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

Continue from ...... BENEDICTINE SPIRITUALITY It will be helpful to consider briefly two major Benedictine reform movements, the Cluniac and the Cistercian reforms of the 10th and 12th centuries respectively. The Cluniac reform chiefly concerned certain governmental and liturgical aspects of the Benedictine life and organisation. During the feudal age many monasteries developed large and valuable land holdings. Abbots came to control vast resources of wealth and powers, and this caused serious troubles and disorders. The Cluny reform created a centralised federation of monasteries by affliliating smaller houses with larger ones. Ultimately there were fifteen hundred monasteries in western Europe affiliated with Cluny. The effect of this was to shake off the secular and episcopal control of the monastries. It freed them from the political involvements in which they had become entangled. Another important aspect of the Cluny reform was a greatly increased emphasis on the liturgy. Long, elaborate, and magnificently performed liturgical ceremonies were developed. The Divine Office grew beyond what St Benedict had perscribed and the prayer element grew to such proportions that it almost eliminated the work element in Benedictine life, and the original balance was lost. The Cistercian reform began around 1100 and was chiefly an effort to return to the original monastic life as presecibed by St Benedict. The reformers wanted a literal interpretation of the Holy Rule. This meant removing the accretions to the Divine Office which had come in with Cluny. It meant a return to primitive manual labour in the fields, preferably farm work over manuscript work or teaching; a return to the simple poor life of interior personal sanctification; and a return to solitude, locating the monastery in a remote place. The Cistercians cut off many of the sources of property, wealth, and power which had come to many of the monasteries. In conclusion the spiritual ideal of the Benedictine Rule is achieved through the living of the perfect Christian life in a regular balanced cycle of meditative reading of the sacred scripture interspersed with work and the whole life regulated by the chanting of the Divine Office in choir. The Benedictines consider that any overemphasis or underemphasis on any one of these elements is a departure from the ideal of St Benedict. What is noticeable is a certain polarity in reform and renewal and this is pertinent today. One pole in the effort of renewal is the spirit and the words and the writings of the founder. The other pole in reform is the demands of the times, and the demands of the Church in light of the Holy Spirit. These two interact, but the question remains, how are they to be balanced harmoniously so as to preserve both values.

- To Be Continued -