Benedict & Discernment

Living Discernment through the lens of prayer and community is the formation theme for GSE in 2026. To give some context for our theme we offer you, Listening, Thinking and Discernment – The Old and the New, a presentation by Dr Carmel Posa sgs. This deep engagement in understanding discernment was a keynote from our 2025 Triennial Conference, and is the perfect way to launch our year. 

Drawing on Chapter 3 of the Rule of Benedict, Carmel explores the practice of giving and receiving counsel in community, with discernment described as “the mother of all virtues.” Rooted in the monastic tradition and understood as a gift of the Spirit, discernment is presented not as a private exercise, but as a shared, relational practice that calls for humility, patience, and deep listening with the ear of the heart.

In a world that often seems to have forgotten how to think—let alone listen—this keynote offers a timely and challenging reflection. What wisdom might Benedict’s teaching offer us as we journey into the future? As GSE celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2026, it is a question worth asking now more than ever.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Good Samaritan Education's podcast, Caminio Calling. My name is Gabrielle Sinclair and I'll be good. Welcome to our first podcast for 2026. This year we are celebrating as Good Samaritan Education our 15th anniversary. Yes, we are well into our team years. We journey together, not as isolated individuals, but seeking God together in our family and community of Good Samaritan Education. This year, our formation theme is living discernment through the lens of prayer and community. So it is wonderful to share this particular episode with you because we've been holding on to it for a little bit to share with you at this particular moment. It's one of the keynote speakers from our triennial conference last year in 2025. We'll be listening to Carmel Pose's keynote called Listening, Thinking, Discement, Old and New. So it helps us break open this theme for us this year, and it's through the lens of chapter 3 in the Rule of Benedict. Chapter 3 of Benedict's Rule outlines the process of giving and taking counsel in the community, at the heart of which is discernment, the mother of all virtues. Discment, considered a gift of the spirit, is an ancient tradition within monasticism. What can Benedict's teaching give us by way of wisdom as we journey into the future in what sometimes seems to be a world that has forgotten how to think, let alone listen with the ear of the heart. Carmel Poser is a good Sam and a wonderful teacher that you've heard on our podcast before. I highly recommend you go back and listen to her wonderful podcast that she joined us for to talk about her book The Lost Dialogues of Great Really Great in the Life of St. Scholastica that was published fairly recently. She has held many teaching positions. She's held the position of senior lecturer at Notre Dame University in Australia. She's also been an executive director of the New Nortia Institute of Benedictine Studies in New Nortia in Western Australia. She lectures currently in the Department of Christian Thought and History at Yari Theological Union and is a member of the College of University of Divinity Melbourne and teaches monastic studies at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. It is a delight to welcome her back to our podcast. So over to Carmel.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I want to ask can we continue to help weave this ancient wisdom through our educational structure, particularly in terms of leadership and participation in leadership? So I'd like to divide my paper into two distinct parts. Firstly, I'd like to look at Benedict's chapter three of the rule, Calling the Brothers for Counsel. But let's retitle a few things, shall we? We'll call it on calling the community for counsel. You might know this chapter well, but we'll do a little refresher course in terms of its process of giving and taking counsel in the light of an understanding of Benedict's virtue of discernment. Secondly, I'd like to reflect for a while on what Benedict's teaching on this chapter can give us by way of wisdom as we journey into a future in what sometimes seems to be a world that has forgotten how to think, let alone listen with the ear of the heart, and indeed a world where we are experiencing a dangerous and growing authoritarian atmosphere where thinking, real thinking, has been surrendered, surely something that is antithetical to the principles of any educational endeavour. Maybe we can indeed weave this ancient tradition of discernment in a way that brings innovation in our context today. So let me begin. Benedict's chapter 3, calling the community for counsel, and weaving this into your context, we might go even further and say calling the school community to council. Here we find two levels of consultation, that of important matters with the whole community and those more routine matters with the seniors of the community. You might call them the leadership team. We'll leave this second level aside because it's in the first level that we note the idea of co-responsibility and shared authority spelt out through a process of discernment. Nevertheless, it's also important to point out that on first reading, we may be surprised at how much confidence Benedict places in the community members and for his time and context, sixth century Rome, this is an extraordinary thing, but also on how much weight is given to the abbot or the leader, having the final say given our understanding of how leadership ought to be exercised in the 21st century. There are a number of participants in this process in the rule, in this process of giving and taking counsel that we mustn't forget. Firstly, although not stated first, there is God. It might seem to be stating the obvious, yet it is imperative that we realise how God is key to this process of giving and taking counsel. In verse three, it has the Lord who reveals wisdom to the community, whether that be to the older members who are well seasoned in the life, or surprisingly, to the younger, who may be able to see life from a fresh perspective. This process is clearly marked by the presence of the Spirit, by this presence of the Spirit among us, and not simply by our own agendas. Along with this aspect, it is also in the fear of God that the abbess, let's say the school principal, undertake this giving and taking of counsel, knowing that she or he is accountable to God for all her decisions, as Benedict clearly sets out for us in verse 11. It says, But the principal must do all things according to the fear of God and the observance of the rule, knowing for certain that they would have to render an account of all their decisions to God. Surely an awesome task. Perhaps we don't always take this aspect to heart enough. This process for Benedict isn't about the whims and fancies of the leader, talented and all as they may be. The process itself comes ultimately from a divine stimulus, as indicated by the scriptural quotation, from the wisdom literature at the end of the chapter, verse 13, do all things with counsel, and afterwards you will have nothing to regret. So that's God. Secondly, there is the rule itself, and it is a participant in this process. Indeed, the rule forms the very heart and core of this chapter. In verse 7 and 8, Benedict reminds us that we are to follow the rule as our mistress in all that we say and do. And interestingly, this is the term he uses even in the Latin. I'm not making it up. So not deviating from it in the slightest, for he says, in the monastery, no one is to pursue their personal agenda. We've all got them, personal agendas. It is, this process is a corporate affair. Both the community and the leader are equally subject to this wise teaching of the rule in the process. This is not simply rigid adherence to the rules, as we find that Benedict also gives the abbess, the principal, a lot of discretionary power over this mistress of the rule, this mistress rule, if you like, throughout the rule, depending on the changing circumstances and conditions. Thirdly, there is the leader, the principal. So in this process of giving and taking counsel, so important to the rule, she is aware of the reality of the situation that has created this need for counsel. And this in relation to the ultimate reality. Remember, we're talking about important matters here. She calls the community together. It's her role, his role. This community as a whole, matter. In gathering, they desire to be of one heart and mind on the particular issue being addressed. This then already assumes a faith dimension. She states the business. The facts, the reality needs to be understood. We are all responsible for knowing this, not just the leader. The facts must not be withheld. She listens with the belief that each member of the community is a potential channel of divine guidance. This demands a strong dimension, a faith dimension also. She ponders, she judges. There's nothing fast about this. She acts, she arranges with foresight and justly. She is accountable ultimately, as we've said, to God. Fourthly, although not the least, there is the community itself. They are called together and they answer this call willingly to be together. They listen to the leader as she explains the important issue. They give their advice, says in the rule, humbly, that each hold a piece of the wisdom is extraordinary. It's an extraordinary spiritual assessment of the worth of each member of the community. They don't argue impotently an ever-present danger, and they maintain this sense of humility always. And in the end, the rule tells us, they obey. Already you can see how different this process is to the way we might run an organization or even a country politics in the 21st century. But yes, Benedict's giving and taking of counsel is what we call a consultative model. Now, of course, in our context, over 1500 years later, we have extended this model of consultation to include the deliberative voice of the community. Now what do I mean by this? Deliberative communication can be understood as an endeavor to ensure that each individual, by owning their own God given authority, takes a stand by listening, deliberating, thinking, seeking arguments humbly, and evaluating, while at the same time there is a collective effort to find values and norms on which everyone can agree. This, however, does not dispense with the role of the leader, though not simply then a democratic deliberation. This is a process of discerning the will of God through an emphasis on the God-given authority of each member of the community in community. The basic attitude of Benedict's chapter is maintained by this deliberative approach. Nevertheless, the significance of chapter three, with its inclusion of the deliberative voice of the community, rests firmly on the assumption that every member of the community is faithful to the dictates of the rule, the mistress, the centre of the chapter, as I've already said. As such, they desire not simply to be an integral part of the process of consultation, but to live a life of discernment. A communal giving and taking of counsel, a communal discernment assumes that everybody in the process strives to live a discerning way of life. A communal discernment cannot be productive if the members of the community are not formed by this virtue, this gift of discretion, the mother of all virtues, says Benedict. Interestingly, the rule never uses the Latin term for discernment once in chapter three. Elsewhere, the rule uses both the noun form discretio three times and the verb form discernere for discernment to express this concept of discernment, particularly in terms of the abbot or the leader's discretionary power. But Benedict also uses other related words or phrases. Here they are. He uses the word concern, solicitude, humility, judgment, care, and guess what? Listen. So that it is clear that discernment properly understood permeates the rule as a whole. Indeed, it is itself the fruit of discernment, in the sense of making distinctions and observing moderation in the journey of seeking God. Perhaps it is the beginning and end of the rule that best summarizes the basic thrust of this life of discernment that is the rule. We know this beginning so well, don't we? Here we learn that discernment is based on a life of intense listening, something deeply embedded in the land here for over millennia. This deep listening, listening to life in the deepest possible way, be that to the word itself, to God, to others, the community, teachers, students, the principal, the guest, the stranger, and the sick. And listening to the word in the world, the cosmos listening with the ear of the heart is precisely what Benedict means by obedience. The opening words of the rule of Benedict are call to this obedience. Let me read it by replacing the word obedience with that of deep listening. Listen, O my children, to the teaching of your master and turn to them with the ear of your heart. Willingly accept the advice of a devoted parent and put it into action. Thus you will return by the labour of deep listening to the one from whom you have drifted through the inertia of not listening at all. Now then I address my words to you whoever is willing to renounce self-will and take up the powerful and shining defence of deep listening to witness to the hope of the Lord Christ the true King. Sounds a little different. Now the opposite of this deep listening or obedience is complete arrogance, ignorance, and the loss of consideration for the world, of the other and their needs. In fact, it is a disconnection from community, society, if you will. Self-will listens only at a superficial level and for the self-gain only. Obedience or listening to God's will implies the inclusion of the other, where life is not simply a revolving around the self. Obedience is about generosity. This is how we form community by having life revolving around each other. It is built into the way of life. It is the way of life. It is the rule. A life of discernment begins primarily in our listening to God in the word through our remembrance or mindfulness of God at all times. We think mindfulness therapy is a modern thing, but it goes way back. In the rule, this means the practice of Lexio Divina, that slow meditative reading of the scriptures, where the silences, even the places between the words, mean as much as the words themselves. We tend to just read. This is a different process. And it means some form of communal rhythm of scriptural prayer, the Psalms in particular, where we sing out so much about the human condition in relation to God, some of it very challenging. This obedience, this deep listening, is itself a call to mission, to the participation of God's existence in the world, a participation in the Word, of course, and the Word in others, and in the created world. It is to seek God and God's will for the sake of the other through close attention, bending towards the Word, wherever it may be. So Benedict emphasizes obedience, this listening, within all aspects of the communal life. In contrast to an ego-driven path which leads away from God and others, mutual obedience, mutual listening and consideration becomes the key to seeking God and authentic discernment of the will of God. At the end of the rule in chapter 72, on the good zeal of the community members, Benedict articulates this call to mission when he urges no one is to pursue what she judges useful for herself, but instead what she judges useful for someone else. The image created here is that of someone whose life is continually oriented towards the thought-filled, unceasing concern of love for the other in no matter what circumstances they may find themselves, no matter what important issue is presented to them by the leader. Sound like the story of the Good Samaritan? Hope so. So what does this life of discernment then demand of us? Clearly, it demands humility, that prime monastic value, that is fundamental disposition for personal and communal discernment. Here I know the truth of myself before God, not before anybody else, before God. I know the truth of myself. I know I am not God, comes as a shock to some people, and I become aware of my own gifts and shortcomings. Where I get caught, hindered, my blind spots, biases, dislikes, prejudices that tend to cloud vision and judgment, that is true discernment. In humility, I recognize that I hold only a piece, but a piece all the same of the wisdom of in the community. But it is only together, however, that we uncover what the spirit reveals. Solidarity and co-responsibility of everyone is important. You can't opt out of this process, and you should also be encouraged to be a part of it. The spirit works in all members the experienced, wise ones and the new enthusiasts, the steady and the risk takers. This reveals God's desires in surprising ways. We experience the Spirit working in us in this process through the way we encourage one another, listen to one another, open our hearts to the gems and surprises, the wild ideas we hear from each other, and are able to receive them in a way that enables them to grow. It's an organic process taking shape and bearing fruit. Counsel. Counsel is to be given and received respectfully, expressed in a way that enables others to be heard, but also heard in a way that allows them to speak. Some people are so frightened of speaking the wrong way they don't speak. So the process, the space needs to be given for them as well. The rule, as the guide to living the gospel of Christ, is what binds everyone in the search for wise choices. We must therefore keep the rule close to our hearts. The good of the whole, what best serves God's mission, is the focus of the pondering and considering and are at the heart of discernment. This leads to decisions and actions that everyone embraces in mutual obedience. No one is left behind. The most important element is prayer. We are open to God's moments in the silence of our own hearts. Silence is necessary. Something in the 21st century we find very hard to make space for. Because we are in such a hurry to make a decision in our fast-paced world, we often forget the importance of this element in the process. Does all this sound familiar to you? Yes, indeed, and Vatican II called us to rediscover our sources and to a greater dialogue with each other. Pope Francis focused on this aspect of dialogue in his attempt to promote an atmosphere of synodality in our time, and Pope Leo is doing the same. For those of us who take Benedict's rule as our inspiration, we can see the alignment of this synodal model with Benedict's chapter 3, with the inclusion of the deliberative voice. Yet most of us, I'm sure, had and still have experiences where a subtle authoritarian approach can still creep into our processes of so-called discernment, of our giving and taking counsel, distorting its ultimate aim of coming to a clearer sense of God's will in our deliberations together. I'm going to suggest that this giving and taking of counsel has two sides. It has a positive side. The positive one where our processes mirror the life of discernment that we live through our adherence to the principles of life together, as set out in the rule as I've outlined. And a negative one where we wittingly or unwittingly short-circuit the process at any one of the steps along the way. In this instance, two things, it seems to me, are symptomatic of our failure. Our failure to listen deeply to the word of God in the silence of our hearts, and our failure to keep the rule close as the mistress of our lives. I have a little litany now. When we are not called together for important matters and decisions are made without us, when they are made by a select and privileged few, when it is clear that the decision is already made and the calling together of the community to discuss an issue is simply a sham, when we are not given all the information necessary for our deliberations, when there is no arena created for deep listening to each other and every member of the community, when we do not believe that we each are a potential channel of divine guidance, when the time is not given to ponder in faith the voices of all, when no judgment is made, no action taken, when the demands of justice and wisdom are not taken seriously, when there is a lack of accountability, when we don't take responsibility for participating or not participating for that matter, when we adhere to our own agenda forcefully, arrogantly, and without due humility and deference to the wisdom of others, when we argue impudently, when we grumble or murmur at the outcomes or are led to do so by inadequate processes, we know that somewhere in our struggle to be authentic in our living the spirit of Benedict, we have not been listening deeply to the word of God or holding the rule close to our hearts and calling each other to this wise way of living the gospel, the Christian life, this life of prayer and community, this constant remembrance of God in the little things of life. Discernment takes time. To live a life of discernment takes a lifetime. Now I've often asked myself many questions after these sorts of moments, a kind of review, if you like, something like this. What worked and what didn't? How did I feel during and after this process? United, isolated, threatened, anxious, frustrated, annoyed? What if anything were the blocks? Did I speak? Why? Why not? Could I speak? Could anybody speak? Who spoke? Where was God, the spirit in it? And how did I know? Did I get my way? How did I respond? Did it matter? Perhaps this sort of review is something we can add to our deliberative model of discernment. So now I want to move to the future by using the past. So the question is, how do we move into the future with this ancient understanding of discernment in the giving and taking of counsel in our lives as people of faith, seekers of God? And what newness can we offer the world in which we find ourselves through this understanding? What is our mission today? What is our mission today in a world that seems to have lost its ability to discern the truth in almost every aspect of life, be that social, economic, political, and dare I say religious. For this reflection, I want to combine the wisdom of Benedict's discernment with the work of a philosopher, social commentator, and political thinker. She's a political thinker of the 20th century to help inform us a little further. Her name was, and you've probably heard of her, Hannah Arendt. In her analysis of her times post-World War II and its aftermath into the 70s, there is a striking relevance to our own era. In a nutshell, she believed when we surrender our ability to think, we essentially refuse to be persons and are, as a consequence, unable to make moral judgments in the practical living out of our lives together. The wind of thought, she says, gives us the ability to distinguish right from wrong, beautiful from ugly, and then apply hope. This thinking is the defining human quality in our context. We might say thinking is a God-given quality. She would too, by the way, a gift that marks us as human persons. So what has thinking to do with discernment and giving and taking of counsel, you might ask? Well Hannah understood thinking, real thinking, not merely focused on content or learning even, but as a process of being engaged in a silent dialogue between me and myself, my deeper self, we might call that God. Hannah maintains that this thinking, so she's redefined thinking, this thinking triggers the imagination, the imagination to be in the place of another, and this is not simply empathy, but much harder. We could call this of the spirit. This is the imagination to have the experience of another, to build worlds, blueprints or frames that are not ours and cannot be incorporated into ours. That is, to imagine different positions on issues, to imagine something that isn't your own world, that makes you feel uncomfortable, as it were. In the framework of Benedict's rule, this is to transcend the self and see others as God sees them. If you can allow yourself to sit with this challenge in the silence of the self, you can then move on with others and judge with others rather than simply judging from your own perspective. This activity of thinking, this dialogue we have in our very being, is about working out what it is to be human in relation to other human beings. For us, it is a godly activity steeped in our understanding of community in God. Thinking then, is not about mastery or thinking about stuff in order to control it or rationalize it. Thinking, like discernment, is a way of being. Thinking, particularly in the silence of the self, is about meaning and it creates the right conditions for judgment about what is true. That is for discernment, where we create a space for silence of the self with God and the word. Without thinking, we simply follow the rules or the rule, no matter how holy, and that is simply blind obedience. No imagination comes into play, no real thinking. The ability to distinguish fact from fiction is surrendered, and we can simply go along with anything as we have surrendered our humanity in surrendering our thinking, our God-given ability to think. We support autocrats in this way. Surely not an educational model we'd want to adhere to. When we consider this in terms of discernment and the giving and taking of counsel in the rule, the parallels are profound and have significance for the very situation in which we find ourselves today. Benedict's spirituality, which promotes living discernment, humanizes us into true thinking people. It provides for this thinking in the silent space it creates for us, a space which is not a waste of time, but an opportunity for the deep listening it fosters, and in the concern for others that it promotes between us, our neighbour, and our world. In this light, we are well placed to be educational communities of hope in a world that has lost hope, in there being any truth at all. In a world that has forgotten how to think, we can be hospitable oases of silent pondering, listening to the word, mutual obedience and loving conversation. In a world that no longer has the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, we can offer a profound example of the truth of what it is to be human. So let me end with the beginning of the rule again for you, in the light of all of this, and let Benedict have the last word. Silently think, O my daughter, about the teachings of your master, and turn to them with the ear of your heart. Willingly accept the advice of a devoted parent and put it into action, thus you will return by the labour of silent thinking, to the one from whom you have drifted through the inner humanity of not thinking at all. Now then I address my words to you, whoever is willing to renounce self-will and take up the powerful and shining defense of this silent listening, the witness to the hope of the Lord Christ, the true King. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Not just when we're making decisions, but as we go about our listening, our thinking, and our discernment as we continue along this path of the gospels and together as a community. So as we continue through your day, may the transforming table of hospitality be wide, inspiring you with mercy and compassion to go and do likewise.