[HN Gopher] St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries (516)
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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).
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(page generated 2021-01-10 23:00 UTC)