The Rule of St Benedict Chapter 67
Of Brothers who are sent on a Journey
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Let the brothers who are being sent on a journey commend themselves to the prayers of all the brothers and the Abbot: and always let the last prayer of the Work of God be for all who are absent.
Dirigendi fratres in via, omnium fratrum vel Abbatis orationi se commendent: et semper ad orationem ultimam operis Dei omnium absentium fiat.
Let the brothers who return from a journey, on the same day that they come back, prostrate themselves on the floor of the oratory at the end of all the canonical Hours of the Work of God, asking the prayers of all because of their journey, lest perhaps they have seen or heard on the road any bad thing, or indulged in idle words.
Revertentes autem de via fratres, ipso die quo redeunt, per omnes canonicas oras, dum expletur opus Dei, prostrati solo oratorii ab omnibus petant orationem propter excessus, ne quid forte subripuerit in via visus, aut auditus malæ rei, aut otiosi sermonis.
And let no-one presume to tell anyone what he has seen or heard outside the monastery, for from there is much destruction. If anyone so presumes, let him undergo the punishment of the Rule.
Nec præsumat quisquam alis referre quæcumque foris monasterium viderit aut audierit, quia plurima destructio est. Quod si quis præsumpserit, vindictæ regulari subjaceat.
Similarly [to be punished is] anyone who leaves the enclosure of the monastery and goes anywhere or does anything, however small, without the Abbot’s permission.
Similiter et qui præsumpserit claustra monasterii egredi vel quocumque ire, vel quidpiam quamvis parvum sine Abbatis ussione facere.
Comment
It is significant that St Benedict uses the plural “brothers” here; a single monk is vulnerable to the dangers of the outside world and so more than one would travel together, which does seem to be an ancient custom. This mini community could then observe the conventual life as much as possible while travelling.
In the Benedictine order, at the end of the office of Lauds and Vespers, is said the following versicle which relates to this chapter:
Divinum auxilium maneat semper nobiscum.
Et cum fratribus nostris absentibus. Amen.
May the divine assistance remain always with us.
And with our absent brothers. Amen.
In the traditional Benedictine breviary, there are often multiple prayers set out for those going on a journey. In these prayers, we ask the angel Raphael to accompany the travellers, we remember the journeys of Abraham, the people of Israel and the Magi and ask for God’s aid. I particularly like this one:
O God, Who didst bring the children of Israel dry-shod through the midst of the sea, and Who didst show the three Magi the way to Thee by the guidance of a star: we beseech Thee, grant us a happy journey and fair weather; so that, in the company of Thy holy Angel we may reach our destination, and finally be found worthy to enter the portals of eternal salvation.
The dangers of the outside world are such that the returning monks also need prayers to assist them to expunge from their souls any bad things they have seen on the journey. Dom Delatte describes these as a sort of sacramental to remove things they had seen and heard, while of course a monk who committed an actual sin would still need to go to confession.
Monks are forbidden to talk about what they have witnessed outside though, of course, we should read this as applying only to worldly things. If monks are sent to a religious conference then of course they may talk about it, with the permission of the Abbot. But tittle-tattle and scandal should not be repeated. This is perhaps a good moral for all of us; focus on what edifies, not what scandalizes.
St Benedict adds here a comment about those who leave the enclosure; the enclosure is of cardinal importance. Dom Guéranger, in his instruction for novices, explains it thus:
The monastic life, being in its nature a separated life, demands that those who profess it pass their life in the enclosure of the monastery. The separation from the world must be effective to accomplish these words of Jesus: “He who has left his father or mother”… and “Come, follow me.” This is why the monastic spirit is a spirit of retreat, of which the religious enclosure is the expression.
The enclosure is more than this though, it is an image of the heavenly Jerusalem. Bishop Erik Varden, in his book Entering the Twofold Mystery, sums it up in this way:
A real monastery is a Jerusalem: a holy place and a place of encounter. It is the setting of a solemn covenant where the monk promises to remain fully God’s, and where God, in turn, promises to bestow himself.
When you look at the enclosure in this way, you can see why St Benedict was so strong about anyone leaving it.
Those of us in the world don’t have an enclosure to protect us from the outside world; we are, by our station in life, required to enter it. However, we can limit our exposure by choosing where we go and what we do and with a traditional practice of “custody of the eyes” – averting our gaze from something harmful or immoral, or uttering a simple prayer.
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