Asking questions about everything

Trained as a lawyer, all his life George (our founder) asked a lot of questions... about everything! Like why you plow? They made fun of him in our Night Ag School over that one. Dialog -- asking and answering questions -- has become a hallmark of St. Benedict's Farm. The habit dates back at least to the early 1950's when George questioned why the Trappists wore 17th Century French underwear and used sign language. This analytical approach, which has been adopted by our community as something of a modus operandi, has prompted us over the years to modify many points of the Rule of St. Benedict, while retaining its spirit and tenor. It also led us in 1968 to accept LaClaire as a full-fledged member. Through the storm of controversy around this move, the fruits ensuing from this decision have since hushed our harshest critics.

The Monastic Prayer Struggle

Prayer should inform the task of every Christian ... all the more so for the monk. Monks, naturally have very strong ideas about how to pray, and long-lasting traditions about it to boot. The kind of prayer we pursue here at St. Benedict's Farm is more like that which any dedicated Christian lay person would be perfectly comfortable with. It is that prayer which labors to offer every day, and every activity of every day, to the Lord. A favorite Benedictine motto is Ora et Labora, "Work and Pray." To us, this means 1 thing, not 2. That Scripture counsels something similar is plain from the Apostle's words: "Whether you eat or whether you drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." (conflation of 1Cor10:31 & Col3:17) Again we read, "Their prayer shall be in the work of their craft." (Sirach 38:39... older Catholic Bibles)

Chanting the Psalms

We must mention, however, that the more traditional concept of monks fulfilling their obligation to pray is to do so "in choir," i.e. by singing, chanting or reciting the psalms. There is another current in monastic history also that sees contemplative prayer as the end and object of the monastic life. This question is treated at length in our book, Your Friendly Neighborhood Monks. Coming to our current way of pursuing the monastic life, with its ever so small portion of communal prayer, has been something of a struggle. In the beginning, we chanted the psalter in Latin, 7 times a day! as prescribed by the Rule. Benedict insisted all 150 psalms be said each week, mixed in with readings, songs and special prayers. However, as our membership would fluctuate between 3 and 2, we found ourselves going back and forth. With 3 or more, we said the Psalter; but when there were only 2 of us, we didn't pray the Office together because of the work load. But we found no lessening of spirit or dampening of enthusiasm for prayer, with or without recitation of the psalms! With Vatican Council II, we immediately switched from Latin to English for our psalmody... but eventually we dropped public recitation of the psalter altogether.

The work of God

We realize this prayer custom "swerves from" the overall vein of monastic life running throughout the centuries. Benedict calls communal psalmody, (often referred to as the Divine Office), "the work of God." For us here at SBF, "the work of God" rather consists in the energy, thought and (interior) prayer we put into the daily task of seeking God. A lifetime of pursuing the wisdom of Psalm 1 -- "My just one meditates on the law of the Lord day and night" -- cannot help but produce prayerful people. For those who insist the monastic life must have public psalmody we have no quarrel. Our cup of tea is rather to follow the dictum of the desert fathers: "If you still realize you are praying, you have not yet begun to pray as you ought."