Helpful quotes from The Rule of St Benedict

"We must, then, prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience to his instructions. [T]herefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord's service." - The Rule's Prologue

"These [the list of Biblical principles Benedict just laid out, such as not being proud, not paying back evil for evil, and never losing hop of God's mercy], then, are the tools of the spiritual craft. When we have used them without ceasing day and night and have returned them on judgment day, our wages will be the reward the Lord has promised: What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9)."

"For monks who in a week's time say less than the full psalter with the customary canticles betray extreme indolence and lack of devotion in their service. We read, after all, that our holy Fathers, energetic as they were, did all this in a single day. Let us hope that we, lukewarm as we are, can achieve it in a whole week." [Editor's note: Intense.]

"We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. Prayer should therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace."

"For nothing is so inconsistent with the life of any Christian as overindulgence."

"Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading."

"When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks. Yet, all things are to be done with moderation on account of the faint-hearted."

"During the time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read the whole of it straight through. These books are to be distributed at the beginning of Lent."

Sometime later I will post why we ought to read old books, like the Rule of St. Benedict.