St. Benedict (480-547) rejected wealth and worldliness and became a hermit. He then founded 12 monasteries and wrote The Rule of St. Benedict requiring prayer, spiritual reading, manual labor, obedience and the development of hospitality, medical, educational and agricultural skills.

St. Benedict taught about Prayer in The Rule. He recommended specific times throughout the day and night for study and prayer, often as a community: reading, teaching, memorizing and singing passages of Scripture. Other times of private, personal prayer were certainly also recommended for a deep and intimate prayer life and relationship with God.

St. Benedict recommended a balanced lifestyle of work and prayer, and living simply. He insisted that we should pray as we begin to work and as we work, with humility and reverence.

From various writings of St. Benedict on prayer, I think the most unique and specific approach to prayer was his recommended practice of prayer and work simultaneously. St. Benedict steered away from compartmentalizing these two fundamental aspects and practices so that one did not interrupt the other, and by consistently praying during work, study, rest, and while serving others, one could truly pray unceasingly.

Summary Sticky-Note

To make it easier to understand and keep it straight from the teaching on Prayer of other Saints and Theologians I have been studying, I put together a little Summary Sticky-Note and compiled my notes on St. Benedict’s Writings on Prayer including ‘prayer-requisites’ and Prompts to Pray, based primarily on The Rule of St. Benedict and his other writings summarized in this book: Augustine on Prayer by Fr. Thomas Hand

St. Benedict also spoke about the necessity of humility, reverence, silence, Scripture, perseverance, and continuity in this prayer from the heart.

HUMILITY
REVERENCE
HEARTFELT
SCRIPTURE
PERSEVERANCE
CONTINUOUS

Prompt Me to Pray!

And St. Benedict even had a specific Prompt to Pray as he lived at the Monastery of Monte Cassino!
More info in the St. Benedict PDF Note Bundle.

I will be adding over 30 PDF Note Bundles gradually to this NEW

Saints’ MasterClass on Prayer Series over at Arma Dei!

Saints Prayer Master Class:
St. Augustine PDF Note Bundle

Following a brief introduction of St. Benedict and his teaching on Prayer, I present Prayer-Requisites: important virtues, dispositions, and practices for personal prayer, based on the Key Writings of St. Benedict.

Each PDF Note Bundle includes a Summary Sticky-Note, along with insights into prayer and how St. Benedict might prompt us to pray.

St. Benedict might prompt us to pray:

Prompt me to pray without ceasing, St. Benedict.

Prompt me to pray as I work, study, serve, and rest.

Prompt me to pray by what I see and do each day.

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