Filha Hildegarda
Benedictine Daily
This section of the site features anything that relates to Benedictine spirituality, like reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict, aspiring to live a lay Benedictine spirituality, some thoughts on Benedictine saints and their lives, among others.
THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT: Prologue (par. 8-9)
Whence the Lord also says in the Gospel: “He who hears these My words and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. There came torrents of rain and rushing winds, and they struck upon that house, but it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” As a consequence, our Lord daily looks for it that we should respond by deeds to these His holy warnings. Thus, it is on account of the need of correcting faults that the days of this life are prolonged for us, as by way of truce; and the Apostle says: “Art thou ignorant that the patience of God leads thee towards penitence?” For the Lord in His tenderness says: “I will not the death of a sinner, but that he may be converted and live.”
Since therefore, brethren, we asked of the Lord concerning the dweller in His tabernacle, we have heard, as a precept concerning dwelling there, “if we fulfil what is required of a dweller there.” Therefore, must our hearts and bodies be prepared as about to serve like soldiers under holy obedience to these precepts; and whatsoever our nature does not make possible let us ask the Lord to direct that the help of His grace shall supply. And if we wish to escape the pains of hell and attain to eternal life, we must hasten to do such things only as may profit us for eternity, now, while there is time for this and we are in this body and there is time to fulfil all these precepts by means of this light.
Reflection:
We are currently on shaky ground, what of the extant culture we are all immersed in having lost its Christian inclinations! Everything is all about ideology and gray areas–modernistic ideas–which the good Pope Pius X had warned about: “the synthesis of all heresies”, a corruption of thought and the intellect, in favour of relativism that has permeated society at large. Indeed, the Church is supposed to stand against this dilemma, yet it seems that many from the hierarchy, too, have been infected by the virus of modernistic thought. Yet, as what Our Lord has constantly assured us, He shall never abandon what He has established.
Holy Mother Church sits on solid ground as it is the pillar and ground of the Truth. Hence, despite all her flaws, we are assured that no tempests shall overturn it as it is anchored on Christ Himself. We run to her and her wisdom, and she corrects us through her treasure trove of saintly writings and promulgations of all our holy popes. However, even she as institution can house people whose hearts and minds are ailing tremendously from sin’s beguilements, or deceived by the workings of unwarranted curiosities; and it is of this cause that she encourages us to come back to the Lord that, ultimately all of our souls shall find rest in Him. She calls, like Wisdom in the book of Proverbs, across the mountaintops, that everyone whose hearts have been blackened by the soot of sin be reconciled to Him who constantly calls for His children to listen to, ponder upon, and act on righteousness—for we are all called, not to damnation but to the light. Thus, let us ask for God’s grace to let us continue in faithfulness and, in turn, shun evil. Let us hasten to do good and not slack from hearing His call.
THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT: Prologue (par. 5-7)
What, most dear brethren, could be more sweet to us than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold the Lord points out the way of life to us by His own fatherly affection.
Let our loins then be girt with faith and the observance of good works, and let us, gospel led, pursue His paths, that we may be worthy to see Him Who has called us unto His own kingdom.
But if our wish be to have a dwelling-place in His kingdom, let us remember it can by no means be attained unless one run thither by good deeds. For, with the prophet, let us ask the Lord, saying to Him: “Lord, who will dwell in Thy tabernacle, and who will rest in Thy holy mount?” After putting this question, brethren, let us listen to our Lord showing us in answer the way to that same tabernacle by saying: “He who lives blamelessly and does justice; he who speaks truth from his heart; he who has kept his tongue from guile; he who has done his neighbour no evil and has accepted no slander against his neighbour”: he who has brought to naught the malignant slanderer the devil, rejecting from his heart’s thoughts him and his efforts to persuade him; and who has taken hold of his suggestions or ever they be come to maturity and has dashed them against the Rock which is Christ. Those who fear the Lord are not puffed up by their own good observance of rule, but reckoning that the good that is in them could not be wrought by themselves but by God, magnify the Lord working in them and say with the prophet: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name give glory.” Just as also the Apostle Paul attributed nothing to himself concerning his own preaching, but said: “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” And again the same Paul said: “He who glories, in the Lord let him glory.”
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Reflection:
It is grace that works in us, lest anyone should boast: to paraphrase St. Paul, we are exhorted to only keep our hearts to those that are above; and to do so, is the humble acknowledgment in ourselves that apart from Our Lord, we can do nothing. Indeed: our godly works would only be for naught, if our hearts are not predisposed to Him Who bequeathed unto us our soul. Hence, as Christians, we ought to keep it into ourselves that in Him we live and move and have our being; we are nothing without Him as it is only through Him that we are, and that our personal triumphs are not ours but His.
THE RULE OF ST. BENEDICT: Prologue (par 1-4)
Translated by: Rev. Boniface Verheyen (1844-1923)
NOTE: I have thought of posting excerpts every two days at the least of the Rule of St. Benedict as a way of starting 2025 right, as a means to uplift the spiritual life. I shall also be writing some reflections about the Rule every now and then that shall feature my insights about St. Benedict’s teachings. May God bless us all.
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Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.
To thee, therefore, my speech is now directed, who, giving up thine own will, takest up the strong and most excellent arms of obedience, to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King.
In the first place, beg of Him by most earnest prayer, that He perfect whatever good thou dost begin, in order that He who hath been pleased to count us in the number of His children, need never be grieved at our evil deeds. For we ought at all times so to serve Him with the good things which He hath given us, that He may not, like an angry father, disinherit his children, nor, like a dread lord, enraged at our evil deeds, hand us over to everlasting punishment as most wicked servants, who would not follow Him to glory.
Let us then rise at length, since the Scripture arouseth us, saying: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep” (Rom 13:11); and having opened our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with awestruck ears what the divine voice, crying out daily, doth admonish us, saying: “Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 94[95]:8). And again: “He that hath ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches” (Rev 2:7). And what doth He say?—”Come, children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps 33[34]:12). “Run whilst you have the light of life, that the darkness of death overtake you not” (Jn 12:35).