We live in a world where we can access as much information as possible, get answers at Alexa’s command, and connect with others across the globe instantly. We can have almost anything appear on our doorstep at the press of a button. Yet with such immediate access, do we feel accomplished and fulfilled?
Pope Leo XIV answers that question. In his recent and first encyclical, he said, “When efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimized rather than as persons called to relationship and communion” (Magnifica Humanitas 112). How can we optimize our lived experience through relationship and communion?
Benedictines may hold the answer to meaningful relationships and communion.
Benedictines are named after St. Benedict of Nursia, born around the year 480. He lived in a world crumbling into disunity. Rome was sacked for the second time in 455, and the last Roman emperor was deposed in 476. He witnessed the demise of the social and economic structures of the Roman Empire. He retreated from a deteriorating world to find God in the cave, and his Rule, shaped by his lived experience, became the guiding ethos of Western Monasticism. That Rule remains relevant today, teaching us to listen intently, to practice the liturgy of work, and to be silent together.
The Art of True Listening
“Listen” is the first word in the Rule of St. Benedict. If we seek a worthwhile life, we must listen intently to a God who loves us. That special type of listening is called listening with the ears of the heart.
Benedict gives many examples of how to listen with the ears of the heart. One masterful way he does this is by saying that senior members of the community should listen to what the young members have to offer: “the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger” (RB 3.3). Though a terribly new idea in his time, it shows Benedict’s desire to foster mutual listening, no matter your position in the community.
This dialogue is important today. We have to make room in our lives, not for efficiency, but for communion. Take time to sit down with someone, let them tell you their story, and listen to understand. Not every meet-up needs to be processed information or a sales pitch, but moments that move our hearts for the other. Pope Leo XIV calls this “wasting time” together. He says:
Indeed, dialogue is an ordinary part of human life…It involves acquiring an attitude that seeks to forge bonds of fraternity built on listening, an open demeanor, making time for each other and even wasting time together. For if we experience authentic encounters with others, with those who are different, strangers and migrants, it becomes much more difficult even to imagine war. (Magnifica Humanitas 220)
Work in its Right Place: The Liturgy of Work
Along with listening with the ears of the heart, Benedict reminds us of the value of work.
If there is a mystique about the Benedictines, it is their idea of stability. They stay in one place for their entire lives. Unlike the Franciscans, Dominicans, or the Society of Jesus, Benedictines are not sent all over the world with a particular mission. They have only one mission, in one place, so their lives take deep root there.
What is their one mission? Work and prayer, or as I like to put it: the Liturgy of Work. The Benedictines exist to praise God five times a day in their monastic choir stall. They do this together. From that place of prayer, they move toward work in a structured time governed by a spiritual communal heartbeat that never fades or slows down.
Work varies from monastery to monastery. Some monks teach at seminaries, while others make honey, and still others tend cattle on the farm. Yet, no matter their task, the monastic is always at prayer, finding God in every action, every mistake, and every restart. The Benedictines remind us that work is given to us not solely for a paycheck, but to live fully.
No matter what our work may be, we are given it to be co-creators with God, making this world a better place through the task right in front of us, while praising God for this creativity. Pope Leo XVI says it beautifully, “Work remains a fundamental dimension of the human experience, for not only is it a means of sustenance, but it is also a context for expression, relationships and contributing to the community” (Magnifica Humanitas 154).
The Need for Silence
Listening and working together reach their apex in another striking idea of the Rule: the need for silence. If we live life well, we will study and learn many things. In the excitement of telling others many things, we must esteem silence. Silence does two things: it prevents us from using our tongue to speak ill of others and, equally important, it reminds us that we are always learning. St. Benedict said, “Speaking and teaching are the master’s task; the disciple is to be silent and listen” (RB 6.6). When we are silent, God slows us down and waits for us to be still before He speaks.
We have to carve out time for silence. Maybe that means waking up a little earlier and not grabbing our devices so fast, or perhaps it means getting out of bed right away and going for a walk around the neighborhood before sunrise. We have to take this desire for silence to prayer and see where the Holy Spirit leads us to esteem silence in an overloaded, noisy world. T.S. Elliot addresses the consequence of the absence of silence. In his poem Choruses from “The Rock,” he states:
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
Many of us desire a meaningful and rewarding life. The Rule of St. Benedict is a hidden treasure being reconsidered as its 1,500th birthday approaches in 2029. All those years ago, Benedict spoke to the many generations that came after him of the value of listening with the ears of the heart, prayer and work, and the need to esteem silence. Through his prayers, may we all journey together to everlasting life!
Author’s Note: Want to dive deeper into Benedictine listening, work, and silence? Consider buying my debut book, The Upside-Down Kingdom: Living in Holiness and Sanity Through the Wisdom of St. Benedict (Wipf & Stock Publishers). Bearing the imprimatur of Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento and an endorsement on the back of the book by Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, this book offers a practical perspective from a husband, father, and lay professional minister, interwoven with cherished memoirs of my time living next to the monks of Mount Angel Abbey. This book is dedicated to these men in gratitude for etching their apostolate in my heart.
You can best support my writing ministry by buying it here on my website. For expedient delivery, you can purchase this book instantly on Amazon. Blessed be God forever.
Photo by Mario La Pergola on Unsplash
