Jul 2004 Christian Spirituality      Continued from previous issue By George A Lane SJ

Continue from ...... BENEDICTINE SPIRITUALITY Very early in Benedictine history definite departures were made from the way of life we have just described. These departures from the original concept can be viewed either as a deviation from or a development of the Benedictine way of life. The first departure came when Pope Gregory the Great called upon St Augustine and the Benedictines to evangelize England. When the pope desired to send missionaries to England, the only really organized group of men whom he could call upon were the Benedictines. The pope called on them and thus initiated the great evangelization of England, and eventually much of northern Europe by the great Benedictine saints Augustine of Canterbury, Benet, Bede, Boniface, and many more. The missionary apostolate called for the priest-monk. And the response to this demand eventually changed the Benedictines from a lay to a predominantly clerical institute. Preparation for the priesthood then introduced the need for teachers, books, learning, libraries, and the whole ideal of study as work in the monastery. The work element in the monastery began to change from farm work to intelletual work. Classes which originally served for the training of the priest-monk eventually developed into schools for extern students. The great tradition of the monastery school developed during the Middle Ages. Teaching, study, and manuscript work grew to such proportions that they almost entirely displaced the manual work, and lay help was secured to work the fields of the monasteries. Under the missionary demand of the Church, the spiritual ideal shifts from personal sanatification for the individual to apostolic ministry in the service of the Church. Are all of these changes departures from or legitimate developments of the Benedictine way of life? Dom Hubert Van Zeller and others view these changes as contrary to the original ideal. Yet other Benedictines think they are genuine developments of it. One needs a good working theory of renewal and development in order to evaluate such changes as these.

- To Be Continued -