{"id":4936,"date":"2025-10-09T09:04:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4936"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:04:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:04:57","slug":"jubilee-of-consecrated-life-st-benedict-pilgrim-of-hope-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4936","title":{"rendered":"Jubilee of Consecrated Life: St Benedict, Pilgrim of Hope (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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As often as anything important is to be done in the monastery, the abbot shall call the whole community together and himself explain what the business is; and after hearing the advice of the brothers, let him ponder it and follow what he judges the wiser course. <\/em>Ch 3<\/strong>, <\/em>Summoning the Brothers for Counsel\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When the first documentation for the Synod on Synodality was published I immediately saw an outlook and a method that I recognised. For centuries, men and women, from various walks of life, have tried to find ways of living together in community. It’s pretty much a guarantee in any community that while you all have vowed to live according to a particular charism, you will have very different ways of expressing this. A willingness to listen deeply and to put yourself in the shoes of another is vital.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Monasteries of course are not democracies as we in the 21st Century understand that term. The smooth workings of the monastery rely on the maturity of its members and their ability to abide by a decision that is made, even if it isn’t of their choosing. This is the real test of obedience.<\/p>\r\n

St Benedict adds a detail in this chapter which may surprise us:
‘The reason why we have said all should be called for counsel is that the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger<\/em>.’<\/p>\r\n

Commenting on this verse, Sr Aquinata Bockmann osb says; ‘Older persons love to argue from tradition. “That’s how it was always done.” Theirs is wisdom and life experience. The younger members tend to be more flexible, open to new ideas, not bound by historical prejudice. Thus it is good to hear both the counsel of the elders, human wisdom, and also the younger ones, possibly a shocking novelty. Benedict points the way to ‘both and’.’<\/p>\r\n

It’s worth reflecting on how we listen when we are in a group or a meeting.
Does everyone have a chance to speak? How easy is it for a voice to go unheard?<\/p>\r\n

Image: Turvey Abbey
Code of practice for community meetings at Turvey Abbey. The code is inspired by Ch 3 of the Rule. We use a ‘talking stick’ to help keep the meeting on track and to avoid talking over each other.<\/p>\r\n

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As often as anything important is to be done in the monastery, the abbot shall call the whole community together and himself explain what the business is; and after hearing the advice of the brothers, let him ponder it and follow what he judges the wiser course. Ch 3, Summoning the Brothers for Counsel\u00a0 When … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Jubilee of Consecrated Life: St Benedict, Pilgrim of Hope (3)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4936"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4989,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions\/4989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}