From the Friars: Prefer Nothing to Christ
The country is facing its worst economic decline in decades. Political leadership has been undermined by men, inept and incompetent. Corruption has been found at all levels of government. The population is declining due to disease and food shortages. Foreign nations are at the borders and indeed have penetrated them. The culture is collapsing, if not destroyed. Is there any hope? What is to be done amidst such lawlessness? Pray. Pray for holiness. Pray for saints.
Portrait of Saint Benedict, by Georges Jansoone – Public Domain, Link
I’m not describing America in 2024, but the end of the Roman Empire in the year 480, when Benedict of Nursia was born. This week’s saint (July 11th) was sent from Heaven to restore civilization and recreate it anew with the spirit of Christ. The monasteries he founded preserved learning and culture for centuries. The Rule he authored earned him the title of the “Father of Western Monasticism”. For his contribution to holiness and Western Civilization as a whole, Pope St. Paul VI named Benedict the Patron Saint of Europe in 1964. What can we learn from this great man to help us today?
“Listen, Son, to your Father.” These are the first words of his Rule. My sixth grade teacher often asked her students, “How do you spell success?” … L-I-S-T-E-N was her answer. We have to listen when instructions are being given or when advice is being shared. His well-known motto is “Ora et Labora”—pray and work. That is, give to God what is God’s and to your fellow man and neighbor, what is theirs. Order and prioritize your life well, and you will not suffer any lack. “Prefer nothing to Christ”… not my spouse, not my family, not my job, not my life, and especially, not my own sins. Put Christ first in your life and you will see the blessings flow in abundance.
Be humble. St. Benedict described twelve steps of humility in Chapter Seven of his Rule. Among some of these gems are, “Accept hardships with patience and endurance”… “Be happy not only in saying, but in believing that you are ‘inferior to all’”… “Speak gently, simply and modestly”. In these ways, we can pray and live like a saint…and restore civilization once again.
Rev. Andrew M. Beauregard, FPO