Baptists Start Year with Benedictine Retreat

[Jerome]

Baptists among Benedictines: spending the first week of the new year at the Abbey

Every other year for the past two decades I have taken a group there for an immersion course in Benedictine spirituality....They begin to live into the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict.

we calibrate our daily rhythms to those of the Abbey. Rising early for prayer...we sit around the table at meals...experiencing the Great Silence...these practices are renewing....Praying Scripture (lectio divina) offers opportunity for discernment as we listen for God’s word to us.

Baptists (and other ecclesial traditions) have important lessons to learn from a community that takes a vow of stability.....Stability provides the framework for growth and change, and formation into the likeness of Christ is lifelong. Baptists would profit from greater attentiveness to spiritual formation.

 

[Walter]

Baptists among Benedictines: spending the first week of the new year at the Abbey

I spent a week in an Anglican Benedictine monastery. While many on this board may believe any 'Catholic thing' to be highly suspect, not much negative effects come from participating with other Christians in praying the Lectio Divino (Divine Office)

Lutherans have also established a Benedictine monastery in Oxford, Minn.

Saint Augustine's House