Welcome to the Benedictine Jubilee. Join us as we walk towards 2029, marking 1,500 years since the foundation of Montecassino and the gift of Benedictine life.
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“Being Benedictine is to keep good order, and it’s to know when love asks for more than order can give.”
Benedictine life is full of structure: prayer at particular times, shared meals, work, rest, responsibilities, the kind of discipline that sustains a deep relationship with God and the community. That rhythm is crucial: creating the conditions in which a person can learn to pay deep attention to God, to other people, and to what is being asked of them.
But that order and structure is never the end in itself. A well-known story of St Benedict and his sister Scholastica makes that beautifully clear: on what would be their final meeting, Benedict was ready to return to his monastery for the night, as his way of life required. St Scholastica wanted him to stay - St Benedict was adamant that he return to his monastery. His sister promptly turned to God and prayed that her brother stay. When a sudden storm made leaving impossible, he did.
They sat up talking of heaven all night, as Scholastica had wanted.
And, three days later, Scholastica died.
The story isn’t really about Benedict breaking his own Rule. It’s about recognising what the Rule was there to serve in the first place. A Benedictine rhythm gives life shape and stability. But at the centre of it is love: love of God, love of neighbour, and the attentiveness to recognise when the person in front of you matters more.
Good order should help us to love well.
#BeingBenedictine #PlacesOfHope #BenedictineJubilee #MonasticWisdom
A knock at the door rarely comes at a convenient moment.
Chapter 53 of the Rule doesn't pretend otherwise: it simply commands the community to answer it as if Christ himself were standing there. Let all guests be received as Christ, Benedict writes; he himself will say, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
Who is knocking at your door?
#BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #BenedictineLife #OSB2029 #Hospitality #MonasticWisdom
#BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #BenedictineLife #OSB2029 #Hospitality #MonasticWisdom
A bell rang. The church doors opened. A Jubilee candle was lit. At Inkamana Abbey in South Africa, the journey to the 1500th Benedictine Jubilee has begun.
Read Fr Francis Kuutondokwa’s "When the Bell Rang" - our latest Highlights of Hope story from our newsletter, now on our website.
🔗 bit.ly/4rGkbVm
She was a mystic, Benedictine Abbess, preached publicly, rebuked an emperor, founded monasteries, composed music, wrote theology, studied the natural world, and invented her own language. Not bad for a 12th-century Benedictine Abbess! We look to her today on her feast day for inspiration, courage, and motivation to use our time and gifts well for God.
St Hildegard of Bingen: pray for us!
Nobody likes being "told what to do" - especially by something called a "Rule" which our modern sensitivities want to rebel against. Modern life tends to prize autonomy, freedom, choice, self-expression, and independence. We do not instinctively warm to anything that sounds like being controlled. But whether we notice it or not, our lives are always being shaped by things not of our choosing:
Hurry. Noise. Directionless or disordered desire. Fear. Unchecked or unconscious habits. The expectations of the age.
We are being ruled, influenced, molded, by external influences all the time - and here is the greatest wisdom of the Rule of St Benedict. Written for monks in the sixth century, and used widely today, the Rule offers a way of life ordered around prayer, work, listening, hospitality, stability, humility, community.
It asks better and deeper questions: what kind of person are you becoming? What kind of influences do you allow to shape you?
The older meaning of "Rule" word comes from the Latin "regula": a measure, a guide, a straight edge. A rule is not a list of restrictions. It is something that helps a life take shape.
It is ancient, but it is not remote.
Humanity has not changed as much as we think. We still struggle to listen. We still find community difficult. We still need rhythms that ground us. We still need help welcoming the stranger, using time well, handling conflict, and beginning again when we fail.
Follow for more wisdom from the Rule of St Benedict!
#BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #MonasticWisdom
This is the story of a Benedictine who walked on water.
In the Life of St Benedict, Pope Gregory tells the story of Placidus, a young monk who fell into the lake while drawing water. Benedict, praying in his cell but knowing Placidus was in danger, called another monk called Maurus and told him to run.
Maurus ran.
He reached Placidus and brought him back - and only afterwards realised that, in his obedience to the call of St Benedict and his love for his brother in danger, he had walked on water.
It is a beautiful image of Benedictine life in the world: prayer, deep listening, and stability create the best environment to love very actively, and where it is needed.
To be Benedictine is to listen deeply enough that we know when to act.
Notice who is struggling.
Move toward them.
Do the next loving thing.
Who has moved toward you when you needed help? Tag them, thank them, or share this with someone who acts with quiet love.
#BeingBenedictine #PlacesOfHope #BenedictineJubilee #MonasticWisdom
The world is loud, often confusing and fragmented.
But Benedictine monasteries are places where stillness, rootedness and time and space for prayer is the priority and has been for 1,500 years.
For centuries, men and women have lived by a Rule: praying at set hours, welcoming the stranger, working faithfully, staying rooted, seeking God together. That kind of life changes a place... and visiting a Place of Hope may well change a life for the better.
Catholic or not, familiar with Benedictine spirituality or just searching for more, come and see what stillness with God can do.
Start here: jubilee.osb.org/pilgrimage
#BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #Pilgrimage #BenedictineLife #Monastery #StBenedict
Hope is everywhere... but how about plotting it on a map?
Across the world, Benedictine communities are praying, welcoming, teaching, serving, and keeping hope alive.
On the Jubilee website, every red dot on the map opens a doorway into that living Benedictine family: monasteries, communities, schools, retreat houses, and places of prayer across the world. These aren't all - there are more to come. Check back often and watch the map light up!
Hover. Tap. Explore: find a place of hope.
Visit the Jubilee map: jubilee.osb.org/monasteries
Tag a Benedictine place you love - or one you’d love to visit!
#BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #BenedictineLife #OSB2029 #Pilgrimage #Monastery #StBenedict
A few days ago we celebrated the Feast of St Benedict. Being Benedictine is not only about prayer, silence, and rhythm but about generosity and hospitality that does not count the cost.
In the life of St Benedict, there is a story from a time of famine. The monastery had already given much away to the poor. Only a little oil was left... and then someone came asking for help. St Benedict told the monk in charge to give the oil away. The monk hesitated. What if there was not enough left for them?
But St Benedict knew that fear cannot be the rule of hospitality: the oil was given and by God’s providence, the monastery was still provided for.
The monk's hesitation in the story is understandable to us all - even a responsible one. It was a reasonable fear. What if there was not enough left for the community?
But St Benedict saw something deeper. Hospitality cannot be ruled by fear; mercy cannot wait until we feel perfectly secure. The guest, the poor, the pilgrim, the person in need: these are not interruptions to Benedictine life. They are part of its very heart, because Christ is in those who need - and He gives just as generously back to the giver.
Perhaps this is one way to let St Benedict's generous spirit shine in the world today through us all: to open our hands when we would rather hold tightly; to make room when we feel stretched; to trust that generosity is not a loss, but a gift that gives both to the receiver and to the giver.
Who might need your generosity today?
#BenedictineLife #StBenedict #BenedictineJubilee #PlacesOfHope #Hospitality #MonasticWisdom #OSB2029
A blessed Feast of St Benedict! | Across the world today, Benedictine communities, oblates, schools, parishes, and friends give thanks for the witness of St Benedict - a witness of listening, prayer, stability, hospitality, humility, and hope.
As we continue our Jubilee journey, we give thanks not only for a history behind us, but for a living tradition still bearing fruit today.
How are you celebrating this Feast?
#StBenedict #FeastOfStBenedict #BenedictineJubilee #OSB2029 #BenedictineLife #PlacesOfHope
Where in the world will your Jubilee pilgrimage begin? Tell us your wishlist pilgrimage locations!
As part of the Benedictine Jubilee journey, Pilgrim Passports are being created to mark your journey to Benedictine monasteries around the world. Over these four years, we hope many people will make a pilgrimage: near or far, alone or with others, to a monastery they know well or one they have never visited before.
Step away from the noise. Walk through doors that have been open for centuries, and encounter a way of life that has offered prayer, stillness, hospitality, and hope to every generation since 529.
Explore the map and begin planning your Jubilee pilgrimage! bit.ly/44lltKj
Sign up to the Jubilee newsletter! The Jubilee journey is well on its way and we want you to hear about all the beautiful things that are happening across the world in the Benedictine family:
Stories from monasteries and communities, from Tanzania to Australia, from Korea to Brazil.
Places of prayer and welcome.
Highlights on beauty, craft, work.
Pilgrimage invitations.
Resources for communities, oblates, schools, parishes, and seekers.
Signs of hope from the living Benedictine family.
And the best way to keep up with it all is simple: sign up to the Jubilee newsletter!
Once a month, we’ll send the things most worth reading, visiting, praying with, and passing on. And when it lands, forward it to someone who should be part of the journey.
Sign up here: bit.ly/4fhvpe3
Photo credits: the Benedictine Confederation, various, and lux-lumen.com
In this brief reflection for the Benedictine Jubilee, Abbot Xavier Perrin invites individuals and communities to return to the roots of their monastic calling: the people, places, communities, and graces through which God has shaped their lives.
The reflection moves through four simple steps:
Consideration: remembering what we have received.
Thanksgiving: naming the people who have revealed the Father’s presence.
Healing: offering painful memories to divine mercy.
Liberation: asking the Holy Spirit to release new life in our hearts and communities.
As we look toward the Jubilee, this is an invitation not only to remember the past, but to receive it again in hope.
Read the full reflection here: bit.ly/4uhtpXE
[The Jubilee Road] [The Way of St Benedict] Norcia, 480 AD.
In this mountain town in Umbria, St Benedict and St Scholastica were born. The first quiet beginnings of lives that would help shape centuries of Christian prayer, community, and hope.
Before Montecassino, the Rule and the places of hope that would spread across the world, there was Norcia: a place of beginnings.
In 2026, the Benedictine Jubilee journey begins here with the theme Awaken.
This year invites us to return to the roots: to remember with gratitude, to take stock honestly, and to open our hearts again to Christ’s call.
When and where were you baptised - and do you recognise the greatness of that moment?
Where has God been at work since then?
What are you remembering with gratitude?
Where are you being called to awaken?
Explore the Jubilee journey with us:
jubilee.osb.org
#BenedictineJubilee #Norcia #Awaken #PlacesOfHope #StBenedict #StScholastica #Benedictine #TheWayOfStBenedict
The Jubilee journey begins! In 2029, we mark 1,500 years since St Benedict founded Montecassino, where he wrote the Rule that would shape Benedictine life for centuries.
Read Abbot Jeremias Schröder's warm welcome here: bit.ly/4e0IGpx
#BenedictineJubilee #StBenedict
On 18 April, the new Benedictine mission center was inaugurated in Dodoma. Rooted in the Gospel and Benedictine spirituality, the mission integrates education, sustainable agriculture and pastoral care.
EN · IT · FR · DE · PT · ES
osb.org/2026/05/04/new-bened…
Oblate Monastic Summer Studium 2026
Deepen your spiritual life this July at Sant’Anselmo in Rome. 3 weeks of prayer, study, and pilgrimages to Subiaco and beyond.
Topics include AI and Benedictine values, religious pluralism, and liturgical prayer.
collegiosantanselmo.com/en/c…
The BCC met in Rome to discuss pastoral and academic initiatives. Key themes included preserving ecclesial communion and finding new paths of unity for the Church in China.
Story and photos:
osb.org/2026/03/09/bcc-meeti…
Pope Leo joined the Benedictine and Dominican communities at Sant’Anselmo today for the Ash Wednesday Statio. osb.org/2026/02/18/the-myste…
#AshWednesday #Lent2026 #OSB #Rome #SantAnselmo
