Feast of St Benedict

Jan Verkade

Happy feast day!

An appropriate day, I think, to meditate on the Benedictine Office as a wonderful monument of tradition that has been passed down to us as part of the patrimony of the Benedictine Order, and the Church more broadly.

Though abandoned today by many claiming to be Benedictines, the Benedictine Office is, I believe, absolutely integral in shaping within us the spirituality that our holy Father St Benedict set out in his Rule.

And down the ages it has inspired some wonderful words and music, such as the Matins hymn in the recording below.

We should therefore, I think, pray especially today for vocations for the various traditionally oriented monasteries who are keeping alive this wonderful gift to the Church.