The feast day of Saint Benedict on July 11 slipped by unnoticed by most people, yet the placement of Saint Benedict’s feast day within the summer season holds particular significance as a reminder that we all need to carve out some leisure time in our lives when we pause for rest and reflection. Summer usually affords us a blessed opportunity for vacation weeks or long week-ends. One of our resolutions this summer might be the challenge of seeking to live a more balanced life-style with time for work, family, prayer and a healthy regimen of diet, rest and exercise.
Saint Benedict wrote his Holy Rule for the monks of Monte Cassino in the 6
th century. He constructed his great Abbey of Monte Cassino on a hill top between Rome and Naples. Saint Benedict chose that remote location so that the monks of his monastery could separate themselves from the noise and busy-ness of daily life and adopt an ordered lifestyle with prime attention to what need to be the priorities in their lives.
Saint Benedict wrote the Holy Rule for the monks as an eminently do-able framework of a balanced lifestyle for the monks, making sure that there was sufficient time for prayer, spiritual reading, productive work, meals, sleep and recreation. Saint Benedict could be considered the patron saint of Time Management as he made sure that there was sufficient time each day for all the important activities in the lives of the monks. Keep in mind the fact that Saint Benedict wrote his Holy Rule during a time of utter chaos, as the seemingly invulnerable Roman Empire was crumbling in the face of the onslaughts of attacks by the Barbarian tribes from Northern Europe. The genius of Saint Benedict was to create a place of order in the midst of chaos! His Holy Rule established an ordered schedule of daily life which gradually became the mother and model of thousands of Benedictine Monasteries throughout Europe. These monasteries preserved the light of faith and western culture throughout the Dark Ages. The men and women who embrace the monastic life in the Church today are still directed and guided by the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. The Trappistine Nuns of Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham order their daily lives according to the Holy Rule of this blessed saint.
Most of us cannot adopt the daily schedule, or honorarium of Saint Benedict in our daily lives, but we can learn from him the importance of setting aside sufficient time so that we can counter the external chaos in our world and the internal chaos in our souls with a lifestyle that engenders peace in our hearts. Summer is a particularly graced time, when many of our regular commitments are curtailed, to examine our lives and make necessary adjustments in our personal model of Time Management.
We can live healthier, holier, happier lives by setting aside time for the things that are truly priorities and waste less time on relatively unimportant matters. I am sure that Saint Benedict would approve of the use of an Apple iPad or a Smart Phone to assist us in this endeavor!
One of my favorite Tim McGraw compositions is focused on My Next Thirty Years. The lyrics challenge us to establish priorities that will direct the next ten, thirty or sixty years of our lives!
For my next thirty years I’m gonna watch my weight Eat a few more salads and and not stay up so late Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years.
My next thirty years will be the best years of my life Raise a little family and hang out with my wife Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear Make up for lost time here in my next thirty years.
I pray that you will enter the remaining weeks of summer with the challenge of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict in one hand and a Tim McGraw Greatest Hits CD on your iPod! You might also want to secure a copy of an excellent book for summer reading, Benedict’s Way: An Ancient Monks Insights for a Balanced life by Lonni Collins Pratt and Father Daniel Homan, OSB. It is an excellent guide to the application of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict to our daily lives when we don’t have the possibility of retreating behind cloister walls.