St. Benedict's Toolbox

Sixth Tuesday after Pentecost

Tuesday is review day on the blog. Today I'm reviewing St. Benedict's Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living, by Jane Tomaine. 

Benedict of Nursia lived 480 to 543 AD. Coming from a well to do family in Nursia, Italy, he went to Rome to study for a secular career. Disenchanted  with what by this time was a great city fallen, he decided to become a ermetic. An ermetic is a hermit monk, one who seeks to live a life of poverty and chastity in prayer and solitude. Most ermetics lived in caves. The most famous, St. Anthony, who lived in the fourth century was noted for performing miraculous healings for people who came to his cave out in the Sinai desert. 

Benedict was a social being. He soon found that ermetic life was not for him, but he still wanted to live in poverty, chastity and prayer. An excellent organizer. he established eleven monasteries in central Italy. He moved to one of them, Monte Cassino.  There he wrote what would become one of the most famous books in the history of Christianity, The Rule of St. Benedict. It's an easy read, 73 short chapters, most no longer than a page. The chapters concern practices for holy living in a community. At least two of those practices have become popular over the last couple of decades with Protestant Christians interested in Christian Spirituality. Those two are The Daily Office and Lectio Divina. I practice both, though not nearly with the discipline and regularity that St. Benedict would have hoped for. 

Twenty-first century living is quite different from that of the sixth century. Jane Tomaine, an Episcopal priest from New Jersey has written a modern practical guide for Christian spiritual living based on The Rule of St. Benedict. Originally published in 2005, a revised edition was published in 2015. I'm thankful to Jerry Hosking for putting me onto this book. She read it as a part of a study group, which is what it was primarily designed for. I've read it on my own. I would like to reread it as a part of a group, though I don't feel qualified to lead such a group. 

It is not too much to say that we live in a different time from 2015, a different time even from the beginning of 2020. Somehow, in a way I can't explain, this book seems more relevant today than it was six years ago. 

Benedictine monks and nuns take three vows:

1. "Stability--to remain present and faithful to people and place." 

        This vow would seem to run counter to our culture of movement, travel, job promotion, families, scattered across the country, social media connecting us to people everywhere, and cosmopolitan thinking. But things have changed in the last few months. We are more bound to one place, home. The pace of most of our lives is slower. The number of people we see and interact with daily has become smaller. Our constantly-on-the-move craziness has calmed down. Our lives, at least in our outward circumstances have become more stable. The Toolbox has good advice for us in this change.

2. "Obedience--to listen and respond to God's direction through people and situations of life."

        All of our lives are changed by this very odd time we are living in. In my 75 years I've never experienced anything like it. For most of us, we have more time for God--and God has all time for us. God is here to direct us. God will use people to help direct us. We have the time. Let's listen,

3. "Conversion of life--to remain open to transformation."

       Transformation is not a single thing, but on ongoing process. St. Paul directs us, "Be transformed by the renewal of your minds" (Romans 12:2). The depths of God beckon us to go deeper.

There is so much more to the book. If you're interested, I would recommend that you first read The Rule of St. Benedict. It won't take you long. It will be like looking into the Toolbox and seeing what all is there, before you start using the tools. Both books are readily available in paperback on Amazon or other book distributors.

Faithfully,

Christian