(11th July we celebrate St Benedict’s relics translated to the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire.)
I still remember the first time I took a copy of the Rule of St Benedict from the shelf in the Monastery Bookshop at Prinknash. It fell open at Chapter 22, and I was immediately intrigued.
Benedict’s attention to detail in arranging the monk’s sleeping quarters fascinated me. I smiled at the instruction: “Let them sleep clothed and girded with cinctures or cords, that they may be always ready; but let them not have knives at their sides whilst they sleep, lest perchance they sleeping be wounded in their dreams.” I could only hope that the monks still observe that rule today!
On the same page came another memorable instruction: “Let the younger brethren not have their beds beside each other but intermingled with the older ones; and rising to the Work of God, let them gently encourage one another on account of the excuses of the drowsy.”
Here was plain common sense: practical advice about knives, youthful mischief, and the realities of communal life. The fact that Benedict thought such matters worth recording revealed how attentive, organised, and fatherly he was. Rather than a harsh disciplinarian, he appears as someone who understood human nature and guided his monks with firmness and gentleness.
When I realised that these words were written around the year 530, they seemed astonishingly fresh, as though they might have been written only last week. The centuries between Benedict and us melted away. Through the Rule, I felt brought into his presence. Its purpose is not only to order monastic life well, but also to draw mind and soul into a deeper awareness of God.
My introduction to the Benedictines came when, in my early fifties and still a practising Anglican, I decided to take seriously a longing that had been with me since my teenage years: the desire to become truly Catholic. Wanting silence and distance in which to pray, my dear wife’s friend had an uncle who was a monk at Prinknash, I would contact him? I wrote to Fr Fabian, then Prior of Prinknash, and arranged a retreat there.
Welcomed by Fr Stephen, then Guest Master, I stayed in the “New” Monastery of Our Lady and St Peter and entered the quiet rhythm of monastic life. I had little excuse for missing the earliest Hours, since the Fire bell used to wake the brethren at about 4.40am sounded outside my room!
At first, the stillness was a shock. After years as a company manager, constantly travelling around the country, I felt as if a flywheel were still spinning inside me. It took three days for that inner momentum to stop. Then, quite suddenly, the silence that had almost made me want to shout gave way to a deep and beautiful stillness.
Each morning during my stay, dear Fr Aldhelm Cameron Brown spoke with me and helped me in my discernment. When I finally left, saying farewell at the Abbey door and driving up the steep hill, on reaching the main road, I knew with complete certainty that I had made the right decision.
Since then, Prinknash has held a very special place in my heart.
I approached my local Catholic parish church in Surrey to become Catholic. That church was Chilworth Friary, originally built as the Novitiate of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM). Some years later in 2010, the friars moved out and the friary was purchased by the Benedictines of Ramsgate. Renamed St Augustine’s Abbey, part of the same Subiaco Cassinese congregation as Prinknash. Interestingly, now as a Parish Priest of the reorganised parish of Guildford, the monks at Chilworth are now my parishioners!
My regular stays at Prinknash continue to be, a valuable aid in renewing my spiritual strength.
From our holy Father St Benedict, I believe I have learned qualities that matter not only to monks, but to parents, grandparents, and to all of us in our care for one another. Chief among them is the importance of listening with the heart: listening deeply to God’s word, and also to the people we serve. As a pastor and shepherd entrusted with the care of souls, I am reminded to attend not only to what is spoken, but often to what remains unsaid; to guide and love the flock more closely to God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, in ways both practical and prayerful. Perhaps, in doing so, this feeble soul may yet be helped along its way.
Sancte Benedicta et Sancta Maria Ora Pro Nobis
Fr Roy Waters
Priest in the Catholic Parish of Guildford
Oblate of Prinknash
