Precision is often considered a royal privilege, while selflessness is associated with holiness. Many boys dream of becoming knights, not just to rescue princesses from dragons or villains, but also to engage in chivalrous combat and experience the thrill of battle.

During a playful knightly duel with my neighbor in my grandparents’ garden, we were using trees as our opponents. When my grandfather appeared, I eagerly requested a real sword to cut down the entire tree. He gently took my wooden sword, explaining that true knights protect rather than destroy. As he walked away with my toy weapon, my brief knightly aspirations came to an abrupt and inglorious end.

Jesus’ instruction to his disciples in today’s Gospel, sending them out in pairs with minimal possessions, can be interpreted as a caution against materialism. By forbidding bread, bags, money, and extra clothing, Jesus seemingly warns against accumulating worldly goods.

Jesus’ disciples are called to embrace asceticism, modesty, and a life of extreme simplicity. This concept of spiritual austerity continues to influence both the clergy and laity in modern Christian society.

Authentic disciples of Jesus need not live in poverty. They can carry possessions and even travel with luggage. Even those dressed in finery, like royalty, can be genuine messengers of faith. Beauty, success, and wealth are not barriers to spiritual authenticity or discipleship.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians outlines the sole prerequisite: “to be holy and blameless before him in love.” Pope Francis elaborated on the practical implications of this statement in one of his addresses.

Holiness stems from God’s infinite goodness and our communion with Him. It involves nurturing the divine gift of selflessness within us. Those who receive holiness as a gift of grace naturally express it through their daily actions and interactions with others. Essentially, holiness is the manifestation of God’s grace in our everyday lives.

God’s love, reflected in our mercy towards others, purifies our hearts and enables forgiveness. This daily process renders us ‘unblemished,’ not by removing stains, but by allowing God’s selfless gift to enter and grow within us, which we then cultivate and share with others.

The crux of the matter lies not in possessions but in attitude. God’s generosity, exemplified by the gift of His Son and the Eucharist, serves as a model for our lives. We are called to emulate this selflessness in our hearts, speech, and interactions with the world around us.

Paradoxically, a Tesla driver may more genuinely embody religious virtues than a public transport user. Similarly, those wearing designer clothing or residing in Monaco might better exemplify spiritual values than someone in dated attire or living in Rio’s largest slum. This counterintuitive notion stems from the concept of selfless devotion.

Success calls for humility, and power demands justice. Everyone has blessings and the potential for holiness. If you feel fortunate, seek purity of heart. Blessed professors should strive to be holy teachers, inspiring students with the beauty of their subject and helping them attain wisdom.

Those with vast estates can demonstrate holiness by sharing meals with the less fortunate. Those in positions of power can show compassion by considering the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Those blessed with extraordinary beauty can exhibit grace by humbly serving others, even in challenging or unpleasant circumstances.

Sanctify your talents by avoiding contempt and dishonesty in speech. Let success breed humility, and power fosters justice. We all possess blessings; let us use them to cultivate holiness.

They say precision is the privilege of kings. In that case, holiness is the privilege of selfless people. That is, those who are grateful and have hearts unblemished by pride, greed, glory, self-centeredness, self-importance, and mammon.

This week, I was profoundly moved by Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas’s statement. As the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, his office is situated near the children’s hospital recently bombed by Russian forces. The Archbishop remarked:

Faced with the suffering of the most vulnerable, we question how anyone can rationalize or justify war. It’s incomprehensible that some can maintain a clear conscience while continuing to defend such actions.

Speak with integrity; let your words reflect holiness.

Each of us has already met a person who was unsympathetic to him because he behaved condescendingly. We are more acutely aware of this, especially today when money is attributed with unlimited power, and we see how many people can bend their spines and bow down to the rich, not so much to them as to their money. No one likes a proud person. Therefore, through today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us instructions on how to act to please people, but especially God. He clearly says: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Perhaps his fellow diners were surprised why he did not praise the proud and arrogant. But Jesus knew why he was doing it because he was reaching for the root of pride, which is the devil. He was the devil who refused to serve because of his pride, which is why he was cast into hell. It was the devil who led the first people to sin through pride, and they wanted to be like God, thereby resisting his love. It is the devil who leads us to avarice, fornication, intemperance, envy, anger, laziness… We can boldly say that the cause of every sin is pride.

Pride takes many forms. One of them is false godliness. How is that possible, you ask? How can pride hide behind godliness? Someone will say to himself: I am chosen by God, and the rest of you are not even worthy of me establishing contact with you. How do we characterize this manifestation? It is pride, and it has its roots in Evil! And it is even worse if a group of people arises that claims God’s election, literally creates a sect, and asserts that their path to holiness is the most correct and best. But let’s not forget that anyone who thinks they are something more than others is already on the wrong path. Therefore, Jesus advises us to protect ourselves from superiority over others and from thinking that only through us does the Holy Spirit work.

However,in life, we ​​often encounter another kind of pride hidden behind career and money. Such people think that everything can be bought and that they can buy heaven after all with mammon. However, it is a big mistake! How far are they from fundamental values ​​and certainties? Christ told the rich young man that a camel would sooner go through the eye of a needle than a rich man would enter the kingdom of heaven. The danger of pride was beautifully described by our ancestors, who said: Pride breathes hell! Pride precedes a fall! And because pride pierces the conscience of many, this word has become very unpopular nowadays. It is replaced by other concepts, such as dignity, self-confidence, and pride, and is even approved as the behavior style of people of higher social status. But despite these cover names, pride remains one of the cardinal sins. Pride consists in overestimating one’s person and underestimating others. Such division creates a barrier between people and is a source of mistrust, insincerity, and often even anger and hatred.

Pride is fundamentally opposed to love, the fulfillment of the law. A proud person cannot truly love, as they are unable to lose their ‘I’ in service to others. They cannot appreciate the values ​​and spiritual beauty of their brothers, nor can they find the path to kindness and mercy. Most importantly, the proud cannot find their way to God. This spiritual loss is the most serious consequence of pride, underscoring the need for humility and the rejection of pride.

We suffer from this disease in different shades. But God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Are we so rich that we can afford to despise God’s gifts? Are we so wise that we can not listen to God’s word? Will our pride allow us to ask God to save us? We lose a lot through pride; we gain a lot through love and humility. If we think about this divine arithmetic, we will celebrate and realize the love that cleanses us from pride, drives us to meet our neighbors, and forces us to serve and not seek our satisfaction. A love that is kind, patient, and does not envy, a love that does not vainly shut down or puff up.

The young priest carefully prepared for each sermon. Even though he knew it by heart, he also took it to the pulpit in written form. He believed that the listeners liked his homilies. He was also confirmed in this by a lady who came after every mass to ask for a paper with a sermon. One Sunday, when he thought he had given perhaps his best sermon, the woman came again for the paper. He did not delay, and as he handed her the paper, somewhat out of vanity and perhaps also out of desire for praise, he asked what she would say about her. The woman looked at the paper and said: As always! This paper fits the bottom of my parrot cage perfectly. Those who want to be happy will take Jesus’ words to heart and protect themselves from pride, even if it is difficult! But let’s try to live so that others like us for our modesty and friendliness.

Today we will reflect together on this special title of Our Lady. I will not  deal with the history of the Carmelite Order, which is very interesting, but I want to reflect on Our Lady of Carmel. Carmel is a mountain that rises above the Mediterranean Sea and reaches a height of about 550 metres. It runs out into the sea through its foothills. In the imagination of the ancients, the sea symbolised evil. And it is precisely because of its projections into the sea that Carmel becomes a symbol of spiritual warfare.

On this mountain the zeal of the prophet Elijah was already manifested, who, in a time of general religious lukewarmness and apostasy from the true God, remained faithful and re-established and restored the true reverence for God. In this sense, this mountain is also a symbol of the Virgin Mary, of whom the Church Fathers say that she never knowingly or unknowingly had contact with an evil spirit and was full of the Holy Spirit. Because of the foreseen merits of her son, she was preserved from original sin and remained unbroken in her battle with evil, Immaculate.

Grace and beauty are related, and that is why Mary is beautiful, and that beauty we call holiness. In Latin we pray: “tota pulchra” – all beautiful. Because Mary is pardoned, she is also graceful, and that by the grace of virtues. Mary is beautiful and graceful because she has the fullness of God’s favor and God’s election. This grace, related to Mary’s holiness, has one characteristic that elevates her above the grace of all other people. The Latin Church expresses it by the title “Immaculata” (Immaculate), and the Orthodox Church by the title “Panhagia” (Whole Holy). Rather, we express the negative element of Mary’s holiness – that is, the absence of all sin, including original sin.

The Orthodox Church, by its title  to the Virgin Mary, expresses  that Mary possesses all the virtues and  beauty that emanate from them. The Fathers of the Eastern tradition glorify the Mother of God as untouched by any stain of sin, as modeled by the Holy Spirit and created as a new creature. By God’s grace, Mary remained untouched by any personal sin throughout her life. The very name Carmel means in translation – fertile field, fruitful garden, God’s garden. Our Lady is indeed the fertile field and garden of God, whose fruit is Jesus Himself, the incarnate Word of God. Her alone   brought such  perfect fruit of life and  the world.

The hill in most religions represents the place where earth joins heaven. Many nations have had their sacred mountains. The hills are a symbol of God’s power and permanence. All of this is encapsulated in the character of the Virgin Mary. Her love is a love that is faithful and constant, a motherly love that loves not because of what we will one day be and what we will achieve, but because of what we are, because we are her children. Mary is not an animal mother who gives birth only in a natural way. She is the Virgin and Mother. Virgin because she is radically consecrated to God and his service.

She becomes a mother by doing the will of the Heavenly Father. “For everyone who does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, sister and mother,” says Jesus. With this statement, He reveals the essence of the Divine Motherhood, which we are all to carry out by obedience to the Word of God. Carmel is also the place of God’s epiphany – God’s revelation. Mary, too, is the place of God’s epiphany, for in her the invisible Word became visible flesh. God took on our human nature in order to make Himself comprehensible and close to us.

Mary represents the true, unadulterated Israel. She is the one who wrestles with evil and wins. The mystery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel returns us once again to the foundation of that promise made to Adam and Eve, and later to Abraham and his offspring, of which she is the culmination. It is almost a rule that every Jew who finds his way to Christ will sooner or later also find his way to this blessed daughter of Zion. Our Lady still prays for the children of Abraham – and these are both Jews and Arabs – but she also prays for all the children of great-grandmother Eve. She is the Mother of us all, for through her we receive the New Life. Let us learn from her who is the fruitful garden of God, the beautiful garden of God.

She is the original paradise of God to which the serpent never had access, she is a truly blessed woman who, with her Carmelite title, also teaches us that we can only reach God at the cost of struggle and sacrifice. Just as every climb up a mountain involves some effort, so the journey to God costs sacrifice. Our time is losing its sense of sacrifice, and that is why we are so weak in the struggle against evil. We do not want to suffer for God, we are afraid of every pain and discomfort, and that is why we do not know how to be inwardly free like Our Lady. Let us ask Our Lady of Carmel today for the Spirit of zeal in God’s service. May we also be consumed with zeal for the house of God.

He who loves father, mother, son, daughter more than me is not worthy of me » Mt 10, 37.

And who can love God more than his wife or child? After all, God doesn’t smile, he doesn’t caress, he doesn’t give emotion, he doesn’t sleep… How can you love God when he is sexless and unattractive? Has God left man on earth a love confusing with passion and moods and calls for a love that no one has experienced? And will he say that we are not worthy of him if I don’t love him more? So I can say it straight: I am unworthy. We are unworthy in the brush, but not everyone can admit it. But without this truth about unworthiness, without this confession, I will never experience what John writes about, just so we don’t fear: love is from God (1 Jn 4, 7). Not of man. Love is from God. Mostly, or rarely, we are not faced with such a choice: daughter or God. Heaven does not threaten me with a raised index finger and does not shout at me: do not dare to love your daughter more than me! Everyday life does not offer us situations in which we would have to deny our child to prove to God that he is more critical. On the contrary, it allows us to love our child, our man, precisely because we love God.

Even they are sometimes unbearable, ungrateful, messy, and vindictive – daughters, sons, wives, or husbands – and that’s when my love for God is proven by forgiveness, reconciliation, patience, renunciation, or humiliation. He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:37). So, we understand that the child must not become my idol and an obstacle on the way to God. On the contrary, God wants to teach me to love that child even when he doesn’t deserve it… with the love that comes from God.

The price of the Holy Mass is infinite.

I recently learned about six holy masses celebrated for the dead, called clementines. Where can they be served? We receive the fruits of the Holy Mass all the more intensively; the more we protect ourselves from sin, the more we open our hearts to listening to God. 

Your question refers to the almost unknown custom of celebrating six masses as a sign of respect for Christ’s suffering, from his capture, condemnation, humiliation, and crucifixion to resurrection, which can be offered for the dead as well as for the living. This practice is based only on private revelations allegedly approved by Pope Clement XII and certainly does not belong to the Church’s official and guaranteed spiritual treasure. I would like to point out the essence of offering the holy Mass for the living or the dead before touching anyone who has heard of these masses or wishes to celebrate them.

ALWAYS AGAIN

The community of believers in Christ accepted his Easter gift of the Eucharistic sacrifice from the apostles and, from the beginning, perceived that by celebrating the Eucharist, they not only fulfill his command to “do this in remembrance of me” ( 1 Cor 11:24) but also participate in his sacrifice, which is always renewed, made present, and brought to God also as a sacrifice to the Church.

It includes all its members, both living and dead, and can also be offered as a Eucharistic sacrifice for specific believers.

Its value was known to Christians a long time ago, as beautifully expressed by St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, who told him before her death: “Bury my body anywhere, don’t worry about it.” I only ask you to remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be.”

INFINITE PRICE

The most important effect, sometimes called the “fruit” of every Holy Mass, is union with Christ. We can perceive this in two ways. On the part of the Lord Jesus, it is always about the infinite price of his passion, death, and resurrection and his complete desire to sanctify us humans.

We believe that we receive this fruit of the Holy Mass all the more intensely the more we protect ourselves from sin, open our hearts to listening to God, pray, live the Holy Mass with concentration, and long for Jesus. The most profound manifestation of this is receiving Holy Communion.

However, from our side, the ability to receive God’s blessing, the gospel of Jesus, and to experience faith is always limited because we are imperfect. From this follows the fact that although the price of the Holy Mass is infinite, we can offer it for the living and the dead many times, repeatedly.

GREGORIAN MASSES

In the case of the deceased, it is an ancient custom of the Church to celebrate Mass when the death is announced, on the day of the funeral, or various anniversaries. Of course, we can also mention the so-called Gregorian Holy Masses, part of the Church tradition.

However, the effect of the Holy Mass for the dead does not depend on where, when, or by whom the Mass is celebrated because its fruit results from the redemptive death of Jesus Christ.

From our side, the offering of the Holy Mass for the deceased is mainly a sacrifice, a prayer, and an expression of love, as expressed by Saint Ambrose when he said about the deceased: “We loved them during life, let us not leave them even in death until we lead them to the Lord’s house with our prayers.” “

SPIRITUALLY PREPARED

It is scarce if we not only “celebrate” the Holy Mass for our dead, but if possible, we also participate in it as a family and receive the Eucharist or, before that, the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

If Holy Mass is offered to us, let’s try to live it actively, religiously, with concentration, and do everything to be spiritually prepared to receive Holy Communion.

So we don’t have to worry about who and where will serve us, Clementine or Gregorian chants. Let’s focus on living the Holy Mass in faith as the most holy sacrifice of Christ and adding our sacrifice to it as a fervent prayer for our living and dead.

The priest of the Benedictine monastery in Fahr has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at the University of Fribourg. “The many reactions I have received show me that this is a great encouragement for many people in our church,” says Irene Gassmann. The honor came as a “complete surprise” to her.

Barbara Ludwig

You have been awarded an honorary doctorate. Did you expect it?Prioress Irene Gassmann: This honor came as a complete surprise to me. I had never thought of anything like this and am overwhelmed.

“This honour is also an honour for all my fellow sisters.”

What does the award mean to you personally?

Gassmann: This great honor touches and moves me deeply. It makes me grateful for my life, for the abilities I have been given, and for the opportunities that life has given me. This honour is also an honour for all my fellow sisters. Without my community, my life could not have unfolded as it has. I am grateful for all my companions with whom I can travel. Being on the journey together strengthens and encourages me.

Your assessment: What can the award achieve in the church?

Gassmann: The many responses I have received show me that this award from the University of Fribourg greatly encourages many people in our church, especially now in the synodal process. It is also a tribute to religious life – especially when many communities suffer from an aging population.

“All of this encourages me to continue to stand up for a credible church.”

The tribute summarises what I live every day as a Benedictine nun: “Innovation and renewal can grow from the deep layers of church tradition. It is a constant process of creative fidelity.” This encourages me to continue advocating for a credible church.

The interview was conducted in writing.Prioress Irene Gassmann spoke in March in the kath.ch podcast “Laut + Leis” about life in the convent and how she is committed to renewal and equality in the Roman Catholic Church despite resistance.

Jesus, our Lord, sends his followers like sheep among wolves and tells them: Be cautious as snakes and simple as doves… Even though Saint Francis de Sales claims that he would not give one dove for a hundred snakes, that is, one simplicity for a hundred cautions, he still admits that he likes to obey the Lord when he tells him to love and be careful. And so it is all right… It is worth noting that the Lord recommends first the serpent, then the dove. First, caution, then simplicity. And by this, he seems to be telling us: Be careful not to fall into the clutches of human beasts and predators, but if this happens to you, remain uncomplicated. Both are necessary, but this order must be maintained out of obedience to my word.

But what is the serpent’s wisdom to be seen? The wagon walls of King Saul and the military camps of the Czech “Warriors of God” give us the answer to this question… The head is in the middle, covered by the body and the tail, without which it is possible to live and defend only at the end. From the beginning, Jesus Christ formed a community of his followers, which had a head – Peter, protected by the most trusted and surrounded by the most informed for the good of the whole. The snake, as a symbol of prudence, sacrifices everything and exposes the whole body to wounds to protect the head, which is attacked in the Lord’s Church not only with a deadly weapon but also with moral beatings with the help of pamphlets, slander, and slander…

In addition, it can be harmed from within through disobedience of the body, overloading with unnecessary worries, or inaccurate or even distorted information. We are wise when we act like snakes that always defend their heads. And we are simple when some of us, despite caution, are caught and brought before rulers, where we are not to worry about what we will say but leave this concern in the simplicity of a dove to the Holy Spirit.

Holiday: July 11

* about 480 Nursia, today Norcia, Umbria, Italy

† March 21, 547 (or 560 ?) Montecassino monastery, Italy

The meaning of the name is the one who blesses and wishes well (lat.)

Attributes: cup, pastoral (bishop’s staff), raven

Patron of Europe, monks, speleologists, architects, engineers

Saint Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism and the foremost patron saint of Europe, was born in Nursia (now Norcia in Umbria, Italy) around 480 in a noble family. However, only a few historical documents regarding his person have been preserved. He was sent to Rome to study. The main subject of his studies was rhetoric – the art of persuasion through the spoken word. The successful speaker could have had better arguments or expressed the truth but used rhythm, eloquence, and technique to persuade without involving the heart. This philosophy was also reflected in the students’ lives.

Seeing the moral and intellectual decay, he fled from his studies in Rome with the thought of a monastic life. He renounced his inheritance and began to live in the small village of Subiaco in the Sabine mountains. There, he lived as a hermit under the leadership of another hermit named Romanus. In the following years, he founded twelve monasteries in the Sabine Mountains, where the monks lived in separate communities of twelve monks, each according to the number of apostles. Later, however, he suddenly left these monasteries when the envious attacks of another hermit prevented him from continuing the spiritual leadership of these monks. Subsequently, he became superior to the nearby monastery in Vicocaro, where – when part of the community rebelled against him and even wanted to poison him – he left with a group of faithful disciples to find his monastery. After many difficulties, he settled in Monte Cassino, which was dedicated to him by the Roman rich man Terculius, the father of St. Placid. Benedict, Placidus, and others, in 529, began the construction of a massive monastery. The building was already completed in 532, and in 536, the monastery became a refuge for monks and the surrounding people during the war. At that time, the Ostrogothic king Totila was preparing for an expedition against Rome. In 542, Totilo visited Benedict on Monte Cassino. As a follower of the Arians, he was deeply moved by the meeting with the founder of the Benedictine order. Benedikt predicts his future fate – r. In 546, he conquered Rome, in 549, then Sicily; in 552, he was defeated by the Byzantine duke Narzes and died.

Regula Benedicti, which he wrote shortly before his death, was the fruit of his lifelong search. It draws a lot from the results of the monastic movement of that time, from the rules and principles that were already created then. He skillfully composes and modifies them to correspond to his vision of man and the path by which he comes to the depth of knowledge of God and spiritual love. It was a view – as it turned out – far beyond the time frame in which Benedict lived. The rule became the cornerstone of the European monastic tradition.

Instead of establishing small, separate communities, he gathered his followers into a large community. His own sister st-Scholastica, settled nearby and lived her religious life here. After almost 1,500 years of monastic tradition, it seems obvious to us that Benedict was an innovator in his time. No one else before him had attempted to create such communities and to create some rules for them. What is now only a part of history for us was then a bold and risky step into the future.

Benedict valued ancient literature and had it described in his monastery, thus laying the foundations for developing post-antique literature in Europe.

In the time of St. Benedict, monastic life was already extended to the entire eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, especially Egypt and Syria. It was characterized by a multifaceted departure from civilization – to the desert, to uninhabited territories, unencumbered by complicated administrative management. The monks here had great freedom, their organization, and at the same time, the choice of various forms of life – from giant monasteries (e.g., the community of five thousand St. Pachomius) to the respectable performances of individual ascetics. Precisely at the border of civilization, when antiquity was already formally Christian but constantly carried in its bosom much of the ancient pagan nature, its way of life became a suitable ground for the fiery zeal of the early Church, in which it found ideal conditions for its spiritual development. At that time, almost all prominent figures of the Church and theologians went through the monastic life. In the West during this period, the situation was completely different – it was necessary to consider the presence of warlike tribes. Building a monastery in these conditions was a significant risk.

The regulation was not a collection of legal tricks or principles for life. With its excellent internal organization, it opened space for the presence of the mystery of Christ both in man and in the community through the performance of the Office (Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours), work and personal study of the Holy Scriptures (Lectio Divina). Organized this way, the monastery did not become a closed, elitist world. As it were, it became a miniature of the Church, which for the first Christians was not only a community of the baptized but, above all, a solid school of initiation under the guidance of the Supreme Shepherd himself. Sv. Benedict reserved the name School of the Lord’s Service for the monastery, in which he lays down the individual elements so that the monk, adhering firmly to them, gets to know himself and develops the graces and gifts acquired in baptism. He should find Christ’s presence in the community more and more deeply and consciously participate in His paschal mystery, made present in the sacraments and the liturgy. Loyalty to the Rule thus inevitably leads to an encounter in truth with Christ, as the Master is the King and the only High Priest.

A monk’s primary task has always been – as Regula says – the search for God and unity with him. This individual dimension of opening to grace and obedience to God’s will was transformed by God himself into a larger dimension, into the history of the Church, culture, and civilization. Therefore, every true monk was always a person of the Church in the complete sense of the word, even when he lived alone, as a hermit (hermit). The Benedictine monastery realized life in community (cenobitic), forming at the same time also those who wished to go to the hermitage when they were mature enough to combat evil even alone. A universal way of monastic life emerged in which people of different temperaments and life stories could be found. This miniature nature of the Church determined the special relationship between the monastery and the world. The community of monks was not directed to the outside, to various initiatives in the Church, or the world, but to the inside, in such a way as to reveal the very supernatural nature of the Church in the given common and historical conditions. In this way, it wants to be its visible sign and help people immersed in the reality of the present time. The task of the monks of St. So Benedict became, so to speak – not entering the world but living in a monastery so that the world could come to it to meet the Benedictine community and, in this way, find the ways of God for themselves.

All the initiatives, including pastoral ones, that the Benedictine monasteries undertook were always subordinated to this style and thinking in their actions.

There were at least 30 different rules in the 5th-7th centuries, but the Benedictine rule still needs to be achieved more successfully. Unlike most, it was not just a calculation of individual regulations, prohibitions, and punishments. Its advantage was systematicity, thanks to which it became a practical guide for organizing and managing all areas of monastic life, and a balance between strictness and moderation, the authority of the abbot and respect for the peculiarities of individual monks, pious acts and spiritual and physical activity.

Abandoning worldly society, choosing individual asceticism and obedience, and searching for God in prayer and meditation were essential prerequisites of the monastic life, which in St. Benedict by the School of the Lord’s Service (schola Domini servitii). The fundamental pillars of Benedictine monasticism were daily glorification of God (opus Dei), vows of obedience (oboedientia), change of morals (conversatio morum), poverty (paupertas sancta), binding stay in the monastery until death (stabilitas loci).

In these small but mighty rules, Benedict incorporated everything he had learned about the power of spoken language and the rhythm of speaking in the ministry of the Gospel. He compared rhetoric to a hammer that can be used to build a house but can also be used to hit someone over the head. Rhetoric can also be used for the sake of evil… but also for the sake of God. Benedict did not avoid rhetoric because it helps evil; he wanted to reform it and use it in the interest of God. Benedict did not want to give up the power of the word just because others used it for their destruction.

Benedict realized that God’s word is the most robust and factual basis for the power of words: Which words from the Bible are not perfect rules for contemporary life? He had experience with the power of God’s word expressed in the Scriptures: Just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return until they have watered the earth to make it fertile and able to bear fruit so that the world will yield to the one who sows so that it will yield bread to him that needs to eat, so is it with my word that proceeds from my mouth; He does not return to me empty, but accomplishes my will, accomplishing what I sent him to do (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Benedict chose Psalms, the most beautiful songs of the Jewish liturgy, for his prayer, which Jesus himself prayed. Benedict believed with Jesus that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.” (Matthew 4:4)

But just speaking words is not enough. Benedict urged his followers to read sacred texts to study the Scriptures. In his Lectio Divina, he and his monks memorized Scripture, studied it, and contemplated it until it became part of their being. They sat beside each other for four to six hours daily and read like this. If the monks had free time, the brothers had to read psalms. They had to know parts of the Scriptures by heart. Such sacred reading was meant to study love, not reason. It was not just an exercise of the mind; it was an exercise of contemplation so that “our hearts and voices harmonize.” Every word that has entered their mind, heart, and soul must then spring forth, not from memory, but from the interior of the being. “We realize that we will be heard for our pure and contrite heart, not for the number of words spoken.” The heart is pure when it is empty and filled only by God’s word and our desire to remain in God’s word.

Lectio Divina begins by reading the Scriptures until we find a place that inspires us and stops. We reread it, think about what it might mean, and then move on. But this is not sacred reading. His method is memorizing a specific phrase from Scripture. Repetition over and over memorizes without further reading, without thinking, just simple repetition, until it seems to come not from the mind but directly from the heart until the power of God’s word enters us. Only when the phrase has lost all meaning and only that power remains does a person shut up, remain silent without thinking, and let himself be inspired by the Holy Spirit, who will speak to us about the meaning in our hearts. And finally, one should plunge into contemplation, continue without speaking, without thinking, just sitting in the presence of the living God and God’s word.

An incident from Benedict’s life has been preserved, such as when a beggar came to the monastery and asked for some oil. The administrator refused because they had little left. Nothing would have been acceptable for the monastery if he had given these alms. Benedict was angry at the administrator’s lack of trust in God. He knelt and prayed. As he prayed, a bubbling sound came from the oil jar. The monks watched in fascination as God filled the vessel, and the oil overflowed, broke the lid, and poured onto the ground. In Benedictine prayer, our hearts are empty vessels in which there are no thoughts or intellectual struggles. Trust in God is the only thing that remains there and fills our hearts. Emptying our hearts brings us the overflowing contemplative love of our God.

Benedict founded Western European monastery-type monasticism (monasticism), which prevailed over its older hermit form. In 543, St. died. Scholasticism. Six days before his death, he had a prepared grave opened next to his sister, and on March 21, 547, at 9 a.m., he died standing in prayer before God.