The Rule of Saint Benedict

If you read this for entertainment you will be sorely disappointed. If you read this as a guide to life, and you are not a monk, you will be sorely disappointed. If you read this with an eye toward how one might live a more calm and disciplined life, adjusting what was written in to Sixth century, t......more

I've often thought that the monastic order is the high-point of my religion. No power, no ambition, just simple and just service to God and man. Therefore I thought I'd read the beginning of that order. My sympathies are much more in align with the Franciscans then the Benedictions which is to put i......more

I read this along with Esther de Waal's Seeking God for the Schole Sisters book club I led. It turned out to be a much more enjoyable read than I anticipated and it is now my new favorite book on authority and parenting with its gentle, stable, and realistic approach to life. I think this would be a......more

Monasticism is widely misunderstood, one of those subjects on which otherwise well-informed people feel comfortable delivering very decided opinions which turn out, on examination, to have been based on flawed assumptions and stereotypes. It helps to go back to the source. Benedict did not quite star......more

One of my favorite things about the Rule of St. Benedict is how kind it is. I think that the popular perception of medieval monks is still filled with hair shirts and flagellation, or, at best, an authoritarian abbot lording over servile monks. Those things aren't made up and they certainly had thei......more