Saints of the Benedictine Family

All Saints of the Benedictine Family

(We pay tribute to the Benedictines on their Feast Day. Saint Francis and Saint Clare could not have started on their spiritual journey without the help of Benedictine monks and nuns. The second Visitor of the Confraternity of Penitents was a Benedictine monk Fr. Julian Stead, OSB. God bless the Benedictines for their support!)


On November 13, the Benedictine Order celebrates the feast of all those who truly sought God, loved Christ and were courageous in spiritual combat under the Rule of Saint Benedict. On that day, we are encouraged to ponder the importance of the sons and daughters of St. Benedict throughout the history of Christianity. Living under a Rule and an abbot, loving the place and their community, they established cloistral paradises in every corner of the world. Like their great patriarch, they knew themselves to be blessed by God. Keeping their eyes focused on their heavenly homeland, they chose to live either in secluded solitude or in a coenobium. They freely renounced the pleasures of the world in order to serve Christ, the one true King.

Benedictine Monks of Conception Abbey

They knew that they had been bound to Christ by bonds of love and grace. Preferring nothing to the love of Christ, they were molded into the household of God, a temple made of living stones. By the grace of God they attained a holy indifference to the things of this world because they knew that their citizenship was in heaven. Pondering to the Gospels, they became witnesses to God’s love for all people. In humility, the surrendered their lives to the love and care of God, praying that their every action would give glory to His holy name.

Benedictine Nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation

Having stripped off the old self, they sought to be clothed in the mantel of justice, walking in the footsteps of Him Who clothed Himself in their humanity. By keeping their hearts free from worldly desires, they found the love that drives out fear. Thanks to their fidelity to the monastic way of life, age upon age shall proclaim the glory of God and come to know the fullness of joy in His presence. By remaining united to Christ their true king, monks and nuns of every age sought to glorify God in all they did. Through their monastic profession, the life they live is hidden with Christ in God (Cf. Col. 3:3). It is in Christ that they live and move and have their being. With this in mind, it might be helpful to ponder this passage taken from the Prologue of the Rule. "As we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts expanded with the inexpressible delight of love."

The word of the Lord is spoken to all believers. The spiritual oneness of Christ and His Body, the Church, is the source of our evangelical fruitfulness. Surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses we find ourselves running on the path of God's commandments with our hearts purified of all that shrinks and narrows them. This overflowing love is the most distinctive trait of a soul that has been created in the image and likeness of God. Knowing themselves to be blessed by God, monks and nuns separate themselves from the world to be the object of His loving care. By holding nothing more dear then the love of Christ, the monk or nun opens him/herself to receive one blessing after another (Cf. Jn. 1:16). Following their example, may we persevere in seeking Christ above all things and live in such a way as to be instruments of unity and peace in the world. I will close these reflections with a poem written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Poem 74. To Him Who Ever Thought With Love Of Me


To him who ever thought with love of me
Or ever did for my sake some good deed
I will appear, looking such charity
And kind compassion, at his life’s last need
That he will out of hand and heartily
Repent he sinned and all his sins be freed.

--Father Jerome Machar, OSCO