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Listen!" wrote Benedict at the beginning of his monastic Rule. Writing around A.D. 540, he offered a way of listening in a setting where God's voice could be heard, where those who wished to seek God through humility and obedience in a community of like-minded Christians could practice the disciplines of prayer without the distractions of family life.

In his prologue, Benedict invites the reader to listen to the voice of God calling him or her to service in prayer, faith, and good works. Such a disciplined life may be difficult at first, Benedict says, but "as we progress in this life and in faith, our hearts will expand with the inexpressible joy of love as we run the way of God's commandments." This is the ultimate outcome to which the Rule points: Joy is the result of loving service to God.

Monastic "rules" were more than lists of dos and don'ts. They were blueprints for an ordered and celibate form of Christian life that had been growing in the Christian church for 200 years before Benedict. He based his own rule on earlier ones such as the anonymous Rule of the Master. But it was Benedict's "little Rule for beginners" that became the gold standard for Western monasticism. In a short space, about 50 pages in modern editions, Benedict wrote a Rule noteworthy for its wise moderation, biblical grounding, flexibility, and interweaving of spiritual teaching and practical directives.

By the time Benedict wrote his Rule, the monastic movement had taken many shapes. The hermit's life of solitude was one form. But although Benedict had great respect for hermits, he thought that a community offered more safeguards and guidance. Would-be hermits should first live in a community before embracing solitude. Therefore he was writing for "cenobites," monks who lived and served together "under a rule and an abbot."

Benedict's monastery was not an alternative church where super-Christians followed esoteric lore and practices. Benedict and most of his first disciples were laypeople, though he did allow ordained priests to enter the monastery. His primary goal was not to minister to the wider church, but to establish a community of baptized, celibate Christians devoted to helping each other live out the gospel. According to historian David Knowles, "Benedict's monastery is neither a penitentiary nor a school of ascetic mountaineering, but a family, a home of those seeking God."

To become a monk under the Rule of Benedict was to commit to the long haul. For this reason, Benedict stipulated that those who came to join the monastery were "not to be granted easy admittance." After spending some time in the guesthouse, they were admitted to a special part of the monastery called the "novitiate," where a monk appointed by the abbot instructed them in monastic life for a year. They studied the Rule, took part in the activities of the monastery, and experienced the hardships of a disciplined community life.

From this it became clear whether "they truly [sought] God, and [were] eager for the work of God." They became permanent members when, before the whole community, they promised "stability, fidelity to the monastic way of life, and obedience," that is, to live faithfully in their monastic community until death.

A monk's daily routine reflected Benedict's conviction that prayerful listening should be at the center of the Christian life. The Psalmist declared, "Seven times a day I will praise you" (Ps. 119:164), and, "At midnight I arose to give you praise" (Ps. 119:62), so Benedict structured each day around seven communal prayers and added an eighth a few hours after midnight. He carefully distributed the 150 psalms over these prayer services so that all the psalms would be prayed at least once a week. To the psalms he added readings from Scripture (and, at the night service, readings from esteemed Christian writers), hymns, and prayers.

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