The Rule of Benedict

by Benedict of Nursia

  3

  Summoning the brothers for consultation

  Whenever any important matters need to be dealt with in the monastery, the abbot should gather the whole community together and set out the agenda in person. When he has listened to the brothers’ advice, he should consider it carefully and then do what he decides is best. We have said that everybody should be summoned to take part in the discussion because the Lord often reveals the better course to a younger person. Let the brothers offer their advice with all deference and humility and not venture to defend their own views obstinately. It is up to the abbot to decide what he thinks is the best course, and then the others must accept this. Nevertheless, just as it is proper for disciples to obey their master, so it is right that he should arrange everything wisely and justly.

  Everyone should take the rule as his guide in all circumstances; no one must deviate from it rashly. Let no one in the monastery follow the wishes of his own heart or venture to dispute with the abbot defiantly or outside the monastery in public. If anyone does, he should be subjected to the discipline of the rule. However, the abbot himself must be guided by fear of God and observe the rule in all his actions, aware that he will certainly have to give an account to God, the most just judge, regarding each decision he makes.

  If matters of lesser importance need to be dealt with for the good of the monastery, the abbot need only consult the older brothers, in accordance with the words of Scripture: ‘Do everything with counsel and when it is done you will not regret it’ (Sir. 32:24).

  4

  The tools for good works

  First of all, ‘love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength’, then ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matt. 22:37, 39; Mark 12:30–31; Luke 10:27).

  ‘Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal or covet, do not give false evidence about each other’ (Rom. 13:9). ‘Honour all men’ (1 Pet. 2:17) and ‘do not do to someone else what you do not want done to you’ (Tob. 4:15). ‘Deny yourself so as to follow Christ’ (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23), ‘discipline the body’ (1 Cor. 9:27) and do not be self-indulgent; put a high value on fasting. Relieve the poor, clothe those who are in need of clothing, visit the sick and bury the dead; help those in trouble and console those who grieve. Do not be guided in your actions by the values of this world, and do not value anything more highly than the love of Christ.

  Do not act in anger or harbour a grudge. Do not allow deceit to lurk in your heart, and do not make peace if it is not genuine. Do not abandon love. Do not swear, in case you perjure yourself. Speak the truth from heart and mouth. ‘Do not repay one wrong with another’ (1 Thess. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9). Do not do wrong to anyone but bear patiently any wrongs done to you. ‘Love your enemies’ (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27). Do not repay insults with insults but rather with kind words. Endure persecution for the sake of justice (Matt. 5:10). ‘Do not be arrogant or drunken’ (Titus 1:7) or greedy. Do not be lazy or a grumbler. Do not cast aspersions on others. Put your hope in God. If you notice anything good in yourself, give the credit to God, not to yourself. Be aware that the wrongs you commit are always your own and admit to them.

  Fear the Day of Judgement and be terrified of hell. Long for eternal life with all your spiritual desire. Each day remind yourself of your mortality. Keep a watch on the actions of your life at all times. Be aware that God can certainly see you wherever you are. As soon as wicked thoughts spring into your heart, dash them against Christ. Guard your mouth from all wicked or warped words. Do not take pleasure in talking a lot. Do not say foolish things or things that are intended to cause laughter. Do not take pleasure in excessive or unrestrained laughter. Enjoy listening to holy readings. Pray frequently. Confess your past sins to God each day in prayer with tears and sighs. Correct your faults for the future. ‘Do not indulge the desires of the flesh’ (Gal. 5:16). Hate your own will. Obey the abbot’s commands in all circumstances, even if he (which God forbid) does not act in accordance with them. Remember the Lord’s words, ‘Do what they say and not what they do’ (Matt. 23:3). Do not strive to be referred to as holy before you are so: be holy first, so that you may more accurately be referred to as holy.

  Carry out God’s commandments in what you do every day. Embrace chastity. Hate no one. Do not be jealous or give in to feelings of envy. Do not take pleasure in disputes. Avoid pride, respect your elders and care for those younger than yourself. Pray for your enemies in the love of Christ. Before the day’s end be reconciled with anyone with whom you have a disagreement. Never despair of God’s mercy.

  These, then, are the tools of the spiritual craft. If we use them without ceasing, day and night, and if we return them on the Day of Judgement, the Lord will reward us as he himself has promised: ‘what the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor. 2:9). The workshop where we diligently work at all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery, in the stability of the community.

  5

  Obedience

  The first step towards humility is unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to all who hold Christ dearer than anything else. As soon as the superior gives an order, they carry it out as promptly as if the order came from God, either because of the holy service they have promised to perform, or because they are afraid of hell, or for the sake of the glory of eternal life. The Lord says of such people, ‘He obeyed me as soon as he heard me’ (Ps. 18:44). And again he says to the teachers, ‘Anyone who listens to you listens to me’ (Luke 10:16). Such people immediately abandon their own concerns and give up their own will. They stop what they are doing, leaving it unfinished; with obedient steps they turn words into deeds, following the voice of the one who gives the order. The master’s order and the disciple’s perfect fulfilment of it occur more or less simultaneously. Those who are motivated by a desire to progress towards eternal life carry out both promptly, in the fear of the Lord. They hasten along the narrow way, according to the Lord’s words, ‘Narrow is the way that leads to life’ (Matt. 7:14). They do not live according to their own wishes or indulge their own desires and pleasures, but progress according to someone else’s judgement and orders, living in monasteries and choosing to have an abbot in charge of them. Such people undoubtedly conform to the saying of the Lord where he says, ‘I have not come to do my own will but that of him who sent me’ (John 6:38).

  But this very obedience will be acceptable to God and pleasing to men only if the order given is carried out without hesitation, without delay, without apathy, without complaint and without any answering back from the one who is unwilling. The obedience offered to the superiors is in fact shown to God, for he himself said, ‘Anyone who listens to you listens to me’ (Luke 10:16). The disciples ought to offer it with a good will because ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ (2 Cor. 9:7). For if the disciple obeys with resentment and grumbles not just with his lips but also in his heart, even if he carries out the order, it will still not be acceptable to God who sees that his heart is complaining. As a result he will receive no reward – in fact unless he changes for the better, he will incur the penalty due to those who grumble.

  6

  Restraint of speech

  Let us do as the prophet says: ‘I said, I will keep a watch over my ways so that I do not offend with my tongue; I have put a guard on my mouth … I have kept silent and I was humbled and I refrained from speaking good things’ (Ps. 39:1–2). Here the prophet shows that if it is occasionally right to refrain from saying good things because one values silence, there is all the more reason to refrain from saying bad things because sin will be punished. In fact silence is so important that permission to speak should rarely be granted even to disciples who have made much spiritual progress, however good and holy and constructive their words might be. For it says in Scripture, ‘You will not escape sin if you talk too much’ (Prov. 10:19), and in another passage, ‘The tongue has power over life and death’ (Prov. 18:21). It is right that the master should speak and
teach while the disciple should be silent and listen.

  And so, if something needs to be requested from a superior, the request should be made with all humility and submissive respect. We condemn jokes and idle gossip and anything said to make others laugh, and we ban such things from all places: the disciple is not allowed to open his mouth to say things of this kind.

  7

  Humility

  Holy Scripture calls to us, brothers, saying, ‘Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted’ (Luke 14:11). It thereby shows us that all exaltation is a form of pride, and the prophet indicates that he takes care to avoid this when he says, ‘Lord, my heart is not exalted and my eyes are not raised up. I have not walked among the great nor sought after wonderful things beyond my reach.’ But why? ‘If I did not have a humble spirit or if I exalted my soul, then you would punish my soul like a baby weaned from its mother’ (Ps. 131:1, 2).

  And so, my brothers, if we wish to reach the highest peak of humility and if we wish to attain quickly that heavenly exaltation towards which we climb by means of the humility of this life, we must set up for our ascent the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream, on which the angels appeared to him, descending and ascending. For we should surely interpret their descent and ascent as referring to the descent we make by self-exaltation and the ascent by humility. That ladder is our life in this world which God raises to heaven if we are humble in heart. Our body and soul form the sides of this ladder into which the divine calling has fixed the different rungs of humility and discipline which we have to climb.

  The first step towards humility is to keep the fear of God in mind at all times. There must be absolutely no room for forgetfulness, and one must always remember everything that God has commanded. Do not forget that those who are scornful of God will burn in hell for their sins. Keep in mind the eternal life that God has prepared for those who fear him. Guard yourself at all times from sins and vices, whether of thought or speech or hands or feet or of self-will, as well as of desire of the body. Remember that God is watching you from heaven at every moment, and that wherever you are your actions can be seen by the Divine Being and are being reported by the angels at all times. The prophet teaches us this when he shows that God is always present in our thoughts, ‘God searches the mind and tests the heart’ (Ps. 7:9), he says, and similarly, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of men’ (Ps. 94:11). He also says, ‘You have understood my thoughts from afar’ (Ps. 139:2), and ‘A man’s thought will confess to you.’ To guard against bad thoughts, the good brother should constantly repeat in his heart, ‘If I keep myself from wickedness, then I will be perfect in his sight’ (Ps. 18:23).

  We are forbidden to do our own will, for Scripture says to us, ‘Turn away from your own will’ (Sir. 18:30). Similarly in the Lord’s Prayer we ask God that his will be done in us (Matt. 6:10). It is right that we are taught not to do our own will since we are afraid of that saying of Scripture, ‘There are ways that seem straight to men but which lead down to the depths of hell’ (Prov. 16:25), and we also tremble at what is said of those who fail to take notice, ‘They are corrupt and have become abominable in their pleasures’ (Ps. 14:1).

  As to desire of the body we must believe that God is always present to us, since the prophet says to the Lord, ‘Every desire of mine is before your eyes’ (Ps. 38:9). One must, therefore, beware of evil desire because death lies in wait at the gateway to pleasure. And so Scripture gives us the following command, ‘Do not pursue your lusts’ (Sir. 18:30). And so, if ‘the eyes of the Lord watch over both good and bad’ (Prov. 15:3), and the Lord always ‘looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands and seeks God’ (Ps. 14:2), and if the results of our actions are reported to the Lord, throughout the day and night, by angels assigned to us, we must be careful at all times, my brothers, that God does not see us at any time turning towards wrongdoing and becoming worthless, in the words of the prophet in the psalm (Ps. 14:3). He might spare us for the moment because he is loving and waits for us to turn to the better, but he will say to us in the future, ‘You did this and I was silent’ (Ps. 50:21).

  The second step towards humility is not to love your own will and not to take pleasure in satisfying your own desires. Instead, imitate in your actions the voice of the Lord when he says, ‘I have not come to do my will but that of the one who sent me’ (John 6:38). And again Scripture says, ‘Self-indulgence has its own punishment and necessity wins the prize.’

  The third step towards humility is to submit to your superior with complete obedience out of love for God, imitating the Lord of whom the Apostle says, ‘He was made obedient even to the point of death’ (Phil. 2:8).

  The fourth step towards humility is to cling to patience with equanimity, practising obedience when you encounter painful and difficult experiences and even unjust treatment. You should endure all this without growing angry or running away, for Scripture says, ‘He who stands firm right until the end will be saved’ (Matt. 10:22), and similarly, ‘Let your heart be comforted and wait for the Lord’ (Ps. 27:14). To indicate that the person who is faithful ought to endure all things, however difficult, for the Lord’s sake, Scripture says in the person of those who suffer, ‘For your sake we face death all day. We are regarded as lambs for the slaughter’ (Rom. 8:36). Confident in their hope of divine reward, they go forward with joy, saying, ‘But in all these things we are victorious because of him who loved us’ (Rom. 8:37). Similarly in another passage of Scripture, ‘You have tested us, Lord; you have tried us in the fire; you have led us into a snare; you have laid troubles on our back’ (Ps. 66:10–11). And to show that we ought to live under the guidance of a prior, it goes on to say, ‘You have set men over our heads’ (Ps. 66:12). Carrying out the Lord’s commands in adversity and persecution, when struck on one cheek they offer the other, when someone takes their tunic they offer their cloak as well, when forced to walk a mile, they walk two, and they join the Apostle Paul in ‘putting up with false brothers’ (2 Cor. 11:26) and ‘blessing those who curse them’ (1 Cor. 4:12).

  The fifth step towards humility is to confess humbly to the abbot all the wicked thoughts that spring to mind and anything you have secretly done wrong, as Scripture encourages us to do when it says, ‘Reveal to the Lord your path and put your hope in him’ (Ps. 37:5). Similarly it says, ‘Confess to the Lord for he is good and his mercy lasts forever’ (Ps. 106:1). As the prophet says, ‘I have revealed to you my faults and I have not concealed the unjust things I have done. I said, I will accuse myself of my wrongs to the Lord and you forgave the wickedness of my heart’ (Ps. 32:5).

  The sixth step towards humility is for the monk to be content with the lowest position and most menial treatment, and to consider himself incompetent and worthless with regard to everything he is told to do, saying to himself in the words of the prophet, ‘I have been reduced to nothing and I know nothing. I am regarded as a beast of burden in your eyes; yet I am always with you’ (Ps. 73:22–3).

  The seventh step towards humility is for him not only to claim that he is beneath everyone else and worse than them, but also to be convinced of this deep in his heart, humbling himself and saying with the prophet, ‘I am a worm and not a man, hated by others and a laughing-stock to the people’ (Ps. 22:6). ‘I have been raised up and then humiliated and thrown into confusion’ (Ps. 88:15), and also ‘It is good for me that you have humiliated me so that I might learn your commandments’ (Ps. 119:71).

  The eighth step towards humility is for the monk to do only what is commended by the common rule of the monastery and the example of his superiors.

  The ninth step towards humility is for the monk to keep his tongue in check and to refrain from speaking. He should only speak when questioned, as Scripture demonstrates for ‘you will not escape sin if you talk too much’ (Prov. 10:19) and ‘a talkative man loses his way on earth’ (Ps. 140:11).

  The tenth step towards humility is to avoid being easily provoked to laughter
, for it says in Scripture that ‘the person who raises his voice in laughter is a fool’ (Sir. 21:20).

  The eleventh step towards humility is for the monk to speak gently and without laughter, but with humility and seriousness, saying only a few, reasonable words, and not speaking in a loud voice, for as it is written, ‘The wise man is recognized by his few words.’

  The twelfth step towards humility is for the monk always to display humility, both in his attitude and his behaviour, to those who see him. In other words, in the work of God, in the oratory, in the monastery, in the garden, on the road, in the fields, or anywhere else, whether sitting, walking or standing, he should always have his head bent, his eyes fixed on the ground, regarding himself at all times as guilty of his sins, and imagining that he is already appearing before the dread judgement. He should constantly repeat to himself in his heart the words of the publican in the Gospels who said, with his eyes fixed on the ground, ‘Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to raise my eyes to heaven’ (Luke 18:13), and also the words of the prophet, ‘I am bowed down and utterly humiliated’ (Ps. 38:6).

  When the monk has climbed up all these steps of humility, he will reach ‘the perfect love of God which casts out all fear’ (1 John 4:18). As a result, all the things he did out of fear he will begin to perform without effort, out of habit and naturally, no longer out of the fear of hell but as a good habit out of the love of Christ and delight in virtue. The Lord in his kindness will by the Holy Spirit give evidence of this in his workman, now cleansed from vices and sins.

  8

  The divine office at night

  In winter, in other words from the first of November until Easter, it seems reasonable for the monks to rise at the eighth hour of the night so that they may rest until a little after midnight and rise with their food fully digested. In the time remaining after the night office, those brothers who need to should study the psalms and lessons. From Easter to November, the hour of rising should be set in such a way that there is only a very short interval after the night office, when the brothers can go out to deal with nature’s needs; this will be followed at once by Lauds which should be said at daybreak.