Ramos, Umi Zyrus Elijah V.

Sept 9, 2020
BLM1

Who is St. Benedict? As a student, what are the common experiences in the life of St. Benedict that
relates with your common experiences today? What can you consider as the "cave" of your life?

Saint Benedict was a religious reformer known to be the father of Western Monasticism establishing a
rule that became a norm for many Christians and nuns. Saint Benedict made a huge contribution in
influencing many monks with his spiritual beliefs that is why Saint Benedict faced a challenge of his life
to overcome which is many other monks and abbots were filled with jealousy towards Saint Benedict.
This is only one example of Saint Benedict's obstacle he experiences in life before he becomes the Cave-
Dwelling kid who changed the world.

There were many issues and problems Saint Benedict encountered, one great example was the monks
being jealous of his actions because Saint Benedict was very influential for many other monks. The
monks who follow the influence of Saint Benedict begged the Saint to become their abbot that triggers the
jealousy of the jealous priest named Florentius.

The jealous priest plans to poison Saint Benedict but he failed to do it because Saint Benedict sticks with
his prayer and puts God before anything else unlike Florentius being dependent on his emotional anger
that is why he was punished by God.

Saint Benedict taught me the action of humbleness, resilience, and trusting God despite being in a cave
full of challenges and problems we need to believe in God's love and he will help us to face the obstacles
we are facing in our everyday life.

In life, we have our cave of challenges and problems we need to overcome. I believe that I shouldn't be
weak in this cave and I will push through to survive other people's doubt against me. I have a toxic
environment in the reality of life many are jealous, doubting, and underestimating what I am capable of.
This type of situation is where I relate myself from Saint Benedict's action towards the challenges he
experienced in life.

No matter how many people drag me down I will never lose hope to become the better version of me with
the guidance of God I will never be dependent to negative aspects in life instead I will show the light of
humbleness, gracious kindness, and prayer just like what Saint Benedict did to survive and achieved his
greater goal in life.