The December readings from the Rule of St Benedict include some of my favourite chapters. Re-reading chapters 50 to 73 recently, I was struck by a theme running through these chapters which I had not noticed before – the constant movement of people from one place to another. Perhaps I was affected by the regular news items on the waves of people moving across Europe in a desperate search for peace, stability and a reasonable standard of living. Whatever the reason, I felt some surprise at identifying this theme – most of us associate the Benedictine way of life with seclusion and stability. Despite this, the Rule has regulations covering monks leaving the monastery on long or short journeys; priests and monks arriving for varying lengths of time as pilgrims passing through or as potential permanent residents; lay pilgrims passing through; other lay people, rich and poor, on journeys of various kinds and poor people simply looking for a meal and a bed.
St Benedict is well aware that too much contact with the outside world can have a negative effect on the monastic community. In chapter 67, he says: ‘Let no one presume to tell another whatever he may have seen or heard outside of the monastery, because this causes very great harm.’ So why does he feel the need to cover all the above possibilities? One reason is the duty of hospitality towards guests. Chapter 53 begins with the instruction ‘Let all guests who arrive be treated like Christ.’ Later in the same chapter this is repeated with specific mention of the poor: ‘In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims the greatest care and solicitude should be shown, because it is especially in them that Christ is received.’
It is reasonably easy to imagine a 6th century monastery as the equivalent of a modern traveller’s hostel, with the monks providing basic food and accommodation to those who came to them. However the various instructions on the movement of the monks themselves suggests that, as with modern monastic communities, they had to conduct some business in the outside world. Chapter 50 instructs those who are working at a great distance from the monastery or are on a journey to perform the Work of God at the due times as best they can. Chapter 51 says that, if the monk is away but expects to be back on the same day, he must not eat until he is back. Chapter 55 is about the clothing suitable for the monk and has a wonderful paragraph – ‘Those who are sent on a journey shall receive drawers from the wardrobe, which they shall wash and restore on their return. And let their cowl and tunics be somewhat better than what they usually wear. These they shall receive from the wardrobe when they set out on a journey, and restore when they return.’ Then there is Chapter 67, already quoted, whose main message is that the monk should ask the prayers of the brethren and the abbot before setting out on a journey and on his return.
Clearly, St Benedict regarded travel as a necessary evil and, in his usual practical way, provided for both the spiritual and material needs of the monk who had to survive outside the monastery walls. As oblates, we are in a similar position to these monks. So what message do these passages have for us? Different people will identify different messages according to their own need at the time. I only suggest a few here to start you thinking: we must always make time for prayer and not be ashamed or embarrassed to do this publicly; there is more to mealtimes than simply preventing hunger – they are times of community, of sharing, of friendship (so what about the lonely, the homeless?); we are not necessarily expected to be the poorest of the poor, but should not cling to our material possessions; gossip is the work of the devil.
Jane Coll
Oblate of Pluscarden
