The key to spiritual growth and the call to daily conversion in the Rule of St. Benedict.

Its biblical foundations and transforming effects.

Martha E. Rodriguez

TS 7376/TS 7283: Biblical Foundations of Spirituality

November 28, 2022

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine the biblical foundations of the Rule of St. Benedict,
how the senses, both physical and spiritual, have a pivotal role in the conversion experience of an
individual making these sixth-century guidelines a relevant spiritual tool for the followers of
Christ today. The analysis is based on the review of a variety of sources, books and articles, that
provided an insight into this masterpiece. Throughout the analysis and research, it became
evident that the Rule is grounded on Scripture. Benedictine spirituality requires the disciples to
delve into the Word of God, daily. The individual is beckoned to immerse into the Word with all
his senses and in silence. The challenge is to reach unity with God through humility, obedience,
and constant prayer by engaging both body and soul in the process. Total surrender to God is
necessary for anyone’s conversion and it cannot be achieved alone. Spiritual direction is a
necessary part of the journey and the practice of Lectio is a non-negotiable to walk in grace.

Key words: The Rule, Lectio, humility, obedience, silence, senses, spiritual direction.
 There was a man of holy life, Benedict by name, and the
benediction of God was upon him.
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)

The Rule of St. Benedict teaches the spirituality of the presence of God. It teaches the
values worth persevering to become fully spiritual. Benedictine Spirituality is grounded on Sacred
Scripture – almost every page of the Rule contains a direct quotation from the Bible or reflects on
a biblical reference. Its spiritual foundations are prayer, work, and balance. It is a way of life that
builds on selflessness and awareness. It is ancient wisdom sill fresh and relevant today.

The practice of Lectio Divina is incorporated in the Rule as the preferred form of prayer.
Formal and constant prayer, public or private are necessary for the individual’s interior life and
spiritual formation. (RB 48). The goal of the rule is to become the path through which any
individual could live an ordinary life extraordinarily well. That concern with doing ordinary things
quietly and perfectly for the glory of God which is the beauty of the pure Benedictine life.1 Thomas
Merton writes how St. Benedict led by example,

His life of prayer is based on deep humility of heart and a profound sense of the Holiness
of God. Prayer is the great reality in the life of St. Benedict – or rather, God is the great
reality. And because of this, Benedict remains always a man of prayer, a man who in all
simplicity applied himself fervently to prayer…. Prayer and work were harmoniously in
his own life, as in the lives of the monks. He was zealous in hospitality, receiving Christ
in guests.2

A deep analysis of this invitation to pray, makes evident that physical and spiritual senses
are imminent in the training of the will for the soul to reach a constant prayer state. Each sense
brings a necessary component to make praying an enlightening and transforming praxis. Their
role is intertwined with the spiritual senses as both body and soul are necessary in the journey.

The senses in the Rule.

Hearing and silence – a fundamental ability.

The first word of the Rule in the prologue is “Listen,” and “let us hear with awestruck ears
what the divine voice, crying out daily, doth admonish us, saying: "Today, if you shall hear his

1
Thomas Merton, John R. Sommerfeld, ed. Simplicity and Ordinariness, Studies in Medieval Cistercian History, IV,
(Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1980), 3.
2
Thomas Merton, Patrick O’Connell, ed. The Rules of St. Benedict. Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 4.
(Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN. 2009), 34.
voice, harden not your hearts" (Ps 94[95]:8).3 Listening is the follower’s lifeline to and with God
and they must listen attentively. It involves listening not only to the Word of God but to the Rule,
the abbot and to the brethren.4 It requires a pure heart and perfect love.

To listen closely, with every fibre of our being, at every moment of the day, is one of the
most difficult things in the world, and yet it is essential if we mean to find the God whom we are
seeking.5 It requires determination and disposition.

Listening, however, cannot happen without silence and this is clear in St. Benedict's Rule
6, where the importance of silence is stated: "If in fact speaking and teaching are the master's task;
the disciple is to be silent and listen." For the practice of Lectio,

Spiritual reading is about virtues, life with God, the spiritual life: opening up a deeper level,
interior silence, recollection and prayer. Lectio Divina is more: it is reading not only about
God but with God, in the sense of listening to God, hearing His word, and preparing to
respond to His word with our whole being.6

The whole spiritual life of the monk consists in listening to God by "inclining the ear of
the heart." This listening should not be a mere intellectual or rational activity; it is intuitive.
Throughout the various chapters of the Rule, it is evident that an emphasis is place on the fact that
God speaks in a very special way through Scriptures, through the liturgy of the hours, and through
personal prayer and if there is no inner silence one cannot hear.

The invitation to listening is modeled after the prayer of Jesus who spent long hours
listening in prayer and through which he communicated with God the Father. For today’s priests
the wisdom of this discipline of listening is imminent for their preaching, “a priest who will not
listen to the Lord in prayer will easily be bankrupt and lost when it’s time to preach the living word
of God in word and deed.”7 Listening opens the mind to the grace of wisdom.

Sight, touch, and thought.

During personal prayer is important to be very quiet, still within oneself and attentive to
the word of God. Reading prayerfully will not only enlighten but nourish the person at prayer.
The Rule exhorts monks are exhorted to listen willingly to holy reading as a communal form of
reading but also to devote time to personal reading. (RB 4, No.56). Everyone should have specific

3
Benedict, The Holy Rule of St. Benedict.

4
Esther de Waal, Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001), 42.

5
Waal, 43.

6
Merton, The Rule of St. Benedict, 134

7
Fr. Godfrey Mullen, OSB. The Spirit of St. Benedict: Priests can learn much from the saint’s monastic Rule. Our
Sunday Visitor. 2018. 38.
times set apart for reading, for lectio. (RB 48). According to Thomas Aquinas, reading is key to
understanding and the root of intellect.8 Therefore, vital for the discipline the Rule proposes, to
read inwardly.

St. Benedict drew inspiration for the Lection Divina not only from the Patristic tradition
but from the Gospels: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is the word of
faith that we preach).” (Romans 10:8, NABRE), and from the Psalms, for the word to be in our
mouth and in our heart, we need to take the time to read it and develop a spirituality of regularity.
(RB Prologue). Reading is the first step towards the pure, continuous prayer; it is itself the first
type of prayer.9 References to reading are found throughout the Rule, when referencing liturgical
prayer, at the night office, during mealtimes, on the reception of guests to determine the spirit in
which the guest is received, etc. Reading Scripture is the proposed way of life and unceasing
prayer is what St. Benedict encourages everyone to strive for.

The prophet says ‘seven times a day have I praised you.’ We shall fulfill this sacred number
of seen if we satisfy our obligations of service at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers
and Compline, for it was of these hours during the day that he said, ‘seven times a day have
I praised you.’ RB 16.

At this point it is evident that the Rule addresses the disciplines that are vital in the spiritual
journey. There are, however, essential virtues that will make the goal attainable, obedience,
humility, and awareness.

Obedience

Our hearts and our bodies must, therefore, be ready to do battle under the biddings of
holy obedience; and let us ask the Lord that He supply by the help of His grace what
is impossible to us by nature. (RB: Prologue).

Benedict saw obedience as the first degree of humility and the mean through which
everyone can experience conversion. Obedience is about love, our loving response to God which
reflects the desire to be led beyond what one can accomplish alone. Its purpose is to call everyone
to be his/her best self. Therefore, obedience is not servility, is responsibility, is readiness to admit
that there is much to learn. According to Joan Chittister, “Benedictine spirituality sees authority
as a charism, not a privilege. It sees obedience as an act of community, not a deprivation of life
or a diminishment of the person.”10 If an individual longs for a life of conversion, it cannot happen
on his own terms, it requires obedience and how can anyone obey God, who one do not see, if we

8
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Question 84, Article 2.
9
Korneel Vermeiren, O.C.S.O., Praying with Benedict: Prayer in the Rule of St. Benedict (Kalamazoo, MI,
Cistercian Publications, 1999), 82.
10
Joan Chittister, O.S.B., Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today (Harper Collins
Publishers, San Francisco, 1991), 142.
do not obey those with spiritual maturity in our midst. He who is obedient is not alone in the
journey and is constantly challenged to grow.

Humility

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will
be exalted.” (Luke14:11, NABRE).

Humility is not only a dominant theme in Benedictine spirituality but the most important
one as it defines the interior life of a monk, of the one who seeks the Lord. In Benedict's rule,
humility is not the same as humiliations, for humiliations degrade the person. The rule is marked
by a strong sense of the individual monk's personal worth and dignity.

St. Benedict uses the image of the ladder that appeared to Jacob in his dream (Gen 28:12,
NABRE) to introduce the degrees of humility necessary to attain the ultimate goal of heavenly
happiness. In order to ascend St. Benedict’s ladder, we must humbly admit our own failings and
look to God to lift us up11” in the process “we strive to shed …our own wills, desires of the body,
personal wants, the yarning to escape suffering at all costs, sinful thoughts, pride, outer trappings
of wealth, rude talk, and mean laughter.” (RB Chapter 7).
St. Benedict adds that the body and the soul are the two sides of the ladder which has various
degrees of humility or discipline. The Degrees of Humility are the very heart of the vow of
conversion of manners.12 Without it, complete conversion is not possible. Each degree is essential
to the achievement of the next one. The first degree of humility is anchored on the Psalms and
renouncing to all self-will and sin, determined to live in the presence of God. The second degree
takes root on Jn 6:38 “because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the
one who sent me.” Following Jesus’ example, one must accept the will of God. The third degree
from Philippians 2:8 “He became obedient unto death.” Therefore, for the love of God each person
should be willing to seek and accept the will of God through others.

The fourth degree pushes the transformation into a crucial stage by demanding
obedience against serious difficulties and in time of trial. The following degrees show
how the transformation is carried out, reaching down into the depths of the soul and the
gradually taking possession of the monk’s body and of his exterior actions, so that in
the end he is humble through and through.13

As stated by St. Benedict, the ladder by which we climb through humility is formed by
our body and our soul because we are body and soul and the two cannot be separated, the whole
person needs to be transformed and harmony between body and soul is especially important

11
Hannah Vanorny, O.S.B., Climbing St, Benedict’s ladder of Humility together: Perceptions of age in a Monastic
Community (American Benedictine Academy, 2018), 423.
12
Merton, The Rule of St. Benedict, 152.

13
Merton, The Rule of St. Benedict, 155.
when one is at prayer.14 Thus, if one achieves humility, grows in prayer. However, each degree
poses a challenge for the individual as what the ladder proposes goes against what the culture
perceives to mean “climbing the ladder of success.” St. Benedict’s general idea of order appears
upside down. ‘The ladder of humility is one of God’s great paradoxes; as we sink lower into a
humble state, we rise up closer to God.’15 In her book, Esther de Waal writes “When St.
Benedict showed his monks how to climb that ladder to God it was at the same time a descent
into humility and self-abandonment.”16

It is humility that allows God’s light to shine through us to the world. The rule invites the
monk to recognize the presence of God in his life, a presence which is not won or achieved but
simply given, a gift from the Creator. Once one reaches the last step of humility, one is no longer
serving God out of fear, but out of complete love.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a spiritual practice encouraged by St. Benedict, if one is to achieve humility.

It creates awareness of what becomes a distraction in the journey, it is embedded on the first degree
of humility, as we are aware of God’s presence before us, we become aware of what takes us away
from Him. Awareness of the sacred in life is what keep us from drifting away from our goal to
dwell in His kingdom. The ancients understood the notion well

One day a traveler begged the Teacher for a word of wisdom that would guide
the rest of the journey. The teacher nodded affably and though it was the day of silence
took a sheet of paper and wrote on it a single word, “Awareness.” …. “Awareness,
awareness, awareness means…Awareness!”17

Benedict tells us that we do not have to remain helpless drifters in the sea of distraction, we
can return by the labor of obedience by intentionally practicing the presence of God.18 Being
intentional would require to follow St. Benedict’s advice “when you set out to do some good work,
bet God with insistent prayer to bring it to completion” (Prologue). Asking the Lord to guide our
actions throughout the day, helps us be intentional and by the help of His grace we will row against
the waves of distraction.

14
Vermeiren, 74.

15
Vanorny, 423

16
Waal, 95.
17
Chittister, 68

18
Colleen Marua McGrane, O.S.B., Practising Presence: Wisdom from the Rule on finding Balance in a digital Age
(American Benedictine Academy, Duluth, MN., 2012), 372.
 Conclusion

The Rule of St. Benedict encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on God, on our respond to
the call to dwell with Him and gives us the tools to be successful. His goal is to guide those who
have chosen Christ, his method is simple yet profound. Prayer, work, and time to rest. Yet prayer
is meant to be the umbrella under which we execute the work we do daily. Prayer should bring us
to the presence of God by ascending a ladder of humility which moves us from fear to union with
the Creator, yet that first step is the hardest as we are pinned to our cultural view of the world and
climbing the ladder of humility can be fearful. As we recognize that fear is paralyzing, and we can
only move from it by listen to those with spiritual maturity and follow their advice, in obedience,
we begin to move up this ladder.

The ladder of humility is different from the image of the ladder introduced by Guigo,
centuries later, to illustrate the process of Lectio yet both ladders aim to unity with God. The ascent
is not meant to be alone but communal. The Rule addresses the need to become selfless, to have
other’s needs as your priority. Therefore, as we achieve different degrees of humility we mature
spiritually and would be supporting others in their ascent.

These may have been rules written for those entering and living in a monastery in the 6th
century and the current Benedictine Order, but their application in everyone’s personal life
transcends time and vocation. The calling continues to be personal, yet we all live in community,
be it our family, a ministry, our work and our goal is the same, union with Christ. Consequently,
our journey requires prayer, inner prayer, constant prayer, transforming prayer. Without humility,
total surrender to God’s will, our efforts would be futile. Without awareness, we would not be able
to discern the right move, practice, and words we choose to fulfill the task entrusted to us every
day. Without someone to guide us, our journey would always be uphill and slow. If we do not
share our talents, the gift of self, to our communities, we hinder their growth and our transformation.

The spiritual experience to which St. Benedict which challenged and continues to challenge
anyone who chooses to be a disciple of Christ, cannot be accomplished without the follower’s
willingness to get his senses enthralled and engaged in the process of responding to God’s calling.
The Rule is, therefore, a mean through which we can grow and improve every day.

Let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide.
RB Prologue
 Bibliography

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Benedict, The Holy Rule of St. Benedict. Translated by Rev. Boniface Verheyen, O.S.B.
Atchison, Kansas, 1949.
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Chittister, Joan, OSB. “Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict
Today.” Harper Collins Publishers, San Francisco, 1991. 142.

De Waal, Esther. Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001).

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