Читать книгу Listen My Son - Dwight Longenecker - Страница 9

The sixth-century Rule of St Benedict is a code written for the foundation and maintenance of a Christian monastery. It has been in use for the last fifteen hundred years as the basis for every Benedictine monastery and convent and for many other religious orders which are loosely Benedictine. Some scholars even credit Benedict and his Rule as the foundation of Western civilization, for there the basic guidelines of all community can be traced, and it was the monastic communities, following Benedict's inspiration, which kept human learning and civilization alive during the Dark Ages.

Benedict's Rule may have been written with sixth-century needs in mind, but it has stood the test of time because of Benedict's profound understanding of human psychology. Benedict understands that we need something to aspire towards, but we also need a realistic view of ourselves. We need to reach for the stars, but keep our feet on the ground. Like all works of genius, Benedict's Rule inspires and humbles us at the same time. He takes us to lofty heights, and yet his Rule is full of practical wisdom and principles of human relationship which can be applied to almost any situation where people live and work together. A serious reading of Benedict will enlighten and inspire not only our family life, but our relationships at work, in the parish, and in our wider community.

Although it was written for monks, Benedict's Rule is not a piece of mystical writing as such. It doesn't give extravagant and obscure teaching on prayer and mysticism. The Rule is a practical document for everyday living. It is modest in its aim: indeed, Benedict himself calls it a ‘little Rule for beginners’. The Rule is also modest in its composition. Benedict never claims complete originality. Christian monasticism began in Egypt in the middle of the fourth century, and Benedict has drawn from the literature of those first Egyptian monks – the Desert Fathers. He also relies on the Eastern Conferences of Cassian and on the contemporary Rule of the Master. But Benedict makes his own mark. Unlike the earlier writers, Benedict promotes a new balance. He tempers monastic austerities with a gentle tolerance of human weakness. He eschews extremism and builds a Rule which strives for heaven while understanding how bound we are to earth. For Benedict heaven and earth are not in conflict; as a master of incarnational spirituality he helps us see ‘heaven in ordinary’. So every material possession is to be treated as a sacred vessel of the altar, and Christ is to be seen in the abbot, every brother, and every guest of the monastery.