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THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

Come my children, listen to me:

and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

(Psalm 34:11)

There was a man of holy life, Benedict by name, and the benediction of God was upon him.

(St Gregory, Dialogues, II, I)

Love takes to itself the life of the loved one.

The greater the love, the greater the suffering of the soul.

The fuller the love, the fuller the knowledge of God.

The more ardent the love, the more fervent the prayer.

The more perfect the love, the holier the life.

(Staretz Silouan)

Holy and blessed Benedict,

the grace of heaven has made you rich

with such full blessing of goodness

not only in order to raise you to the glory you desire

to the rest of the blessed, to a seat in heaven,

but that many others be drawn to that same blessedness,

wondering at your life,

stirred by your kind admonitions,

instructed by your gentle doctrine,

called on by your miracles.

Benedict, blessed of God,

whom God has blessed with such wide benediction,

I pour forth my prayer to you

with all the fervour possible;

and implore your help with all the desire possible;

for my need is too great; I cannot bear it.

(St Anselm)

A swimmer plunges into the water stripped of his garments to find a pearl; a monk stripped of everything goes through his life to discover in himself the pearl – Jesus Christ; and when he finds him, he seeks no longer for aught existing beside him.

(Isaac of Turin)

Miracles may show me the saint, they do not show me how he became a saint: and that is what I want to see. It is not the completed process that intrigues me: it is the process itself: for you see, my work is not to be a saint. Tell me what was churning in his soul as he battled his way up from selfishness and the allurements of sin to the great heart of God.

(M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.)

If anyone would like to get the true picture of this man of God let him go to the Rule he has written, for the holy man could not have taught anything but what he had first lived.

(St Gregory, Dialogues, II, 26)

Almighty God,

by whose grace St Benedict,

kindled with the fire of your love,

became a burning and a shining light in the church:

inflame us with the same spirit

of discipline and love,

that we may walk before you

as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.