Slides for a talk given during Saints Catholic Week at the College of St. Scholastica.

1. Benedictine
Virtues
Sister Edith Bogue
Saints Catholic week
The College of St Scholastica
18 February 2014

2. Being Benedictine, Being Catholic, Following Christ
• Tonight, speaking from the Benedictine perspective
• Less mention of “Catholic” or “Christian”
• St. Benedict was, first of all, a disciple of Christ
•
•
•
•
In his life, he gave up everything to follow Christ
His Rule is grounded in Scripture and particularly the Gospel
He refers constantly to the teachings of the Lord, and he means Jesus.
Anyone of any religion may find wisdom in Benedict’s Rule,
but he says that it is written for people who are called by Christ,
and that one carries it out only through the grace of Christ.
• St. Benedict’s monasteries were connected with the Church
• There were Arians, including the Emperor, active in his time.
• In his life and in Rule, he treats them with hospitality and prudence,
but there is also evidence that he stayed connected with the bishop
of his area and with the Catholic Church.
• So it is fitting to talk about Benedictine Virtues in Catholic Week

3. Values
&
Virtues

4. Benedictine Values
College of St
Scholastica
St. John’s and
St. Ben’s
• Community
• Hospitality
• Respect
• Stewardship
• Love of Learning
• Awareness of God
• Community Living
• Taking Counsel
• Respect for persons
• Listening
• Dignity of work
• Hospitality
• Stewardship
• Truthful living
• Moderation
• Common Good
• Justice

5. Values vs. Virtues
• “Values” are principles for a group or society
• “A principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or
desirable.” (The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/values)
• “Society should be animated by a just hierarchy of values.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church §1895)
• “Virtues” are practices & actions of an individual
• “Firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of
intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions,
and guide our conduct according to reason and faith.”
• “They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a
morally good life. The virtuous person is one who freely
practices the good.”
• “Virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and
seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the
human being for communion with divine love.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church §1804)

6. What are BENEDICTINE Virtues?
• Virtues are a way to move towards
whatever is good.
• Many ethical and religious systems
recognize various virtues
• Plato listed 4 core virtues: prudence,
justice, fortitude, temperance.
• The early Church added theological
virtues: faith, hope, and love.
• “Charisms” are specific methods or
practices to grow in holiness, in
these virtues – to grow close to God.
• St Benedict’s Rule and his example
teach us his specific path.
St Benedict written by Sr Mary Charles McGough

7. “School” of the Lord’s Service
• Virtues are not something we can adopt, like an idea.
• Virtues are something that are built within us.
• They become part of who we are
• They moderate and buffer some of the other parts of who we are – vices
• When virtues grow, we know that God’s grace is at work in us.
Photo by Sister Edith Bogue https://secure.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/

8. “The external practices of monastic life are
directly connected with our search for God. In
and through these practices we express our
spiritual values and ideals, and daily live out our
commitment to God.”
Cummings, Monastic Practices

9. Order
and
Balance

10. Order as the Source of Freedom
• St. Benedict’s Rule spells out many
of the details of everyday life.
• Ten out of 73 chapters for the
schedule and method of prayer
• Job descriptions for all sorts of people,
from leaders to kitchen helpers.
• Instructions for sick people and those
who care for them.
• Instructions for going on a journey and
what to say when you come back.
• Instructions for making a mistake and
correcting someone who does.
• Prescribes an order for coming and
going and sitting at meals.
• Lays out a schedule for the day.

11. Winter Schedule
2:30AM Preparation for night office.
3:00AM Nocturns (aka Matins.
5:00AM Reading
6:00AM Matins (Lauds) at
daybreak, Prime
7:30AM Reading
8:00AM Terce, Morrow mass, Chapter
9:45AM Work
12:00PM Sext, Sung Mass
1:30PM None
2:00PM Dinner
2:45PM Work
4:15PM Vespers
5:30PM Change into night shoes
6:00PM Collatio
6:15PM Compline
6:30PM Bed
Summer Schedule
1:30AM:Preparation for night office.
2:00:AM:
Nocturns
3:30AM:Matins (Lauds) at daybreak.
4:00AM:Change and wash.
5:00AM:Trina Oratorio, Reading
6:00AM:Prime, Morrow Mass, Chapter
7:30AM:Reading
8:00AM:Terce, Sung Mass
9:30AM:Work
11:30AM: Sext
12:00PM: Dinner
1:00PM: Siesta
2:30PM: None, Drink
3:00PM Work
5:30PM Supper
6:00PM Vespers
7:30PM: Change into night shoes, Collatio
8:00PM: Compline
8:15PM: Bed

12. Flexibility as the Key to Maintaining Order
• Benedict’s Rule is not arbitrary
•
•
•
•
He provides a break for “the needs of nature” in the midst of long prayer
He gives the table-servers a little wine & bread before they work
He adjusts the amount of food the workload and season
He constantly advises the superior to suit the work and the correction
to the temperament of the particular person.
• After detailing exactly which psalm to sing on which day at what
time for the whole week, St. Benedict writes:
• “We strongly recommend, however, that if this distribution of
the Psalms is displeasing to anyone, she should arrange them
otherwise, in whatever way she considers better, but taking
care in any case that the Psalter with its full number of 150
Psalms be chanted every week and begun again every Sunday
at the Night Office.”

13. Time as Cycle of God's Year

14. How Do Benedictines Do This Today?
• As a community, we keep a rhythm of prayer
• Schedule and bells; different for the elderly & infirm
• Each sister keep her own time for private prayer
• Reading and prayer with scripture
• Other private prayer
• We work together and with our staff to have a clean and
simple appearance in the monastery = peaceful
• We have all sorts of assignments to take part in liturgy, play the
organ, be the hostess at supper, prepare for festive occasions,
plan the week’s hymns.
• All parts of the monastic schedule are important, so we
try to balance them.
• Prayer AND work
• Times assigned to service AND times not to serve

15. How could students practice this virtue?
• Decide what things are most important and put them into the
schedule first (for Benedictines, it is prayer).
• HAVE A PATTERN TO YOUR DAY AND TO YOUR WEEK. It is HARD to get
started, but carries you along even through tough times.
• Include the SOCIAL PARTS of life in your schedule: meals with
friends, time for sports or music or games with interaction.
• Keep time for your SPIRITUAL LIFE no matter what. St Benedict
gives the best hours of the day to LECTIO DIVINA (spiritual
reading) and prayer.

16. Authority
and
Responsibility

17. AUTHORITY
• We have paradoxical ideas about authority
• We hope everyone will be “a leader” and train them for it
• We promote independent thinking and individual choice,
rather than looking for and following a leader
• Benedict tells us to follow TWO authorities all the time:
• The Rule AND the Abbot (superior) who takes the place of Christ
• Many parts of the Rule describe how to be a good underling
• Don’t grumble and complain, but be satisfied with the work you’re asked to do
• If a task seems impossible, explain the problem but try it anyway if you have to.
• Don’t get puffed up about your contributions
• If the Rule and the Abbot are in conflict, try to keep the Rule but
remember that it tells you to obey the Abbot.

18. RESPONSIBILITY
• The true authority is Jesus Christ
• The Rule embodies a particular path
to follow Christ as his disciple
• The Abbot is the voice & hands of Christ
calling on us to do what is needed.
• We want to respond with our best self;
this takes Christ’s help and grace.
• RESPONSIBILITY means that our community, our superior, and
the people we encounter believe in us:
• They know we have promised to be followers of Christ in the monastery
• They sincerely expect us to live out our promises
• They will let us know when we fall short. Our sisters in community will
also give us encouragement and help to do better.

19. Authority & Responsibility as Virtues
• Authority: Only for the common good
• The superior has authority, but St. Benedict also gives responsibility for the
spiritual and temporal well-being of all.
• The superior will be evaluated by
God for how well “the flock” fared,
not by wordly standards of wealth
or success.
• Authority becomes a virtue: the
practice of making decisions and
choices by looking out for the good
of others.
• The Rule gives much advice for this.
• Responsibility: Only for the common good
• Each person is responsible for helping authority to accomplish its goals.
• Supporting the authority when it is strong, and helping it when it is weak.
• For Benedict, good leadership requires good “followership” too

20. How to Evaluate
Your Actions

21. Chapter 72:
Good Zeal and Bad Zeal
• “Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which
separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good
zeal which separates from vices and leads to God and to
life everlasting.”
• How do I know which is leading me?
• DISCERNMENT is a key virtue for Benedictines.
•
•
•
•
Watching carefully and mindfully to see God’s action & call in my life
Striving to be aware of what I am doing and thinking.
Being ready to hear from others what has gone well and ill.
Trying to do better tomorrow than what I did today.
Photo by Sister Edith Bogue https://secure.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/

22. Chapter 72:
Measuring up
• “Thus they should anticipate one another in honor.”
• “They most patiently endure one another's infirmities,
whether of body or of character”
• “They vie in showing obedience one to another.”
• “No one following what she considers useful for herself,
but rather what benefits another.”
Photo by Sister Edith Bogue https://secure.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/

23. How can we do this in a culture that leads to…
• Constant sense of
dissatisfaction with life.
• Messages that we need to
“look out for #1”
• Fear of missing out or
of being left out
• Focus on individual success,
and doing whatever it takes.
By Leunig http://www.leunig.com.au/

24. Living the Gospel…
• It has never been easy.
• Jesus himself told us that following him
would mean giving up our worldy life.
• Jesus also promised us that this death to
would keep on the path always growing
closer to him.
• The last phrase I quoted from Chapter 72 is
a good way to evaluate just about any course of action you
undertake:
“No one following what she considers useful for herself, but
rather what benefits another.”
Photo by Sister Edith Bogue https://secure.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/

25. Stability

26. Stability: The ability to stay
• The MOST Benedictine of virtues
• A vow is made only by religious who follow
the Rule of St Benedict.
• It is a promise not to leave.
• That promise involves a number of virtues
• Perservering at difficult or unpleasant tasks
• Avoiding day dreams about other opportunities
• Working at difficult relationships even when it’s easier
to avoid someone or even move away
• “Never despair of God’s mercy and love.” (Chapter 4)
Photo by Sister Edith Bogue https://secure.flickr.com/photos/edithosb/

27. How can students live this virtue today?
• This may be the virtue most desperately needed by the world.
• We have what Pope Francis calls a “throw-away” society.
• We don’t think about a long-term commitment to a place, and so we
may not care for our buildings, grounds or environment well.
• We don’t expect to stay in a job, an organization very long, and so we are
not careful to build our part in it well.
• We are quick to give up at the start of classes, activities, sports, new
languages or instruments.
• St Benedict tells us that “it has to be narrow at the start” and “do not be
daunted and run away in fear” – the virtue of stability
• Some are quick to leave friendships, relationships, even marriages,
saying “It doesn’t work for me any more.”
• St Benedict tells us – just as Jesus did – that the path to a deep
relationship with God always runs through difficult places. It
only comes to those who learn the virtue of stability, staying.

28. "These practices do not
create union with God.
If that happens, it is an
accident. But these are
the practices that will
make you accident
prone."
Fr. Greg Mayers

29. Benedictine
Virtues
Sister Edith Bogue
Saints Catholic week
The College of St Scholastica
18 February 2014