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RB 1980 The Rule of St. Benedict

The renewal of monastic and religious life called for by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council emphasized "both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time" (Perfectae Caritatis, n.2). What better way for Benedictines to return to the sources than through a careful study of the Rule of St. Benedict?

The Benedictine presidents were completely in accord with this kind of thinking. Monasticism in America is a little more than a hundred years of age, and during the early decades much of the energy of the daughters and sons of Benedict was expended on apostolic endeavors. Scholarship was in evidence in certain quarters, but did not penetrate to a study of the Rule of Benedict.

Further, the renewed interest in monasticism that arose in the late nineteenth century took time to make itself felt in America, and the pertinent studies that appeared in European languages were not easily available to Benedictines on this side of the Atlantic.

From the Foreword by Rt. Rev. Martin Burne,O.S.B.

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