[HN Gopher] St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries (516) ___________________________________________________________________ St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries (516) Author : simonebrunozzi Score : 64 points Date : 2021-01-10 14:50 UTC (8 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.gutenberg.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.gutenberg.org) | diegoholiveira wrote: | Those rules help the Church preserve the ancient knowledge until | Gutenberg. As a Catholic, I'm devout of St. Benedict because the | creation of monasteries have a huge impact of the human | knowledge. | hawktheslayer wrote: | Interesting to see this on the front page! I spent a year in a | monetary mostly cloistered. While I'm glad now for the life I | ultimately chose of having a family, I often draw from the | experience, especially the discernment process (the Ignatius | Exercises) and the meditation/contemplation practice. | christophilus wrote: | I spent some time discerning as a Trappist, and now have a | family. I've found the lack of silence to be the biggest | challenge. How is your prayer life as a parent? | h2odragon wrote: | Say on; first hand experience in this is rare. What did you | discover you missed most on returning to "the real world"? was | a year enough time? | jchallis wrote: | Atheist fan speaking up for Benedict and his rule. My education | was entirely organized by Benedictine nuns who internalized this | rule and lived it daily. The focus on the importance of daily | discipline made a big impression on me. Like the military, see an | organization make short term sacrifices for longer term | objectives made a big impression on me and how I spend my time. | | Ora et labora. | selimthegrim wrote: | There were all kinds of hacks around this in practice: see | https://youtu.be/zz0y1d6IIpY?t=437 | copperwater69 wrote: | I can't see anything about celibacy | trestenhortz wrote: | How Boys Are to Be Corrected Mar. 7--July 7--Nov. 6 | | Every age and degree of understanding should have its proper | measure of discipline. With regard to boys and adolescents, | therefore, or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the | penalty of excommunication, whenever such as these are delinquent | let them be subjected to severe fasts or brought to terms by | harsh beatings, that they may be cured. | generationP wrote: | > Your IP Address in Germany is Blocked from www.gutenberg.org | | Of course, copyright trolls :) | | Workaround: | https://web.archive.org/web/20180911045657/https://www.guten... | | (Welcome to 2021, the year Silicon Valley went Catholic...) | zokier wrote: | http://archive.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html | | Alternative link, possibly bit different from gutenberg | edition, but should be still the same translation | zinekeller wrote: | Info for those outside of Germany: | https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html | sharpneli wrote: | Whoa. They basically claim jurisdiction on any content based | on the language it's in. | jawns wrote: | "We read, it is true, that wine is by no means a drink for monks; | but since the monks of our day cannot be persuaded of this, let | us at least agree to drink sparingly and not to satiety, because | 'wine makes even the wise fall away.'" | | I'm a Catholic, and this is the rule that amuses me the most. | | The monks were willing to give up most material possessions and | submit to a life of poverty, obedience, and sexual abstinence... | but the one thing they couldn't be persuaded to give up was the | hooch. | tenpies wrote: | I always considered it more of a reflection on practicality. | There is going to be wine around the monastery, if only because | it is necessary for Mass. Therefore, you cannot really ban | wine, so are you really going to dedicate a group of monks to | the sole task of cellar guard duty? | aksss wrote: | While reading about Jesus drinking wine. :) I think the | compromise is practical and also in line with the advice of | the apostles. Nothing wrong with drinking, but drunkenness is | a risk in many ways. | jonah wrote: | I've always liked Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton's take: | | "Drink because you are happy, but never because you are | miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you | will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink | when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the | laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for | this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But | drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational | drinking, and the ancient health of the world." | analog31 wrote: | I'm sure it depended on geography and time period, but I've | read that it wasn't always possible to drink water due to | cholera. There may have been a necessity of mixing in at least | some wine with the water, to disinfect it. Some have gone so | far as to suggest that the arrival of tea from China, which | required boiling the water, resulted in a bit of an | intellectual boost in Europe. | | There were many monasteries where beer and wine making were | part of their business model. | aaron-santos wrote: | What I find more interesting than the rules themselves is in | which ways were they broken. With any system of rules (and the | more complex the better), there are bound to be omissions or | conflicts which result in gray areas or loop holes. | | While some monasteries were strict regardless, others pushed the | boundaries. Relating to "CHAPTER 39 On the Measure of Food" for | example, monk's meals were supposed to "have two cooked dishes". | On the other hand, monks could accept gifts from the abbot "And | it shall be in the Abbot's power to decide to whom it shall be | given". Naturally in some refectories, the abbot would receive | dishes which he would then direct to other tables thus skirting | the two dishes rule. | | If you're interested in this and more, Max Miller's Medieval Rule | Breakers[1] episode has many more examples | | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz0y1d6IIpY | | Edit: It seems as selimthegrim has beaten me to the punch with | the link | mjh2539 wrote: | The rule was advisory in any case; there are multiple points at | which St. Benedict advises that the abbot modify things if they | had a better way of doing things; the rule of St. Benedict | itself is based on several rules that predate it (which are | obviously not identical to it). ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-01-10 23:00 UTC)