Customer Reviews

The Rule of Saint Benedict

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I especially with my ancient eyes appreciate the large print, as well as the traditional dating of the chapters and selections for regular reading, once through three times a year.

This is also the well known and traditional translation into English as done by an Oblate of Saint John's sixty years ago but still clear and fresh as a miraculous mountain spring of Living Water. The translation was drawn from Dom Cuthbert's third edition of the LAtin text, published in 1935 (and originally written by Our Holy Father Saint Benedict a millenium and a half before then!).

Any community or individual devoted to the Rule will find this the most useful and welcome edition, not only for the hardcover and large print with generous margins, and the ribbon to hold your place, not only for the clear and correct translation, but also for the gentle feel in your hands of the brushed light blue denim like material which covers the cover.

The introduction written by Father David Cotter in the year 2000 comprehensively captures the historic as well as the theological high ground, making comprehensible this text to the novice as well as intriguing the veteran monastic. This excellent introduction and theological commentary in itself merits the small cost of this essential book.

Some thirty years ago I lived for several years in monasteries which closely follow this Rule. I am now an Oblate of Saint Benedict attached to a monastic house of the Subiaco Congregation. I am profoundly grateful to receive this edition of our beloved Rule of Saint Benedict for regular reflection.

There is much here for everyone to read, especially Saint Benedict's description of a twelve step program towards humility, an essential element for any monk, and so lacking in our present day. Several commentaries exist which anyone might find fascinating adn helpful, including Sister Joan Chittister's The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages (Crossroad Spiritual Legacy Series), and Attorney John McQuiston's excellently entitled Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living. Several others exist of all levels of scholarship, but what we need most and daily do is read the Rule. Thanks to Father Cotter's objective and thorough introduction no further commentary is necessary but what God speaks within the silence of our own individual hearts and our communities and in our Church, now under the able and gentle shepherding of one who chose the name of Benedict, whose revolutionary Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis and Deus Caritas Est: Dios Es Amor (Documentos) we do well now to read.

This is the "traditional" translation of the Rule, used by monasteries for years, and partitioned by day of the year for three complete readings a year. This new printing is a larger format with larger print, is a hardback, with a sewn binding -- very durable, very graceful, and still very simple.

People who are not familiar with the Rule of St. Benedict would do well to go to Wikipedia to read about this most influential of monks and the rule he wrote in the 6th century AD. Those who are familiar with the Rule do not need it described here. This review is of this particular edition.

This is a traditional version, a very good translation undertaken by an Oblate of St. Joseph's abbey about 70 years ago. While there are newer translations out there, this one is classic and easily read. It is made easier to read by the large type! As is the custom among many Benedictine oblates and houses, the Rule is divided into small portions designed to be read three times over the course of the year, but the Rule can easily be read at one sitting. It is a hard cover with a ribbon marked and is well bound: should last for years

A new introduction written in 2000 is informative and enables one to understand the Rule in its historic and theological context

I highly recommend it. Unlike many of the newer translations which find it necessary to provide commentary on the Rule, this copy lets the Rule speak for itself