Benedict Of Nursia Quotes

Idleness is the enemy of the soul; and therefore the brethren ought to be employed in manual labor at certain times, at others, in devout reading.

The first degree of humility is prompt obedience.

And let them first pray together, that so they may associate in peace.

Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.

The sleepy like to make excuses.

He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.

He should know that whoever undertakes the government of souls must prepare himself to account for them.

The abbot ought ever to bear in mind what he is and what he is called; he ought to know that to whom more is entrusted, from him more is exacted.

Wherefore let us consider how it behoveth us to be in the sight of God and the angels, and so let us take our part in the psalmody that mind and voice accord together.

Almighty God, give me wisdom to perceive You, intelligence to understand You, diligence to seek You, patience to wait for You, eyes to behold You, a heart to meditate upon You and life to proclaim You, through the power of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The prophet shows that, for the sake of silence, we are to abstain even from good talk. If this be so, how much more needful is it that we refrain from evil words, on account of the penalty of the sin!

For at all times we must so serve Him with the good things He has given us, that he may not, as an angry Father, disinherit his children, nor as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil deeds, deliver us to everlasting punishment as wicked servants who refuse to follow Him to glory.

Let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice.

Now, brethren, that we have asked the Lord who it is that shall dwell in His tabernacle, we have heard the conditions for dwelling there; and if we fulfil the duties of tenants, we shall be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Our hearts and our bodies must, therefore, be ready to do battle under the biddings of holy obedience; and let us ask the Lord that He supply by the help of His grace what is impossible to us by nature. And if, flying from the pains of hell, we desire to reach life everlasting, then, while there is yet time, and we are still in the flesh, and are able during the present life to fulfil all these things, we must make haste to do now what will profit us forever.

Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.

Cardinal Ratzinger, who was already recognized as one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, became Pope Benedict XVI at the age of 78. He emerged from the loggia of St. Peter’s on April 19, 2005, with arms outstretched in the style of his predecessor, greeting the crowds with these words: “Dear Brothers and Sisters: After the great Pope John Paul II, the Lord Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” A native of Germany, he took the name ‘Benedict’ with a view to revitalizing the faith and culture of Europe. The name is reminiscent of Pope Benedict XV, who led the Church during the turbulence of World War I, and St. Benedict of Nursia, known as a spiritual father and patron of Europe.

Saint Benedict of Nursia in Italy (c. 480-c. 543) brought common sense to monastic practice. His famous Rule encouraged asceticism and otherworldliness, without leading to excess. It prescribed, in reasonable proportions, prayer, praise, study, and labor in the fields. The Rule is still the guide for many monasteries.

No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else.

Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?

The first step towards humility is to keep the fear of God in mind at all times.

Ora et labora

Los campos, el aire, los prados, las flores y hasta las piedras me dicen lo mismo: que es justo, que es honroso, que es preciso amar a Jesús, servirle con todas nuestras fuerzas y entregarle cada día nuestro corazón, con más fervor, para que lo purifique y lo llene de su amor

Las joyas de este mundo son barro y nada en comparación de la belleza con que la bondad de Dios adorna y enriquece nuestras vidas cuando las viste con su gracia.

In his Rule for monastic communities, Benedict of Nursia wrote, “Such a follower of Christ lives in reverence of him and does not take the credit for a good life but, believing that all the good we do comes from the Lord, gives him the credit and thanksgiving for what his gift brings about in our hearts. In that spirit our prayer from the psalm should be: Not to us, O Lord, not to us give the glory but to your own name. That is St Paul’s example, for he took no credit to himself for his preaching when he said: It is by God’s grace that I am what I am. And again he says: Let anyone who wants to boast, boast in the Lord.

the Cistercians who felt the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia had been forsaken by corrupted abbeys and their clergy. These Cistercians were determined to strip away the excesses of flesh and spirit that had infected the Benedictines. They would reject fine linen shirts, breeches, furs, sheets and bedspreads. Their abbeys and cloisters would never be embellished by gargoyles and chimeras. They would take their bread hard, without lard or honey. They would charge no burial dues, take no tithes, they would build their communities away from cities, towns or villages and ban all women to avoid all worldly distractions. And they would interrupt their prayers and meditations only by the kind of hard physical labour necessary for subsistence.

Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation.

Uniqueness and independence are clearly not synonyms in the mind of Benedict of Nursia. Uniqueness and responsibility go hand in hand in Benedictine spirituality. By all means I should be who I am and have what I need, but you have a claim on those gifts. Those gifts were given to me so much for your sake as for my own. The community does not exist to make me possible. Together we exist to make the gospel possible.

The attacks were hymned by hagiographies and histories. In fourth-century France, St. Martin, or so the Life of St. Martin proudly records, “set fire to a most ancient and famous shrine” before moving on to a different village and a different temple. Here, he “completely demolished the temple belonging to the false religion and reduced all the altars and statues to dust.”22 Martin was no anomaly. Flushed by his success at the temple of Serapis, Bishop Theophilus went on to demolish numerous shrines in Egypt. Hagiography records such attacks not as dismal or even embarrassing acts of vandalism but as proof of a saint’s virtue. Some of the most famous saints in Western Christianity kicked off their careers—so the stories like to boast—demolishing shrines. Benedict of Nursia, the revered founder of Western monasticism, was also celebrated as a destroyer of antiquities. His first act upon arriving in Monte Cassino, just outside Rome, was to smash an ancient statue of Apollo and destroy the shrine’s altar. He didn’t stop there, but toured the area “pulling down the idols and destroying the groves on the mountain . . . and gave himself no rest until he had uprooted the last remnant of heathenism in those parts.”23 Of course hagiography is not history and one must read such accounts with, at best, caution. But even if they do not tell the whole truth, they certainly reveal a truth—namely that many Christians felt proud, even jubilant, about such destruction.