Monastic Tools for Living Holy Week

In a certain sense, we are all monks now.

We have been asked to quarantine and distance ourselves from the outside world for the sake of our lives and the life of the world. St. Benedict calls this the cloister. We live with the same faces and the same four walls every day. St. Benedict calls this stability. We no longer choose the most basic things about how we work and what we can do with our bodies. St. Benedict calls this obedience. And all of this invites us to change. St. Benedict calls this conversatio morum. What kind of change? From fear to love. In front of the news that daily reminds us that death is a reality we cannot avoid, St. Benedict would have us “Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire” (RB 4:46).

The difference between the mentality which the Bible calls “the world” and that embodied in St. Benedict (that is to say, the Christian mentality) is that these are positive proposals which can help us on our way to eternal life. Pope Francis told us during the Urbi et Orbi, “Faith begins when we realise we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we flounder: we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars.” But recognizing our need for the stars and following their direction does not happen automatically, which is why St. Benedict, in the opening sentence of the Rule, invites the prospective monk to freely take up (libenter excipe) his advice, the advice of a loving father (pii patris).

Therefore, this Holy Week we invite you to freely take up the monastic tools below. To help you do this we have included notes below on each of them to clarify what it invites us to live together (the star, so to speak). Understanding the reason for each tool will help to freely discern what living it will look like in your circumstances and will help in being faithful to it. For instance, perhaps your family is unable to pray all the Liturgy of the Hours with us. Knowing the value of remembering God at the beginning and ending of the day can help you choose the ones you can pray (e.g. morning prayer and evening prayer or compline). Or perhaps you have to work on Good Friday and cannot keep silence during the day. Understanding St. Benedict’s teaching on silence can help you stay in the spirit of silence during your work and remain united with all of us in Christ.

Most importantly, let us pay attention to the last tool St. Benedict gives in his chapter on “The Tools for Good Works”: “And finally, never lose hope in God’s mercy” (RB 4:74). To live by a rule is not to expect perfection from ourselves but to give ourselves opportunities to say Yes to His perfect love and discover its embrace. When we fail, we offer this too to Christ, we ask for His embrace again, the grace of forgiveness. When others fail we do the same. There may be boredom, tears, and harsh words (this is true both for the children and the adults). This is part of the journey. It is an opportunity to ask for and discover His grace and the depths of His mercy again. And if we do use “the tools of the spiritual craft”, St. Benedict tells us, “...our wages will be the reward the Lord has promised: What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9)” (RB 4:75-77).

SUGGESTIONS:

• Read through this booklet, especially this section on monastic tools, together with anyone who may be participating with you in your house, to understand why each tool is proposed. • Note what you can take up. If possible, print the schedule and consider each event. Highlight each event you will take up. • Note how you will take it up. • For example, you will watch the conferences but your work or time zone prevent you from attending live. Write the new time when you will watch it next to the conference under MY TIME. This is “my time” which I am offering to God to become God’s time. • Or you want to do silence but can only do one period of time and so want to lengthen it. Write it down. • Or with your work and family obligations a shorter morning and evening prayer are the most realistic, picking one or two psalms from each to pray slowly and thoughtfully. Write down when you will pray these. • Post your personal Holy Week Schedule and stick to it: At the end of this you should have your own household’s schedule for Holy Week based on the one proposed. Tape your new Holy Week schedule somewhere everyone participating can see it, such as the refrigerator.