St. Benedict Archives ~ The Imaginative Conservative

A Benedictine Education

By St. John Henry Newman|2024-03-22T17:46:46-05:00March 22nd, 2024|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Christianity, Classical Learning, Education, Sainthood, St. Benedict|

Education follows the same law as the physical universe, which is sustained and carried on in dependence on certain centres of power and laws of operation. Education has its history in Christianity, and its doctors or masters in that history. A Benedictine Education, by John Henry Newman (160 pages, Cluny Media) As the physical universe [...]

Opting for Benedict in an Ordinary Parish

By Dwight Longenecker|2024-03-01T18:37:07-06:00March 1st, 2024|Categories: Catholicism, Dwight Longenecker, Sainthood, Senior Contributors, St. Benedict|

Within the liturgy, within our academic life, within our hard work in serving the poor in a needy parish, we are seeking in our own small way to take the Benedict option. Like St Benedict we’re not trying to change the whole world. We’re simply doing what we can with what we have where we [...]

Work and Monasticism

By Benedict Hardy|2023-08-23T17:59:05-05:00August 23rd, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Sainthood, St. Benedict|

When the holy Abba Antony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I want to be saved, but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when [...]

The Domestic Monastery: The Rule of Saint Benedict

By Dwight Longenecker|2023-08-19T09:35:26-05:00July 10th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Character, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Senior Contributors, St. Benedict|

Whatever a person’s place in life, Saint Benedict offers a “little Rule for beginners.” The principles of the spiritual life which he sets down put us down firmly in life right where we are. By paralleling family and monastery, today’s reader can glean simple yet practical wisdom for, as well as extraordinary insight into, the [...]

On Saint Benedict

By Benedict XVI|2023-07-10T21:44:41-05:00July 10th, 2022|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Europe, History, Pope Benedict XVI, St. Benedict, Timeless Essays|

St. Benedict of Norcia, with his life and his work, had a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture. The most important source on Benedict’s life is the second book of St. Gregory the Great’s “Dialogues,” in which he gives us a model for human life in the climb towards the summit [...]

Benedict the Balanced

By Dwight Longenecker|2022-07-11T10:45:18-05:00July 10th, 2022|Categories: Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Family, St. Benedict, Timeless Essays|

The Benedictine Rule was written in the sixth century, but it is timeless in its appeal. Stability means we find God and happiness right where we are, and that we don’t have to flit about after every trend, fashion or new idea. In the summer of 1987 I had three months free, and decided to [...]

Gradually Restoring the World

By St. John Henry Newman|2022-02-22T10:54:12-06:00February 22nd, 2022|Categories: Catholicism, Christendom, Essential, Quotation, St. Benedict, St. John Henry Newman|

St. Benedict found the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way not of science, but of nature, not as if setting about to do it, not professing to do it by any set time, or by any rare specific, or by any series of strokes, but [...]

An Education for the Future

By John C. Pinheiro|2024-02-25T10:25:38-06:00January 4th, 2022|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Education, Sainthood, St. Benedict|

With such a rich intellectual, artistic, and moral heritage, why among the many institutions of Catholic learning (including, of course, the Benedictine ones) are there so few dedicated to a liberating and humane education in truth, humility, and love? Glory in All Things: St. Benedict and Catholic Education Today, by André Gushurst-Moore (Angelico Press, [...]

How One Monk Began Rebuilding the West

By R. Jared Staudt|2023-10-23T14:21:24-05:00July 10th, 2020|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Culture, History, St. Benedict|

The life of Venerable Dom Prosper Guéranger, a Benedictine monk, is truly one of rebuilding the Church from the ruins of the French Revolution and the lingering corruption of the Gallicanism which preceded it. In an age of great disintegration, Guéranger can be a model of rebuilding for all of the faithful. July 11 is [...]

Debating the Benedict Option

By Thomas Ascik|2021-12-07T17:12:01-06:00November 1st, 2019|Categories: Books, Christian Living, Christianity, Culture, Senior Contributors, St. Benedict, Thomas R. Ascik|

Rod Dreher’s book, “The Benedict Option,” has gone on to become an international cultural event. Yet, today, it is not clear whether the book has had any influence on Church institutions and leadership. Has the Benedict Option then been a failure? Should other “options” be considered? Rod Dreher’s book The Benedict Option, a New York [...]

Opting for Saint Benedict in an Ordinary Parish

By Dwight Longenecker|2021-12-06T13:08:33-06:00August 4th, 2018|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, St. Benedict|

Like Saint Benedict we’re not trying to change the whole world. We’re simply doing what we can with what we have where we are. I first encountered Saint Benedict while I was a student at Oxford. I had enrolled to train as a priest in the Church of England, but a Catholic woman in the [...]

With Hearts Expanded

By Benedict of Nursia|2023-07-10T21:42:01-05:00July 11th, 2018|Categories: Catholicism, St. Benedict|

Having then, brethren, asked the Lord who it is that shall dwell in His tabernacle, we have heard what He commands to those who wish to dwell there; and if we fulfill those commands, we shall be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. […]

Rebuilding Western Civilization: A Tale of Two Monasteries

By Dwight Longenecker|2021-12-06T11:29:30-06:00July 7th, 2018|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Community, Dwight Longenecker, England, John Senior, St. Benedict, Tradition|

The three vows of the Benedictine monk are obedience, stability, and conversion of life. In our own ways, we can follow this example, making it real by paying attention to prayer, cracking the books in solid study, and rolling up our sleeves in the honest, hard work of rebuilding what has fallen into despair and [...]

A Sonnet for St. Benedict

By Malcolm Guite|2023-07-10T21:46:26-05:00July 11th, 2017|Categories: Audio/Video, Malcolm Guite, Poetry, St. Benedict|

On July the 11th the Church celebrates the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the gentle founder of the Benedictine order and by extension the father of Monasticism. A moderate and modest man he would have been astonished to learn that his ‘simple school for prayer, ’his ‘modest rule for beginners’ led to the foundation of communities [...]