In this page, you will be looking at some 21st century people who have been inspired by Saint Benedict and who follow his values and share his qualities:Father Dwight Longenecker(a blogger, a Catholic priest and a writer) and Esther De Waal(a retreat leader, a religious speaker and an author). Both of them have lived according to the main values that Benedict lived with- Prayer, community, hospitality, compassion, conversion,work,discipline and silence.
HOW HAVE THESE MODERN PEOPLE LIVED LIKE ST.BENEDICT?
Father Dwight Longenecker is a blogger, Catholic priest and writer. He was really inspired by the teachings in the Rule and applied it in his family life and fatherhood. From following the Rule,he became a man full of discipline.He learnt that discipline is not only compulsory to keep an abbot comfortable, but it is the expectation to obey and serve your family and loved ones. He could practice the Benedictine teaching of communal worship along with his wife and kids as he understood the value of family and community where people pray and work together. Longenecker’s fatherhood image was of Christ who knew how to be soft-spoken and compassionate. Wisdom was the another important quality that he learnt from Benedictine’s. He has explained that the relationship between a monk and his abbot resembles the relationship between a father and his son as abbot means “father”. Longenecker has also kept in mind that everyone in his family needs to be treated with care and loving attention like how an abbot tries to keep every monk happy. In the Rule St Benedict had described that young monks should only be beaten if necessary. Longenecker has a very calm attitude of not being harsh to people around and keeping rules that are needed to meet proper behavior and discipline like monks.His family always prays on the dinner table before food and their house is welcome to strangers aswell.
A lot of orthodox Christians and Atheists had been heretic to his teachings that he had typed down in his blogs. An orthodox friend of his wanted to get converted into a Catholic. He threatened him saying that if he couldn’t get converted he would become more heretic of Catholicism. Longenecker replied to his friend’s comment saying that he would be really happy to convert atheists and orthodox people into Catholics, because they could live a life like god.He stated that if a Christian refuses to convert a person who wants to change religion, then they are either being unfair or they really don’t believe it is necessary for the other person to convert. They don’t care about other people’s character and personality. In an interview with Pope Francis, Pope argued that it was not a good attempt to convert somebody into another religion,because it would be useless to force someone to convert into another religion through lectures,because of different beliefs and arguments.
Longenecker solved the problem by saying that people should not be pressurized or shouldn’t force themselves to convert religion or change religious views, but instead should have the intense desire to be included in the teachings of Jesus Christ and should be allowed to be converted according to their own opinion. But in order to be converted, the person has to have a big heart and mind. It also requires a person to be humble to the teachings in Christ’s gospel.
A lot of orthodox Christians and Atheists had been heretic to his teachings that he had typed down in his blogs. An orthodox friend of his wanted to get converted into a Catholic. He threatened him saying that if he couldn’t get converted he would become more heretic of Catholicism. Longenecker replied to his friend’s comment saying that he would be really happy to convert atheists and orthodox people into Catholics, because they could live a life like god.He stated that if a Christian refuses to convert a person who wants to change religion, then they are either being unfair or they really don’t believe it is necessary for the other person to convert. They don’t care about other people’s character and personality. In an interview with Pope Francis, Pope argued that it was not a good attempt to convert somebody into another religion,because it would be useless to force someone to convert into another religion through lectures,because of different beliefs and arguments.
Longenecker solved the problem by saying that people should not be pressurized or shouldn’t force themselves to convert religion or change religious views, but instead should have the intense desire to be included in the teachings of Jesus Christ and should be allowed to be converted according to their own opinion. But in order to be converted, the person has to have a big heart and mind. It also requires a person to be humble to the teachings in Christ’s gospel.
ESTHER DE WAAL AND SAINT BENEDICT
Esther de Waal is an Anglican retreat leader, speaker and author who writes religious books on spirituality . She lives in the English-Welsh area. Her husband is a Catholic priest. When she moved to a new house in Canterbury with her husband and four teenage sons, they found out that it was a vast medieval house that had belonged to a community of Benedictine monks. She became interested in Benedict and decided to read the Rule of Benedict to find out his vision and values in life. She said that Benedict had addressed the issues that people face every day. She wanted to apply Benedict’s teachings into her own life. She wrote a book about Benedictine spirituality called Seeking God: The way of St Benedict . Once, when she had held a retreat for some people, she set the people a task to think about a place that was very refreshing and peaceful, like a monastery. Esther has applied the practice of meditation and has taught other people that after a stressful and busy day of handling family, money and work they should take some time to reflect on their day and connect with god.Esther always begins and ends her day with a prayer. Nowadays, People do not recognize the true meaning of living a full catholic life. A very obedient woman like Esther listen’s to god and people around her. Like Father Longenecker, she has applied the practice of doing communal worship,because whenever she sits with her husband kids in the dining room for meals they always light a candle, keep it at the centre of the table and pray.Their house is always open to strangers who need shelter and also her family loves to call guests home, very often which is an expression of love and care. Friendship is important to De Waal, as she wants to see everybody happy. In Seeking god she quoted, “What we can learn from the rule of Benedict is that the sense of god’s presence can be mediated through daily work and not be destroyed by it”. She has become one of the top religious writers and has been considered as the foremost scholar is Benedictine traditions.