What is necessary?

Our spiritual well-being is up to us.

The Fifth Kind of Monk is first and foremost a spiritual seeker. Makes sense because human beings are spiritual beings, an often-overlooked fact in a world that caters more to the physical, emotional, sexual, and intellectual aspects of our being. The Fifth Kind of Monk is drawn to something more and is willing to make the effort to find it.

One of the things I’ve noticed in the historical and cultural commentary I’ve been reading recently in trying to shed some light on how we’ve come to where we are as a society, is that the word “spiritual,” or other references to the more-than-physical realm, rarely appear.

We are supposedly at a more evolved level of consciousness than our tribal and hunter-gatherer forebears. Sometimes I wonder.

Benedict lived and wrote his rule for monks in the pre-scientific sixth century. Ideas about God, about natural phenomena ranging from illness and death to weather patterns and the movement of the stars were not understood as we understand them now. The great thinkers (meaning those who had access to education, the luxury of time to observe the world around them and think about what they saw, and whose thoughts were recorded) from the ancient Greeks to the Church Fathers of Benedict’s day, were essentially western men with means. They wrestled with the big questions of life and meaning and, often, determined that their answers were the correct answers for the rest of us.

Amazingly, some of their understandings, and even earlier insights that predate them, are still relevant because they tap into the mystery of universal being. Which is why Benedict’s wisdom has lasted 1,500 years—the principles underlying his Rule are transcendent. But many other aspects of the thinking passed down to us needs rethinking considering what scientific exploration and human advances have made accessible to us, and that includes thinking as relates to God. Which in turn shapes how we think of ourselves (or not) as spiritual beings.

The very reason for Benedict’s Rule is to lead his monks to being in God, to develop their spiritual core. Although many of the practices he outlines for his community of monks no longer apply, even in monasteries, his reason is intact. So is the fact that it is hard work.

Where my wholehearted effort lies and where I spend my best time will tell me how committed I am to what I say I want. If I say I want to develop my spiritual self and live into the life and relationships that flow from an adult spirituality, how much effort do I put into it? Erie Benedictine Joan Chittister made an observation that has always nagged at me. She noted that early monastics, like today’s monastics, extended their days. However, the early monks rose way before dawn to spend hours in prayer and reflection. Today’s monks extend our days at the end, but rather than prayer, we spend our time watching television and socializing.

The “good life” used to be a matter of “being good.” Our consumer society has redefined it as “having more goods.” Churches were the holders of religious and spiritual traditions, the definers of the good life. Clerics and pastors and religious were the ones seen to be gifted with an inside perspective on truth. That model is in decline, but what has replaced religious systems and who holds the truth now? Our market system and capitalist economy? I often hear people describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” but how does one grow spiritually in isolation or without the wisdom a solid tradition can offer? That’s where the practice of the Fifth Kind of Monk is necessary, I think. Spiritual seekers like the Fifth Kind of Monk make the effort to get the tools and find the connections they need to work their spiritual muscles.

A big part of seeking is questioning, not taking the easy way out by assuming that because something was written by some past saint or theologian—even St. Benedict himself—it is absolute and unchanging truth and our task is only to accept it. As Terrence Kardong writes in Benedict Backwards, “…there is also such a thing as false piety, and sometimes that piety prevents us from seeing what is right in front of our eyes. …the greatest favor we can do Saint Benedict is to read him carefully and then argue with him if we think we must.”

The challenge to the Fifth Kind of Monk is to question, to become the mystics and thinkers and leaders of our day, and to free spiritual insight from rigid structures and old dogmas. That is what is necessary and it is up to us.

A couple links for your spiritual workout: Katie Gordon’s most recent post in Following the Monastic Impulse offers insight and some great reads. And for a high intensity workout, visit the Center for Christogenesis and lean into the thinking of Teilhard de Chardin illuminated by founder Ilia Delio. Check out the thinking of center executive director Robert Nicastro while you’re there.