about community prayer, Benedict is very precise and ordered about when, how and which psalms are to be prayed. He regulates standing and bowing, time and manner. He definitely knows what the "ideal" for prayer is.

At the end of Chapter 18, however, Benedict shows true wisdom in allowing individual communities to adjust the order and manner if necessary to the circumstances of the local area. There is wisdom in placing this elasticity in the Rule so that although things might look a little different from monastery to monastery the basic values are still able to be preserved even 15 centuries later.

Sr. Catherine, OSB