CHAPTER 42
The Rule, Chapter 42 79 In chapter 41 we see again St. Benedict's penchant for establishing good order in his monastery. No doubt you also appreciate having meals served on schedule in your home.
Perhaps it is often difficult these days, when there are so many commitments outside of the home, to have the whole family seated together for a meal. St. Benedict thinks eating together is a good communal practice. Perhaps members of your household will have to be reminded that meals should be familial.
The story of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica's last meal together on earth illustrates how important it is for families to be together.
CHAPTER 42
Silence after Compline The silence after Compline should be rigorously enforced. "On leaving Compline, no one will be permitted to speak further.
If anyone is found to transgress this rule of silence, he must be subjected to severe punishment." There are exceptions to the rule, however: "on occasions when guests require attention or the abbot wishes to give someone a command, but even this is to be done with the utmost seriousness and proper restraint."
For many people silence is a luxury. For Benedictines it is a necessity. That is why people come to Benedictine houses seeking silence, and we are glad to offer them a respite from the noises that surround them in their everyday environment.
In St. Benedict's day, the silence after Compline was especially necessary because that was bedtime. The monks had to catch some sleep before the Office of Vigils. This is the case even today with the Cistercians, who rise between three and four o'clock.
80 The Rule, Chapter 42 Whenever the Benedictine Order has had to be reformed, the restoration of silence has been given top priority. The first sentence of chapter 42 of the Rule indicates that "Monks should diligently cultivate silence at all times, but especially at night/ '
In the next sentence St. Benedict begins outlining the public spiritual reading that precedes Compline, the night prayer.
'Accordingly, this will always be the arrangement whether for fast days or for ordinary days. When there are two meals, all the monks will sit together immediately after rising from supper. Someone should read from the Conferences [by John
Cassian, a fifth-century abbot] or the Lives of the Fathers [the wisdom literature of the monks of the East] or at any rate something else that will benefit the hearers." There are certain books of the Bible that he forbids, though. Too much sex and violence. "It will not be good for those of weak understanding to hear these writings at that hour." No doubt he is thinking of the boy oblates, but he may have in mind some of the monks too. These parts of Scripture, he says, "should be read at other times" but not at bedtime.
"On fast days there is to be a short interval between Vespers and the reading of the Conferences, as we have indicated.
Then let four or five pages be read, or as many as time permits. This reading period will allow for all to come together, in case any were engaged in assigned tasks. When all have assembled, they should pray Compline."
We used to have public reading before Compline. Father Daniel brought down the house one night when he was the prayer leader of the week for the first time in a long time. He had recently been assigned to the abbey after having spent many years in the missions, and he was nervous about getting things right at Divine Office. His breviary had several markers in it with notes on what to do next. After finishing the spiritual reading and about to lead us into Compline, he dropped his breviary, and all his instructions to himself fell