Saint Benedict of Nursia led a balanced life. He was very popular for the strict manner of the ascetic life. He moved to Rome around the year 500 in order to further his education. He reminds us of the need for a balanced life to be in union with God. He observed that the lives of the people around him were out of control, they were fearful and angry, they lacked a sense of purpose and deep friendship and they were not happy.
Benedict thought that he needed something more for himself. So he left Rome and settled in Subiaco to live a life of work and prayer. Many people were attracted by his holiness and miracles, and they needed someone who could help them with some kind of structure, guidance, and leadership for their lives. In order to help them, Benedict built 12 small communities in the valley of Subiaco. He then outlined a simple way of life that would allow them to achieve what all people want: Happiness.
St. Benedict realized that people needed a family or community of friends, meaningful work, and a deep association with God to be happy and fulfilled.
The motto of the Benedictines is Ora et Labora, Prayer and Work. Without the Big Three of Friendship, prayer and meaningful work, our lives go out of control and we grow crazy. The great disciplinary force for human nature is work; idleness ruins it. The purpose of his Rule was to bring men “back to God by work and obedience, from whom they had departed by the idleness of disobedience”. Work was the first condition for all growth in goodness. It was in order that his own life might be “wearied with labors for God’s sake” that St. Benedict left Rome for Subiaco. It is necessary, comments St. Gregory, that God’s elect should at the beginning, when life and temptations are strong in them, “be wearied with labor and pains”. After the barbarians overran Italy, conquered it, and became bored with lives that had no meaning, they came to Benedict and he began by putting them to work which gave them the discipline and order to grow in every other area of life. Work is not a punishment, and the goal is not to retire and do nothing but pursue pleasure. Benedict knew that happiness meant to possess the good things we need to be fulfilled.
Union with God can give us a balanced life. God may allow things to happen that may strip or deprive us of one or more of those good things and set us free to desire and receive Him more completely.