Plainly Speaking - Saint Benedict
PLAINLY SPEAKING
P.
LAINLY
S.
PEAKING
Dear Friends,
Saint Benedict founded a Religious Order which has produced 57,000 known saints. Thirty-five Popes have been Benedictines, of whom seventeen have been declared either Saints or Blesseds. Countless must be the number of other souls who were led to holiness and salvation because of these Saints, inspired by this holy man of God.
How did this come about? What was it that brought such success? Saint Benedict developed a unique system that has lasted more than fifteen hundred years. What are its components?
Ora et Labora (Pray and work) is the well-known motto of the Benedictines. Besides regular times for prayer—the Work of God—and manual labor, there is the living of a common life, the “three vows of Religion” plus the unique vow of Stability and of course, the renowned Rule of Saint Benedict. These are all essential parts of the formula. However, first and foremost is the abandonment of the world in order to find salvation.
It all began with a young man, about fifteen years old, who fled the world with the sole intention to save his soul. He fled Rome, the Eternal City, where he could have had a stellar education that would lead to a bright future, influential favors, honors, and riches. Has not this been the dream of every age gone by? Is it not still the dream of so many today?
Yet, Benedict saw in it all, temptations to sin, laxity towards his duties to God and forgetfulness of the purpose of life. In short, he fled worldliness that could easily lead to his eternal damnation. What wisdom in one so young! What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? Our Lord once asked. (Matt 16:26)
The Disciple whom Jesus loved added, Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)
Not everyone is called to abandon the world but every Christian worthy of the name can be in the world but not of the world. There has to be, at least, a spiritual separation, for, again Saint John wrote, All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. (1 John 2:16) Has the world changed for the better since then?
In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Br. Thomas Augustine, M.I.C.M
Superior