Holy Rule for March 20
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St. Mary's Monastery
Mar 19, 2026, 5:13:07 PMMar 19
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 20, July 20, November 19
Chapter 41: At What Hours the Meals Should Be Taken
From Holy Easter until Pentecost let the brothers take dinner at the sixth hour and supper in the evening. From Pentecost throughout the summer, unless the monks have work in the fields let them fast on Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour; on the other days let them dine at the sixth hour. This dinner at the sixth hour shall be the daily schedule if they have work in the fields or the heat of summer is extreme; the Abbot's foresight shall decide on this. Thus it is that he should adapt and arrange everything in such a way that souls may be saved and that the brethren may do their work without just cause for murmuring. From the Ides of September until the beginning of Lent let them always take their dinner at the ninth hour. In Lent until Easter let them dine in the evening. But this evening hour shall be so determined that they will not need the light of a lamp while eating, Indeed at all seasons let the hour, whether for supper or for dinner, be so arranged that everything will be done by daylight.
REFLECTION
While I wrote this largely about the US, it is, in many points, very easily applied to the developed world in general. I am trying to become more and more conscious of my international audience!
In the US, we can be so glutted with food. Far from want, we are surrounded, even bombarded with plenty- and not all of it that nourishing! Consumerist marketing turns things upside down: food becomes more or less solely for pleasure, not need.
It's a fair guess that this attitude to food in the US has influenced our attitude to fasting negatively. Now we look on the least thing as a dreadful privation, when those of us Roman Catholics who are of a certain age can clearly recall meatless Fridays every week, all year and fasting from midnight on water only for Communion, even if you were just 7 years old!!
When the US Bishops addressed the issue of Friday abstinence, they did not abolish it. They merely said some other form of penance might be substituted. Whoops! That got lost in a big hurry. How many of us Catholics do something penitential on Friday when we do not abstain from meat? Might be time to take a really hard look at that. If you do not abstain from meat, make sure you have some other form of penance on Fridays.
It is worthy of note that Friday abstinence is of the Church, not the Holy Rule. It might be safely re-instituted, with careful explanation as to WHY we do it, for whole families. The meatless idea might be easiest for many, but what if something else in addition was done to really set Friday apart? Add a devotional family practice like Scripture sharing or the Rosary. Find something that works for you and then be faithful to it.
Our spirits are like our bodies in many respects. If we get soft, we get weak, if we get lazy, our energy actually diminishes while our total lives suffer from that inactivity. That's why Christian life itself, not just monastic life, is a life requiring a fair amount of discipline, of pushing oneself, of self-denial. Those values still exist in the secular world, but are usually only invoked for profit, fame, power or sex. See what I mean? We need badly to get our acts together in the affluent, developed nations.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 20, July 20, November 19
Chapter 41: At What Hours the Meals Should Be Taken
From Holy Easter until Pentecost let the brothers take dinner at the sixth hour and supper in the evening. From Pentecost throughout the summer, unless the monks have work in the fields let them fast on Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour; on the other days let them dine at the sixth hour. This dinner at the sixth hour shall be the daily schedule if they have work in the fields or the heat of summer is extreme; the Abbot's foresight shall decide on this. Thus it is that he should adapt and arrange everything in such a way that souls may be saved and that the brethren may do their work without just cause for murmuring. From the Ides of September until the beginning of Lent let them always take their dinner at the ninth hour. In Lent until Easter let them dine in the evening. But this evening hour shall be so determined that they will not need the light of a lamp while eating, Indeed at all seasons let the hour, whether for supper or for dinner, be so arranged that everything will be done by daylight.
REFLECTION
While I wrote this largely about the US, it is, in many points, very easily applied to the developed world in general. I am trying to become more and more conscious of my international audience!
In the US, we can be so glutted with food. Far from want, we are surrounded, even bombarded with plenty- and not all of it that nourishing! Consumerist marketing turns things upside down: food becomes more or less solely for pleasure, not need.
It's a fair guess that this attitude to food in the US has influenced our attitude to fasting negatively. Now we look on the least thing as a dreadful privation, when those of us Roman Catholics who are of a certain age can clearly recall meatless Fridays every week, all year and fasting from midnight on water only for Communion, even if you were just 7 years old!!
When the US Bishops addressed the issue of Friday abstinence, they did not abolish it. They merely said some other form of penance might be substituted. Whoops! That got lost in a big hurry. How many of us Catholics do something penitential on Friday when we do not abstain from meat? Might be time to take a really hard look at that. If you do not abstain from meat, make sure you have some other form of penance on Fridays.
It is worthy of note that Friday abstinence is of the Church, not the Holy Rule. It might be safely re-instituted, with careful explanation as to WHY we do it, for whole families. The meatless idea might be easiest for many, but what if something else in addition was done to really set Friday apart? Add a devotional family practice like Scripture sharing or the Rosary. Find something that works for you and then be faithful to it.
Our spirits are like our bodies in many respects. If we get soft, we get weak, if we get lazy, our energy actually diminishes while our total lives suffer from that inactivity. That's why Christian life itself, not just monastic life, is a life requiring a fair amount of discipline, of pushing oneself, of self-denial. Those values still exist in the secular world, but are usually only invoked for profit, fame, power or sex. See what I mean? We need badly to get our acts together in the affluent, developed nations.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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