Ora et Labora?

In honour of the return to blogging of ‘Felix Culpa’ at Ora et Labora, I’d like to say something briefly about the title of his blog. As a devotee of St Benedict, I have become somewhat acquainted with this motto. It is frequently associated with Benedictine monasticism, and no wonder! As Terrence Kardong has observed in his interesting and occasionally humourous article, ‘Work is Prayer: Not!’, ‘Benedictines themselves have cheerfully plastered this motto on everything from their napkins to the carving above the front gate.’ But Kardong is anxious to clarify, first of all, that this motto, ‘Ora et labora’, does not appear in St Benedict’s Rule itself; and second, that the mistake some have made of reading it as suggesting that ‘Work is prayer’ is completely foreign to St Benedict.

As to the first point, Kardong notes that the motto does not appear until the nineteenth century. He cites an article (Marie-Benoît D. Meeuws, ‘Ora et Labora: devise bénédictine?' Collectanea Cisterciensia, 54 [1992] 193-214) as demonstrating that it originated with a popular book by Fr Maurus Wolter, whom—as the abbot of Beuron—I’ve already had occasion to mention on this blog.

Concerning the second point, Kardong refers to a mistaken quotation of St Benedict as having ‘once said, “Work is prayer”.’ But Kardong points out, ‘Now Ora et Labora is very close to Ora est Labora. Unless you know some Latin and are very careful with words, a qualification which eliminates most people, it is easy enough to arrive at Labora est Ora and blame it on St. Benedict.’ Furthermore, it is true that St Benedict considers work important, since in RB 48 he writes, ‘[T]hen are they truly monks when they live by the labour of their hands, like our fathers and the apostles’ (The Rule of St Benedict in English and Latin, trans. Justin McCann [Fort Collins, CO: Roman Catholic, n.d.], p. 111).

As Kardong goes on to demonstrate carefully, however, the Rule never merely equates work with prayer, but provides a rigid daily structure, the orarium, allotting time for work, prayer per se, and reading, often referred to by the Latin phrase lectio divina. Concerning the relationship between these three, it seems to me that Kardong’s take could stand to be supplemented by Armand Veilleux on lectio and the infallible Adalbert de Vogüé on meditatio—in the latter’s estimate something very like prayer of the heart (The Rule of St Benedict: A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary, trans. John Baptist Hasbrouck [Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1983], p. 242). In this context, de Vogüé says something similar to, but I believe richer than, Kardong:

Rightly has someone protested against the famous formula Ora et labora (Pray and work), wrongly presented as a complete summary of the monk’s life. In fact, as was said, a third term should be added: Ora, labora, lege (Pray, work, read) [he cites J. Winandy, ‘La spiritualité bénédictine’, in J. Gautier, La spiritualité catholique (Paris, 1953) 13-36, specially 33-4]. We in our turn would readily plead for one further enlargement of the formula: Ora, labora, lege, meditare. Without meditation the monk’s day is incomplete. Continual prayer lacks its support, reading lacks its prolongation, and work lacks its accompaniment. This work of meditation truly deserves a place among the fundamental elements of the monastic life, for it binds the chief occupations together and cements their unity. (p. 242)

Of course, as he is an Orthodox clergyman, I’m sure all of this, or something like it, is implied in the title of Felix Culpa’s blog, so I certainly don’t mean to protest his use of the formula. But it is interesting to see what the Benedictines have to say on the subject. Incidentally, while it’s been some time since I read it and I don’t recall much about his conclusions, Dermot Tredget’s paper, ‘Can the Rule of St Benedict Provide an Ethical Framework for a Contemporary Theology of Work?’ seems like another interesting consideration of St Benedict and labora.

The image above shows a sundial at Reichenau Abbey with the motto ‘cheerfully plastered’ on it. I found this on the eponymous blog, and Felix Culpa gives a full explanation of its provenance here.