Acknowledgements Text of the Holy Rule of St. Benedict: Author: Benedict, Saint, Abbot of Monte Cassino, d. 547 A.D. Trans.: Verheyen, OSB, Rev. Boniface (1844-1923); Monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas: 1949. Rights: Public Domain, Electronic Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Accessed March 16, 2016. LC Call no: BX3004.A2 Altered by: Phillips, Dom Theodore (1956 – ) Text of the Constitutions and Customary: Author: Phillips, Dom Theodore, Prior of the Monastery of Our Lady and Saint Laurence, Fremont County, CO: 2008 – 2016. Rights: © 2016, Monastery of Our Lady and Saint Laurence, affiliates of the Benedictine Fellowship of Saint Laurence, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Images: Cover: Seal of the Monastery of Our Lady and Saint Laurence © 2016, The Monastery of Our Lady and Saint Laurence, affiliates of the Benedictine Fellowship of Saint Laurence, Inc. Page 5: Solemn High Mass in the Oratory: original photograph by Dom Theodore. Page 6: Icon of St Benedict, Mary Sullivan Coit, Denver, CO ©Benedictine Fellowship of Saint Laurence; used with permission. Page 8: The Campus of the St Laurence Center, Benedictine Fellowship of Saint Laurence, Tallahassee Creek, Fremont County, CO: original photograph by Lyle Ignatius Marti, Obl.SB, used with permission. Page 108: His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH and His Grace Bishop JOHN: www.antiochian.org, accessed 10.6.16. Page 111: St. Benedict delivers his Rule to St. Maurus, Manuscript, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes, 1129; public domain image. All rights reserved: Monastery of Our Lady and Saint Laurence & The Benedictine Fellowship of Saint Laurence Rev. Dom Theodore (Phillips), Prior 4076 Cabin Creek Road Cañon City, CO 81212 www.saintlaurenceosb.org Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................1 Community Prayer to St. Benedict .......................................................................................6 Introduction .............................................................................................................................7 The Rule (Chapters), Constitutions (Articles), and Customary (Sections) Prologue ...................................................................................................................................9 Chapter I: Of the Kinds or the Life of Monks ...................................................................11 Article I: Regarding the Nature and Status of the Community ...............................12 Article II: Regarding the Coenobitic Life .....................................................................13 Chapter II: What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be ...................................................15 Article III: Regarding the Superior ...............................................................................17 Chapter III: Of Calling the Brethren for Counsel .............................................................19 Article IV: Regarding the Monastic Chapter ...............................................................20 Section 1: Meetings of the Chapter .........................................................................21 Article V: Regarding the Appointment of Other Officials ........................................21 Chapter IV: The Instruments of Good Works ...................................................................21 Article VI: Regarding Stability ......................................................................................23 Article VII: Regarding Conversatio Morum ...................................................................24 Article VIII: Regarding Celibate Chastity in Community and Self-Sacrificial Love ...........................................................................................24 Chapter V: Of Obedience .....................................................................................................26 Article IX: Regarding Obedience ..................................................................................27 Chapter VI: Of Silence ..........................................................................................................28 Article X: Regarding Silence and Recreation ..............................................................28 Section 2: On Silence .................................................................................................29 Chapter VII: Of Humility .....................................................................................................30 Chapter VIII: Of the Divine Office During the Night ......................................................34 Chapter IX: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office ..............................34 Chapter X: How the Office Is to be Said During the Summer Season ..........................35 Chapter XI: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays .........................................35 Chapter XII: How Lauds Are to Be Said ............................................................................36 Chapter XIII: How Lauds Are to Be Said on Week .........................................................36 Chapter XIV: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints ......................................................................................................................37 Chapter XV: At What Times the Alleluia Is to Be Said ....................................................37 Chapter XVI: How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day ...................37 Chapter XVII: How Many Psalms Are to Be Sung at These Hours ...............................38 Chapter XVIII: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said ..............................................38 Chapter XIX: Of the Manner of Reciting the Psalms .......................................................40 Chapter XX: Of Reverence at Prayer ..................................................................................40 Article XI: Regarding Divine Service ...........................................................................40 Section 3: General Liturgical Norms .......................................................................41 Section 4: The Opus Dei or Divine Office ................................................................42 Section 5: The Office of Matins .................................................................................43 Section 6: The Midday Office ...................................................................................44 Section 7: The Office of Vespers ...............................................................................44 Section 8: Collations and the Office of Compline ..................................................44 2 Section 9: The Ceremonial of the Office ..................................................................45 Section 10: General Norms for the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass ..........................46 Section 11: Liturgical Texts and the Calendar .......................................................46 Chapter XXI: Of the Deans of the Monastery ...................................................................48 Chapter XXII: How the Monks Are to Sleep .....................................................................48 Article XII: Regarding the Monastic Cell .....................................................................49 Chapter XXIII: Of Excommunication for Faults ...............................................................50 Chapter XXIV: What the Manner of Excommunication Should Be ...............................50 Chapter XXV: Of Graver Faults ..........................................................................................50 Chapter XXVI: Of Those Who Without the Command of the Abbot Associate with the Excommunicated ...........................................................................51 Chapter XXVII: How Concerned the Abbot Should Be About the Excommunicated ......................................................................................................51 Chapter XXVIII: Of Those Who Having Often Been Corrected Do Not Amend ........52 Article XIII: Regarding Discipline and Penance .........................................................52 Article XIV: Regarding Discipline for Serious, Harmful Disobedience or Scandal ...........................................................................................53 Chapter XXIX: Whether Brethren Who Leave the Monastery Ought To Be Received Again .....................................................................................................54 Article XV: Regarding Leave, Release, Restoration, or Dismissal ...........................54 Chapter XXX: How Young Boys Are to Be Corrected .....................................................56 Chapter XXXI: The Kind of Man the Cellarer of the Monastery Ought to Be ..............56 Chapter XXXII: Of the Tools and Goods of the Monastery ............................................57 Chapter XXXIII: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own .................58 Chapter XXXIV: Whether All Should Receive in Equal Measure What Is Necessary ...........................................................................................................58 Article XVI: Regarding Common Property and Personal Poverty ..........................58 Section 12: Common and Personal Property .........................................................60 Chapter XXXV: Of the Weekly Servers in the Kitchen ....................................................61