the last time about the three stages or rams, spiritual rams, not enthusiastic rams, spiritual rams within the Christian body, those Christians who live a Christian life in the world, and those who leave the world live their life as a community, as cenobites, responding to all the vita activa. And then the hermits, those who are tested by the communists, purified from their selfishness, so that they are able to live a life in solitude, not as an escape from charity, but as fullness of charity, more united to the Church even than those who live the Vita Communis.

[01:22]

So these three stages, the life in the world, diet, in the monasterium and the life in solitude. These three stages which Saint Benedict legislates for the vita activa, for the life in the monasterium. Intra clausura, the enclosure. And only there we can expect a law because life in solitude of the hermit is beyond the written law that is under the holy spirit exclusively and we said that these three stages in some way correspond to the what we usually distinguish as the basic stages of the spiritual life as a whole evita purgativa

[02:27]

Illuminativa and Unitiva. The Vierda Purgativa is the life of penance, conversion from the devil to Christ. It's that life which is indicated or lived in the first period of Lent Dealed with the exorcisms, fight against the devil, evident first Sunday of Lent, third Sunday of Lent, fight against the tempter, against the demons. And then in the second stage, the Vita Illuminativa, as lived in the second half of the Lenten season, where the Traditio simuli, the Traditio of the Pater Noster, the prayer, and the Traditio of the Four Gospels dominate the scene, as it were.

[03:48]

That is the illumination, catechesis, the instruction, the elements of the truth. First is renouncing the devil. Second, turning to Christ as the light, as the way, expressed not in the virtue of penance but in that of faith. the third stage after Easter in 50 days, the Pentecost Day, the Alleluia, which is again etrically marked by two periods. The Easter week has a kind of place by itself. It is the week which in some way makes the transition from the catechesis to the Vita Unitiva of the 50 days, that initiation into the mystery, what we may call the Gnosis, Christian Gnosis, deeper knowledge of the Christian is based on the sacraments, especially on that of the Eucharist and the

[05:10]

indoctrination concerning the Eucharist as the sacramentum unionis as reserved by the Church for the week after Easter, the Octagon. And in that way then the way to the Alleluia is open. So one can see from this right away that when we say that the life of the Christian in the world corresponds to the vita purgativa, by that we do not mean that the life of the Christian in the world is exclusively and only vita purgativa. It isn't, but it is the predominant feature not bare of the spirit of union, not bare of the illumination, certainly, because every baptized Christian, every confirmed Christian is called to the participation in the Eucharist, which ends in communion, so that the only Tiva is really sacramentally

[06:28]

part of the existence of every Christian as member and as belonging to the messianic age not belonging anymore to the time of preparation and expectations the old testament was so we live and every Christian lives in that fullness but nevertheless life of the Christian in the world naturally is a life of battle. The pattern, the external pattern of his life is determined by the survival, the struggle that he has, his obligations towards his family, towards his children, taking care of their bodily needs and his profession. and all that, of course, creates a pattern of life into which then the Christian tries to fit

[07:31]

Christ as much as possible and as well as possible, the Church helps him in that by instituting the Sunday as the eighth day, as the day in which the Christian should feel and live the grace of union, vita illuminativa and unitiva, through the participation in the doctrine, listening to the sermon, and the participation in the Holy Eucharist, the Vita Unita, the Sebe Holy Communion. So there is a certain, certainly also there, but the basic pattern is that of the six days of the working week, the six that belongs to this work. So therefore it's the fight against the devil, the fight against temptations. It is the dying and rising with Christ.

[08:36]

All these things dominate the life of the creature in the world. Now the monk, is called into the cloister, that cloister, the clausura, is a worldwide self, is ordered in such a way that Christ is the Dominus. Monastery is the visible manifestation of Christ's Lordship here on earth. The meaning of the rule is that everything in the life of the monk, his internal spiritual life, and his external life, his bodily life, his community life, his contact with others, his share in the labors of man, that all that may be under the

[09:42]

shaped according to the Holy Spirit as the predominant factor. This life we call the Vita in the old terminology we call that the Vita Activa. But we should not forget that of course in our present terminology we would call that maybe already the contemplative life. because the distinctive feature of that life is that one leaves the world and goes into the enclosure, therefore leaves the world, and with that leaves the pattern of the world, the purposes, the aims of nature, and one concentrates on the Kingdom of God. You know that in his first collation, Cassian speaks about the purpose of this monastic life and he mentions in this first collation that monastic life is as any other life

[11:05]

professional life. It is a profession. Therefore, the one who enters it, he knows what and why he is working, and he knows the method. Cassian says it's just as if a man who decides to become a farmer has to start, has to fight, has to plan, and has to take the good days take the bad days that he has at one season he has to cultivate the fields to plough another season he has to sow another season he has to harvest and all that he does and all the hardships it involves and all the disappointments it involves because this is my profession this is the way the pattern of my life is the way in which I by place, or the same way also somebody who becomes a teacher or any other profession, he has to go through the stages, learning and trying out, and in this way perfecting his art.

[12:24]

And so also is the monastic life and art. and just as the one who has in mind a clear perception of his worldly calling or his worldly profession, and then for the sake of following that profession he takes upon himself all the various detours that are necessary, the renunciations that are necessary in order to learn, So he distinguishes between the essence of perfection in his profession and the various accidentals of getting there, and takes the latter in order to fulfill the first. So also the one who takes the profession of a monk has a goal in mind, and for this goal he is willing to pay the price.

[13:27]

And then Albert Moses asks, you know, those who come to him, he says, now, what do you think, what is the goal of the monastic life? And then they immediately answer all, well, it's the kingdom of heaven. But Albert Moses is not satisfied with that answer. He says, that's the last goal, yes. But the ways of the profession, of a specific profession are rather determined by what we may call the finis intermedius, or the immediate end of a profession, not the last. The kingdom of heaven in some ways is the goal of every Christian, but what distinguishes the monk From the rest, outside in the world, you also fight for the kingdom of heaven. What is the monk's idea and specific way and specific profession, his status? And then he gives the answer and says it is the puritas codis, the purity of the heart.

[14:39]

And by that he means, of course, the same thing that we consider and that we call the peace of Christ. Also, according to the 13th chapter of the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians, what St. Paul calls the agamemnon, which is not envious, which is not easy to get excited, inflamed in wrath, and all these things. The peace of Christ, the puritas cordis. So it is the purpose of the monastic life to, as Cachenet continues, to, puts it, to watch one's thoughts. and to take upon himself and learn the spiritual art of spiritualize.

[15:44]

He says that is of basic importance for the monastic profession. And he gives the reasons also for that. He says, if it is true people will leave the world sell their property and everything leave the world and come to the monastery and all that for the kingdom of heaven but then he says what happens then one can see that the one who has in a generous gesture left the world sold everything or the kingdom of heaven, comes to the monastery, and suddenly he gets hooked on a book that he wants absolutely not to share with everybody else, that he wants to have around him all the time, or suddenly he gets hooked in his sensitivities, personal sensitivities,

[16:54]

The man who has sold everything, left the world, and suddenly his feelings are hurt. The whole heaven breaks down, you know. Everything goes to pieces. Or so, therefore, what Caution emphasizes is that the monk's profession is the watching of his thought. Start with the guarding and purifying of the heart. And that, to my mind, is... And for that sake, then, too, consider all the other things as instruments. He says fasting, or prayer, or spiritual reading, or lack of sleep, or the heartache, Consider them all as instruments and means to preserve, foster, deepen the puritas corpus, the peace of Christ in your life.

[18:03]

As means, not as an end. That way you will then develop the true pattern of the monastic life. Now that seems to me is of an absolutely basic importance. monastic life has to be considered from that central point. If I have one, say, fear about the monastic life nowadays, especially addicted life, then it is, I'm afraid, also in our own circle, in our own community, that there is being lost sight of. And that is the first obligation of the superior, constantly go back to that central point, no use of conquering the world if one loses one's soul.

[19:10]

There's no use of thinking what I'm going to do, you know, five years from now, ten years from now. I won't agree with them if they say this place, you know, offered to me for my, the occupation or the expansion of my talents or all kinds of things. I would say that there to me is the essence or the inner life nerve of what we today would call contemplative life when we compare our life to the life, say, of active Benedictines. That's the consideration of what to do later on is essentially a secondary. If to become a priest or not, if to teach or not to teach, if to do this or that.

[20:10]

That is a secondary question. We will try also before God to answer that. Personally, I must say that according to my knowledge of monastic tradition, The vita activa, I mean the active stage for which St. Benedict legislates in his rule, is not again contemplative, I mean in the modern sense, excluding all external activity. It seems to me it's not. If one reads and studies monastic tradition, one can see that the Vita Activa embraces also acts of serving active charity in every direction. And yesterday, of course, when we had the Consecratio Volapiro, one of the prayers was that he may

[21:10]

The monk now who is being consecrated there, that he may be good to the poor, that he may serve the poor, and that is absolutely true. That's part of the vida activa. That is also the reason, and I mean the legitimate root for the concept, let us say, of what we will call today an active monastery. The root of that is that the vita activa, also in the sense of the monastic tradition, is a stage which does not exclude the service to others. We can see that in the rule of Saint Basil. We can also see it in the rule of Saint Benedict. and, as I say, for example, in a solemn invocation as we had it yesterday.

[22:13]

But I would say that one thing is absolutely needed to justify the enclosure, justify the renouncing of the world, leaving the world, and that is the deliberate concentration and using everything as instruments for the Puitascos, purity of heart, or for establishing the peace of Christ in the soul. And that is what a monastery in the Scola Dominici Servizi should do. It should give to all those who come to the monastery that help, that guidance, also in their various disturbances, in their quandaries in which a soul may be, to give the help in order to discern what is now, what serves the Puritas College.

[23:27]

what serves at this moment establishing of the peace of Christ in the soul so that then in this peace of Christ the soul may be able to also receive the light about the way to follow that that is therefore anybody who is in care of souls that has to help everybody there deserve what is the trouble and help as best as he can to deal with these troubles in the faith of Christ in order to lead to the Puritan's cause. In the coming of our Bishop here too, this monastery to our Saviour, let us remember with gratitude to God and with glory that our monazion is ecclesiastic post-monazion, that our being most is a being most in the way of the Church.

[24:41]

That seems to be, if one puts these two words together, Ecclesiastic cause, monadzaim, seems to be at first glance a contradiction. In fact, in the course of history, the tendencies have not lacked where these two things were torn apart. Monadzaim, that means to retire, to be alone. that means in the congregation and those two things seem especially for an earthly material mind and human mind seem to be exclusive and contradictory however we know that from our deepest experience that that is not true The monk withdraws.

[25:44]

He withdraws from the world. He leaves that cosmos, this world, that city of the devil. The link, can one say, or the chain that forces people together is the law of selfishness. But here in this withdrawal from the world means an approaching approach to the center, to the heart of God, to the agape. that divine love that descends from above. The ideal of the monastery is shown to us in the synagogue. Those two things are not exclusive, the monastery and the synagogue, because the monastery is built according to the ideal of the synagogue in Jerusalem.

[27:02]

The Vita Apostolica, that is also the idea of the life of the monk. It's an apostolic life. And that apostolic life has its own and has also its first concrete realization in the cenacle in Jerusalem. That is our cradle. It's also the cradle of the monastery. as it is the cradle of the whole church and therefore we rejoice that tomorrow the bishop the head of the church of Rochester our church comes to us and that our monastic chapel here becomes in a very real and wonderful sense the cenacle in Jerusalem there we receive the bishop, the image and likeness of Christ, the good shepherd, we receive him in the midst of our community, of our ecclesia, and there he ordains one of us as a priest, associating him to the college of the elders.

[28:27]

There we are in the cenacle, and the bishop, as the representative of Christ, breaks the bread, presumes sacramentally the sacrifice of Christ, and he tells this, our brother, to this, from now on, in memory. So the priestly ordination that takes place is a real making present again of that solemn act where our Lord on the eve of his Passion broke the bread and consecrated the chalice of wine, gave his body and his blood curious apostles and then gave them that solemn mission and consecration do this in memory of me making them in that way his successors and those who keep alive with the power of consecration given to them keep alive

[29:46]

the whole reality of our Lord's highest priestly function, that Pascha Domini, where the Lord as the Archpriest enters once and forever through the veil of his body, blood, into the sanctuary the sanctuary of the resurrection the sanctuary where he is enthroned with the Heavenly Father and from where he sends down his Spirit and there in this same place in this cenacle also the other action takes place and is represented again Christ the risen Christ coming in the figure and likeness of the bishop and breathing upon the one of our brothers who is being ordained forgive them if you forgive them their sins they shall be forgiven them that spirit is the spirit of

[31:02]

power over the demons power over the evil one that spirit of jurisdiction that spirit which is then active in the judgment of the sacrament of penance and in the exercising power of the priest that power of binding and loosing That royal, kingly power is able to defend the flock of Christ against the attacks, invasions of the devil. And also this cenacle was the place, and still is, where Christ, the high priest, and Christ, the victor of the king, the one who in his power smashes the kingdom of Satan, where Christ also pours into the hearts of his disciples the Word, the light of doctrine, the light of ego-knowledge, that special gift of the Holy Spirit, the sapientia, the intellectus, the wisdom, the understanding

[32:33]

where He, in the power of the Holy Spirit, opens the hearts and plans into them the intimate, personal world of His love. That also is fulfilled in the Cynical the moment when the Holy Spirit descends. It is that Holy Spirit which emanates from the Risen Christ who has conquered and who is now the Lord of the Spirit, he sends the Spirit down upon his church on the day of Pentecost. And that mystery also is made present again tomorrow in that sacred act, of the spirit descends and descends in the form of a Tom it is the spirit of the word the spirit of teaching spirit of doctrine the initiation into the deep mysteries and secrets of the divine heart and in these three functions the priest then

[33:55]

works for the edification of the whole body. That power that is given to him is given to him for a ministry. He's taking up his service. It's not for his own glorification, but it is for all of us, because everyone is Doctus Adonis. taught by God, but through the ordained ministers and instruments of the Holy Spirit. Let us keep that very clear, this mystery of the Sabbath, which is the cradle of the Church, as it is also the cradle of the monastery. Those two, monastery and church, can never be opposed to one another. That monad sign, that monastic life, St.

[34:59]

Benedict has told us, is essentially community life. And that community life does not consist, can never consist of it, agglomeration of individuals of which everyone would be self-sufficient. That was the terrible error of the Reformation. That is what has torn the body of Christ asunder. The misinterpretation of the efficacy of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the Holy Spirit in this messianic age I mean that terrible heresy that this fullness of the Holy Spirit in the messianic age would everybody make his own priest and his own king and make himself sufficient spiritually in himself

[36:00]

that is a terrible heresy that has destroyed the unity of the Church, and we see the terrible consequences, devastating consequences of that. I think the history of these last centuries has shown that that is not the mystery of the kingdom of God here on earth as God our Heavenly Father and as Christ the Holy Spirit understand it, want it and for which they give us the power and therefore we as monks we are not in the least perturbed by that that somebody out of our midst would be elevated to the dignity of the priesthood. It is the characteristic of the fullness of the messianic age that those two things, dignity and service, are not opposed to one another, but are essentially identical.

[37:09]

Because that is the fullness of the messianic age that Christ has shown us, that he came not to be ministered upon, but in order to minister. And therefore, in the cenacle, still another mystery took place, and that was the mystery of the washing of the feet, where our Lord, the pastor, the archpriest, the teacher, and the king knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples. And that is also what I wanted to tell the one who is being ordained, that he should be ordained as a monk and that he should be always conscious of the fact that the priestly ministry and the priestly power is in the deepest sense of the word not of this world.

[38:12]

It is not a political institution. but its beauty and efficacy glory and majesty is shown in the fact that the one who had it all in the highest degree rose from the meal and took off his garment divine garment, took on the garment of service, in that way representing in this solemn moment the mystery of the Incarnation before our eyes. and then kneeling down, and by that prefiguring the mystery of his death, and in that way washing his feet, and by that way prefiguring the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And that is the essence of the priestly ministry. Nobody can say that that is opposed to the idea of the monastic life.

[39:17]

Thank you. stages of the spiritual life and given to monastic life according to the rule and the idea of St. Benedict's place in this pattern of the development of the spiritual life from the purgative to the illuminative and the unitive stage he compared these three stages as you remember then with the life in the world in which the purgative element is the predominant one and the synabitical life in which the illuminative element is the predominant

[40:35]

and the eremitical, which reflects, so is the realisation, I'd say, the best and most perfect possible of the unitive stage. Of course, all these patterns are always systematisations, and as systematisations there are also simplifications. but simplifications are very often necessary. The process of human cognition is one of abstraction. Abstraction is a simplification, but that simplification is, as we learn, not only in grit, but in the kind of... You lost the girl. abstrahentium non es mendatium, those who abstract do not commit a lie. That is sometimes a thing which is a little difficult to understand for modern man, you know, always thinks that the microscope is the only access to reality.

[41:49]

That's therefore leaving out something, you know, is already in itself a lie. That is, of course, not true at all. It would be also a fatal mistake, and very often, of course, as you know, is made by a historian. Or if you look around outside the church, I think there are normally great difficulties in which, for example, a kind of... Christian community like the Anglican Church suffers, you know, or Protestants, especially the professors. And there is, therefore, an abstraction, a simplification, which leads into the essence of things and leaves out the accidentals. And that is, of course, always the main purpose any such, let us say, general orientation that we give, and it has to be taken as such.

[42:58]

It's a general orientation, an attempt to go to the essence of things, and then, in going to the essence of things, discover and see better also the order of things, because order is always based on being, on essence. and therefore also order can be reached only by a process of abstraction, that kind of simplification which leads away from the unessential to the essential and therefore is not aligned. Now, and I said also, we have to keep that, of course, always in mind if one makes a statement like this. One thing I said is that certainly the life of the Christian in the world, let us consider that first,

[44:00]

Let's say, on the general pattern, by necessity, because one lives in the world under the mundus expositus in maligno. That is a sentence of St. John. It certainly has its deep truth. Mundus in maligno, positus est. the world is put, is under the sway of the evil one. And therefore the life in the general pattern of the world, almost naturally, is a life which is constantly exposed, essentially exposed to all those difficulties that the the devil's influence put upon this life in the world. And therefore, it's essentially a purgative.

[45:04]

But that does not exclude, first of all, that this stage also contains illuminative and unitive elements. I try to point that out in the fact that the sacramental life of the church makes, of course, the whole fullness of the messianic age and of the Holy Spirit accessible to every Christian as such, the one who is incorporated into the mystical body of Christ, with Christ as the head. And naturally Christ the head, he is the unitive way, he is the union. Therefore the head is the risen Savior who is the realization of what we call the beginning, the contemplation.

[46:05]

He is the perfect contemplation. Now, naturally, the Holy Spirit comes from him into the church. The church is organically united to this head, and therefore certainly also every Christian belonging to the church has a living part in the illuminative and the unitive and that is evident also in the sacramental order which is made for every Christian. The Eucharist, as I tried to point out in the past, is conceived on the level of the, of course, contained purgative elements, but not as essential and constitutive but it certainly contains illuminative elements as a constituent and essential one, and it contains the unitive element also as an essential and constitutive one.

[47:12]

And therefore, every Christian, every Christian living in the world is called to participate in the illuminative and the unitive way It's also the fact that every Christian has the Sunday. The Sunday, again, is devoted to the illuminative and to the unitive way. The Sunday as such does not essentially belong into the order of the purgative way, but it belongs into the illuminative and unitive way. Only if we consider that, then we understand why one goes to confession on Friday or Saturday. The Sunday in itself is not a day of penance. On the Sunday we stand. We don't kneel. Kneeling is the expression of the purgative.

[48:16]

So in that way, naturally, another thing is also this, that one forgets perhaps at times, that the one says the status of the Christian in the world is colored, receives its essential spirit by the predominant, predominant purgative element, and then the synabitical by the illuminative and the eremitical by the unitive. Of course, it doesn't mean that now every Christian, in order to get to the unitive way, has to ascend from the life of the world to the life in the monastery and then to the life in the desert. That is, of course, not the case. There are Christians who are called and have their status, as it were, as Christians in the world, and they do not pass on to the monastic life.

[49:27]

And there are, of course, also monks who are called to the synagogical life, and there they find their complete fulfillment. And there are also those who are called to the hermitical life, and then maybe their life is wide away even from the beginning on, already collared, so to speak, by the hermitical idea that it's the raison d'être for a set of like the Carthusians. And if I said, you know, that the rules in Benedict legislate for that illuminative state, roughly speaking, and the Armedica life is the state, the unitive state beyond that, I did not say that the normal end for the one who enters the synoptic life is the eremitic life.

[50:30]

That I do not believe, and I don't think one can say that, that that is the case in the idea of Saint Benedict. If somebody is called into the eremitic life, the only thing is that that is not something which would be against the idea of the rule. Rule is really a preparation for the hermetical life, in that way, for the unitive life. But it does not say that every monk has to reach that stage in order to, let us say, fulfil the intention of St. Benedict. That is not the case. History also shows that those who pass from the celibatical life to the hermetical life were always exceptions, a minority. It certainly wasn't the majority. The majority, in the ordinary way, lived and died in the genovium, in the semitical way.

[51:37]

But nevertheless, I think it is very important, you know, that we keep in mind that Saint Benedict, right in the first chapter, considers the hermitical life as the, how can I say, as the, let us say, possible end of consummation of the monastery, or let us say, would say, somebody enters into their mythical life don't let him do it without you know the long testing in the synoptic life as the school that is the school and of course it's a school for something and in that way it's a school for their medical life and i think to Keep that in mind. It's very important to understand, say, the spirit of the synabitical life as Saint Benedict has conceived it.

[52:39]

Because if the, say, the eremitical life already throws its shadows into that synabitical idea, if the synabitical idea, say, remains open, for the ermitical life, then also I think the cenobitical life in itself receives, I want to say, a greater seriousness, in some way also a greater absoluteness and clarity. I think the cenobitical life would lose if, for example, the transition from the Cenobitic life to the Hermetic would be considered as not in order for a Cenobite. That one cannot say. One has to keep that possibility open, that a Cenobite in the development of the spiritual life and after testing in the monastic community, passes on to that higher stage of the hermetic life.

[53:49]

But I would not say that that is the normal thing required of the center. I think that doesn't correspond to the facts and also doesn't seem to me as the intention of sanctification. but absolutely that door should be left open. And I think that wherever it is done, history will show that still the fact of a transitus in your medical life will be an exception. And then, of course, one has to consider also another element, and that is that within the stage of the purgative and the illuminative life. There is, I would say, first of all, as the purgative life contains illuminative and unitive elements, so also a higher stage like the illuminative stage contains the purgative element.

[55:00]

And that is very clear in the Holy Rule. You see, one cannot in that way systematise and separate the things. Abstraction is for that matter not a kind of mechanical separation. That again would be the thing which is done in the field of the senses, but not in the field of the intellect. And you can see that some people are surprised that St. Benedict, even he is legislating for monks, would say, for example, in Deet Instrumenta Honorum Operum, come with the decalogue and say not to be an adulterer and not to murder. Some people get a shock and say, I think I'm beyond that stage. But you see, I think it's also then absolutely wrong to approach a situation or a fact like that with the idea, oh, Saint Benedict simply took here one of the existing catalogues of vices and put it there.

[56:19]

He didn't think any more, he didn't realise that he was getting into some funny situation or even a contradiction. seems to me, in relation to a document like the Holy Rule, seems to me a rather strange attitude. At least as a working anthropologist, I wouldn't take that as a starting point. But I would say if St. Benedict takes this list of the instrument of a normopon, puts them into the rule, he knew what he was doing. And I think it's very significant, you know, for that matter, that Saint Benedict does not say, somebody who enters into the monastery, and in that way, let us say, enters upon the illuminative stage, that he, for that matter, now, anything that belongs to the purgative way is simply that it belongs to his past.

[57:21]

That is, again, simply not corresponding to the Christian reality. We all, in that way, the stages are not divided. But the monk, as we all know, is just subject to all the temptations of every normal human creature. And therefore the fact that in the world we are advised not to kill, that may be, I mean, maybe even a little humiliating statement, you know, but I think it's a statement of deepest truth. It's a warning that we cannot consider and say, oh, I am now in the illuminative stage, and therefore everything that belongs to God is just beyond, you know, it's just past, you know, it's just not true. So, therefore, St. Benedict, in my mind, absolutely on purpose puts it there, you know, that's what it belongs to, and I think also if you consider

[58:23]

other things in the Holy Word, as, for example, in the same chapter on the instruments of good works, that they are elements, you know, of, as I say, what we call today the modern meaning of the word, active life. That is, for example, to bury the dead, you know, or to be, as we said the other, to be good to the poor. then again I think it's making a mistake you know to say oh that only crept in there by accident that means the man who put it in there again you know just slipped up on this and that again is an explanation which which is not not a good working hypothesis it's not a good way to try to get into the mind of the legislator, because it seems that one wouldn't set too high a stop into that mind.

[59:32]

Therefore, I would say it's much better to try to understand, now, why is this there? And then, of course, it's easy to understand if one realises what is the idea of the active life in the classical monastic literature. The active life is simply the life which is organized under the aspect of the overcoming of the vices and the building up of the mind through illumination for the unitive way therefore the active life looks into the two directions it is organized in the attendant in the purgative direction and it is organized in towards the unity therefore is a combination of those two to that active life which is therefore

[60:47]

A life which battles, which fights, struggles with the vices and imperfections of man is therefore also a life which is and includes active works of mercy in the modern sense of the word. contains active works of mercy. For what purpose? That these active works of mercy are a means of purgatio and prepari illuminatio. That was the deeper. realizes the order and beauty of the Lenten season, as the Church has conceived them, he will see that almsgiving are a way in which the sins are covered and in which the mind is prepared for the Illuminatio.

[61:53]

That's already the meaning of it in the Old Testament. So their active works belong to the stage as it was conceived by the original monks to the of the active life but if for example then you read you know that the Saint Benedict has in his concept you know of the active life also the reading spiritual reading then Of course, the temptation for us, thinking in modern terms, you know, we would say, oh, look, there is the contemplative element. Now, yes, of course, we have to be careful with our terms, you know, in that we don't, in the course of the argument, change the meaning of the terms.

[62:54]

the illuminative way, or illuminative stage, which is part of that stage of the active life from which St. Benedict legislates, of course contains reading, just as the Mass contains reading. But one would not say that now this reading is, for that matter, contemplative life. No, that reading is simply part of the active life. insofar as this active life is illuminative, the illuminative stage. The illuminative stage as such is not yet the unitive stage. And therefore, but to the illuminative stage certainly belongs spiritual reading. There's no doubt about it. But one cannot say, look there, this spiritual reading, that's contemplative. Why, let us say, manual labor that's active.

[63:59]

That is, of course, and I say that is a misinterpretation of the terms. Original monastic spirituality did not consider it that way. Simple reading of Holy Scripture is a matter which is also, again, you see, part of the life of every Christian. Somebody, by the fact that he reads, or that he, let us say, likes to read, or by that, is not yet called a contemplative. And somebody who, in that way, for example, has a natural inclination for studies, again, one would not say, I think, in the terms of the old monastic tradition, this man has a contemplative vocation. And I think there's a danger of our mixing up things. In relation to the Octavia Thursday, Brother Vizcarra is asking,

[65:13]

People should wear the blue work blouse or the outing because that would make it really much easier and there is not enough secular clothing for everybody. and the knots are to avoid, you know, coming at the last moment into the vestibule to ask for this or that. So if there's anything that you want, then maybe you can ask either today or tomorrow. concerning our topic we have to administer the medicine in drops because today again is one of those days where I have not too much time this morning but in continuing about the monastic service in the context of man as such created

[66:18]

to serve. Just ran across the other day a very beautiful word, which is really of the world of the Old Testament. It's of Jewish origin, of the Kasidim, which you were created with, the Jewish sect in Eastern Europe, especially Galicia. and one of their, we call it prophets, is Martin Buber, whom you also know at least the name. And there is a word which is really a beautiful program and may be also of us a framework in order to treat this chapter of the work of the monk. It says in this word of the Kasidim, make your body the throne of life, and make your life the throne of the mind, and make your mind the throne of the heart, and then make your heart the throne of God's glory.

[67:44]

that indeed is the meaning of the service the ministry of man that is the meaning of the abode and that also the meaning of the whole monastic work you can see that immediately just glancing at the holy rule or at the traditions of our fathers in the monastic life make the body the throne of life not of death, but of life. And the ascetic, ascetic effort, you know, is not a way to kill the body, but it is a way of transforming, elevating the body, and make the body a throne of life. That is the meaning of the Lenten period, of any fasting, You read the Fathers, especially the Eastern Church, or the Liturgy of Lent in the Eastern Churches.

[68:51]

You see that also in the Western Church, you see that so beautifully expressed, that fasting is, as it were, letting the light of life into the body. while the opposite the gula is the darkening of the body and in last analysis means killing the body but then this life that is make it the throne of the mind we have seen that before and again is one of the oldest and most venerable traditions both of the whole Western civilization, which goes back so much to Plato, to the Greek philosophy in the first birth of the ascetical, ascetical life in the West, but then a little more in Christianity, and they're really fulfilled, is that transcending the life of the senses,

[70:03]

transcending the mere appearance of the things, and to enter with the mind, the nous, into really the world of being, into the world of the eternal, of the lasting. For that, of course, this step, a philosophical one, if you want, is not the last. The noose may be the highest for a philosopher like Aristotle or Plato, highest for a thinker, but the philosophy of the Christian is more comprehensive. It is not a specialization on the intellectual life, but it goes into the center of the human person as a whole. old symbol with which we express that a life which comprehends the entirety the wholeness of the human person the symbol for that is the heart and that is then to make the heart

[71:26]

the throne of God's glory. That is the last purpose of our ministry. But this ministry has to be done according to this order. Make the body the throne of life. Make the life the throne of the mind. Make the mind the throne of the heart. And the heart the throne of the glory of Chapter conferences we have spoken about the contemplative life of the monk and then turned to that part of which complements the spiritual aspect of our life, the labor, the work, manual labor.

[72:32]

In order to find the right answer, the answer which tradition, the tradition of monasticism gives to it, it's necessary for us to remind ourselves again and again that the monastic life is not essentially what we may call clerical, but that it is essentially legal in the sense that the whole man is the object of the monastic life. The perfection transformation of the entire perfection is the goal. and that takes in the entire human being therefore the monk is not a man of specializations but he is so that naturally and truly universal he does not want to develop his mind especially to become scholar but he wants to bring the whole

[73:44]

human being, make it a throne of God's glory. And this little word I quoted last time was a good expression of the purpose of the monastic life, in which it says, make your body the throne of your life. Make your life the throne of your mind. Make the mind the throne of your heart. and make your heart the throne of God's glory. And that word gives us the whole perspective of the monastic life. It starts with the body. We make your body the throne of life. That, of course, means that our body is not to be neglected, not to be ignored, not only the object of mortification, but that the body is the instrument through which we maintain our, first of all, our earthly life, our sustenance here on earth.

[74:58]

Make the body the throne of your life. And that is a principle which we find again and again affirmed strongly in monastic tradition, especially against the extremists, against those who, with the excuse of putting Mary before Martha, refused any active and purposeful energetic participation and cooperation of the body as such in the work of sanctification. There were always those in the beginning of monasticism. Saint Benedict mentions them in the first chapter of his rule.

[76:04]

Those who go out and live by begging. and go from one place to the other and in that way take care of their bodily needs by sitting on other people's tables and that is condemned and that was condemned also in already in the Egyptian early monastic tradition that was considered an abuse People who would try to live on the name and title monk, or live on their, say, their striving after sanctity, were called Christepor, that means traffickers in Christ. And therefore, just the opposite of what monastic life really intends, also the opposite of the true meaning of monastic poverty.

[77:11]

And we have a nice little story, you know, that's already told to the Egyptian monks, where this one monk comes to the monastery and explains, oh, you are working here? My service is Mary's service. And working disturbs my prayer without ceasing. But work disturbs my recollection. I consider monastic life as the imitation of Mary. So the abbot of the monastery tells the guest father to give him a cell and give him a book. And then he goes and he puts his tail in the book, and then he starts his merry life, and the day goes on and goes on, and finally he thinks, now what's the matter, is nobody coming, wouldn't be any food.

[78:19]

And it was the ninth hour, and nobody had appeared so far. The lady comes out of her cell, goes to the abbot and asks, Now, have you eaten already? And the abbot says, Yes. Oh, but you didn't tell me. The abbot said, Oh, but you told us that you were leading the life of Mary, and we wanted to give you the full possibility to do so, and not disturb you in unceasing prayer. So, in that way, he was convinced that there was probably something wrong with his attitude. So, those things and those tendencies were always there. They are, of course, kind of innate in the monastic life, this striving after contemplation. They're always the dangers, always the extremes. And, of course, the extremes become so often the screen behind which the self-will or human laziness hide.

[79:28]

So the locks, therefore, are striving after a balance between these two. Make the body the thorn of your life by using it to heal, take care of your bodily needs and do that through manual labor because it's the body who becomes the throne of life and was a strict principle and the monks always found that expressed already with the apostles as we saw the last time there was the way which also people like Saint Paul lived they did not refuse to use their body for to take care of the needs of the body and that is therefore one important aspect of manual labor is the cooperation of all responsible cooperation of all to take care of their bodily needs through their own work and through the work also of the body in order to

[80:45]

Keep that organic unity, not to split up the human life into a mental part and into something that is completely neglected or is merely the object of mortification. For the body is a gift which is given to us by God. The hands are the most perfect tools that ever have been invented. And the body is made for that plant by God. to become the throne of life through productive work that is one of the great dangers in our monastic life one can see that so often there is a tendency among those who go into a monastery and then are dispensed less from the care of their daily sustenance and then lose all sense of it and simply rely on the help of others for their bodily needs.

[82:03]

Some people even refusing to do the work and cooperate in the various menial tasks of a monastic community with the excuse either that they were, as priests, not ordained to do manual labor. I have heard that several times, even recently, not in this community, but another example that I heard from somebody else, where fathers seem to refuse and say, no, we have not been ordained to wash dishes. had other people do that. This was a concrete example, and it is an absolute truth. And we know that from the past. We know that from other monasteries. Each one, every one is a personal servant who takes care of his bodily needs.

[83:07]

And so therefore, I only mention that because you can see it's unbelievable what there is doing of St. Benedict. It is not being done so well. That is one of the reasons, too, why it is so important that the community and the members of the community actively share in the effort that we make to take care of our bodily needs. And that way also they get acquainted with the necessity that is incumbent upon the whole human race as a punishment for the original sin that one gets, really takes and carries a burden of the common human slave. so that the monastery is not a refuge of the lazy people and is not the place where the individual can live through his own pleasure and in idleness.

[84:18]

It's such an edifying thing. For example, the other day we visited this young couple, and there they were, six years married, and already they have four children to take care of. The fifth one was... on his way and there they were working alone on a farm all alone without help and trying with making that tremendous effort to make ends meet and in that way really make their body the throne of their life in such a really wonderful way is in itself tremendously pleasing in the eyes of God, I'm absolutely sure. But sometimes if I see the nonchalance, the lack of gratitude, the taking everything for granted, the sometimes criticizing what is being put before the table, criticizing food, getting excited about this and that, getting overexcited about their

[85:30]

physical well-being and things like that and asking the constantly increasing demands for this and that and never asking now where is it supported where do you think it should come from therefore like god's spoiled children living here in this world a really living night shift without a real sense of reality and of responsibility. That is a tremendous danger for our monastic life. I think we should all cooperate. We should all pray that this kind of irresponsible abuse of the label of contemplative life may not come into this monastery. In our considerations about the value, role of manual labor in the monastic life, we have

[86:38]

up to now not yet considered the text of the Rule of Saint Benedict itself. If time permits also to prepare enough for it, maybe we can do that in the course of this week. However, it is in explaining the Rule always necessary for us to get rid of the judgments, categories of thinking that we carry with us as children of our own age. We have to rid ourselves of many things that we take for granted and that have entered into the very fiber of our thinking and feeling about these things. We are children of what we call the bourgeois age.

[87:42]

There is no doubt about it. But St. Benedict's Rule belongs to another epoch. And the mission of St. Benedict's Rule is that it preserves and carries into our time the first order of the apostolic law. Therefore, it is an ideal which retains its validity, at least in the essentials. And therefore we have, facing it, we have to do this work and this effort to understand the rule of Saint Benedict on its own terms, in its original setting. And there is no doubt about it, as far as manual labour is concerned, that early Christianity and the whole tradition out of which Saint Benedict lived and which he formulated in the rubble, that this early Christianity gave to Manulaver an important, essential place, one can say, in the life of every Christian.

[88:57]

We have just today in the Martyrology heard the name of Saints Antiochus mentioned, this great Alexandrian saint who is the founder of what we call the Alexandrian School, the School of Alexandria, the first Christian university, one could say, the seat of highest learning. Clement of Alexandria, as well as Origenists, were disciples of St. Antonius. And they are certainly the, say, intellectual culture of Christianity, early Christianity, has reached its apex. But it is very important to Notice that people like Clement of Alexandria or like Origen, who were the first Christian intellectuals, strongly emphasized

[90:11]

Alexander, especially in his Pythagoras, a work which was addressed to the well-to-do, say to the rich Christians, emphasizes that value labor is, for the sake of its dignity, and its spiritual qualities in the context of Christian life and an essential part of the life of every Christian, that it is not only simply born out of the necessities of things and therefore should not be limited to the working class. Certainly, early Christianity was a movement which spread, first of all, among the working classes, the slaves and the poor. And therefore, certainly right from the beginning, whilst it took manual labor for granted, it broke with the pagan prejudice so firmly rooted in the

[91:27]

Hellenistic civilization that manual labor was something which did not fit the real dignity of the free man that it was a matter for slaves this horror and this contempt for manual labor Christianity did not at all sue but on the contrary took in the opposite position but it is interesting that in school like that of Alexandria, which was a school for elite and which addressed itself to the educated. Manual labour was not only considered as the common and therefore fate which was taken for granted for the working class, but that manual labour was an integral part of the life of the Christian as Christian. And therefore also the wealthy Christians who did not have to work with their hands to support themselves nevertheless should do so.

[92:38]

Every Christian lady also in the house should not leave manual tasks to the slaves. The same also for the Lord. And another important thing which we should not forget is that from this universal law, the priests were not exempt. On the contrary, and that is another important point that we have to remember in the writings of the early apologists and the early fathers, that the clerical state was not considered exempt from this universal law of work.

[93:39]

Clergy, the function of the priest, the life of the priest, that was the idea, should essentially be the same as the life of every Christian. I explain these things you realize that by that I don't say that these things have an absolute validity for every I shall later on try to explain that of course certain changes have taken place and we have to ask ourselves how much these changes are for the good why in all seriousness and humility to listen to the law of development. But it's always good as a starting point to remember what was the beginning. And that is also, as you know, very well laid down officially by St.

[94:41]

Paul. in his letters that the apostle was not exempt from this universal law, that who did not work should not eat. Now, the reasons for this appreciation of manual labor. The value of manual labor was, of course, seen not in the light, let's say, of some cultural idea, say that of a balanced life or something, not a philosophical idea, but it was seen in the context of the messianic age. And the messianic age is the age of the spirit. And the age of the Spirit is the victory over selfishness. And the body is, in fallen nature, the bastion of selfishness, the fortress of selfishness.

[95:51]

But the Holy Spirit conquers it, and conquers it by manual labor. Through manual labor, the body, this fortress of selfishness, becomes, is the source of charity. That was the first consideration. Manual labor and the energy which it puts at the disposal of the person and which is really the person's energy, and therefore the source for the person's contribution that manulator was considered the only really legitimate source of charity The ideal is clearly seen in the apostolic community the early church in Jerusalem Nobody should work for himself

[96:54]

That's the idea of the heathen, as our Lord says. They worry about their tomorrow, but the Christians should not work for themselves, but their work should be for the support of the needy, first their bread. and by all the brethren renouncing their property and personal possession, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, and for that matter, each one becoming poorer, this poverty then enables every member of that community, urges, forces every member of that community to work, put the energies of his body into the service of not what one would call self-support, but in the service of the support of the community.

[98:06]

That was considered perfect charity and the perfect realization of the ideal of the Messianic age, which has come with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the community in Jerusalem. The body as source for charity, not self-support, but support of the community. Everybody resigning his own property, and by that becoming dependent on his brother and in this way the law of the Lord is fulfilled whatever you have done to one of these who are born you have done for me that is the in that way The body is this fortress of selfishness and has become the source of charity.

[99:15]

Because that was not considered charity, to take it from the rich and to give it to the poor. And the other meaning of what we have seen already of manual labor is that the body, while becoming the source of active charity, through manual labor is also purified, brought under control, brought into subjection and obedience. Manulabor is a protection of chastity, while idleness promotes impurity and luxury and selfishness. And therefore manulabor is not only the source of charity,

[100:18]

but is also for the individual a part of that process of transfiguration in which the Christians unite in extending the power of the resurrection of Christ to their own bodies through the ascetical aspect of manly labour. And in that context, of course, it is clear that the knowledge of Benedict's idea cannot be exempt from that law. His great teachers in Basel have formulated just this aspect in the most perfect way. I think I read this part of St. Basil's rule to you when I do it again. It runs this way.

[101:20]

It has to be understood that the one who works must do so not to supply his own needs by his work, but to fulfill the Lord's command to say, I was hungry and you gave me to eat. For to be solicitous for oneself is altogether forbidden by the Lord, saying, Be not solicitous for your life what you shall be, nor for your body what you shall put on, and adding for after all these things to the keepers. Therefore in labor the purpose set before everyone is support of the needy, not one's own necessity. For thus will he avoid the accusation of self-love, and he will receive the blessing of brotherly love from the Lord, saying, Whatever you have done to one of my least brethren, you will have done to them. Therefore, the idea of manual labour is for the mongrel monastic community, part of that apostolic program, that they continue

[102:32]

the enthusiasm, the first love of the apostolic community that they strictly follow the rule pattern of the apostolic life and that is renouncing their own goods to gather together to work for one another and to work for the poor around them and in this way making the body the source of charity and at the same time then they can also emphasize the battle, avoid idleness, and make the body a fortress also of the spirit of the resurrection. The interpretation of the chapter of Symposium on Valuation, it's the 48th chapter of The rule, the critical passage, as we all know, is the following.

[103:36]

However, if the necessity of the place or poverty demands that they personally, Latin per se, be engaged in harvesting crops, let them not be saddened, because then are they truly homes if they live by the labor of their hands. as also our fathers and the apostles. Nevertheless, let all things be done with renovation on account of the Hussidans." Now, these words have been interpreted in the course of history in various ways, according to the local backgrounds and the general setup of the abbey to which the commentator belongs. In times past, we have tried to define the various types of abbeys which have developed in the course of the Middle Ages.

[104:47]

We must always maybe remind ourselves again of the fact that the rule of Saint Benedict really in the course of history didn't have much of a chance to say to be applied in all its purity because we know that soon after Saint Benedict had established Monte Cassino the Lombards Invasion destroyed the monastery, and the monks had to give up their life, and they had to move with the devastation of the countryside and the lack of security there into the walled city, to Rome as the haven of security. And there, in Rome, they were then taken by the popes to the Basilica, St. John Lactant,

[105:49]

where they had to function as those who carried on the official public divine office in these basilicas. And naturally that right away created completely different circumstances. These city monks did not have the possibility nor did they have the need for that labor, as far as needed, and foreseen by the symbolic monarchy. Therefore immediately they are already a different type of monastic life developed. Then the other factor which we have to consider in history is that the The Holy Rule of Saint Benedict came into countries, Gaul for example, also Italy, which already had established monasteries. And it was then imposed upon communities which very often had a different tradition by imperial edicts, say of Charlemagne or other emperors.

[107:02]

And therefore also the monastery that would then originate from this was a mixture, a mixture between the local tradition on which the monastery had originally been founded and the imposed reform through the rule of Saint Benedict. And again, that was apt to change the character of the abbey. And that was the case in the East, for example, in Gaul, in the old Roman provinces. Then again, another type of abbey developed in missionary countries. When from England the monks were sent out to those parts of Germany which were not touched and formed by Roman civilization, especially in the north under St. Boniface, again a different type of monastery developed which had to be engaged in a much inactive work. And these monasteries, again, were protected by the emperors, by the political power.

[108:10]

They were endowed with land, and they were given a role, an official role, in the public life of the empire. Therefore, they became, as we call them, imperial abbeys. These imperial abbeys then were inevitably also drawn into the political and public life of the Empire, and that again altered their character considerably. So that on the whole, of these various circumstances, we distinguish roughly, of course, all these things are on the approximate three types of monasteries, Benedictine monasteries, all of them following the rule of Saint Benedict. One which we call the liturgical abbey. That means that type of abbey which, in some broader sense, stems from the Roman city monastery, in which the monks were primarily engaged in choir duties.

[109:20]

And these choir duties then also, especially in the 8th and the 9th century, took on greater proportions through pious foundations, and the archetype of that kind of monastery is Cluny, in Cluny where the monk is really there, exists for the choir, mainly, so that the Opus Dei, the work of God, is the reason for which the monastery exists, That was the special apostolate of Cluny, the apostolate of the divine office. And Cluny itself was the purest expression of that idea, the introducing of, which was also a new idea, of the Lauskernes. And in the abbey church of Cluny, the monks served

[110:23]

day and night in various shifts and establish that idea of the last days. That was the complete, let us say, triumph of the first element of the monastic life of the divine office to such an extent that it becomes the raison d'etre for the... And that, of course, crowds out the manual labor more or less, that limits manual labor for the monk to those things which are connected immediately with the maintenance of the divine office of the choir, therefore mainly sacristy work. We can see that also in the other monasteries. We have the, you know, we have the constitutiveness of Lanfang, of Beck, Now it's fair, one reads it, one can see that monks are constantly engaged either in sinning or possessions, or...

[111:34]

for in cleaning the chapeliers and all that belonged to the choir line. So it was strictly a life in the sanctuary and for the sanctuary. And then, as far as the other, then of course, you know, it should not be overlooked, then of course brought also a tremendous revenue to those ages the performance of the divine office of course done with the idea of intercession for the benefactors and therefore also the multiplication of masses and mass foundations and mass stipends And with the multiplication of the mass foundations, the increasing need for more priests to fill these obligations that the monastery took upon itself.

[112:50]

And as you know, in perpetuum always. There was another found given, and right away, in perpetuum, so and so many masses during the year. And then, of course, that was the time when the great DMRs became so popular, and all these feudal lords, sometimes with a doubtful background, more or less conserved, you know, made this investment. And that, of course, altered to a great extent the character of the life of the existence of the monastery. If you take in St. Benedict's time, Mass was said not every day, but only on Sundays and on big feasts, on big feasts. And this whole technique of the stipends was not.

[113:52]

developed yet and therefore the idea of that the divine office the immediate liturgical service as such would take care of the material needs of the monastery at Saint Benedict's time that idea did not exist but in the time of Cluny that was the predominant So that accounts for the origin of what we call the liturgical abbey. And I say in this liturgical abbey, the economic situation immediately changes. Where, of course, these abbeys too had land. That land was given to them. They were found in existence. In the village, each farm had these serfs attached to it, and when a farm was given to the monastery, the serfs were not removed, could not be removed, because that was the whole existence and life of these families.

[115:08]

If they would have been removed, it would have been a great social injustice, injustice to the people who lived on that land. And therefore, for the manual labor, which was done in these various farms, donations, that was done by the people attached to it. And St. Benedict, of course, for that matter, also knows already those circumstances, but not to that extent. And then we have what we call the imperial abbeys. And those imperial abbeys, their home is in Germany, and their life is strongly determined by cultural pursuits in the service of the public life of the empire.

[116:10]

There is Charlemagne. dominating figure, really, in the early Middle Ages, who spanned the character of these abbeys through what we call the Carolingian Renaissance. And that Carolingian Renaissance was a strong, vast movement after the migration of nations was ended and after the circumstances in the West and again reached at least a certain kind of balance and of peace under the domination of these emperors that were crowned in Rome. And there the idea was that in competition to the East, to Byzantium, to Constantinople, to establish the taste for the forms of the old Roman civilization, Carolingian Renaissance.

[117:11]

And the main supporters of that movement naturally were the abbeys, which were considered as the columns of this whole imperial system. And therefore, the abbeys were engaged in duties of the Red Corps and in various undertakings, also the political undertakings of the empire. And they were taken up with the education in letters and higher knowledge of the youth, the nobility, the young nobility of the empire, in order to cooperate in the establishment of a capable group of leadership within the society. And all these, that was, right now, for example, that was Fulda and these armies, which, therefore, were extroverts, so to speak.

[118:21]

That also corresponded, as we know, to a certain extent to the Germanic temperament and to the Nordic countries, England and Germany. They were, for that matter, more active. And there, the work of the monk was not so much. Again, the agricultural work, which was taken care of by the serfs, but it was the higher learning. We know people like Vabanus, Baulus, and others, Nobke, Labio, Senghor, and Walafrit Strabo in the Weiche now, who were scholars. and who cultivated the liberal arts in the monastery. And their work with these colony pursuits were also art, the writing of books, the illuminating of books.

[119:31]

And those things, therefore, took the main place and were the way which the monastery radiated into the outside world. However, with those pursuits, also the world entered into the monastery, and the discipline in these imperial abbeys grew rather large. And therefore, reaction sets in. And that reaction then is a return and that brings about then the third type of Benedict and Albie, the return to the purity of the rule. We form movements who start, make a new fresh start and take as the foundation of that start the letter of the rule. The great, not the first, but one of the greatest and most successful movements of that kind was the Cistercian movement.

[120:36]

And those Cistercians, but they were not the first, they were the first because of Elsa's Lorraine, we have the Goetze movement and others, but attempts on a smaller scale. But the Cistercian movement became the predominant one. starting not with donations that were given from the outside, but the monk going into the wilderness and then working on the wilderness given to them in order to be independent of the Lord, in order to have a chance outside of the existing cultural system to start all over again. And in that way make the rule itself and exclusively the rule alone the foundation of the life. We call those areas then loosely primitive areas of the primitive observance.

[121:40]

And it were actually those abbeys of the primitive observance in which the manulaver again was considered as the main source of income, where it was considered an essential feature of the abbey to earn his livelihood, not through donations, but through its manulaver. According to these three types, naturally also the interpretation of the idea of how the monk should be occupied differs. If you read the commentary of Albert Delat, who is a successor, say, of Cluny, In our days, he emphasizes in the interpretation of this crucial passage that I have just read, he emphasizes the idea that St.

[122:46]

Benedict evidently speaks of this kind of value labor as an extraordinary thing, which happens only during harvest time, and where therefore the monks are placed under extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, it is so. The ordinary life of the monk is different from. Therefore, be a monk, according to his opinion, not necessarily living from the fruit of his labor. While on the other hand, you have somebody like Abbott Butler, who maybe is more in touch with the historical research and so on, and he will say that this shows that the monk in the idea of Saint Benedict was supposed to live through many layers but then as representative of the English let us say in a wider sense you understand the imperial abbey of the scholar type he will say that laborious work is the emphasis and this laborious work can also be

[124:01]

Intellectual work doesn't have to be with the work with one's hands. So that intellectual work, hard work, and then this teaching is hard work. And therefore the work of teaching with the preparation needed and facing the voice day after day sometimes they even make some manual declarations so there that is the interpretation that the accent is on laborious and then on a verb which is remunerative so that through the teaching in the pleasant economical situation the teaching is for the monk the logical thing not only to be occupied do serious work but also to make a living and that is a good way of making a living because the monk really gives something through his work and the people outside especially today are happy to

[125:13]

support the monastery for this purpose and also their their children may be educated in that way it certainly is a very absolutely reasonable position and then finally the say the primitive which school, which considers that you lay by as such as an integral part of the domestic of the life of the monk, not of every individual monk, but belonging to the, say, to the general body of the monastery.

[125:54]

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