Tenets from the Rule of St. Benedict

* Everyone needs to perform some manual labor
* All things in moderation
* Spiritual life should be reflected upon daily, it is a daily process/struggle
* Accept others, do not change them
* Community exposes us to internal and external improvement
* All created things are god-given
* Treat things with care


Its funny how many of these could and do cross over into secular life. Even as we strive to escape some of them, like community, we still gravitate towards them. Only, they are found in a different fashion. Whether online communities, or friends at a local pub, or academic circles. Community, Umma, Relational associations, whatever you want to call them still live strongly today. Strangely though, they say individuals feel much more sequestered from the world in mordernized nations than they did a century ago. For a guy who lived 1500 years ago, St. Benedict had some good ideas.

Even with manual labor, there is a different sense of accomplishment. One could almost say a wholesome (for lack of a better word) feeling comes from it. As well as strengthening the body as a whole. Sure you get sweaty, dirty and tired, but there is more one achieves from the process than the whole of its negative aspects.