Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
The weekly Service in the Kitchen The brethren should serve one another, and no one should be excused from service in the kitchen; unless, perhaps, on account of some indisposition or because his services are in demand for some business of greater importance; for, by means of it, one can gain for himself greater merit and love. In accordance with the size of the community and the circumstances of the locality, let the weaker ones be given assistance, so that they may not have to perform their labors in sadness.
Should the community be rather large, let the cellarer be excused from service in the kitchen; or if, as we have said, one or the other is in demand for some other important occupation.
The rest should serve one another in mutual love.1
When one has finished his weekly stint in the kitchen, let him take care of the cleaning up (of the cloister) on Saturday; he should also wash the towels with which the brethren dry their hands and feet. Let the one who has finished his service as well as the one who is about to take his turn wash the feet of all. He should return the utensils of his service in the kitchen to the cellarer cleansed and undamaged; and the cellarer shall give them out again to those about to begin their turn, so that he may know what has been distributed and what is being returned.2 plaint, since he has voluntarily renounced everything. The Rule resolutely repu diates every manifestation of murmuring. According to St. Augustine: "In them
(the murmurers) charity is still incomplete . . . They are still full of contradic tions, peevishness, and contentions; with their restless temperaments they disturb the rest . . .They are like fractious beasts of burden that will not pull in the yoke, but seek to tear the harness with their hooves . . . Murmurers are very aptly ear marked in one passage of Holy Scripture: 'The heart of a fool is like the wheel of a cart' (Ecclus. xxxv, 5). And what should that mean? The wheel has to bear only the weight of a load of hay or straw, and still it creaks. For the cart wheel cannot leave off creaking. There are many brethren of this kind. Only in con formity with charity can brethren live (peaceably) together in a community" (On Ps. cxxxii).
1 The monastic Church manifestly demands of its members a most varied type of service. This has its basis in fraternal charity, and is concrete evidence that in a given place there exists a monastic house animated by life and love, a community that has its glorious prototype in the primitive Church. Basically, no monk should be excused from these services of love. They were, in fact, a fixture in the very earliest religious practice (Cassian, Institutes iv, 19). They demand not so much
An hour before the common meal, however, each of the weekly servers should receive a drink (of wine) and some bread over and above their regular allowance, so that they may serve their brethren without murmuring and burdensome labor. But on feast days they should wait until after the closing prayers
(after Holy Communion).
On Sundays, the brethren who are about to begin their ser vice as well as those who have just ended theirs should prostrate themselves at the feet of all in the oratory and ask for their prayers. Let those who have finished their weekly service chant this verse: "Blessed art thou, O lord God, because thou hast helped me and comforted me" (Dan. iii, 26; & Ps. lxxxv, 17).
This is chanted three times;1 then the outgoing brethren receive the blessing. Afterwards the incoming servers chant: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" (Ps. lxix, 2). This verse is also chanted and repeated three times by all, after which the blessing is given.2 After receiving the bless ing, these brethren begin their service. mechanical or artistic skill as physical exertion (cf. HR, chap, xxxi, comment 3).
2 On Saturday evening the outgoing servers in the kitchen and factory had to undertake a general clean-up of the rooms (which in the smaller communities surely, included besides the kitchen and refectory, also the living room and dorm itories) as well as all dishes and other utensils. The number of servers, of course, depended upon the size of the commuity. The distribution of the weekly services among the monks as called for by the Rule may well have been one responsibility of the deans. On Saturday, also, the outgoing servers had to wash the towels with which the brethren dried hands and feet. And all the brethren took part in the washing of the feet (before Compline) on Saturday evening. For the signifi cance of this washing of feet see chapter liii. With Abbot Cassian these weekly services ended on Sunday evening and began again on Monday morning (Institutes iv, 19). According to the Rule of the Master (chap, xix), the weekly servers took care of cleaning up the whole cloister and of the daily washing of feet in the evening (chap. xxx).
1 Today the verse chanted by the outgoing servers is also repeated three times by all, and was undoubtedly so repeated in St. Benedict's cloister, although he does not expressly say so.
2 Through the abbot's blessing, the service of the monks in kitchen and refectory received a kind of religious dedication. In St. Benedict's monastery, there was simply no longer room for customs of a profane or secular character. In this day and age, it is no more possible to follow the provsions of this chapter, for the simple reason that our culinary departments call for services of a professional kind.
Consequently, a change-off in the kitchen staff from week to week is out of the question. However, there still exists in many abbeys of the Order a beautiful cus tom, in accordance with which the brethren take turns in serving one another in the refectory. These "table waiters" solicit the blessing of the abbot or superior in charge at the end of one or the other canonical hour on Sunday morning.