Holy Rule for March 11
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St. Mary's Monastery
Mar 10, 2026, 5:52:15 PM (3 days ago) Mar 10
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 11, July 11, November 10
Chapter 33: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
This vice especially is to be cut out of the monastery by the roots. Let no one presume to give or receive anything without the Abbot's leave, or to have anything as his own -- anything whatever, whether book or tablets or pen or whatever it may be -- since they are not permitted to have even their bodies or wills at their own disposal; but for all their necessities let them look to the Father of the monastery. And let it be unlawful to have anything which the Abbot has not given or allowed. Let all things be common to all, as it is written (Acts 4:32), and let no one say or assume that anything is his own. But if anyone is caught indulging in this most wicked vice, let him be admonished once and a second time. If he fails to amend, let him undergo punishment.
REFLECTION
There are certainly Gospel counsels to poverty: "Go, sell all that you have..." was the reading that led St. Anthony the Great into the desert. There are also ascetic benefits to any detachment, freeing one from reins that tie the spirit to earthbound stagnation. There are, however, very pragmatic reasons behind poverty, too.
If Communism had kept God and truly embraced equality, it might have worked! A lifelong student of the Romanovs (but not of economics,) I have never been able to figure out why Russia had such a hard time financially after the revolution. The wealth of the nobility was beyond the West's wildest dreams, even royalty was aghast at Russian splendor. Had that been resolutely dissolved and divided equitably, I have a hard time figuring out why so many were in such great need.
But, of course, the Bolsheviks did not keep God, which left their altruism for sharing wide open for human corruption to take over, which it did. George Orwell's parable, "Animal Farm" was right on the money: the pigs moved into the farmhouse and nothing changed except who was in charge, in fact, things actually got worse in the barnyard.
Aside from human jealousy, or from righteous indignation at unjust levels of economic dispersion, property possesses another characteristic which makes it very wise for monastics to seek to limit it. The world uses wealth and goods to establish rank, to confirm or sometimes to confer power. This view was neatly expressed by a tongue in cheek bumper sticker of a few years back: "The one who dies with the most toys wins."
The last thing a monastic needs is rank. The same goes for power, unless one is already very, very holy and very mature, wise enough to use either rank or power with sanctity. That's a point few of us have reached. Without that necessary growth in holiness, either rank or power can be absolutely fatal to the monastic search and struggle.
Our states in life demand different levels of goods. This is especially true of Oblates who are parents or spouses. We must never dare to force our simplicity on those beloved non-Oblates in our midst! Still, there are excellent examples of detachment and simplicity in the midst of plenty. Not all of them were canonized saints, either.
The last Grand Duchess of Russia, Olga, sister of Tsar Nicholas II, died in 1960. She was a picture of no-fuss simplicity all of her life, long before revolution and exile. She died in a friend's apartment in Toronto, above a beauty shop, not in the Winter Palace.
I doubt that she complained at all. Her primary interests had been being a colonel's wife and a mother to her two sons. Nothing else mattered to her. What little she had left was shared with admirable generosity. Of all the Imperial family, Olga was best suited to exile, because she had always been used to simplicity and even to hard work.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 11, July 11, November 10
Chapter 33: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
This vice especially is to be cut out of the monastery by the roots. Let no one presume to give or receive anything without the Abbot's leave, or to have anything as his own -- anything whatever, whether book or tablets or pen or whatever it may be -- since they are not permitted to have even their bodies or wills at their own disposal; but for all their necessities let them look to the Father of the monastery. And let it be unlawful to have anything which the Abbot has not given or allowed. Let all things be common to all, as it is written (Acts 4:32), and let no one say or assume that anything is his own. But if anyone is caught indulging in this most wicked vice, let him be admonished once and a second time. If he fails to amend, let him undergo punishment.
REFLECTION
There are certainly Gospel counsels to poverty: "Go, sell all that you have..." was the reading that led St. Anthony the Great into the desert. There are also ascetic benefits to any detachment, freeing one from reins that tie the spirit to earthbound stagnation. There are, however, very pragmatic reasons behind poverty, too.
If Communism had kept God and truly embraced equality, it might have worked! A lifelong student of the Romanovs (but not of economics,) I have never been able to figure out why Russia had such a hard time financially after the revolution. The wealth of the nobility was beyond the West's wildest dreams, even royalty was aghast at Russian splendor. Had that been resolutely dissolved and divided equitably, I have a hard time figuring out why so many were in such great need.
But, of course, the Bolsheviks did not keep God, which left their altruism for sharing wide open for human corruption to take over, which it did. George Orwell's parable, "Animal Farm" was right on the money: the pigs moved into the farmhouse and nothing changed except who was in charge, in fact, things actually got worse in the barnyard.
Aside from human jealousy, or from righteous indignation at unjust levels of economic dispersion, property possesses another characteristic which makes it very wise for monastics to seek to limit it. The world uses wealth and goods to establish rank, to confirm or sometimes to confer power. This view was neatly expressed by a tongue in cheek bumper sticker of a few years back: "The one who dies with the most toys wins."
The last thing a monastic needs is rank. The same goes for power, unless one is already very, very holy and very mature, wise enough to use either rank or power with sanctity. That's a point few of us have reached. Without that necessary growth in holiness, either rank or power can be absolutely fatal to the monastic search and struggle.
Our states in life demand different levels of goods. This is especially true of Oblates who are parents or spouses. We must never dare to force our simplicity on those beloved non-Oblates in our midst! Still, there are excellent examples of detachment and simplicity in the midst of plenty. Not all of them were canonized saints, either.
The last Grand Duchess of Russia, Olga, sister of Tsar Nicholas II, died in 1960. She was a picture of no-fuss simplicity all of her life, long before revolution and exile. She died in a friend's apartment in Toronto, above a beauty shop, not in the Winter Palace.
I doubt that she complained at all. Her primary interests had been being a colonel's wife and a mother to her two sons. Nothing else mattered to her. What little she had left was shared with admirable generosity. Of all the Imperial family, Olga was best suited to exile, because she had always been used to simplicity and even to hard work.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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