What's a Benedictine?

When I was first thinking of entering the monastery, I was often asked the question, “What do Benedictines do?” It’s a question that people still ask me periodically. I find it both simple and hard to give an answer.

It’s simple because Benedictines are committed to seeking God through a life of prayer, work and community living. It’s hard because we don’t “do” a particular thing. We are not, for instance, a teaching or nursing order, although many Benedictines are teachers and quite a few work in health care.

When it comes down to definitions, a Benedictine monastic vocation is not essentially about doing; it’s about being. Work is one of the ways that we seek God, but it’s not the reason for the existence of the Benedictine order. Primarily, we live together as a Christian community, following the teachings of Christ as laid down in the Rule of Benedict. We pray together, share a common table and try to adopt a pattern of life which enables each one of us to find a framework to assist in our journey to God. We desire to reach out to others through our liturgies and our ministries because we want others to be able to share the many positive things about Benedictine monastic life which are transferable to life outside the monastery. These are values such as awareness of God, peace, hospitality, love of learning, etc. But we can really only share these values by living them out day by day so that people can see that it’s a good way to be, a way to show God’s love in a troubled world.

For me, being a Benedictine is a work in progress. There are many challenges, such as managing relationships in community, my prayer life, the demands of work and the need for leisure. I struggle at times to not feel overwhelmed by all the things I have to do. Yet, as I look back over 10 years of professed life, I can see a consistent thread, which is the desire to keep drawing closer to God and a deepening understanding that it is only as I live more and more unreservedly into the life that I’m able to appreciate how it’s helping me to get there.

Karen Rose, OSB                                                                               May 31, 2019