ST BENEDICT Today is the feast of St Benedict, Abbot and Patron of Europe. The photos show the bronze relief of St Benedict in the Cathedral. We pray especially for the disciples of St Benedict today, those sons and daughters of his who have chosen to find God through the observance of his Rule. We also remember the intentions of all monastics and hermits, as well as the people of Europe -- especially in this age of the New Evangelisation. We also pray for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who placed his pontificate under the protection of St Benedict. From a General Audience of Benedict XVIs (April 2008): Benedict, the Founder of Western Monasticism and also the Patron of my Pontificate ... with his life and his work, had a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture. ...After a short stay in the village of Enfide (today, Affile), where for a time he lived with a religious community of monks, he became a hermit in the neighbouring locality of Subiaco. He lived there completely alone for three years in a cave ... The period in Subiaco, a time of solitude with God, was a time of maturation for Benedict. It was here that he bore and overcame the three fundamental temptations of every human being: the temptation of self-affirmation and the desire to put oneself at the centre, the temptation of sensuality and, lastly, the temptation of anger and revenge. In fact, Benedict was convinced that only after overcoming these temptations would he be able to say a useful word to others about their own situations of neediness. Thus, having tranquilized his soul, he could be in full control of the drive of his ego and thus create peace around him. Only then did he decide to found his first monasteries in the Valley of the Anio, near Subiaco. ...St Benedicts life was steeped in an atmosphere of prayer, the foundation of his existence. Without prayer there is no experience of God. Yet Benedicts spirituality was not an interiority removed from reality ... Seeing God, he understood the reality of man and his mission ... Benedict states that in the first place prayer is an act of listening (Prol. 9-11), which must then be expressed in action ... Thus, the monks life becomes a fruitful symbiosis between action and contemplation, so that God may be glorified in all things (57, 9). In contrast with a facile and egocentric self-fulfilment, today often exalted, the first and indispensable commitment of a disciple of St Benedict is the sincere search for God (58, 7) on the path mapped out by the humble and obedient Christ (5, 13), whose love he must put before all else (4, 21; 72, 11), and in this way, in the service of the other, he becomes a man of service and peace. In the exercise of obedience practised by faith inspired by love (5, 2), the monk achieves humility (5, 1), to which the Rule dedicates an entire chapter (7). In this way, man conforms ever more to Christ and attains true self-fulfilment as a creature in the image and likeness of God.... St Benedict, pray for us
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:08:10 +0000