In the previous post I looked briefly at the intercessory context of late antique monasticism, including in relation to the monasteries of Agaune and Arles. In this post I want to look more particularly at the intercessory context for St Benedict's Rule and Office; in the next part I plan to look at the explicitly intercessory features of St Benedict's Office.
St Benedict and intercessory prayer
The Benedictine Rule makes clear that intercessory prayer is important.
There are several references to prayers with the objective of the mutual support for the brethren of the monastery. [1]
And chapter 20 of the Rule, entitled on reverence in prayer (De reverentia orationis) which immediately follows the section on the liturgy, opens with key instructions on how to petition God:
St Benedict and intercessory prayer
The Benedictine Rule makes clear that intercessory prayer is important.
There are several references to prayers with the objective of the mutual support for the brethren of the monastery. [1]
And chapter 20 of the Rule, entitled on reverence in prayer (De reverentia orationis) which immediately follows the section on the liturgy, opens with key instructions on how to petition God:
If we wish to prefer a petition to men of high station, we do not presume to do it without humility and respect; how much more ought we to supplicate the Lord God of all things with all humility and pure devotion...[2]But are these references all to prayer outside the Office, as some have argued, or do they also refer to the Office itself as a whole? [3]
Nor was this unique to Gaul and the East: there are numerous contemporary references for Rome and the surrounding regions that make it clear the intercessory function was an important consideration at the time, not least in justifying child oblation (or the near equivalent consecration of girls as virgins, for example, for which there is an interesting contemporary literature on the value to family and state of this offering). [4]
Soldiers for Christ
Perhaps the most important cue to St Benedict's intercessory orientation though, lies in his depiction of prayer as the battlefield, and the monk as a soldier: the soldier, after all, fights not just for himself, but in an army, to defend the people. [5]
And St Bede the Venerable later devoted considerable attention to drawing out the dual image of soldier and worker so integral to the Rule in his exposition of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, where the workforce alternated between guarding the walls of Jerusalem (and those within) and rebuilding them. [7]
The service of monks
There is one other important image in the Rule though, that is worth considering here, and that is the priestly, or ministerial role of the monk.
St Benedict makes several allusions to the ministerial role of monks - and he is clearly not referring to the ministerial priesthood since he makes it clear that only a few of the monks were expected to be priests in his time (RB 62).
There are, however, repeated references to the monk's service (servitutis) in the house of God starting from the Prologue, but especially in chapter 16, when talking about the hours of the Office. He also warns the abbot, for example, of the terrible fate of Heli, priest of Silo (1 Samuel 2), for his failure to stop the corruption of his sons (RB 2).
Perhaps the most important, though, is in the very opening words of the Rule contain several important allusions to the book of Sirach, and introduce the important word servitutis, which St Benedict several times uses in relation to the Office:
St Benedict and Bede on the efficacy of prayer
I noted above that it is sometimes argued that Chapter 20 of the Rule, on reverence in prayer, is about prayer outside of the Divine Office rather than including it.
That chapter argues that it is fervour - that is, humility, purity of heart and tears of compunction - not the length of the prayer or words that are important. St Benedict argues that 'Our prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure'.
While it is certainly possible that St Benedict is talking only about prayer outside the Office, the context of the two other, much longer, monastic offices I've been discussing in this series at the very least suggest that the chapter can also be read as a defence of his much shorter Office. [10]
That the issue was still live two centuries later is suggested by an interesting commentary of St Bede the Venerable on the Epistle of James. In particular, St James 5:16-18 points to the value of the 'assiduous' or continuous prayer, and gives the example of the trial by liturgical prayer between Elijah and the priests of Baal (3 Kings 18), where both set up sacrifices to their respective gods, but only Elijah is able to call up fire so that the holocaust is effected, and the drought is broken.
St Bede, in his commentary on the epistle, drew out the contrast between the long, loud and continuous - but ultimately fruitless - prayer of the priests of Baal, and Elijah's own short sharp prayers which gave instant results:
May our prayers in this current crisis of pestilence be equally fervent and effective!
And for the next post in this series, continue on here.St Benedict makes several allusions to the ministerial role of monks - and he is clearly not referring to the ministerial priesthood since he makes it clear that only a few of the monks were expected to be priests in his time (RB 62).
There are, however, repeated references to the monk's service (servitutis) in the house of God starting from the Prologue, but especially in chapter 16, when talking about the hours of the Office. He also warns the abbot, for example, of the terrible fate of Heli, priest of Silo (1 Samuel 2), for his failure to stop the corruption of his sons (RB 2).
Perhaps the most important, though, is in the very opening words of the Rule contain several important allusions to the book of Sirach, and introduce the important word servitutis, which St Benedict several times uses in relation to the Office:
Rule: Ausculta o fili, praecepta magistri, et inclina aurem cordis tui et admonitionem pii patris libenter excipe et efficaciter comple; ut ad eum per obedientiae laborem redeas, a quo per inobedientiae desidiam recesseras.
Sirach: Fili, accedens ad servitutem Dei sta in justitia et timore, et præpara animam tuam ad tentationem. 2 Deprime cor tuum, et sustine: inclina aurem tuam, et suscipe verba intellectus: et ne festines in tempore obductionis. [8]'Servitutis' is most often used, in Scripture to refer to slave, or hard labour, especially the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt, from which they were freed under Moses. Only twice in the Old Testament, is it used in a more positive sense to mean ministry or service: aside from in Sirach, it is used in the book of Wisdom to Aaron's urgent intercessory prayer at Moses' urging, on behalf of the people in the face of God's killing anger. In the Rule, though, St Benedict mostly uses the word consistently in the way it is used in Sirach and Wisdom, to mean the service of God. [9]
St Benedict and Bede on the efficacy of prayer
I noted above that it is sometimes argued that Chapter 20 of the Rule, on reverence in prayer, is about prayer outside of the Divine Office rather than including it.
That chapter argues that it is fervour - that is, humility, purity of heart and tears of compunction - not the length of the prayer or words that are important. St Benedict argues that 'Our prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure'.
While it is certainly possible that St Benedict is talking only about prayer outside the Office, the context of the two other, much longer, monastic offices I've been discussing in this series at the very least suggest that the chapter can also be read as a defence of his much shorter Office. [10]
That the issue was still live two centuries later is suggested by an interesting commentary of St Bede the Venerable on the Epistle of James. In particular, St James 5:16-18 points to the value of the 'assiduous' or continuous prayer, and gives the example of the trial by liturgical prayer between Elijah and the priests of Baal (3 Kings 18), where both set up sacrifices to their respective gods, but only Elijah is able to call up fire so that the holocaust is effected, and the drought is broken.
St Bede, in his commentary on the epistle, drew out the contrast between the long, loud and continuous - but ultimately fruitless - prayer of the priests of Baal, and Elijah's own short sharp prayers which gave instant results:
He illustrates by an appropriate example how much the unremitting prayer of the righteous person can accomplish, when Elijah by praying only once closed up the heavens for such a long time, kept showers away from the earth, denied fruits to mortals, and again, when he wished, when he ascertained that it was time...he prayed only once and restored the fruits of water which he had denied to the earth. [11]It is worth noting, too, that Bede was obviously aware that the aftermath of the divinely given fire that effects the holocaust, Elijah instructed the King to go up the hill and watch for rain seven times, echoing the number of day hours - and on the seventh he sees the cloud heralding the saving rain.
May our prayers in this current crisis of pestilence be equally fervent and effective!
Notes
[1] St Benedict, for example, insists on prayers for those making profession; the weekly servers and readers; those travelling outside the monastery; and monks who have been excommunicated for example (RB 28, 35, 38, 58, 67). And as Choi has pointed out, the description of the cenobite in chapter one of the Rule is predicated on the mutual support necessary for prayer: Monachorum quattuor esse genera manifestum est. Primum coenobitarum, hoc est monasteriale, militans sub regula vel abbate. Deinde secundum genus est anachoritarum, id est eremitarum, horum qui non conversationis fervore novicio, sed monasterii probatione diuturna, qui didicerunt contra diabolum multorum solacio iam docti pugnare, et bene exstructi fraterna ex acie ad singularem pugnam eremi, securi iam sine consolatione alterius, sola manu vel brachio contra vitia carnis vel cogitationum, Deo auxiliante, pugnare sufficiunt.
[2] RB 20.1-2: Si, cum hominibus potentibus volumus aliqua suggerere, non praesumimus nisi cum humilitate et reverentia, quanto magis Domino Deo universorum cum omni humilitate et puritatis devotione supplicandum est.
[3] See for example Terrance Kardong, Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary, Liturgical Press, 1996, largely following De Vogue.
[4] RB 59. See Kim Bowes, Private worship, public values, and religious change in late antiquity, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
[5] Prologue .3: Ad te ergo nunc mihi sermo dirigitur, quisquis abrenuntians propriis voluntatibus, Domino Christo vero regi militaturus, oboedientiae fortissima atque praeclara arma sumis.
[6] Renie Choi, Intercessory Prayer and the Monastic Ideal in the Time of the Carolingian Reforms, Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Choi points particularly to the implications of St Benedict's discussion of the distinction between hermits and coenobites in chapter 1 of the Rule, with its description of the battleline of brothers.
[7] Bede, On Ezra and Nehemiah, trans Scott deGregorio, Liverpool University Press, 2012.
[8] Prologue to the Rule: Hearken, my son, to the precepts of the master and incline the ear of thy heart; freely accept and faithfully fulfil the instructions of a loving father, that by the labour of obedience thou mayest return to him from whom thou hast strayed by the sloth of disobedience. To thee are my words now addressed, whosoever thou mayest be that renouncing thine own will to fight for the true King, Christ, dost take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience.
Sirach 2: Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. [Humble] thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds [calamity/disaster]. Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end. Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience. For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein (Douay-Rheims translation).
[9] The word occurs in Pr 45 (ergo nobis dominici schola servitii), 2:18 ( Non convertenti ex servitio praeponatur ingenuus, nisi), RB2:20 (sub uno Domino aequalem servitutis militiam baiulamus), 5:3 ( Propter servitium sanctum quod professi sunt) in relation to monastic life more generally; and in 16:2, 18:24, 49:4, 50:4 in relation to the Office.
[10] St Benedict himself contrasts his Office with that 'of our holy fathers [who] strenuously fulfilled in a single day what I pray that we lukewarm monks may perform in a whole week'. (RB 18).
[11] David Hurst (trans), Bede the Venerable: Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, Cistercian Publications, 1985.
