Hermitage Note: Benedictine Balance

I am always amazed at how we can get so involved in busyness, even, and perhaps especially, busyness that is good and seemingly needful, that the greater good found in the simple business of living a faith-centered life is easily overwhelmed and supplanted.

It is easy to go from a place of reasonable balance to being completely out of kilter.

Balance does not happen on its own. It does not just happen to show up one day in the midst of chaos. Balance is obtained only when it is planned and executed. Safeguards have to be put into place to ensure that balance is kept. Once you begin leaning over out of kilter, if not soon corrected, it is just a matter of time before any sense of balance is lost and any degree of devotional discipline is lost with it.

Saint Benedict realized the necessity of balance in the lives of the brothers and sisters who entered into his little school of the Lord’s service. His Rule carefully constructs a balanced life of prayer, work, and leisure within the context of a community setting. He was careful to make sure that everyone shared in the workload and that none were so overworked that they became disheartened.

Saint Benedict’s sense of balance is easily achieved within the monastic enclosure. It is not so easy here outside the monastery where the world’s time and priorities pay no mind to the time and priorities of those who attempt to follow the way of life prescribed by Benedict in his little school governed by The Rule. It is not only the world that runs interference. The Church can be a large culprit too, especially when the laborers are few. The needs are many at the parish level and it is easy to get stretched out and over-committed out of a sense of concern.

I have once again picked up Archabbot Benedict Baur’s book. [Someone recently asked about favorite books by Benedictine authors.]

IN SILENCE WITH GOD is one that I highly recommend. The back cover introduces the book saying, “This book is written to help those seeking to follow our Lord to obtain the silence of the soul necessary to hear and understand the will of God. The author, a German Benedictine, presents the full panorama of a Christian life. The subjects include our Lord’s call to everyone to a life of perfection, a constant spiritual struggle through the practice of human and supernatural virtues, and the frequent reception of the sacraments. Placid Jordan, O.S.B., writes in his introduction, ‘There is nothing new in Archabbot Baur’s approach to the inner life, but he says things long familiar to us by using a language adapted skillfully to our present-day need.’”

Reprinted in 1997, the original English translation was published in 1955.

The “present-day need” mentioned by Fa. Jordan has increased immensely since the time of his appraisal. The darkness of our times is vastly darker than at the time when IN SILENCE WITH GOD was written. The noisy din of this new Millennium makes it even more difficult to hear the still, small, voice of God. Too much busyness, even good busyness, complicates being able to hear the still, small, voice of God.

Our mission in life, as sacramental Christians, is to grow in Christian perfection. Our ambition should ever and always be effectively realizing greater measures of the theological virtues in our lives. Faith, Hope, and Charity must be ever abounding and increasing. Consciously pursuing an increase in these virtues is one of the Vows made by our Professed brothers and sisters. It is a Solemn Promise made by Oblates. Yet, how easy it is to find ourselves diverted from this mission and filled with other ambitions.

Archabbot Baur writes,

“Whoever does not attain perfection fails in the task given to him in Baptism. After all, one who does reach the heights of Christian perfection merely makes good the vow offered up at his Baptism. There simply is no other way to be a Christian than to strive after perfection. Striving for perfection is simply the fulfillment of the baptismal vow.

Hence we are called to a life of perfection. Be you perfect. … Perfection consists essentially of love. The more it grows, the greater our strength to grow in love – and this in turn impels us to strive for more and more perfection.”[1]

Christmas is upon us.

Decades ago, while serving as the pastor of a small Protestant church in Canada, I read a report that addressed the consumption of alcoholic beverages during the year. It stated that more alcohol is consumed during the Christmas holidays than during other times of the year. Some of the consumption was recreational. A lot of it was related to the holiday depression that many experience during what should be a very joyous Christmas season.

It’s sad that so many are without Christ in this world that surrounds us. The emptiness of commercialism is sad. It is sad that so many of us suffer from fractured family relationships. It is sad that so many are struggling against emotional grief and bodily hardships. It is sad that we allow Norman Rockwell or Courier and Ives to paint or cast images of what this time of year should be for everyone.

My mom was born one hundred years ago today. I miss her. I miss stopping by to see her on her birthday. All those years that I lived far away, those years I always called her on her birthday.

She, like my dad and two older brothers, have gone on to that better home that is waiting. There is a lot of consolation in knowing that the four of them embraced Christ in their lives while living on earth. It is, after all, His promise that He has gone to prepare a place for those who accept and follow Him.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Not only do I pray for them. I pray for us as well. I pray especially that, somehow in the midst of all that is crazy, difficult, and inordinate about this time of year, Christ Jesus will be born anew in fresh reality and be found in the mangers of all our hearts.

Merry Christmas and a Faith, Hope, and Charity filled 2022.

David & Shirli Kralik

Psalty Catholic

[1] Archabbot Benedict Baur, IN SILENCE WITH GOD, p. 43