Ora et Labora: The Rule of Saint Benedict

The three word motto is that of the Benedictines, a monastic order founded in the Sixth Century; the Latin translates as "Pray and Work." And The Rule of St. Benedict is without question one of the foundational documents of post-Greco-Roman Western Civilization, of Christendom. No home, whether Christian or not, should be without a copy of this work, which so greatly influenced the development of the civilization which we now see disintegrating around us.

The first word of St. Benedict's rule is "Listen."

Sound (forgive the pun!) advice. But then all of St. Benedict's advice is sound.

The monastery was an oasis of sanity in a desert of societal desperation, ignorance and chaos. Were it not for the monasteries, Western civilization might never have been restored to grow into the glory of the world; nowhere else was the knowledge of the past preserved, nowhere else was there intellectual pursuit. St. Benedict's sound advice was meant to restore order to the person, then to the community, and by doing so, would by extension bring order to the world.

St. Benedict viewed the monastery as a school for spirituality, a school in which simplicity and routine, labor and obediance, and most of all prayer, aid in helping the person obtain self-mastery and self-control, humility and tranquility in a community setting, and so grow closer to God.

The Benedictine Order, abbreviated as OSB, has undertgone various reforms during its long history. The Cistercians, for example, place a considerable emphasis on manual labor and adhere to a nearly literal interpretation of The Rule of St. Benedict. They were the principal agents of technological development in Medieaval Europe, though agriculture has always been their principle activity; self-sufficiency is the result.

Regular random perusal of this work will prove beneficial to anyone who undertakes it. One begins to see how far we have strayed from sound spiritual ideas. The present day Benedictines, greatly influenced by the subjective and modernist Novus Ordo "Catholic" Church, have gone far astray from the principles of their founder, but monasteries still exist that maintain the purity of the Rule and of the intention of the author of this marvelous little book, read by countless seekers over the course of the centuries.

The Rule of Saint Benedict has a place of honor on the shelves of the library at Leibowitz Abbey.