The idea of the relation between the Sinovites and the Ancobites, what role mythical idea of play in the old order of the monastic life. We see here that clearly St. Benedict gives it a rule. I mean, he doesn't give it a rule, but he gives it a place. Some people, as you know, they refer to the last paragraph of the prologue Therefore, must we establish a school of the Lord's service, informing which we are to obtain nothing that is harsh or burdensome.

[01:10]

For good reason, for the amendment of evil habit, preservation of charity, there is some strictness of discipline, to not be advanced, dismayed, run away from the way of salvation, of which the entrance needs be narrowed. As we progress in our monastic life and faith, Our hearts shall be enlarged, we shall run with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God's commandments, and never abandoning his rule, persevering in his teaching in the monastery until death. We shall dare share by patience in the serpents of Christ, that we may deserve to be partakers also of his kingdom. Now, it's evident that here in this concluding, paragraph of the Prologue, there are two things which I establish. One is that the school of the Lord serves. It's really a school.

[02:11]

That means it's not a static matter, but it's a dynamic matter. The monk starts his life every day all over again as a disciple. He learns. Therefore, it's is the inner law is that of progress not of attaining a certain status and then staying on that but it is a constant inner progress to greater love to that inner freedom and enlargement of the heart in which we run in the way of God's commandments with unspeakable weakness of law. Abandoning his rule, persevering his teaching in the monastery, that's the other element, that is the element of stability. These two things we must clearly see.

[03:14]

The stability of the monastery is not a static stability, a kind of a static observance of reaching a One becomes sacred, but it is a constant inner progress. In that way, I would say this whole word of conversatio, which is so much discussed, personally I think that Don McCann's interpretation is the right one. We cannot separate the word conversatio, conversio, from the metanoia. the essential element of the monastic life. And conversatio in the interpretation of monastic observance is not absolutely an equivalent for that. The dynamic element of converting, starting the conversion every day or over, you can say every moment, all over again, I think it's absolutely essential.

[04:27]

that this dynamic element also is, of course, looks forward to perfection. And there it's evident in the teaching of the Church, the perfection of the way which has begun in the monastic life is the hermetic life. That has been a tradition from the very beginnings of the whole monastic movement. There is the real, as I say that, status of perfection, as Saint Benedict says it here and explains it here. Naturally, this highest status of perfection, where the solitary is in that way autarkic, one can say. He is self-sufficient in a spiritual way, of course, self-sufficient, not in a not in a, you know, withdrawing way and separating himself from others, but in the way of the fullness of the Spirit, he is self-sufficient.

[05:44]

And therefore also from this fullness of the Spirit also the Ankaraite also may always proceed then also the teaching and the sharing of that fullness with others who come to the anchorite maybe because we see in the life of Saint Benedict after a while people come and they want to participate in his teaching because they realize he is in that way perfect he has that fullness the name for that fullness in monastic tradition is always that of Abba father. So that means, therefore, that the one who has this fullness also then has children. You know, he has that, the Pneumann and the Holy Spirit is shared with them. So, but without, of course, disturbing the essence of the solitary life.

[06:48]

We can talk about that another time. But the other thing which St. Benedict always of course emphasizes here, is that danger of the fervor novicius, that he has experienced that in himself, and that was the general thing in the monastic life, that simply people who enter into this conversio or conversatio, because it is absolute surrender to God, want to make right away jump into the last end. And therefore there, the Cenobitic life comes in, not again as an absolute, which in every way is opposed or excludes the Hermitical life. This is impossible. We cannot interpret it all that way. Some people do it, but then they say here this first paragraph or this

[07:50]

either it's not of St. Benedict or St. Benedict simply takes the scheme out of other rules. He just takes the current teaching. He isn't convinced of it, you know, but he kind of adapts himself in the sense of nice words about the hermits, but in reality he just chokes them out the window. That is his interpretation of many, because the estimation of the hermit goes, of course, together with the other estimation of the common life. The rule, for St. Benedict, the rule is a beginning, not the end. So, in that way, the synobilical state is not an absolute as a form of life, but it is necessary as a state. in the general formation of a dynamic constant progress to greater perfection.

[08:59]

And that is of course what we always we have to keep that in mind because in itself the community life also has its danger and of course has its dangers to degenerate into a certain routine where the members of this group with their vow of stability, which they understand as remaining in this stage all the time, but of course that's not the right interpretation of it. Stability means that inner perseverance in the basic monastic propositum, in the vow, that's of course necessary. There must be stability, and also stability in this way in the congregation and under the abbot, so that they don't run from one place to the other. A fact which also may even take place if one lives in the same location.

[10:01]

But the essential thing, of course, is that this inner, the community life is and must be a constant inner and have a tendency to progressing and not a hindrance for the individual to, let us say, get stuck on some kind of mediocrity, where he isn't too much out of the common, let us say, routine, and where, on the other hand, he also doesn't make any special effort to, let us say, to lift his entire level beyond That is not the right attitude. We should keep this window to speak open towards the aramidical life, just in order to remind ourselves always that there is a goal which is beyond also the, as I say, level of the community life, which necessarily, as St.

[11:13]

Benedict explains it here, because it's meant for many, it must kind of gather the various persons and people in a certain golden middle. That is, of course, that's true. Where many people are together, a certain rule, a certain golden middle, has to be established. But beyond that is, for the monk, the medical life in which the Holy Spirit himself is the entire rule, and for which, then, a rule is not written. The hermitical life has no rule. Some people wonder why, for example, the rule of St. Benedict, St. Benedict doesn't explain the higher stages of the mystical life, because that is not in the rule as he conceived it, for that specific stage of the synonymitical life.

[12:14]

Let us just keep that in mind, and let us also, as I have asked you before, so often for the future, pray that the Holy Spirit may give us that, you know, this great gift of evocation, as will always be, of course, it's an extraordinary thing, it's completely in the hands of God, it will not become the rule for everybody, you know, but still that the Lord may lead one or the other of us into that, also into that stage of the aramidical life, which then would again, you know, for the whole of the community, be and could be a tremendous, certainly, a tremendous blessing. Also in the side, but to the direction, for example, of real spiritual fatherhood consultations.

[13:09]

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