CHAPTER 41
76 The Rule, Chapter 41 St. Benedict is by no means a teetotaler, but he does advise moderation in drink and everything else.
CHAPTER 41
The Times for the Brothers' Meals There is an exercise room in our monastery, and some of the overweight monks use it. Probably none of us would be overweight if chapter 41 of the Rule were observed as it is written.
Nowadays we eat meals three times a day all year long, and we have two daily community coffee breaks at which leftover desserts are served. We can raid the kitchen whenever we wish, and even though one area of it is locked up at ten o'clock in the evening, we all know where the key is kept. In St.
Benedict's day, the monks ordinarily ate only two meals a day, and for a good part of the year they ate only one. And, of course, the Rule says nothing about coffee breaks.
"From holy Easter to Pentecost, the brothers eat at noon and take supper in the evening." St. Benedict begins this chapter by setting the times for meals in the paschal season. In this joyous season of the liturgical year, there is no reason for the monks to fast. But: "Beginning with Pentecost and continuing throughout the summer, the monks fast until midaf ternoon on Wednesday and Friday, unless they are working in the fields or the summer heat is oppressive. On the other days they eat dinner at noon."
St. Benedict is quick to introduce monastic fast days, but he is prudent. "Indeed, the abbot may decide that they should continue to eat dinner at noon every day (including Wednesday and Friday) if they have work in the fields or if the summer heat remains extreme. Similarly, he should so regulate and arrange all matters that souls may be saved and the brothers
The Rule, Chapter 41 77 may go about their activities without justifiable grumbling/
Fasting should not be carried to an extreme. He wants to hear no complaints about fasting or anything else that is done in the monastery. How well we know that by now.
"From the thirteenth of September to the beginning of Lent, they always take their meal in the midafternoon.' Now St.
Benedict has the monks cut down to one meal, and that is in the middle of the afternoon. This was known as the "monastic Lent." When the season of Lent began for the Church universally, the monks continued to eat only one meal, but it was served even later in the day. "Finally, from the beginning of Lent to Easter, they eat towards evening."
St. Benedict ends chapter 41 with some practical advice about dining late. "Let Vespers be celebrated early enough so that there is no need for a lamp while eating, and that everything can be finished by daylight. Indeed, at all times let supper or the hour of the fast-day meal be so scheduled that everything can be done by daylight." There are to be no candlelight suppers in the monastery, even in an age when there are no electric lights. St. Benedict says, eat while you still have the natural light. The table reader will be able to see more clearly what he is reading. The table waiter will see when he is being beckoned, and the rest of the monks will see what they are eating. One commentator has suggested that if the monks ate in the dark, they would be inclined to whisper among themselves and pull shenanigans.
St. Gregory describes an occasion when St. Benedict did not dine before dark:
Once when the saintly abbot was taking his evening meal, a young monk whose father was a high-ranking official happened to be holding the lamp for him. As he stood at the abbot's table the spirit of pride began to stir in his heart.
"Who is this," he thought to himself, "that I should have to stand here holding the lamp for him while he is eating?
Who am I to be serving him?" Turning to him at once, Bene-
78 The Rule, Chapter 41 diet gave the monk a sharp reprimand. "Brother," he said,
"sign your heart with the sign of the Cross. What are you saying? Sign your heart!" Then calling the others together, he had one of them take the lamp instead, and told the murmurer to sit down by himself and be quiet.
From this little incident of St. Benedict's eating late, we learn again that exceptions to the rule can be made, but the story reveals once more that there are no exceptions for murmuring monks.
There is another occasion when St. Benedict bent the rule— the night he dined out with his sister:
His sister Scholastica, who had been consecrated to God in early childhood, used to visit with him once a year. On these occasions he would go down to meet her in a house belonging to the monastery a short distance from the entrance. For this particular visit he joined her there with a few of his disciples and they spent the whole day singing God's praises and conversing about the spiritual life. When darkness was setting in, they took their meal together and continued their conversation at table until it was quite late. Then the holy nun said to him, "Please do not leave me tonight, brother.
Let us keep on talking about the joys of heaven till morning."
"What are you saying, sister" he replied. "You know I cannot stay away from the monastery."
She prayed up a rain storm which prevented him from leaving. They continued breaking the night silence until dawn. St.
Benedict bent his rules for her sake. In being charitable to his sister, he was not aware that this would be the last time he saw her.
The next morning Scholastica returned to her convent and Benedict to his monastery. Three days later as he stood in his room looking up toward the sky, he beheld his sister's soul leaving her body and entering the heavenly court in the form of a dove.