Definition: Benedictine
Rule is the guide book that Benedict created to train Christians in communal
monastic life. There were times of prayer both alone and communally, times of
reading, times of working, and times of daily services (White x). There are
chapters of the Rule that address discipline and punishment exclusively for the
eight principal vices (White xx). There were also parameters on how much food
and sleep a monk could receive.
Importance: For Benedict, love was not at the top of
his list of “important things that Christians have to do.” However, he saw love
as being linked to obedience (White xii). The goal of a monk, is “to attain
purity of heart and perfect love that will allow him to reach the kingdom of
heaven and eternal life” (White xxi). Benedict saw this purification of heart
as containing all of the aspects of monastic life and thus monastic contemplate
life was the vehicle that would take humans to heaven. I find Augustine’s idea
of thinking “it is better to need less than to have more” to be a relevant
ideology for monastic life in general. It fascinates me that Benedictine monks
had very little time to self-reflect or meditate because so much of their days
were mapped out. When I think of monks, I do not tend to imagine men working in
the fields in between prayer sessions and getting woken up in the middle of the
night to sing psalms.
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