Benedict
calls it a “little rule for beginners”.
It is a gentle and humane rule, offering a path
to God for those who want to find true life. It
is also demanding. It insists that a monk give
up self-will and always seek to do what is good
for another. By the road of obedience we try to
return to God from whom we know it is all too easy
to stray. It teaches us to put Jesus Christ at
the centre of our lives, to listen to his guidance
in everything we do. This is where Benedict's experience
as a hermit comes in: this was the long period
in his earlier life in which he learnt to live
with God and by prayer to be a man of God.
Much of the Rule is practical, to help in the daily
organization of the monastery: e.g. the way we should
arrange times of common prayer, how to choose the
Abbot, how to receive new members. But Benedict always
tries to ground his practical arrangements in his
sense of God and an understanding of Jesus. Much
is also of more obviously spiritual value, such as
advice on attitudes in prayer, on growth in humility,
on good and bad zeal in our relations with each other.
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