Holy Rule for February 26

[St. Mary's Monastery]

+PAX
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule

February 26 (or 27), June 28, October 28
Chapter 21: On the Deans of the Monastery

If the community is a large one, let there be chosen out of it brethren of good repute and holy life, and let them be appointed deans. These shall take charge of their deaneries in all things, observing the commandments of God and the instructions of their Abbot.

Let men of such character be chosen deans that the Abbot may with confidence share his burdens among them. Let them be chosen not by rank but according to their worthiness of life and the wisdom of their doctrine.

If any of these deans should become inflated with pride and found deserving of censure, let him be corrected once, and again, and a third time. If he will not amend, then let him be deposed and another be put in his place who is worthy of it.

And we order the same to be done in the case of the Prior.

REFLECTION

Did anyone read this as I did at first, many years ago, and wonder: "Why did St. Benedict give them an academic name like "deans"? Well, it was probably the other way around! Since the first schools were monastic ones, it is quite likely that the term "dean" entered academia via the Holy Rule!

Surely the academic gown of today is a modified form of our Benedictine choir robe, the cowl or cuculla. In fact, Benedictines used to wear their cucullas with the appropriate academic hoods as their formal dress at graduations and the like. With all due respect to the Johnny-come-latelies like the Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits, when they don full academic regalia, they're wearing a derived form of our choir habit!

But, enough of trivia...This chapter repeats another important consideration in St. Benedict's plan: people are not to be overburdened. This theme is less noticeable than the more important ones of moderation and the like, but it is there. Again and again, the Holy Rule says that people should have help with their charges; certain officials should even be exempted from serving in the refectory.

Two things are going on here, both very important. Surely the first is kindness, gentle consideration for human frailty. The second, however, is every bit as defining and important: we are not our work, we are not our jobs, our vocation and worth is only connected to such things tangentially at best. Our motto is Prayer AND Work. The message is that neither of these should make the other impossible.

This message is equally important for both choir monastics and Oblates. If your work is so much that your prayer suffers, something is wrong. However, especially true for those of us in the secular world, if your prayer is so much that your job or children or marriage suffers, something is REALLY wrong. If your work deprives your family or spouse, it might be time to look at changing it, time to rearrange goals and priorities a bit.

One of the occasional problems of modern life everywhere is not just that we are too busy, but that we FOCUS too much attachment and will on stuff that really doesn't matter. Change that focus. Picture your job today if you had died yesterday. The important stuff would still get done by someone else. The rest, your own agenda, would go merrily down the tubes.

Well, learn from that! A LOT of our own agendas are worth little more than that: going down the tubes. So why waste so much time and spiritual and emotional energy on them? As it does so frequently, the Holy Rule and Benedictine life tell us: "Get real!"

Train yourself - and it is not always easy- to learn what NOT to care about at all, what does not, and should not matter one bit. That is the detachment that is truly holy. It is not all that hard to learn, either, if one keeps at it and asks God for His grace, without which we can do nothing good.

Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)