Our Benedictine Heritage

S. Marielle Frigge’s thoughts on being a Benedictine.

Being a Benedictine is, in many ways, a very ordinary life, lived in community by ordinary people who try to live by certain core elements of the gospel. Benedictine life is nothing very flashy or “important” by cultural standards, but it becomes important when lived, as St. Benedict says, “so that in all things God may be glorified.” It is often said that it is “a balanced life”; think of it as being in a continual process of balancing, like riding a bike. Balancing a bicycle seems counter-intuitive: turn in the direction of the fall. But our life is like that: when community living seems difficult, turn toward the community for strength; when prayer seems dry and empty, turn toward the dry, empty desert where God waits; when a particular task seems unbearable, turn it into work done for the love of Christ, “which comes before all else.”