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| Benedict as a Spiritual Guide |
Today, I highlight Benedict of Nursia, whose 6th century life has inspired hundreds of thousands to commit themselves to seeking God together, especially in common liturgical prayer and in service to their fellow human beings.
Benedict crystallized the best of the monastic tradition in his Rule of Life. His initial followers gathered eight times a day for liturgical prayer. They ate meals together, often in silence. The “Rule of Benedict” can be summed up in a Latin motto: Ora et labora. (Pray and work)
Benedict established a monastic community at Monte Cassino, now a UNESCO world heritage site, near Naples in Italy. His style of monastic life spread so rapidly throughout Europe that the sixth and seventh centuries became known to some as the Benedictine centuries.
Today’s Benedictine abbeys continue the essential features of the Rule of Benedict. Benedictine spirituality in particular invites us to enter more fully into the liturgical life of the Church by participating in the Eucharist, praying the psalms and re-experiencing the story of our salvation in the liturgical year.
Benedictine spirituality invites us to enter more deeply into the Eucharist. Jesus gives his body and blood, his life, as a sacrifice of reconciliation between God and us and as proof of God’s love for us. Jesus then commands us to renew this sacred action by making present this once-and-for-all sacrifice in the bread and wine.
Jesus wanted to be with us until the end-time, through the presence of his Spirit and also through his transformed body. Bread and wine mystically become the living Christ. How can this be? It is a mystery of faith.
But what is the purpose of the Eucharist? To form us into one faith community. Paul wrote: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Cor 10:17) The Eucharist empowers us to reach out compassionately to people. We "go forth" to “wash the feet” of our brothers and sisters in daily life.
Benedictine spirituality invites us to pray the psalms: songs and prayers mostly attributed to King David and formed into a biblical collection of five books in the 2nd century before Jesus. These 150 poems express a range of human emotions: hymns of praise to God, laments in light of national disasters such as hurricanes, royal psalms for a special occasion, individual laments and thanksgivings.
Benedictine spirituality invites us to re-experience the story of our salvation through the liturgical calendar: which begins with Advent, where we re-experience the hope of our forebears for a Messiah, then moves to Christmas, the birth of the Messiah, then through lent to the dying and rising of Jesus at Easter, and finally to the end of the liturgical year where Jesus Christ comes in glory.
Yes, Saint Benedict inspires us to seek God, especially in liturgy and in service, so that we, re-energized in the life of God, may become the "hands and feet and voice and ears" of the living Christ in our everyday lives.
