Lenten Watchfires: An Ordered Life with St. Benedict

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Lenten Watchfires is a Lenten series based on the Beatitudes and the lives of the saints following the delightful picture book Rejoice and Be Glad! If you missed the first installments you can find them here: Saint Francis of Assisi,Saint Peter, Saint Juan Diego.

This week we will journey with Saint Benedict of Nursia, the father of western monasticism. The rule of Saint Benedict has been in place by well over a thousand years and still shines to this day. Even if we do not lead a monastic life there are truths that apply to us as well, no matter our vocation. And my favorite one from Saint Benedict is Ora et Labora: work and pray.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Don’t you hate it when a dictionary definition leads you to looking up one word, and one more word, lol? Well this is the case for me with this Beatitude. What is righteousness? It is, according to the Cambridge dictionary, “doing what is morally right”. Ok, great but what does it mean “morally”? Per the same source, it is to base “our actions on principles that you or people in general consider to be right, honest, or acceptable. Ah now I get it! Righteousness is ordering my life and decisions based on godly principles.

To seek righteousness

To seek righteousness is to always do my best to form my conscience: to know what the Lord teaches, what the Church teaches and how to apply it in my life. That is a tall order and one that I will pursue for the rest of my life. But we have already started the process with Lectio Divina and are learning straight from Jesus. Reading from the Bible, the lives of the Saints and the Catechism are the best ways to form my conscience. Listening well to the homily at Mass is another great source of learning.

A formed conscience

To have a properly formed conscience allows us to understand how to react and behave in unexpected situations as well as in daily life. If temptations arise, our conscience is there to help us overcome and direct our actions to be righteous ones. Without a properly formed conscience we cannot follow God’s will for our life and we cannot have a properly ordered life. To have a properly ordered life is essential to attain sanctity. We have to put our life in order to heed God’s call to “come and follow Him”.

Ordered relationships

I love that in Rejoice and Be Glad! Rachel Schluenderfritz encourages us to order our relationships. To have properly ordered relationships with the Lord, others and our environment is crucial to a well balanced, healthy life. As Catholics we are called to order our life as follows:
God first, always
Our vocation: for me it is my husband, then my children
Our work: notice how it comes AFTER our family even if we work FOR our family, the family is still the most important. 
Our pleasure: hobbies, past times, pets, etc…
If we maintain a proper order in our life we follow a path to righteousness. And yes there are times things get a little muddled. But keep God first and return to an ordered life as soon as possible.

Saint Benedict

He was a young Italian nobleman in the late 400s who, tired of the depravity he witnessed in the world, decided to become a hermit. Soon many men asked to follow him. Seeing his community grow, Saint Benedict wrote a beautiful rule of life for his brother monks. This rule allowed them to order their daily life to follow in the path of their vocation. And even though we are not called to duplicate a monastic life in our home, we can inspire ourselves from this rule to seek righteousness. For me his motto of “Ora et labora” has been one that I have tried to apply to my life as much as possible. To pray and work is very fitting to the life of a homemaker, wife and mother. I am always busy and offering my work as a prayer helps me to find many opportunities to pray while working. Even if it is just a small ejaculation of “Jesus, help me!” at the beginning of a new task. Saint Benedict had a remarkable talent to be relatable to both lay and religious people.

My favorite aspect of Saint Benedict’s life, aside from his motto, was his relationship with his twin sister, Saint Scholastica. They had a very ordered relationship and the Lord took Saint Scholastica’s side when Saint Benedict would not. That alone makes me smile, how the Lord helps us to stay on track sometimes! Discover this great saint and his incredible life this week. Our favorite is the Holy Twins by Kathleen Norris and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. The Merry Beggars also have a wonderful biography of Saint Benedict that is a pleasure to listen to (and it’s free!).
I am praying for you.
Love,
Mattie