Later this week, Catholic Balm Co. and I will launch this year’s Nazarite Challenge. The Nazarite Challenge is a free month-long commitment that men make to live like the Nazarites: community, daily prayer, avoiding sin, and no shaving.
This year, the challenge is based on my unreleased book: The Rule of Brotherhood.
Those of you familiar with St. Benedict will also be familiar with the concept of a Rule of Life. During the moral decline of the Roman empire, St. Benedict retreated to the hills of Italy. He lived in solitude for some time, but found many spiritual difficulties in solitude. He was invited to lead a community of nearby monks, and found the moral decay was similar to that of Rome. He sought to reform the community by instituting rules for living the spiritual life well.
Under Benedict’s leadership, the community was reformed and twelve other monasteries were founded. Benedict compiled his teachings and the teachings of other saints into a book known as The Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule has served as a blueprint for monasticism for the last 1500 years.
Every man who takes the Nazarite Challenge will end the month with his own Rule of Life, one specific to his life and circumstance. These rules won’t be lofty, unattainable goals. They will be concrete and actionable, like the Rule of St. Benedict.
The Rule of St. Benedict is strikingly human. It certainly asks a lot of the monks, but it also recognizes human limitation and weakness. He requires sufficient food and sufficient sleep and balances their day between prayer, work, and leisure. The Rule of Benedict established strict prayer routines but also helped his brothers live the good life.
In writing his rule, each man will recognize the need to take care of his body, soul, and relationships and develop a rule that does exactly that.
Here’s the problem: even if we earnestly create a Rule of Life, “life” means something different today than it did back then.
St. Benedict realized he needed community to live his rule well. For him, life was something lived together. For us, life can often be solitary and individual. Even if we are around people daily, we often treat our lives like they only belong to us.
Instead of a Rule of Life, the men who take the Nazarite Challenge will create a Rule of Brotherhood. The word “brother” signals to us that this rule is for more than just personal effectiveness, it’s for our community.
Each week, we will have two sessions (Monday and Thursday, 5pm EST on Facebook Live) expanding on the idea of brotherhood and how it makes men better men. I’ll also be posting summaries of what we talked about on this blog once per week.
If you or a man in your life would benefit from this free challenge, forward it to them!