Rector’s Reflections
Thursday 25th April 2024
A Benedictine Approach to Well-Being
In yesterday’s reflections, I wrote about how the Benedictine tradition teaches us that worship, even regular and frequent worship, will not be enough by itself to ensure our Well-Being. We need to feed our souls as well, especially through the practice of daily spiritual reading. Such reading can be done in private, but it can also be done in public. One Benedictine tradition is to have a book read out aloud during mealtimes. Everyone sits quietly, eating their meal, while one of the community reads a passage from a chosen book. It is an exercise in communal listening, so no opportunity is provided to ask questions. The community is patiently receiving nourishment for the soul, at the same time as they are receiving nourishment for their bodies.
This act of communal reading leads naturally into a consideration of another Benedictine approach to Well-Being. The Benedictine tradition is that everyone in the community eats their meal together, and everyone takes it in turns to do the cooking and serving. Benedictines don’t go off to their own rooms, to eat at their own convenience sitting in front of the TV or the computer screen.
Why are communal meals important to Benedictines? How does the act of eating together help to develop Well-Being? In part, it is about connecting us with one another: reminding us that we are all part of a community. It is also about providing opportunities for loving service: Benedictines take it in turns to do the cooking or the washing up. It also provides a school in humility and generosity: such communal catering means that we have to learn to put up with each other’s cooking, and any particular dietary needs.
I would also say that it provides an opportunity to learn new culinary skills and to develop such skills as we may already have, and many people find that learning and practicing a new skill contributes greatly to our sense of Well-Being. Speaking personally, I am very a learner in the world of culinary matters. But I do get a sense of satisfaction when I decide to make something and find that the result is at least edible! And I get an even greater sense of satisfaction on the those occasions when I feel brave enough to share my culinary creation with others.
I think many cultures value the opportunity to eat together. I think such opportunities are getting hard to find in our modern world. We are all so busy. And I should add that even when we do come together, so often we are together in name only: everyone might be sitting around the same table, but everyone’s attention is actually focussed on their phone or laptop. This sort of being together is not what Benedictines have in mind: there are no mobile phones or laptops at a Benedictine meal. For Benedictines, eating together is about being fully present to one another, and being grateful to God for the food He has so kindly provided.
I wonder how we might turn our meals into more of a spiritual occasion? Do we actively seek out opportunities to eat our meals in the company of others? When we do come together with friends and family, do we allow ourselves to be distracted by our phones or whatever else is on our mind? Are we making ourselves fully present to one another? And do we see our mealtimes together as an opportunity to build community through sharing our food and lives with others? After all, mealtimes aren’t just about food. They are opportunities to encounter God.
Let me finish with the following passage from chapter 24 of Luke’s Gospel. The background is that the Risen Christ had appeared to two disciples while they were walking to Emmaus. “When [Jesus] was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him; and he vanished from their sight”. Wouldn’t it be a truly wonderful thing if we too recognised the presence of Jesus at our shared meals?