Community

Rule of Saint Benedict

We are cenobites, “that most vigorous kind of monk.” (RB 1.13) As a community, we live under the Rule of Saint Benedict and an abbot, with the Gospel as our ultimate guide for life. Saint Benedict wrote his rule for monasteries 1,500 years ago to provide a common instruction for religious life. The Rule of Saint Benedict guides the lives of monks: teaching stability of self and community, setting a model of holy life, and serving as a tool for spiritual growth.

Monastic Community’s Service

As monks, we are committed to serving each other in a caring way. We do this by serving meals, reading in the dining room and at liturgies, being soloists and prayer leaders for our prayer together, visiting our sick or aging confreres, growing fresh vegetables and herbal spices in the garden, taking confreres to medical appointments, helping confreres to sing and read better, and delivering the newspapers throughout the monastery. In other words, we do for each other those things, big and small, that are needed to make a monastery work.

Community Life

Saint Benedict was a master community builder. The Rule specifies that monks need to come together each day to eat and are served by each other. Even though Benedict does not specify recreation, monks have learned that sharing leisure moments in such activities as playing cards, board games, reading, walking in the beauty of the campus, conversing and sharing refreshments, and simply enjoying each other’s company, all of these help us get to know each other as real people.

As monks, we balance silence with social interaction. We build silence into our prayer and into walking between church and the dining room. We realize that each one of us needs reflective, quiet time, when there is no expectation of having to converse.

Daily Schedule

Without being too granular, let us try to describe the daily routine for fully active monks. Many monks rise between 5:00 and 6:00 am, allowing enough time for a shower, some coffee, and lectio divina. At 7:00 am, we have Morning Prayer, which lasts 30 minutes. Some monks eat breakfast before prayer; many do so after. There is silence in the dining room until 8:00 am. And then it is time for work, whatever that is, be it in the classroom, in an office, in the garden, or in the shops. This work will last until 11:50 am or so, and then we will come together for a fifteen-minute midday prayer at 12:00 pm. Following this, we have lunch - it is our most social meal, with buffet service and conversation.

From 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, there is another work period, and many monks will build in a 30-minute time for physical exercise. If monks are studying, the periods identified for work will allow for classes and the necessary reading, study, and writing.

At 5:00, we have daily Eucharist, followed by 20 minutes for prayer, reading, or other activity, before the Evening Meal at 6:00 pm. Typically, this meal is in silence for the first 15 minutes, with table reading. A prayer closes it, and we have time for conversation. From about 6:30 pm, we have Community Recreation, which can be walking outside when it’s warm, playing cards, catching up on the newspaper, or having a conversation. At 7:00 pm, there is Evening Prayer, which is followed by study, exercise, and perhaps recreation, depending on the day.

Most monks will bring the day to a graceful close somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 pm.