The Story of Saint Benedict

morning today is a special day for our church Saint Bennet's it's a day when we say thank you to God for our church and for all the people in it actually most of us haven't been to church for a long time since lockdown began and we haven't been able to see each other except maybe on the screens but I hope that you know that your friends from st. Bennett's have been thinking about you we miss you and we pray that someday soon we will be able to get back together again in church for now we have to stay home and be patient but let's remember that we are still part of that church family even though we're scattered in different places and we can go on caring for each other and encouraging each other in lots of ways today is also a special day for remembering a man called Benedict our church is called Saint Bennett's and Bennett is short for Benedict you might have seen some pictures of Saint Benedict inside our church there's one in a stained-glass window here in the tower and there's also a painting of him a special painting called an icon of st. Benedict with Saint Francis but who was Saint Benedict and why does the church remember him Benedict and his twin sister Scholastica were born in the year 480 in Italy at the time when the great Roman Empire was coming to an end they were born in a village called norsu near Rome their father was a soldier on the family were Christians when Benedict was a teenager his parents sent him to school in the city of Rome he became very unhappy when he realized that the other students were just wasting their time instead of studying Benedict chose to leave the city and search for a place where he could come close to God an addict went to live by himself in a cave in the mountains that Subiaco he dressed in animal skins and grew a long beard so that Shepherds even thought that he was a wild animal however he made friends with a man called Romanus who lived in a monastery just above the cave Romanus would lower food down to Benedict on a rope and later he gave him clothes to wear instead of the animal skins over the years people came to see that this strange man in the cave was a holy man and he started to teach them about God some of them changed and wanted to live as Benedict did a group of monks asked Benedict to be their abbot at first he refused but later he agreed to become their leader soon though Benedict saw that he and they were opposites Benedict loved God so much that he wanted to serve him no matter how difficult that might be these other monks wanted to do whatever they liked they plotted against Benedict and even tried to poison his wine he forgave them but he told them to change their hearts after that he returned to live in his cave another story says that a raven a kind of crow used to come to Benedict's table at mealtimes and Benedict would share his bread with the bird once a jealous man gave Benedict some bread which was poisoned but the bird took it away in its beak and dropped it where nobody would find it and eat it later Benedict discovered he could no longer live by himself he became the leader of many good monks he started 12 monasteries places for them to live then he went to Monte Cassino where he made his home among a community of people living and working together his twin sister Scholastica lived nearby it was here that Benedict wrote a book known as the rule which taught monks how to pray and work hard and especially how to be humble Benedict and his monks really helped the people around them they taught them how to read and write how to farm and do work in other jobs Benedict died when he was over 60 years old for the day of his death Benedict asked some of his friends to bring him to church to receive Communion it was said that he died standing up just after raising his hands in prayer since that time hundreds and thousands of people have followed Benedict's rule in their lives we remember Benedict because he showed people how to live together in community to pray and to work for Thought I wonder which part of Benedict's story you like the best I wonder what part of the story is the most important I wonder what part of this story is about you or where you might be in this story I wonder if we could leave out any part of the story and still have all the story that we need

Channel: St Bene't's Cambridge

Views: 4,649

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Id: lMD1-bj4VUA

Length: 6min 57sec (417 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020