A Four-Week Online Course

St. Benedict wrote his rule for monastic communities at a critical time in history—just as the Roman empire was collapsing and the Church was beginning to enter what would come to be known as “The Dark Ages.” Benedict intuited that the Church would need communities of men (and later also women) who were dedicated to providing a haven for pilgrims and a training ground for religious life in a post-Rome world.

His Rule has withstood the test of time, as countless communities continue to use it today as the basis of how they are governed. The Rule can also offer insights for those of us who feel drawn to its themes but are not called to the monastic life, “everyday folk,” in other words.

This online course will explore four main themes in St. Benedict’s Rule that can help us in our daily living and spiritual life. These are:

• Prayer
• Work
• Obedience
• Community

Each of these themes will be explored both in theory and in practice throughout our time together. Prior familiarity with the Rule of St. Benedict is not required, but those who wish may want to purchase RB1980, The Rule of St. Benedict in English by Timothy Fry, as this will be the text of the Rule that will be referenced throughout these sessions. 

This course will be useful to anyone who is interested in a brief introduction to the Rule of St. Benedict, to those who are looking for a way to live in this hectic modern world, to those who seek ancient wisdom for life, and any combination of the above! There will be short readings from the Rule each week, and a few questions to ponder, and most of the course time will be spent in conversation with St. Benedict’s work, bringing our modern questions to his ancient text. Join us on this journey into a more disciplined—and freeing—way of life! 

May 1: Prayer  

The life of a monastic is ordered around prayer, specifically praying the “liturgy of the hours,” which is a cycle of praying the Psalms, along with other biblical passages and intercessions for the world. During this session, we will explore how regular prayer, especially in community, can enrich our spiritual lives.  

May 8: Work 

Early monks worked hard in order to survive—cooking, cleaning, taking care of guests, feeding and caring for livestock, and working the farm fields. Today’s work-a-day world looks very different for many of us, yet our work is just as important as the work of our ancestors in the faith. How can we value work in new ways that honor the contributions of each person and provide dignity and honor to the work that we all do?  

May 15: Obedience 

Obedience is a scary word to many of us, evoking scenes of “toeing the line” and “shaping up” to meet the expectations of authority figures. While St. Benedict was definitely an authority figure for his monks, he wrote about obedience as a mutual way of life—as applicable to the monastic leader as to those under her or his guidance and command. Obedience is about listening carefully to others, and ourselves, in order to do what is best in every situation, which is to love others as we love ourselves.  

May 22: Community 

Monks live in the community of the monastery or the abbey—chosen families that live day in and day out, much like the families many of us grew up in and may live in now. Community and family also come with conflict, stress, and the inevitability of hurt feelings. We’ll look at how the Rule of St. Benedict provided for all the ups and downs of communal life, and what that might look like for each of us in our own unique communal environments.