Today is the solemnity remembrance of the death of our Holy Father St Benedict. He died in AD 547.
St Benedict as we know, was an ordinary man who bequeathed to us an extraordinary legacy of monastic life and culture with the founding a monastery at Monte Cassino (and several monasteries) and curating his ‘rule for beginners’. The daily reading of the Holy Rule continues to inspire others to seek God as disciples and friends of Jesus.
Image courtesy of Ampleforth Abbey
Today is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Ildefonso Schuster of Milan who died in 1954. Schuster is the celebrated monk, abbot, bishop and liturgical scholar. He led the Diocese of Milan for 25 years.
Among his works on the sacred Liturgy, Schuster became known for his Liber Sacramentorum, later translated into English as The Sacramentary. The value of the multivolume work is that it takes you through the liturgical theology of each Sunday of the year.
When his tomb was opened in 1985, his mortal remains were found to be intact; he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996. You may be interested to know that the miracle for Cardinal Ildefonso’s sainthood cause was the curing of glaucoma.
Let’s pray for Blessed Ildefonso Schuster’s intercession.
On the liturgical calendar of the Cistercian Order is the memory of Blessed Eugene III, a Cistercian monk and pope.
Blessed Eugene III OCist, was the Roman Pontiff from February 15, 1145 until July 8, 1153. Born in Montemagno, near Pisa, Italy, to a rich Christian family, belonging to Italian nobility, named after Pier Bernardo Pignatelli, the future Pope Eugene III was ordained priest in the city of Pisa. Biographers tell us he was intelligent, but reserved and very thoughtful. In 1135, he entered the Cistercian Order and enjoyed friendship with St Bernard of Clairvaux. He was appointed by his superior to open another monastery of the Order in the city of Farfa in the Diocese of Viterbo, where he was named an abbot by Pope Innocent II. In 1145, Bernardo Pignatelli was elected Pope and adopted the name Eugene III. He was the 167th pope. By his intercession, let us follow the path of fidelity to Christ and his Church. As pope Eugene took the reform of the Church seriously. The importance of this feast for us is the attending to the need to remain to Christ, the Gospel and the Church.
Today’s liturgical memorial of Blessed Gerard is relatively unknown among us except for those who follow the Benedictine and Cistercian charism. Blessed Gerard is the second eldest blood brother of Saint Bernard. History reveals to us that Gerard followed Bernard to Clairvaux where he became his cellarer. Gerard initially refused to enter the monastery but later received the habit at Cîteaux in 1112; and then followed his brother to make a monastic foundation at Clairvaux in 1115. There he served as the competent and virtuous cellarer for the Cistercian community. We know that Gerard was Bernard’s confidant and assistant. The feast was originally on January 30, but settled on today’s date, but sometimes you have his feast on June 14.
Deeply grieved at Dom Gerard’s death, Bernard lamented his passing in these tender words:
… a loyal companion has left me alone on the pathway of life: he who was so alert to my needs, so enterprising at work, so agreeable in his ways. Who was ever so necessary to me? Who ever loved me as he? My brother by blood, but bound to me more intimately by religious profession. Share my mourning with me, you who know these things. I was frail in body and he sustained me, faint of heart and he gave me courage, slothful and negligent and he spurred me on, forgetful and improvident and he gave me timely warning. Why has he been torn from me? Why snatched from my embraces, a man of one mind with me, a man according to my heart? We loved each other in life: how can it be that death separates us? And how bitter the separation that only death could bring about! While you lived when did you ever abandon me? It is totally death’s doing, so terrible a parting…How much better for me then, O Gerard, if I had lost my life rather than your company, since through your tireless inspiration, your unfailing help and under your provident scrutiny I persevered with my studies of things divine. Why, I ask, have we loved, why have we lost each other?
Text from Bernard to Clairvaux’s Sermon 26: On The Song of Songs.
“One can make a rather easy transition from human friendships to friendship with God himself.” St Aelred of Riveaulx –the ‘St Bernard of the North,’ is a true man of consequence for people who care about their development of the spiritual life but also for those are seeking God.
At the age of twenty-four Aelred took up his mission as a Cistercian monk at Rievaulx in Yorkshire, England. His biography relates:
“There he pursued with rigor the friendship of Jesus Christ, gladly submitting to mortification and hard labor, to constant prayer, meditation, and study. “This is the yoke,” he said, “which does not crush but liberates the soul; this burden has wings, not weight.”
“Gracious and sensitive toward his fellow monks, Aelred became Abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire and later abbot of the great monastery at Rievaulx. There he presided over some three hundred monks. Under Aelred’s leadership the community became a living model of peace and charity, a true colony of the kingdom of heaven. There he wrote his book, Spiritual Friendship, warmly extolling the joy and strength of friendships, divine and human.
Let us pray.
O God, who endowed Saint Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, with the gift of fostering Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness, grant to your people, we pray, that same spirit of fraternal affection, so that in loving one another we may know the love of Christ and rejoice in the eternal possession of your supreme goodness. (from the English Missal)
A little known blessed of the Church is the monk, Blessed Hermann of Reichenau, known also as Hermann the Cripple. He was an 11th century Benedictine monk who is said to be a genius, a polymath, and who needed help moving his body. From his hagiographers we learn of a quite a remarkable person. While the person of Hermann is not well-known yet is best remembered for being the composer of hymns. Two notable hymns are his Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris Mater. Brother Hermann’s vocation was not his intellectual abilities but his call to the monastic way of life taking vows in 1043. It is said that he was entrusted by his parents to the learned Abbot Berno, at the age of seven, at the Benedictine abbey on Reichenau Island on the lake of Constance.
A few thoughts on Blessed Hermann can be read here.
The cult of Hermann was officially approved by the Holy See in 1863.
Beate Hermanne, ora pro nobis!
In the August edition of The Current, Blake Billings an Oblate of Portsmouth Abbey and faculty member of the School, wrote a terrific piece on the Servant of God Dorothy Day in light of her own oblation to the Benedictine charism.
I have been waiting for someone to take the time to curate the information on the role of the Benedictine charism in the life and work of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. As persons with human and spiritual desires we need an organizing principle to root the heart, to situate our intellect, and to focus our energies for the better, for the good, for joy. That’s whatthe Benedictine way of life gives to those who adhere to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the magisterium, and the Rule of St Benedict. I was elated that Blake Billings did what I was looking for…perhaps the essay would be useful to you.
Take some time to read “Revisiting Dorothy Day“:
Today is the liturgical memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus. As Benedictines we have been celebrating all three together for a long time. They are models of the virtue of hospitality. A good application is the guesthouse at the Petersham (Mass.) Benedictines is named in honor of today’s saints.
Chapter 53 of The Rule of St. Benedict has two crucial lines: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). Proper honor must be shown to all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims.” The Father of Western monasticism sets the stage to how we receive the other.
In January 2021, a Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship on the celebration of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus (26 January 2021) was issued.
The Decree
In the household of Bethany the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and for this reason the Gospel of John states that he loved them. Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the One who humiliated death.
The traditional uncertainty of the Latin Church about the identity of Mary (the Magdalene to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection, the sister of Martha, the sinner whose sins the Lord had forgiven), which resulted in the inclusion of Martha alone on 29 July in the Roman Calendar, has been resolved in recent studies and times, as attested by the current Roman Martyrology, which also commemorates Mary and Lazarus on that day. Moreover, in some particular calendars the three siblings are already celebrated together.
Therefore, the Supreme Pontiff Pope Francis, considering the important evangelical witness they offered in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in listening to him attentively, in believing that he is the resurrection and the life, and accepting the proposal of this Dicastery, has decreed that 29 July be designated in the General Roman Calendar as the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
Mass collect
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the example of your Saints may spur us on to a better life, so that we, who celebrate the memory of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus, may also imitate without ceasing their deeds.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
In preparation for the feast of Saint Benedict today, Sunday, July 11, the Benedictine Primate of the Confederation of Benedictines, Abbot Gregory, reflects on the wisdom of Saint Benedict.
It was published in today’s Osservatore Romano: https://bit.ly/3AOTlPS
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Saint Benedict: A Wise Guide for Living Well TodayAbbot Primate Gregory Polan, O.S.B.
Can a text which dates back 1,500 years be practical for living well today? The Rule of Saint Benedict stands as a classic text of spiritual insight and humane behavior. Such classic texts often give us a brief word which has much to say to us. We live in a world and a culture that bombards us with words. Often there are so many words that shower and flood us each day that we have little or no time to take in their meaning and impact. The early monastic tradition understood the value of well-chosen and well-spoken words, as well as silence. In a moment of excitement or reaction to the comments of someone, how often have we regretted our immediate or less measured response? While we may have a well cultivated language, we often have a less cultivated sense of what is best left unspoken, or said in a measured and reflective way.
The opening words of The Rule of Saint Benedict offer an instruction that calls for an interior discipline. The text of the Prologue to the Rule reads, “Listen carefully, my child, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” As language has developed through the centuries, so have the number of words and their distinct nuances. The more words that bombard our hearing, the less intent we are in carefully appreciating their meaning, their impact, and their power. Yet in contrast to this, a few words, well spoken can touch the heart, lift the human spirit, transform the mind, give direction in life’s choices, and remain within us as a guide to fruitful Christian living.
We can carefully distinguish the difference between “hearing” and “listening.” We can hear words that are spoken; and they quickly pass on, often unnoticed and hardly considered. In contrast to this, when we truly listen to what a person is saying, this act implies our reflection on the impact of what is said, a careful consideration or rumination on the impact and meaning of these words. If we are truly listening with the ear of the heart, these words pass from the ear to the mind and to the heart. Often when we honestly listen to what is said, it asks something of us. Should I ponder these thoughts more seriously, question my motivations for what I am doing, reconsider what I am doing? And sometimes this contemplation assures me of the values I am trying to live. That command to ponder seriously is how Saint Benedict begins his Rule; this initial command serves as motto for the monastic life, “to listen with the ear of the heart.” But isn’t that also an invitation to anyone of us in the movement of our lives, our daily living?
In the Scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament, the heart was understood to encompass a process and reflection of both the mind and the heart together, working in tandem. This was understood to be an endeavor of the whole interior of a person. Too often our reactions arise from an initial thought that comes to mind; rather, to begin with thoughts of the mind and then to reflect from the posture of the heart brings together a better and fuller expression of what is best. “What does this mean … what are the implications of what is being said … how does this challenge me to think differently?” Saint Benedict could challenge us in our own day to take on this process of “listening with the ear of the heart” in our decision making, in our relations with one another, and in our responses to the variety of situations and questions that come before us. What a difference this would make on every level of our human existence: within the family unit, within a business operation, among families and friends, among world leaders, among warring nations, among countries seeking peaceful resolutions.
Pope Francis presents to us an important challenge with his announcement of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops; the focus will be on creating a synodal process for the Church as it moves into the future. One of the key elements which can have an impact on this process of involving the whole Church in this endeavor is the act of listening. And Saint Benedict has something very worthwhile to offer to this – that this process will include a “listening with the ear of the heart,” as he begins his Rule. This calls for a great humility and openness to what another has to say, to offer as a suggestion, to seek a peaceful resolution. Could this person be an instrument of God’s will being manifested to us? A synodal process calls for great sincerity and a true sense of listening deeply, profoundly, lovingly, openly, and receptively.
This year the feast of Saint Benedict, one of the patrons of Europe, falls on Sunday, 11 July. His teaching in the Rule offers us a profound way of renewing our hearts through the manner of our listening – that is, whole heartedly. Imagine the blessings of peace and hope that could resound throughout the world if his instructions on the manner of our listening to one another could become a reality. Whether this special kind of listening is between struggling nations, warring political parties, religious leaders, and even within families, our ability of listen with a depth of respect for one another as children of God holds the promise of peace and blessing for all. Even in our day-to-day lives, “listening with the ear of the heart” holds out to us the promise of peace and hopes as we move forward into each new day. Saint Benedict, pray for us; help us to listen to one another with the ear of our heart (“Prolog 1, The Rule of Saint Benedict).
Blessed feast of our Mother among the saints, Scholastica
Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.
One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.
Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”
When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”
Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.
It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, God is love, it was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.
Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.
Their minds had always been united in God; their bodies were to share a common grave.
From the books of Dialogues by Saint Gregory the Great
