Benedictines, unlike the mendicant orders who developed in the middle ages, did not promise poverty or see material comforts as spiritual obstacles. Benedictine spirituality does not see indigence, stringency, and parsimoniousness as a lifestyle to be desired, let alone a high-level signal of holiness.

Instead, the monastic ideal is about the ability to understand the difference between need and want, and between having what is necessary rather than doing without simply for the sake of doing without.

Those who follow the Benedictine way understand the personal impact and social import of what it means, in a starving world, to “hold all things in common.”

In a world where accumulation of goods, money, power, and property denies millions the basics of life–their wages, their resources, their education, their health, their future– Benedictine spirituality confronts that kind of engorgement with the principle of sufficiency.

“It is written,” the Rule says, “Distribution was made as each had need.” And, “Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed, but whoever needs more should feel humble because of their weakness…” It is not the rejection of the goods required to make contemporary life manageable–cars, computers, phones–that is the measure of sufficiency for the Benedictine heart. It is the rejection of over-consumption, the unmitigated greed that drives a person to have, in undue measure, what others have little or nothing of–to want for the self rather than for humanity–that distinguishes Benedictine simplicity.

In a world where the scales of wealth tip precipitously toward the West, the white, the male, and the few at the top everywhere, it is Benedictine spirituality that refuses to give in to the acquisitiveness and amassing of goods. We live with one eye on the needs of everyone else as well as on our own.

It is not necessary to look poor to live a simple life. But it is necessary to love simplicity, to gather only what is needed, and not to demand the best, the most, the latest, or the most expensive.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1: Money is not an end, it is a means. But a means to what? It depends on whether you set out to get money for the sake of sufficiency or in order to gain affluence.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2: It is the way we measure our riches that will determine the quality of our lives.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3: To be really happy in life there must be something we do that is more important to us than making money.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4: The ability to be happy with “enough” rather than “the best,” or “the most,” or “the latest,” or “the biggest,” is the sign of a truly well-developed person.

SUNDAY, APRIL 5: The greatest economic question is what else of value would be left in your life if you found yourself down an economic level or two? Anything?

MONDAY, APRIL 6: In order to be a success, it is enough to be able to live with dignity: to have the basics of life and to do work that enhances the rest of creation. After that everything is bonus.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7: In the end, it will always be what we have done to assure those who have less than we do the same quality of life we have that will count most. It won’t be how much money we made in the doing of it.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8: The problem with money is that the “money changers” of our time will always raise prices to meet our income, no matter what the object is really worth. So we might as well stop trying to keep up and just settle down and enjoy where we are.

THURSDAY, APRIL 9: We know that money is a problem for us when we discover that though at first we owned it, now it owns us.

FRIDAY, APRIL 10: Ownership that becomes an obsession rather than a need will dictate our entire life: who we socialize with, what we need to satisfy us, how far we run to get away from where we’ve come from and who we really are. “The lust for comfort,” Khalil Gibran says, “is that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”

SATURDAY, APRIL 11: There is a thin line between frugality and stinginess. If the people of poorer countries have anything to teach us, it is surely this: There is no such thing as having too little to be able to share something.

SUNDAY, APRIL 12: Money cultures teach us that money is the cure for everything. All we need to do is to get more of it. But is that true? Have you ever tried to substitute the things money buys for love or peace or beauty or good work or learning? How did it go?

MONDAY, APRIL 13: It is amazing how computation changes from level to level of society. Joanna Clark puts it best, I think. “Anyone who can live on welfare,” Clark says, “should be courted by Wall Street. They are a financial genius.”

TUESDAY, APRIL 14: It is one thing to be careful with money. It is another thing entirely to be frugal–to refuse to spend anything on fun or beauty or what it takes to live a life with a sense of joy.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15: The purpose of money is to use it so that we don’t make our own stress. It’s hard enough to deal with the stress that comes from simply being alive.

THURSDAY, APRIL 16: To cultivate a culture more intent on having in order to give–rather than in getting everything one can have–would change the world. Greed would go; jealousy would go; stealing would go and a great deal of personal discontent would go. That is the price, perhaps, of the money economy. “When someone steals another’s clothes, we call them a thief,” the monastic Basil the Great wrote. “Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?”

FRIDAY, APRIL 17: It doesn't hurt to have more than we need. It only hurts to want more than we need.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18: Try this: Give one thing away every week for a year. Then, sit down and write a letter to yourself about what the giving did for you, rather than for the people to whom you gave it. You might be in for the surprise of your life at the feeling of liberation that sets in. “There is poetry,” John Cage writes, “as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.”

SUNDAY, APRIL 19: It isn’t that we have too much. It’s just that we’re too inclined to keep it for ourselves long after we wouldn't even think of using it. Again, Basil the Great was clear about it: “The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry,” he says, “the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the money which you hoard belongs to the poor.”

MONDAY, APRIL 20: It isn’t that Americans are afraid to give. In fact, they are among the most generous people in the world. The problem is that we have been taught that there is nothing worse than being poor. When having less is our greatest concern, how can we be happy with what we already possess?

TUESDAY, APRIL 21: We live in a society that purports that to have it all, you need money, clothes, houses, food, cars, education. All the toys of the modern world. But are the people who have those things happy? And if not, what’s missing? What would you need to make you really happy?

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22: It isn’t having things that makes us happy. It’s not having to have them that makes us invincible. Now no one can offer us anything–power, status, connection, fame–that could possibly tempt us to be less than we should be. As Sister Madaleva Wolff, CSC, put it: “I like to go to Marshall Field’s in Chicago just to see how many things there are in the world that I do not want.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 23: Being without something we want is what gets a person up in the morning. It focuses our energy. It sharpens our goals. It gives us something to strive for and something to give up in order to get it. What else can possibly give us the energy we need to become the best of ourselves? The trick is deciding what that is and refusing to settle for anything less.

FRIDAY, APRIL 24: Why are so many poor in a world full of riches? What is missing is not money; it is soul.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25: When we all come to see that the level of our common humanity must be calculated according to the level of the neediest people in our society, then we will all be richer in more ways than one.SUNDAY, APRIL 26: We impose austerity on the poorest of the poor with a touch of righteous indignation that anyone should want more. On the other hand, we consider equally obscene that anyone would dare to impose any kind of restraint on the wealthy or the comfortable.

MONDAY, APRIL 27: We learn in this society to strive for money, to save money, to invest money, to negotiate for money, to value money. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave much, except, of course, for wondering how it is that when we finally get money, we’re not any happier than when we were without it. It may take a lifetime to find out why, but it is worth the time. As William Bryce Cameron said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

TUESDAY, APRIL 28: It’s not difficult to get rich. But it’s difficult to learn to have enough.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29: We teach our children early in this society that if they get things, they will be happy. Isn’t it time to teach them the happiness of not having things? There is a way to do it. As William Morris says, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 30: Maybe it’s time to sit at the feet of the monk in this story and discuss a different measure of success: One night a robber entered an old monk’s cell and stole a silver candlestick. “Here,” the monk said, “take this bible stand, too. It is silver as well.” Then the monk rolled over and fell back asleep. The next night, the same robber returned. “Sir,” the old monk said, “I have not another thing here for you to take.” The robber sighed. “Teacher,” he said, “I did not come back to take more silver. I came back to ask you to give me what enabled you to give those other pieces away.”

LET’S SHARE OUR THOUGHTS

The following discussion questions, Scripture echo, journal prompts, and prayer are meant to help you reflect more deeply on The Monastic Way. Choose at least two suggestions and respond to them. You may do it as a personal practice or gather a group interested in sharing the spiritual journey.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Sister Joan writes about the Benedictine approach to poverty, distinguishing it from frugality, and simplicity. How would you explain her teaching to another person? Do you agree that sufficiency, rather than having as little as possible, is the right spiritual approach, or do you see the issue differently?

2. Which daily quote in The Monastic Way is most meaningful to you? Why? Do you agree with it? Disagree? Did it inspire you? Challenge you? Raise questions for you?

3. After reading The Monastic Way, what is one way that you can put Sister Joan’s teachings into practice in your own life?

4. Joan Chittister uses other literature to reinforce and expand her writing. Find another quote, poem, story, song, art piece, novel that echoes the theme of this month’s Monastic Way.

5. Think about the last three things that you have purchased, other than groceries. What prompted you to buy them? Do they add beauty to the world or your life? Are you happy with them?

JOURNAL PROMPTS

Prompt 1: Here are a few statements from this month’s Monastic Way. Choose one that is most helpful to you and journal with it.

• To be really happy in life there must be something we do that is more important to us than making money.

• We know that money is a problem for us when we discover that though at first we owned it, now it owns us.

• We teach our children early in this society that if they get things, they will be happy. Isn’t it time to teach them the happiness of not having things?

Prompt 2: Spend a few minutes with this photograph and journal about its relationship to this month’s Monastic Way. You can do that with prose or a poem or a song or....

PRAYER

Breathing in, I calm my body.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present
moment,
I know this is a wonderful
moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

SCRIPTURE ECHO

“The community of believers was of one mind and one heart. None of them claimed anything as their own; rather, everything was held in common…. Nor was anyone needy among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them and give the money to the apostles. It was then distributed to any members who might be in need.”

- ACTS 4:32-35