Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life

Raila, Donald S.

Sacred Winds Press

Part of a collection written over twenty years, Lessons from Saint Benedict contains 26 letters written by Donald Raila, O.S.B., a Benedictine monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey. Using the 1500-year-old Rule of Benedict and Benedictine spirituality as his foundation, Father Donald offers words of spiritual encouragement and guidance for persevering through the journey of daily life. With the Gospel and Rule of Benedict as guides, Raila says, we can learn to see God's graces in every dimension of our lives, even the most seemingly mundane. Father Donald provides both serious and light-hearted examples from his own life to demonstrate how we can renew and strengthen our spirituality through the daily grind, and perhaps even find joy in the process.
Foreword, by Father Benedict GroeschelWho can deny that the rule of Saint Benedict is one of the great treasures of the Church? It is a wonderfully balanced approach to growing in faith and prayerfulness, and there can be no doubt that it has brought many people closer to Christ over many centuries. Yet often we think that this rule can be employed only within the confines of the cloister. Composed by the Father of Western Monasticism over fifteen hundred years ago, the Rule of Saint Benedict may seem at first glance to be distant from our contemporary life, and we may assume that it has little to say to us. In fact, however, the exact opposite is true. The calm and balance inherent in the Rule of Saint Benedict can be of great benefit to each of us – priest, religious, or layman – as we strive to bring order and perhaps even a moment or two of peace into our relentlessly driven post-modern lives. The Rule of Saint Benedict has helped countless people in their endeavor to turn from the clamoring of the world to the serenity of God. It can help us, as well.
In Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life Fr. Donald S. Raila, OSB offers us a beautiful and gentle distillation of some of the most important elements of this magnificent rule. Drawing on his long experience as Director of Oblates at Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he presents the Rule in a way that is not only comprehensible to contemporary lay people but is manageable by them, as well. His examples are relevant and helpful, and he is very adept at showing us how to examine our lives in terms of the Rule in a way that exposes our many foibles and failings – things that keep us separated from God but which we rarely even notice. He shows us again and again ways to recognize and eventually even overcome those things that impede our spiritual growth. This is a slender volume of meditations, but its size is deceptive. If properly used it can make a real difference in the lives of many people.
I am very pleased that Father Raila has collected some of his writings and agreed to let them be published here. I am also very excited to see that the works of Blessed Dom Columba Marmion, one of the greatest of Benedictine spiritual writers, are currently being reissued in new translations that are accessible to the modern reader.
Perhaps we are seeing signs of a Benedictine renaissance, an increase in interest in the work of Saint Benedict and the great Benedictine tradition. I hope this is the case, for as Father Raila shows so well, the magnificent Rule of Saint Benedict has the potential to enrich every Christian life and to bring real and lasting joy into every Christian soul.
As a Franciscan I am very aware that my own Seraphic Father was raised by the Benedictines. Even his home parish was attached to a Benedictine abbey, and the Benedictine influence in Saint Francis’s life must have been strong. It has always been my belief that these two great traditions, the Benedictine and the Franciscan, complement each other well and beautifully satisfy both the contemplative and evangelical vocations.

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

The Study Guide to Lessons from Saint Benedict is an excellent resource for groups and individuals who would like to further their studies and enhance spiritual growth through Father Donald Raila's book Lessons from Saint Benedict. Each chapter includes three study questions and three suggested activities designed to encourage group discussions and individual reflections.

The Study Guide to Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

The Rule in Bits and Pieces

"The Rule in Bits and Pieces" is a collection of over 140 reflections covering every chapter of the Holy Rule of St. Benedict. In this collection, Father Donald Raila, O.S.B. has brought together a diversity of contributions from the Benedictine monks and Oblates of Saint Vincent Archabbey. Each contributor expresses his or her unique understanding of the power of the Rule as a tool for directing our daily, 21st century lives towards balance and fullness in Christ. Through these reflections, we see the inspiration and genius of St. Benedict in creating a daily rigor of prayer and work that supports our physical and emotional needs and furthers us along the path of spiritual development.Selected Text from the IntroductionSome Christians have undertaken the task of simply reading the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation over a set period of time. Some of them have attested to the value of this kind of spiritual exercise. However, such a marathon of reading, which would be difficult to pursue with ample time for prayerful reflection, may not be the best way to approach the Bible, at least not for most people. In most circumstances, it is more productive to read slowly and prayerfully and to take just a word, a phrase, a verse, or perhaps (at most) a few verses at a time. This method of lectio divina helps the Christian devoted to God’s word to be a true listener and to enter into dialogue with God Himself.The same principle might be applied to reading the Rule of Saint Benedict. It has been authoritatively said that because it was written in a prayerful spirit, so to speak as lectio divina, it should also be read as lectio divina. Thus it is best to read the Rule in small portions, slowly and reflectively. Many monks and Oblates have taken on the traditional custom of reading one of 122 sections of the Rule each day. This pre-established division of the Rule enables the reader to cover the whole document three times a year.It is hoped that this book will assist many Oblates (and others who are attracted to the Rule) to read the Rule more fruitfully and to gain more personal meaning from it. By approaching it with greater comprehension and personal insight, the reader may be led to deeper conversion as a Christian and thus also to greater ability to share his or her faith with others. In this era of “New Evangelization,” may this little work help Oblates and monks to cooperate more fully with God’s lavish graces in the little things that they do each day and thus to become better beacons of hope in a world immersed in much hopelessness stemming from the “culture of death.”Finally, it might be appropriate to mention here that the Rule of Saint Benedict is not a “rule book” (as some call it) or a “book of rules.” Nor is it correct to call the chapters “Rule Number 1,” “Rule Number 2,” etc. (as some people tend to do). The Rule is a book of Christian wisdom, based largely on Scripture as well as on several centuries of monastic tradition. It is to be savored, prayed over, and lived out. Indeed, there are many regulations, but these are not generally followed literally today; many of them could not be. However, beneath the regulations and beneath all the passages of the Rule are underlying values which remain relevant for monks and Oblates today. The purpose of reading the Rule is not so much to establish rules for oneself (although in some cases that may be a praiseworthy outcome) as to encounter God, to listen to God, and to participate in His loving plan more wholeheartedly. Reading the Rule in short sections can help the Christian pilgrim to tap into the underlying wisdom in each section and to apply it to daily life. Pondered in “bits and pieces,” the Rule can become a channel of “living water” (cf. Jn 4:10), of graces from Christ that open the heart to ever deeper conversion in His love. ...

The Rule in Bits and Pieces is a collection of over 140 reflections covering every chapter of the Holy Rule of St. Benedict. In this collection, Father Donald Raila, O.S.B. has brought together a diversity of contributions from the Benedictine monks and Oblates of Saint Vincent Archabbey. Each contributor expresses his or her unique understanding of the power of the Rule as a tool for directing our daily, 21st century lives towards balance and fullness in Christ. Through these reflections, we see the inspiration and genius of St. Benedict in creating a daily rigor of prayer and work that supports our physical and emotional needs and furthers us along the path of spiritual development.

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Books by Raila, Donald S.

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Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life

Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life

The Study Guide to Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life

The Rule in Bits and Pieces

The Rule in Bits and Pieces