{"id":9,"date":"2011-04-06T12:38:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T16:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thebloggingmonk\/?p=9"},"modified":"2012-03-05T18:40:20","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T23:40:20","slug":"food-for-the-heart-and-soul-based-on-the-rule-of-saint-benedict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thebloggingmonk\/2011\/04\/food-for-the-heart-and-soul-based-on-the-rule-of-saint-benedict.html","title":{"rendered":"Food for the Heart and Soul Based on the Rule of Saint Benedict"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ufeff\"\"<\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

Greetings in our Lord Jesus from Mary Mother of the Church Benedictine Abbey in Richmond, Virginia.\u00a0 Writing to you from the banks of the historic James River, on which the first colony of our beloved nation was founded over four hundred years ago, The Blogging Monk brings you food for heart and soul based on the Rule of Saint Benedict, which has been meditated upon by monks and nuns for over 1,500 years since the time of Saint Benedict.\u00a0 This Rule provides great food for thought for all people as it details the ways by which we most effectively can follow in the footsteps of the way of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Saint Benedict was born in Nursia, Italy along with his fraternal twin sister, Saint Scolastica, around the year 480 A.D.\u00a0 As an older teenager, becoming frustrated at the corruption of the city of Rome and desiring to seek God through a monastic desert experience, he left Rome as a young man to dwell for three years in the cave of Subiaco, where he lived below the monk Saint Romanus and listened constantly for the voice of God to speak to his heart.\u00a0 It is commonly agreed by scholars that the Rule of Saint Benedict comes to us from the second third of the sixth century.\u00a0 It is held traditionally that Saint Benedict passed into eternal life on 21 March 547 A.D.<\/p>\n

The Life and Miracles of Saint Gregory the Great, or Book Two of the Dialogues by Saint Gregory the Great, detail in fascinating fashion the life of Saint Benedict and his relationship with his beloved sister from the beginnings of his monastic journey until his death.\u00a0 Saint Gregory\u2019s purpose in writing the Dialogues was to edify and inspire, not to provide a biography of the Saint in the strict sense of the term as we understand it in modern times.\u00a0 Saint Gregory highlighted the great holiness of life of Saint Benedict, holding him up as an example for the people of his time \u2013 and for each one of us \u2013 to follow despite all of the political and religious storms churning chaotically throughout the history of mankind.<\/p>\n

Our current Pope Benedict XVI in part chose to take the name Benedict due to Saint Benedict\u2019s prominence in providing a deepening of Christian culture in medieval Europe, where for many centuries we can see Europe\u2019s history meshing with that of the monastic centers of scholarship, learning, and the pursuit of holiness.\u00a0 Just as Saint Benedict\u2019s life reflects the holiness of the saints and prophets from throughout the ages, Pope Benedict encourages us to meditate upon the faith and works of this saint and so many others throughout the history of the Church, in order to help us live out the challenge of a life of holiness that is the fundamental vocation of every Christian even now in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Obsculta, o fili, praecepta magistri, et inclina aurem cordis tui<\/em>
\nListen carefully, my son, to the master\u2019s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart
\n(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue v.1<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

The introductory words \u201clisten carefully\u201d frame the entire Rule of Saint Benedict in the form of wisdom literature found in the Old Testament and reflect what the Rule teaches monks throughout the pages of this great work, on the monastery as being a \u201dschool of the Lord\u2019s service\u201d.\u00a0 Saint Benedict proposes that the monastic home is where each monk learns how to live the ways of God practically in his daily life.\u00a0 In the same manner, the Rule provides every one of us \u2013 monk or not \u2013 beautiful guidance that helps us make the right choices in our daily living that will lead us to authentic happiness in our homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But how can we go about \u201clistening carefully\u201d, especially when so much of our lives is full of noise, and even chaos?\u00a0 Certainly Saint Benedict\u2019s Rome over 1,500 years ago had its noisy problems in politics and economics, being under the constant threat of barbarian invasions throughout many centuries!\u00a0 Nonetheless, Saint Benedict encourages and gives us the hope that Christ Jesus indeed provides us the solid, unchanging, and steadfast Rock upon Whom we can and should build our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus Christ leads us to the tranquil love of which He is the Source, and for which we thirst in a world so rife with problems and temptations toward hopelessness.<\/p>\n

To find peace, happiness, and the greatest fulfillment in this life, Saint Benedict calls us to \u201clisten carefully\u201d for the voice of God speaking in the silence of our hearts.\u00a0 We need to retreat in order to seek God in the silence, listening for Him \u201cwith the ear of our heart\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 What a curious and fascinating image, that Saint Benedict says our hearts have ears!\u00a0 The Latin word inclina indicates that we are to lean, but towards what or whom?\u00a0 Towards Christ and His\u00a0 Commandment of Love!\u00a0 By making our hearts attentive in trust and hope toward the heart of Jesus, we become more and more capable of hearing God\u2019s own heartbeat beating in love for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We come to hear the words of God\u2019s Love, spoken by the One Who has created each one of us in Love, by Love, for Love.\u00a0 The commandments of God \u2013 that is, the \u201cmaster\u2019s instructions\u201d, as articulated\u00a0 by the superior of the monastery who stands in his authority over the monks of his religious house as representative of Christ\u2019s rule over us \u2013 always point us to the divine rule of God\u2019s Love, which is summarized in the complete divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Son of Man.\u00a0 It is in the rule of the commandments of God\u2019s Love that we find peace, happiness, and the utmost fulfillment \u2026 that perfect Rule being Jesus Christ Himself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ufeff\ufeff Greetings in our Lord Jesus from Mary Mother of the Church Benedictine Abbey in Richmond, Virginia.\u00a0 Writing to you from the banks of the historic James River, on which the first colony of our beloved nation was founded over four hundred years ago, The Blogging Monk brings you food for heart and soul based…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":385,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,28,18,21,33,26,29,15,10,74,32,76],"tags":[4,8,5,7,6,3,57,75],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine","category-contemplation","category-family","category-human-love","category-interior-life","category-love","category-meditation","category-monastic-2","category-monks-2","category-prayer","category-reflection","category-rule","tag-benedictine","tag-catholic","tag-fr-gregory-gresko","tag-monasticism","tag-monks","tag-prayer","tag-rule-of-saint-benedict","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nFood for the Heart and Soul Based on the Rule of Saint Benedict - 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Gregory Gresko is Chaplain of the new Blessed John Paul II Shrine in Washington D.C. In his new responsibilities, Fr. Gresko strives to integrate the charisms of Benedictine spirituality and life, emphasized beautifully in the current pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, with the Magisterial teachings of Blessed John Paul II to help set a firm course for today's Christians in their marriages, families, and religious lives. From 2000-2012, Fr. Gresko was a monk of Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, Virginia. He earned his S.T.B. from the Pontificial Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo (2005) in Rome and his S.T.L. magna cum laude in Marriage and Family Studies (2008) from the Pontifical Lateran University, John Paul II Institute (Vatican City). His S.T.L. dissertation was entitled, \"Educating to Love: Foundational Pedagogy in Light of Karol Wojtyla's Love and Responsibility\". Fr. 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