Benedictine rule still golden

Judith Valente, an award-winning author and journalist, spoke at Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church on March 23 about “How to Live: What The Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning, and Community.” The presentation was part of a Lenten retreat sponsored by The Benedictine OKC Oblates of Mount Saint Scholastica Monastery.
 
Using poetry and images, Valente explored how to live a more contemplative life by incorporating the Benedictine values of listening, community building, prayer and praise into daily living. She is a lay associate of the Benedictine monastery Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison, Kan.
 
“I like to say right at the start that I don’t speak out of any wealth of wisdom I possess, but out of the poverty of my own struggle to understand what it is to live a Gospel-oriented life,” Valente said. “I’m here today mainly as a guide. We give the retreat to each other. For it is through our collective wisdom as a community that we each learn and grow.”
 
Then, she asked, “Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?”
 
The passage comes at the beginning of The Rule of Saint Benedict, who wrote his rule for monastic living in the 6 ^th century.
 
“The Benedictine Rule has endured because although the words remain the same, the message will alter with time, corresponding to what we need to hear. Like a great poem, the rule lives. It breathes. Its words don’t change. Its words change us,” Valente said.
 
Valente suggested spending time consciously practicing less talking and more listening. Being a good listener means being interested in the other person’s story, “not who am I, but who are you?” 
 
“Saint Benedict asks us to arise and wake up to the people around us. One of the greatest gifts we can give to others is to let them know we see them, we hear them. That is the sensitivity and wakefulness to which ‘the rule’ calls us,” she said.
 
During the retreat, participants spent time in reflection and small group discussions. Rebecca James said she attended because, “I am delving deeper into spiritual life. But, it is the idea that the spiritual awakening or maturing spiritual life is a process. It is a slow journey in the same direction,” she said.
 
During the second session, Valente talked about community, which “is at the heart of monastic life.”
 
“My friend Sister Thomasita Homan once described community as ‘a place where people agree to link arms, support one another and help each other grow.’ But, community also is something you construct, small decency by small decency,” she said.

“I often say you can sum up the entire message of the rule in one sentence, ‘Be the first to show respect to the other, supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior,’” Valente said. “Because the core message of the rule is that community matters.”
 
In one of Saint Benedict’s most famous passages he says, “All guests who present themselves are to be received as Christ, who said, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’”
 
Valente suggested truly acknowledging people coming into Mass when greeting them. During the sign of peace, focus on the person you are greeting. Ask often, ‘how can I welcome a stranger in my midst?’”
 
Judy Hilovsky is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic. 

Photo: Judith Valente