Benedictine Travel Tips 2

In my last post, “Benedictine Travel Tips,” I discussed Benedict’s guidance for traveling and working outside the monastery. I suggested his guidance should be understood within the context of his emphasis on stability, and I concluded that Benedict saw the utmost importance of what one does with the experiences one brings home from one’s travels. Here, I want to look more closely at the relationship between stability and those experiences, because such experiences can enhance or undermine one’s stability and thereby the stability of one’s community.  

Benedict’s Rule emphasizes the interrelation of stability as a personal virtue and stability as a communal value. It is Benedict’s integration of these important senses, a stability contract of sorts, that makes the Rule such a rich resource for understanding the significance of stability for individuals and communities.  

Yet, the Rule does not contain a chapter on stability. Instead, Benedict has harsh words for sarabaites and gyrovagues who, among other faults, show a gross disregard for stability (1:11). The tools of good works are accomplished within, “the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community” (4:78). Benedict mentions stability several times when discussing the admission of new monks, who are to promise, “stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience” (58:17). He is also careful to require stability of priests, clerics, and visiting monks who desire to become members of the monastic community.  

There are factors both internal and external that can undermine the stability of the community. Grumbling is quite probably the internal element most corrosive to community. Grumbling often arises from envy, jealousy, and selfish pride. There are many external temptations that can destabilize a monk and draw him away from stability in the community. Experiences of life and opportunity outside the monastery can breed envy, jealousy, and selfish pride. A monk tempted by the sirens of the outside world can come to despise his monastic community.  

But experience of the outside world can support community. From 58:17 we know that stability is not fidelity to monastic life. Nor is it obedience. “Stability in the community” must refer to more than commitment to place, an oft stated focus. Stability as a virtue does not limit or stifle. Psychological, emotional, and relational stability are foundations for freedom, openness, and growth. In these senses, stability connotes steadfastness, determination, consistency, dependability, tenacity, loyalty, strength of mind, purity of heart, singularity of focus, and love for person and place. With these qualities, any experience can bolster even greater virtue. Another’s misfortune can engender deeper compassion. Another’s fortune can instill greater gratitude. A mountaintop experience can lead to heightened devotion. A valley experience can promote empathy, grace, and mercy.   

Benedict instructs returning monks to not, “relate to anyone else what [they] saw or heard outside the monastery” (67.5). This prescription is often seen as conditioned on negative experiences, since positive experiences should be shared. I suggest conditioning this instruction on the attitude with which the returning monk shares his experiences. Instability can be detrimental, but stability breeds stability.