St. Benendict's Feast Day

We like Feast Days on the mountain -- it means we can skip Compline and go to bed if we are really tired! Sounds odd, doesn't it? But, as humans, we also get tired and would rather hit the hay than the prayer book. It is a nice break. I, and am sure others - like me - pray Compline in our rooms. We also have a special meal - which is a real treat during Lent! I had no idea that my birthday was one day after St. Benedict's Feast Day. Yes - you guessed it! This means two days in a row of having a special meal and no Compline! I have a class on Tuesday nights with the Postulant Mistress - and she asked if we could move it this week to Thursday...to give me an evening free to celebrate my birthday. It is small things like this that you find here on the moutain. People trying to be thoughtful.
Back to St. Benedict! The major reason I was drawn to St. Benedicts Rule was the amount of balance and fairness to humanity I found, there. This man was a remarkable character so far beyond his time. There were monastic communities during his lifetime, but they were rough and many times called for the members to live a life full of misery. This was not the intention of St. Benedict, who saw us all as being very human, as God made us. Therefore, we needed adequate shelter, food, and rest. If you read the Rule (version by Joan Chittister is my favorite),you will find time and again that St. Benedict states a rule and then turns around and says, "unless..... ." He made the Rule to be flexible according to the community, weather conditions, and even the different times of the year when daylight and darkness changed the rythmn of the day.
I could give you a history of St. Benedict, but that is easily Goggled, and so will not spend time here going through all of it. Let me add, however, that this remarkable man lived from the late 400s to the mid-500s. It is remarkable that his Rule continues strong today, but not surprising. I ask you to read it - as it is useful for any lifestyle, and was written NOT for clergy, but for the layperson. Joan's edition - with commentary will help you understand how to use it as a life rule in your home. I assume that most peope reading this are not monastics - HA!
One bit of information (true or not since there is very little about his life) that has always struck me in the heart. I quote a reference here: "We see him with his monks in the church, at their reading, sometimes in the fields, but more commonly in his cell, where frequent messengers find him "weeping silently in his prayers", and in the night hours standing at "the window of his cell in the tower, offering up his prayers to God"
Weeping. Why? For the giveness of others? For forgiveness of himself? For the pain and misery that surrounded him in his world? For not being able to lead all of his followers to God in the way he had intended? OR was he weeping FOR us? WITH us?