What Have We Learned?
BOOK CLUB 1 | CONCLUSION: St. Benedict's Rule applied to the family
As a reminder, you can access the text of St. Benedict’s Rule here. If you’d like to visit the Book Club table of contents, you can do so here.
Thank you so much for following along for our Rule of St. Benedict Book Club over the last month and a half! It’s been a joy to reflect with you on this rich text, and I pray that you have benefited from it. I’d like to share a few reflections of my own, both on the text as a whole and on the process of running an online book club.
A Few Concluding Thoughts on the Rule
I truly hope that you and your family have benefitted from reading through St. Benedict’s Rule together, and that you have found some practices, goals, or habits to implement that will lead you closer to Christ over time. There is some truly incredible wisdom in the Rule that has stood the test of time.
I’ve found that, while reading the Rule closely with you all hasn’t necessarily changed the way that I see my family members, it has certainly brought my understanding of our family as a unit into much clearer focus. There are several things that I hope we can implement as our girls grow up:
A daily Little Silence, like we’ve talked about, as well as some form of digital fast in the evenings as our form of a Great Silence (we’ve tried putting phones in the phone box, as well as unplugging our wifi router for the night, and I could see either option working well)
Taking more pride in my role as homemaker and seeing myself as, in a sense, the cellarer of my home
Continuing to invite our children to participate in the fullness of our family life, including chores and family prayer as well as meals and games, with increasing responsibility as they age
(Can you tell which section of the Rule was my favorite?)
As we wrap up this six-week conversation, I’ve been pondering the responsibility that we have to one another by virtue of our shared bond. How do we recognize, honor, and take up the responsibility of interdependence?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Rule as a whole if you’re open to sharing.
A Few Thoughts on Running a Book Club
Overall, there was less engagement than I was anticipating and hoping for, particularly in the form of comments. The first week or two had several folks chiming in with their own interpretation, examples from their lives, and questions, but as time went by, these generally slowed. This could, of course, be attributed to several things: the summer slump; a discussion taking place within the home rather than online (honestly the more appropriate place); people not having time to read the text in real time, if at all; and so on and so forth. It could also just be the format of offering, functionally, an essay on a topic rather than hosting a discussion. That being said, I truly loved hearing from those who did comment—you brightened my day each time!
A neat upside of writing the weekly posts was that I saw themes emerging from the initially random collections of chapters. When I originally wrote out the divisions, my goal was to keep the topics loosely related while keeping the reading per week roughly equal, but it was always incredible to see how tightly-knit the chapters actually were, both within each week’s section and from week to week.
And, while the text of the Rule can be overwhelming simply due to the depth of wisdom to be mined and the abundant practical application, I really enjoyed taking a deep dive into it myself, and I believe that I grew as a wife and mother simply by reading and writing for this series. I look forward to sitting with the text more as time goes on, because I know there will always be more nuggets of gold to uncover.
Your Turn: How was Your Experience?
Did you read the text of the Rule, the weekly discussion posts, or both?
Were the discussion questions helpful?
Did you discuss with your family, roommates, and/or friends in real life? Did you journal, think, and/or pray about the text and the weekly discussion posts?
Was this format helpful? If not, what suggestions do you have for improving the reader experience? Would you like to see us cover another book in this manner?
One Final Thought
mentioned that she would potentially be interested in a printed book based on or including these discussions. To say that I was flattered and surprised is an understatement, but it did get me thinking. Is this something that you would be interested in? A few preliminary thoughts on this project (because I have a habit of deep diving into things as a procrastination method):
I would likely expand the current content, potentially divide it up thematically rather than in order of chapters, and would probably include a more formal discussion guide rather than the handful of random weekly questions.
I would not publish unless I was able to obtain a nihil obstat and imprimatur.
Timeline would be up in the air based on whether I went the self-publishing route or the traditional publishing route.
I’d love to hear what you think!
I'll be honest, online book clubs scare me because I can never keep pace, which is why I wasn't necessarily in the comments. But I'm excited to go back through the posts as a whole, grabbing bits here and there. I read the Rule in college and am looking forward to slowly revisiting it in the fall in retrospect!
I was late to this party (what else is new?), having been linked to your substack by another writer (possibly Tsh Oxenreider, though I cannot remember now!). But as I have been sitting for a few years with questions about a family rule of life, embracing my role as a homemaker, and what lay people can glean from the rightly ordered life in monasteries, this series was/is a real gift to me. Truthfully, at this time, I probably would most benefit from reading through the whole series instead of spending time in the original text of the Rule itself. You've done such a lovely job of digesting and analogizing for families with young children (my own context). Thank you so much. I'll definitely be sticking around for your other writing and any future projects!