Faith: The Rule of Saint Benedict for the Twitter Age?

 

Late last year, had the chance to interact with Greg Richardson at our church day retreat. Richardson who goes by the name "the Strategic Monk" is a lay oblate of the Benedictine order. There are Benedictine monks who reside in traditional monastic communities. However, one can adhere to "The Rule of St. Benedict," be associated with a particular monastic community but live out in a regular profession which is what he does, hence, he is a lay oblate.

The rule is the guide by which a particular community lives. For example, you can read about the Rule of St. Francis that guide the Franciscan friars or the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert. The Rule of Benedict has been translated into English and can be found in various printed editions and in many languages online. I found the edition pictured above in the library and am reading through it now. What I'll attempt to do is summarize the "rules" in Twitter sized bites. I wonder how St. Benedict would react to such an idea? In any case, I hope some of the ancient wisdom will be helpful for us 21st century folks!

To monitor the progress of this series of posts look here under the label rule of benedict or at my Twitter @a4theroad #ruleofbenedict