Can the pursuit of a spiritual path lead to the very egocentricity it is trying to escape? Not infrequently. The Desert monks were acutely aware of this danger especially in solitude and relied above all upon the abba-disciple relationship to avoid it. It was however Benedict of Nursia (480-550) who devised a masterly, sapiential formula […]
To Love and to Serve
In the early 5th century Cassian brought the teachings of the Desert to the western church, through establishing the twin monastic foundations (for men and women) at Marseilles and, above all, through his great work: the Conferences of the Fathers. In the 9th and 10th Conferences of Cassian ‘On Prayer’, John Main found a Christian […]
On the Spirit of Silence (RB 6)
Commentary on Chapter 6 of the Rule of Benedict Silence here is considered not only as rules about when to speak but the reason, and meaning of the ‘spirit’ of silence. Benedict is a practical not an abstract theologian. ‘The one who prays is a theologian and a theologian is one who prays’, said Evagrius. […]
Poverty and Simplicity
The Piazza dell’Independenza in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, stands out strikingly from most of the city as a well-manicured beauty spot. Tourism always presents the most orderly face of a country and then cosmeticises its flaws and self-contradictions with interesting facts and statistics. It is like the Epcot world in Florida where the pavilion on […]
Four Principles or Attitudes
St Benedict was a Roman. Like any good Roman he had a flair for organization, a concern for order, a respect for authority. Monastic life for him was to be structured; it was to follow a rule and a hierarchical chain of command. He was founding his monasteries at the time the Roman Empire was […]