The time spent at the beginning of June with all the other Diocesan Ordinands at the Retreat House in Pershore was a memorable experience when we followed the Benedictine Rule. This is a Christian rule in the sense that its spiritual doctrine picks up on the values of the Bible (e.g. prayer and service to our neighbour) and arranges for a life in which these values can be lived out in community. It is written for ordinary Christians who wish to immerse themselves in a pattern of living in which the life of Christ can be lived out with understanding and enthusiasm. I have brought away from that time a lot to think about and some lessons that I want to adopt into my own lifestyle.

Our Benedictine experience was carefully planned to bring together in community a group of people to study and experience the balanced way of life that the Rule of St. Benedict envisaged, giving due attention to body, mind and spirit and providing a framework for growth in personal faith and support in our witness to Christ at home, work and Church.

We all took part in an ordered day of prayer, study, work and leisure. The framework of each day was the Opus Dei - the daily corporate worship of God - private Morning Prayer was followed by the Eucharist, Midday and Evening Prayer and then Compline to close the day. We then all observed the "Greater Silence" from the end of Compline until after breakfast the following morning. Our daily lectures and discussions were based on an in-depth look at the Book of Job from the Old Testament. The mornings were not only devoted to study but, because manual work is a vital part of the Benedictine way, participants were encouraged to take part in a work project as well. Afternoons allowed time for leisure activities and the evenings saw further talks and discussions.

When Benedict wrote his rule, it was a very troubled world; it was a time of warfare, civil upheaval and uncertainties. Benedict sought to create a sense of stability out of confusion. His genius was to realise that growing apart (like a hermit) wasn't the best way to find God; that was done in community, living and working through problems and irritations. He said "Growth comes from accepting people as they are, not as we would like them to be. This is best achieved in community and not through the cult of individualism." The monks learnt important lessons of tolerance and openness to change. It struck me what valuable lessons and guides these are for us now. Around us racism, wrong ways of using creation and our ego are all features of the way some people live today. We may laugh at the characters created by Harry Enfield and Catherine Tate that mirror our world and face daily exposure on C4 to the antics and attitudes of the people in the Big Brother House, but they really are sad comments on parts of this world. If we call this entertainment maybe we should pause to reflect on the cause, effect and what can be done about it?

St Benedict wrote his rule in 480AD. I found that the rule has stood the test of time for over 1,500 years and there is still much to admire. I don't feel any vocation to a monastic life but there are principles in the Benedictine Rule that anyone can adopt and follow in their daily life. One of the words I took away from Pershore was "hospitality". This lies at the heart of the Benedictine Rule; hospitality in terms of our own to the world and God's to each of us. Benedict saw this as leading to devotion to God and service lived out in the community.

Part of our spiritual work was to read and study the Book of Job. There just isn't space to try and even start unwrapping the Book of Job in a short article like this but suffice it say that I do recommend a reading of Chapters 38 and 39 purely to experience some beautiful poetry and imagery about this wonderful world that we all inhabit. The writer was truly inspired and paints such an amazing series of word pictures that still have force in the twenty first century. How Job coped with his suffering and the reaction from his friends was also very relevant to the work the first year students are doing this term in the Doctrine course.

I am now working on the first essay assignment this term based on how my personal understanding of faith has been affected by the lectures we have had so far and how I have responded. The realisation that the act of believing was a shared corporate dynamic action as well as a very