CHAPTER 36
68 The Rule, Chapter 36 "On Sunday immediately after Lauds, those beginning as well as those completing their week of service should make a profound bow in the oratory before all and ask for their prayers/ The kitchen servers are blessed in and blessed out.
Their service to the community is deserving of a blessing.
In a monastic home, as well as in yours, a little help is always appreciated in getting the meals to the table. In both places we should "serve one another in love."
CHAPTER 36
The Sick Brothers "Care of the sick must rank above and before all else, so that they may truly be served as Christ, for he said: "I was sick and you visited me (Matt 25:36), and, What you did for one of these least brothers you did for me (Matt 25:40)."
St. Benedict makes space for an infirmary in his monastery.
Although modern Benedictines are hospitalized and even though some hospitals are operated by Benedictine Sisters who exercise care for the sick in the manner St. Benedict prescribes, every Benedictine house still has its infirmary for the care of the sick and aged. The infirmarian is assured by St. Benedict that this patient labor will be rewarded. The sick, for their part, are not to make excessive demands on the people looking after them. St. Benedict knew there would always be some monks who would enjoy their poor health by expecting special favors and permissions.
North Americans probably bathe more frequently than any other people on earth. Perhaps even our ancestors, who had to heat their bath water once a week on a wood-burning stove, would have considered St. Benedict's attitude about bathing somewhat strange. He says the sick may bathe "whenever it
The Rule, Chapter 36 69 is advisable, but the healthy, and especially the young, should receive permission less readily." This should not lead us to believe that his monks did not have good hygienic habits. They did wash, but taking a bath— that was something exceptional.
A bath was a luxury, something in which the rich indulged.
St. Benedict, no doubt, had another reason for not liking baths.
He was aware of the public Roman baths, which were the massage parlors of his day. Paul Warnefrid, the eighth-century
Monte Cassino monk and commentator on the Rule, believed that St. Benedict wanted the sick to have a bath daily, maybe even two baths if necessary. This is quite lenient. As for the healthy and the young, Warnefrid says there are various opinions. Some monks thought that it was proper to bathe three times a year: at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. At any rate,
St. Benedict does make a concession to the sick in this matter.
He also allows them to eat meat in order to regain their strength. The healthy are to abstain from meat. Once again we see that St. Benedict is a sensible and considerate father of the monastery.
He says the sick are to "be served by an attendant who is God-fearing, attentive and concerned." Brother Alexius, who was our infirmarian when I came to the monastery, was this kind of an attendant. He actually empathized with his patients.
After one of us had been treated for a particular ailment, he would follow us around the rest of the day asking, "How is my sore throat?" or "How is my earache?" or "Do you still have my headache?" Brother Alexius was conscientious about dispensing pills. He had every aspirin counted. And there was a counting routine in administering them. How well I remember the times he would follow me to the drinking fountain and tell me, "Now take seven swallows in honor of the Seven Sorrows of Mary."
The monastery infirmary is the place where all of us hope to spend our declining years. My mother, who lived in a nurs-
70 The Rule, Chapter 37 ing home for the last thirteen years of her life, was often confused about my status in life. Once she asked me if I had a good job and a good salary. I told her that I didn't get paid for my work. "I live in a monastery, Mother/' She said, "Isn't it nice that they have places for people like us?"
Chapter 36 speaks of the concern we should have for the sick, but it also tells us how to behave when we are sick. "Let the sick on their part bear in mind that they are served out of honor for God, and let them not by their excessive demands distress their brothers who serve them."
CHAPTER 37
The Elderly and Children "Although human nature itself is inclined to be compassionate toward the old and the young, the authority of the rule should also provide for them." But this short chapter, apart from relaxing the dietary practice of the monastery for the old and the young, is not specific about how they should be treated. "Since their lack of strength must always be taken into account, they should certainly not be required to follow the strictness of the rule with regard to food, but should be treated with kindly consideration and allowed to eat before the regular hours." Thus ends chapter 37, "The Elderly and Children."
While being solicitous for both the young and the old in this chapter of the Rule, St. Benedict cautions elsewhere that boys should not waste food by being given too much to eat.
"Young boys should not receive the same amount as their elders, but less, since in all matters frugality is the rule" (ch.
39). The young are mentioned in other chapters of the Rule, but the old are recognized infrequently. In chapter 63, St. Benedict describes the respect the young monks should have for
The Rule, Chapter 38 71 their seniors, but a senior monk is not necessarily an aged one.
Perhaps it is not necessary to say much about the elderly. They have persevered in the monastery to old age. They have already learned to do the things by which they will profit eternity. It is the young who need to learn how to ' 'progress in this way of life and in faith" (Prologue). The young referred to in chapter 37 are, of course, the boys who dwell in the monastery, some of them sons whose parents have offered them to the monastery.
These days children are abused, and the elderly are neglected. St. Benedict prevents this from happening in his monastery. We, who follow his Rule, should "be compassionate toward the old and the young" wherever we live.
CHAPTER 38
The Reader for the Week "Reading will always accompany the meals of the brothers."
This is for the edification and instruction of the monks, not to prevent them from verbally complaining about the meals.
"Let there be complete silence. No whispering, no speakingonly the reader's voice should be heard there."
Reading is a weekly assignment, and like serving at table, the reader receives a blessing for the work he will perform.
St. Benedict allows the reader to have some "diluted wine" before reading. The reader had been fasting for Communion, and after having received the Eucharist, he went to the refectory to read. There is a danger that a particle of the host might be left in his mouth and he might spit it out while reading.
A cup of wine will prevent this from happening. Adding water to the wine is good advice. You can imagine what might oc-