Thursday March 14 / 27 ns 2025 • St. Benedict of Nursia ~ GREAT LENT: Fast day Sixth Hour: Pr. Is. 28:14-22 Vespers: Gen. 10:32-11:9; Prov. 13:20-14:6 ~ HOW WE COME BY A STRAIGHT COURSE TO OUR CREATOR St. Benedict of Nursia ca. 480-547 ~ Spiritual Intelligence By Saint Gregory of Sinai

Saint Benedict of Nursia

GREAT LENT: Fast Day

Benedict was born in Nursia [Norcia] a province in Italy, in the year 480 A.D., of wealthy and distinguished parents. He did not remain long in school for he alone saw that because of lack of knowledge one can lose "the great understanding of his soul." He left school "an unlearned wise man and an understanding fool." He retreated to a monastery where he was tonsured by the monk Romanus after which he withdrew to a steep mountain where he remained in a cave for more than three years in a great struggle over his soul. Romanus brought him bread and lowered it down the steep mountain on a rope to the opening of the cave. When Benedict became known in the vicinity and in order to retreat from the glory of man, he withdrew from this cave. He was merciless toward himself. Once, when an unclean and raging passion of the flesh seized him, he removed all his clothes and rolled around naked in the thorns until he repelled every thought of a woman.

God endowed him with many spiritual gifts: he discerned thoughts; he healed; he expelled evil spirits; he raised the dead; he appeared to some openly; and to others who were distant, he appeared in dreams. At one time, Benedict perceived that the glass of wine served to him was poisoned. When he made the sign of the cross over it, the glass burst. In the beginning he established twelve monasteries and in all of them, he placed twelve monks each. Later on, he founded the special order of the Benedictines which exists even today in the Roman Church. 

On the sixth day before his death, he ordered that his grave which had been prepared earlier be opened for the saint foresaw that his end was near. He assembled all the monks, counseled them and then gave up his soul to the Lord whom he had faithfully served in poverty and in purity. 

Scholastica, his sister by birth, lived in a convent and looking up to her brother, she greatly mortified herself and reached a high state of spiritual perfection. 

When St. Benedict gave up his soul, two monks, one traveling on the road and one at prayer in a far away cell, simultaneously saw the same vision. They saw a path extending from earth to heaven, covered with a precious woven fiber and illuminated on both sides by rows of men. At the head of the path, there stood a man of indescribable beauty and light who said to them that this path was prepared for Benedict, favored by God. As a result of this vision, these two brothers learned that their good abbot departed from this world. He died peacefully in the year 543 A.D. and entered into the eternal Kingdom of Christ the King.

HOLY PROPHET IAIAH 28:14-22

King James Version

14 Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

21 For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.


GENESIS10:32-11:9

King James Version

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

11 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.


PROVERBS 13:20-14:6

King James Version

20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

21 Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.

22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

23 Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

25 The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.

14 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

2 He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.

3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.

4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.

6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

HOW WE COME BY A STRAIGHT COURSE TO OUR CREATOR

St. Benedict of Nursia ca. 480-547

But for those who would hasten to the perfection of that life there are the teaching of the holy Fathers, the observance of which leads to the height of perfection. For what page or what utterance of the divinely inspired books of the Old and New Testaments is not a most unerring rule for human life? Or what book of the holy fathers does not loudly proclaim how we may come by a straight course to our Creator? Then the Conferences and the Institutes and the Lives of the Fathers, as also the Rule of our holy Father Basil — what else are they but tools of virtue for right-living and obedient monks? But for us who are lazy and ill-living and negligent they are a source of shame and confusion.

Spiritual Intelligence

By Saint Gregory of Sinai

You cannot be or become spiritually intelligent in the way that is natural to man in his pre-fallen state unless you first attain purity and freedom from corruption. For our purity has been overlaid by a state of sense-dominated mindlessness, and our original incorruption by the corruption of the flesh.

Only those who through their purity have become saints are spiritually intelligent in the way that is natural to man in his pre-fallen state. Mere skill in reasoning does not make a person's intelligence pure, for since the fall, our intelligence has been corrupted by evil thoughts. The materialistic and worldly spirit of the wisdom of this world may lead us to speak about ever wider spheres of knowledge, but it renders our thoughts increasingly crude and uncouth. This combination of well-informed talk and crude thought falls far short of real wisdom and contemplation, as well as of undivided and unified knowledge.