Opening: Brothers and sisters,
The Rule of St. Benedict for Monasteries was written in the year 530.
Today we honor all the monks and nuns who became saints by following Benedict’s way of life.
One historian explains how Benedictine monks not only built and preserved Western Civilization, but, within the first 800 years, by the 1300’s, the Order had already given the Church 1,500 canonized saints (1), including Popes, Bishops, Monks and Nuns, who ran the race well and entered into the glorious Presence of the living God.
Today is our day to praise God for all of the unnamed and unknown Benedictine saints who were so faithful to their calling.
One day, this day could be your feast day and my feast day.
Isn’t that our calling … to dwell in His courts?
Isn’t that why we are here?
As we begin, let us be sorry for the times we have been lukewarm. I confess, etc.
After the Gospel: (John 15: 1-8)
No one ever said monastic life is easy.
In fact, St. Bernard said: “There’s no one in the monastery who would not be reverenced as a saint and esteemed as an angel out in the world, if he did there just a quarter of what he is doing here; and yet here, every day, he gets rebuked for some negligence.”
Bernard went on to describe monastic life as a process of “being put to death all day long by many fasts, by frequent labors, by vigils above measure, by sorrow for sin and multifold temptation.”
But living the Benedictine way of life is not only a path of renunciation, it’s also a path of shared holiness.
One of the basic themes of St. Aelred of Rievaulx is that “what belongs to each one personally belongs to all, and all things belong to each one.”
In one of his sermons, Aelred writes:
“Each one of us has his unique gift from God, one has this gift, another that gift.
One person can make an offering of more work; another , more vigils, another more fasting, another more prayer; and another more lectio or meditation.
St Benedict commands: No one shall say that anything is his own but all things are common to all. This is to be understood not only of our cowls and robes but far more of our strengths and spiritual gifts. … whatever anyone does belongs to all and whatever all do belongs to everyone.”
Thus, Aelred want us to know we share everything, including holiness.
When Brother Frederic (2) came to Gethsemani in 1954,
The Church, the Refectory, the dormitories were filled.
During his 71 years here, 100 monks have died and were buried in our cemetery.
Brother Frederic worked with them, prayed with them as they finished their monastic journey, as they returned their lives to God.
When we come to church today and see empty places, we can imagine those seats occupied by some of those monks we knew and loved – the saints who lived out the Gospel in their lives, sometimes brilliantly and sometimes not so great.
We believe in the communion of Saints!
We are truly surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses!
Today we call on them and their example to help us live out the Gospel in our lives.
(1) “Throughout the darkest times in human history, it was the Benedictine monks who not only built and preserved western civilization, but added to it in the most extraordinary ways.
By the beginning of the 14th century, the Order had already given the Church 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7,000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, and 1,500 canonized saints.
In addition, the Benedictines had more then37,000 monasteries and had enrolled twenty emperors, ten empresses, forty-seven kings and fifty queens.”
Source: Thomas E. Woods, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2005), p.28
2) Easter, 2025, Brother Frederic Collins celebrated his 102nd birthday.
Several mornings each week, he works as the Receptionist at the Front Desk of the Retreat House.