St. Benedict and Mary's Mantle Consecration

St. Benedict’s Feast Day: Ora et Labora, Building Holy Homes, and Mary’s Mantle Consecration

Cristy Murray and Father Perry Kenaston celebrate St. Benedict’s July 11 feast day on Mary’s Messages: Leading Hearts to Jesus Today, opening with a Prayer to St. Benedict and sharing his life: born in Nursia around 480, disillusioned by Rome’s decadence, he sought prayer near Subiaco, founded small monastic communities, and wrote a practical Rule emphasizing disciplined prayer, work, and study as an antidote to societal collapse. Father Perry applies Benedict’s principles to family life, urging basic Catholic practices like praying together, reverent Mass participation, Eucharistic adoration, and avoiding idleness and procrastination, while doing “little things well” and offering work to God. Cristy adds stories about Benedict and his twin sister Scholastica and introduces their 46-day Mary’s Mantle Consecration involving daily rosary, scheduled fasting, group intentions, and a reflection on the virtue of patience. The episode closes with a second Prayer to St. Benedict and information about their website and resources.

00:00 Welcome to Marys Messages
00:36 St Benedict Feast Day
01:04 Opening Prayer to Benedict
02:27 Benedicts Life and Times
05:22 The Rule Made Practical
06:37 Benedict at Home
09:46 Prayer Mass and Adoration
11:52 Twins and Ora et Labora
15:24 Marys Mantle Consecration
17:27 Virtue of Patience
22:51 Do Little Things Well
26:41 Closing Prayer and Farewell

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Transcript

Restream recording Jul 11, 2026 • 09:20:34 PM 0:00

Welcome to Mary's Messages: Leading Hearts to Jesus Today, the podcast where we listen to the voice of the Blessed Mother and allow her to guide us ever closer to her Son in our modern world. I'm Cristy Murray, along with Father Perry Kenaston, and each week we explore stories of faith, conversations with Catholic voices, and practical spiritual tools to help you encounter Christ more deeply. In a world longing for peace and clarity, Mary continues to speak to her children with love, hope, and a mother's gentle wisdom. Thank you for joining us as we open our hearts to Mary's message, and let her lead us into the loving embrace of Jesus. Today we are going to talk about St. Benedict. So it's July 11, it's actually St. Benedict's feast day. And we are going to, um... Oh, well, actually Father Perry's going to talk about him, and I will ask him some questions. And then also, um, halfway through our episode, we are going to talk about the consecration that we are currently doing. Um, I'm going to read today's virtue. So just stand by. And Father Perry, would you like us, um, would you like to get us started? In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Prayer to St. Benedict. Oh, Holy Benedict, steadfast shepherd of souls, you turned wilderness into a garden of prayer. Teach my heart the silence that listens for God. Shield me from the snares that crept unseen, from the poison of pride, the shadow of despair, and the whisper of paths that lead away from light. Grant me the courage to labor with clean hands- The patience to endure the long night, and the joy that springs from obedience and peace. Guide my steps to the narrow way where humility belong- blooms and charity burns bright. Until I rest in the eternal embrace of Christ, our Son, and your Son, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Welcome, my brothers and sisters. Today is St. Benedict, and what I've done is here, I prepared a few things here just to share with you, and then like Cristy said, she's gonna share some other ev- other things in reference to, uh, what we're also doing as, as to our Blessed Mother. So, and this, the majority of the stuff that I've got, uh, is from the Knights of Columbus, uh, books and everything else. St. Benedict was born in Nursia in central Italy around, Italy around the year 480. He was born to a noble family, and after being homeschooled, he was sent to Rome to complete his education. The teenage Benedict was already turning toward the Lord, and when he went to Rome, he was disappointed and dismayed by the lazy, prolific ways of the other students. Benedict was born in a time of immense social upheaval. The once grand Roman Empire was in its last legs. The a- ancient city of Rome was crumbling due to the decadence from within and attacks from without. Seventy years before Benedict's birth, the city fell to the invasion of the barbarians. The civil authority was in tatters. The city had been stripped of its grandeur, and the church herself was beset with corruption and theological arguments. Benedict left the chaos of the city and sought the quiet place to study in the mountains north of Rome. Near the town of Subiaco, he found a community of holy men and settled near them to pursue a life of his, uh, prayer. Eventually, Benedict was asked to be the leader of the community. When that went wrong, he left to start his own monastic community. One community soon grew to 12, and to establish these new communities on a sound foundation, Benedict wrote his simple rule. We mustn't think of Benedict's communities as a great monastic monast-- that exis- in the Middle Ages. In the sixth century, Benedict's small communities consisted of perhaps 12 people. They scratched their w- living from the land just like the other peasants whom they lived with. The only difference is that Benedict's monks observed celibacy, lived together, and followed a disciplined life of prayer, work, and study. This simple, serious life was to prove a powerful antidote to the decadence of the crumbling Rome. St. Benedict died in 421, 547. After receiving communion, he died with his arms outstretched, surrounded by his brothers. He left behind a legacy that would change the world. Benedict is a great figure in the history of Western Europe, but his life and writings also give us a sure guide for practical spiritual life today. His practical rule for the monks in the sixth century provides principles for Christian living that are relevant and applicable up in, uh, for fifteen hundred years. Now, the book, The Rule of the St. Benedict is a classical Catholic literature. Although it is written with instruction of monastic life, no one should assume that it's lofty spiritual treasure. There is nothing there about mystical stages of prayer. The rule is practical and down to earth. It tells the monks how much wine they should drink, how to behave when outside the monastery, and do not wear knives to belts lest they roll over and cut themselves. The beauty of St. Benedict's rule is that principles of a powerful life are woven in the basic fiber of the prescriptions of the monastic life. For Benedict, the monastic life entails the world insofar as the world opposes Christ and his kingdom. But this degree of separation does not remove monks from the common humanity that they share with the rest of humanity beyond the bounds of the monastery. Benedict does not take his monks away from the nitty-gritty of the human condition, but rather helps them to see God's grace in their lives and everything. Benedict's rule gives us a foundation for Christians' homes as well. The discipline of the homes is established to form all who live there into more Christ-like people. The home, like the monastery, should be a school by the Lord's service. It is a place where people together would learn how to come closer to God. Our relationships with one another, our schedules, the shape of our busy lives should also contribute to this one aim, that our home may be a place where we learn how to love God and therefore become more like him. And I'd like to, I'd like to repeat on that because that's so important for our families today to, uh, to be that way. Uh, we get so busy with doing things and everything else. And it says again, our relationship with one another, our schedules, the shape of our busy lives should also contribute to this one aim, that our home may be a place where we learn how to love God and therefore come before like him. Um Is that what we're doing? Ask yourself the question. The home that we live in, does it in some way, not all of it, but in some way, does it reflect Benedict's rule? Are we learning to, uh, be as, as Christ to one another, or are we just going from day to day and, uh, not really paying attention to anything? How do we start morning pr- how do we start our prayer in the morning? Do we get up s- in the morning so busy that we can't even say hello to God? Oh, yes, Father, we, we say the ro- we say this and that, but yeah. But s- are you individually, or are we trying to say it collectively as a family? And I always maintain ever since I was ordained, and maybe before, we gotta get back to some of the basics, some of the real basics of the Catholic Church. You know, I'm not saying about the Latin mass, but I'm just saying prayer-wise. Prayer, you know. But w- there was, there was an old saying when I was a kid, which was back, you know, a couple of years ago. There was, uh, one thing, a family that prays together stays together, and I've always maintained that When-- how often do we, do we pray, you know, do we do that? Do we have those little holders of holy water in our homes to where we can just go ahead and, uh, anoint each other? Or before we go to bed at night, do, uh, do the-- does the family itself pray together and say, "Okay, fine." You know, and say that prayer, uh, Angel of God, my guardian dear, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But that's all, it's all part of that, huh? Uh, I noticed a graphic, and I'm sure that you have it. Uh, idleness is the enemy to, enemy to the soul. Well, that's what laziness is. You know, if you don't practice it, sometimes it just goes away, so to speak. I mean, uh, we have to... You know, I guess the thing... When you get up in the morning, especially on Sundays, how much time do you... How much time, my friends, do you pray to be there at Mass, participate in Mass? And goes for the priests too, for that matter. But I just, you know... When we cele-when we celebrate the Mass together as a family, a church family, you know, you start with a sign of the cross, then a penitential rite, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then what we say just before, right after the Our Father, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." Right there, huh? Believe in that. When you come up and you consume the body of Christ, go back to the seat of your pew and spend a few moments with Jesus and say, "Hey, fantastic." SEES, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church here in Anchorage, Alaska, has a wonderful gift. It has twenty-four/seven adoration If your, if your church, the parish that you go to doesn't have some sort of adoration at least once a week Give a, a gentle nudge, knock, whatever you wanna do to the, to the local priest and tell him that it might be a good idea, Father, if you, uh, if we had some sort of time for adoration. You know? And see what he then says. I mean, hopefully he'll say yes, but I don't know. But here at C's, we've, we've been given that way, and we just kinda go from there. I mean, this is... We're doing today for St. Benedict, but next week we'll go back to the Marian apparitions or something else. Or we might even have a guest speaker or something. Who knows how this is gonna take place. But I, you know, we'll, uh, we'll go from there. What I'll do is, uh, I'll let Cristy take over now, and then for closing prayer I'll use a, I'll use another St. Benedict thing. Okay. I do, um, have some comments or information about St. Benedict, 'cause- Yeah my son is going to St. Benedict, um, St. Benedict College. And they have a Benedictine monastery there, and they l- I learned a lot from, from the monks. And so they were sharing about St. Benedict's life. Um, so St- did you know that St. Benedict and St. Scholastica are twins? Mm-hmm. So, yeah. So they're twins, and they decided, you know... So she was, she had her own monastery, and he had her own, he had his own monastery, and every year they meet. So the one night they meet, and then they catch up on life and everything, and then they go back to their, um, to their missions. And one night, um- It was raining really hard. Oh, no, it wasn't. Let me backtrack. So one night, St. Benedict was like, "You know, I gotta go 'cause I gotta go back to my monastery." But St. Scholastica said, "No, you can't go," because she knew she was, she was gonna, she was gonna pass, but she didn't wanna tell St. Benedict. So she said, "You know, why don't you just spend, you know, like, some more time? Let's keep talking. Let's, you know, let's keep sharing 'cause we might not..." I don't know if she had said that, "We might not see each other again." But St. Benedict was so strict on his rule. He said, "Nope, I am... I have this rule that everyone goes back to the monastery, everyone spends the night at the monastery. I'm going back to my, to my monastery." So St. Scholastica prayed really hard, and so what happened was there was a storm that came and St. Benedict couldn't leave. So, so St. Scholastica was the, uh, the patron saint of storms or, like, if there, if there's, like, bad weather, so people pray to her. And yeah, so that's that. And then St. Benedict, his rule is, it's called Ora et Labora, meaning that your work or your labor, you offer it to God, which is really great, 'cause how many of us, you know, like, we don't like to work, we don't like our jobs or, you know, sometimes our jobs get really hard and we- it becomes really challenging. So his rule is to say, you know, just offer it up to God, and everything you do, no matter how small it is, you offer it up. And I think that's, that's really wonderful. Um, and isn't there also the St. Benedict's Medal, Father, that's really powerful? And there is even a, even a cross- Mm-hmm that they, they put out and everything else that you can wear and everything, so. Yeah. So why can, can you tell us why that St. Benedict's Medal is really powerful? Well, I- You know, like, um- I'd have to Google it. I think I remember something. Well- I, I remember that when he was in a monastery, 'cause he was- Yeah so, um, you know, s- so divine. And then we all know that, you know, the church gets infiltrated. People, you know, get... Their spiritual affair is always happening. So a lot of monks didn't like him, and actually they even tried to poison him. So he, he blessed, um, the wine and, like, it, something happened. And, like, so many times they tried to poison, you know, get rid of him, but, um, he- Mm it didn't work bunch of nice guys. Okay. What's that? Bunch of nice guys. Um- Friends, friends like, friends like you, I don't need any enemies. Yeah. Exactly what I'm talking about. But yeah, I'll, I'll have to research that more so I can give you, like, accurate information. So if you're on our mailing list, I will, I will give you the link to that wherever I, whatever I find. But that's just from, from the stuff that I, I know I remember I've, I've read before. But I think Father's gonna look it up now. Um, but so while he's looking that up, I... When we began this episode, I s- um, I mentioned that we're going to talk about the Mary's Mantle Consecration. So, um, Father Perry and I started this consecration. This is the second time actually I'm doing it, and I don't decide when to do it, I... Mama Mary tells me when. Like, just somehow she tells me, and I said, "Okay." And so this time we have about 35 people that signed up, and today was our first, um, Zoom meeting. So if you're interested what's involved in this consecration is, you don't have to join a group, but it is powerful if you are joining a group because, um... So it's 46 days, and what's involved is you say a daily rosary on your own, or you can say it with your group, and then, um, fasting day. Now, if you get this book, there is... The book is called Mary's Mantle Consecration. Um, and I will put, of course, all the links in the resources. So what... If you can do it on your own, and they have instructions on, like, if you're doing it by yourself, how many times you fast. If you're doing it as a couple, you know, you fast once a week or something if you do it as a family. So- By all means, please, you know, if Don't wait for another group to start. You can do this on your own. Um, so it's 46 days, like I'd mentioned, it's the daily rosary and fasting days. There's 35 of us in this group, so some people will, you know, will do a fasting day twice and, and that's okay, 'cause there's a lot of benefits to fasting as well. Um, somehow for me, I end up picking another day of adoration. I sign up for ad- extra adoration and then it turns out that the ni- that will be my fasting day. But I don't know until I get there, like, "Oh, I'm fasting, but it's good I'm at adoration." Um, so there's a specific person that's assigned to fast, and the whole group prays for them, and we generally, you know Like this time we have eight intentions that we are praying for. Um, but today's July 11, and the virtue is patience. And if you would allow me to read to you what the book says. Um, so Patience begins with knowing and accepting peacefully that we are essentially limited. We desire to do and be something great, but in this life we are able to do little, and the little we do with great effort will yield limited results. Herein lies true wisdom and humility if we can accept our limited nature. Even the great saints didn't know of their own greatness and wished they had been able to do and be so much more. Illusion leads to disillusion. Staring at the stars, pondering the universe, contemplating the infinite accomplishments and attributes of the Almighty, how can we feel anything but small? In reality, we fly very low in comparison with the divine heights of Jesus. Be saddened by our state? No. Ashamed of who we are? Never. The peaceful key to weathering the slow progression of holiness in ourselves and others and accepting the timing of God in our world is patience. The woman planted an extensive field of wheat. She returned the next week and saw nothing had sprouted. It seemed to her that the seeds had died in the coffin-like soil. Disappointed, she came back two weeks later only to find that everything looked the same. No signs of life. Then four weeks had passed, and she delighted to see as she walked into the field that tender green shoots had poked timidly up from the earth. Time journeyed on, and inches of winter snowed, of snow piled itself on top of the fledging stalks, flattening them under its weight. But the wheat plants persevered. Then a terrible frost came, relentless in its threat to destroy. The wheat could not grow and lost many of its blades, but still clung obstinately to life. Spring finally arrived, and the wheat began to breathe. In time, brave stalks began to reach upward for the sun. But from one month to the next, their growth was so slow that the woman could not see any change. A few months went by and she returned. Much to her joy and surprise, extending before her and over the horizon was an immense and majestic golden wheat field swaying and undulating in the breeze. Whether as the wheat or the woman, one can put forth all the impatient threatening, fretting in the world and not make the wheat grow one day sooner or one inch taller. Patience achieves it all So that is for today's virtue. Tomorrow is humility You have anything to say about Patience, Father? Oh, just give me patience, but give it to me now Well, you said s- I know this is live, but my goodness sakes alive, you gotta have a little bit of this stuff here to, to make, you know... People, today's world, my friends, we gotta have a little bit of humor in it because- Yes if, if we don't, we're all gonna be ready for the, whatever that comes about. But patient, you know, this, my, my re- recommendation is that, you know, as Cristy was saying, uh, if you can, if you want, join us for this consecration. It's a tremendous effort, uh, and it's, it's just another way of, of prayer, but it, it's another way of getting, getting our, ourselves to Blessed Mother. And, um, you know, the graphic says idleness. But I mean, how many of us are guilty of that, huh? How many of us are guilty of procrastination? I can tell you a true story about college from, on my level. I tell you what. I walked into the classroom, sat down. The professor walked in, sat down, or sat down. Before he did that, he gave us pieces of paper, and it was a class outline. And it says right up there at the start, "Here's the class outline." We got... And he introduced himself as Father Armand Nigro, SJ, which is the Society of Jesus, if you don't know. Uh, and the other, the only one, "We got a quiz on Wednesday." And I'm thinking to myself, "Well, this is not junior college. This is real life." And it turned out all right, but my goodness sakes alive It's, he's Benedict, you know, as you have... Nowadays, uh, nowadays we have such a tremendous gift. It's called the internet. Uh, and all you have to do is just, if you have any questions, just go ahead and go in, get into catholicanswers.com, and they'll set you straight on everything. 'Cause that's what they, that's their job. But at the same time, uh, you can't go wrong. I, I've, I just briefly looked at a couple of sites here. It, you know, it, it wasn't too informative. I think the main thing is, is just to, you know, just be able to enjoy what's, what's been said. Listen to our podcast, and if you want more further information, we give you notes and everything else to, to take care of it. Mm-hmm. Uh, to, to refer to, to what it is and everything else. But there's that Latin that you have in front of you there. That was 12 years ago. "Do little things well." Mm-hmm. That's one of the saints that did say the same thing. No matter what you're doing, Ma. No matter what you're doing. You know, between scrubbing a toilet to doing washing dishes or, or vacuuming. The first thing you do is say, "Jesus, we're doing this together." And you'd be surprised, my friends. You'd be surprised how fast that goes when you first pray and say, "Jesus, this is our project." Notice the pronoun that I used, our project. I was... I went to a, um, it's called Madonna House in Cormier, Ontario many years ago for formation, and there was four of us seminarians. And, um, the four seminarians, us, we were allowed to do the- The family dishes after lunch. So we got a deci- we, we made a decision, executive decision as seminarians, and we're gonna have a water fight Now, the lady that was supervising us kind of looked at that and said, "Well, boys, you make the mess, you gotta clean it up." And we cleaned it up. But it was a great fun, Mom. I mean, it was accidentally on purpose that I got a cup of water and I just kind of threw it to Guy. I mean, somebody had to instigate, and I'm, I'm good at doing stuff like that, so. Was that, was that you who instigated it? That's what I'm saying. I'm, I'm good at doing stuff like that. I like to instigate stuff, you know? 'Cause it always, it all comes out for the better, you know? More or less. But, hey, the, the lady was true, Mom. She said, "You, you make the mess, you clean it up." So we cleaned it up, and that was it. And so good enough. But that's what we do, huh? Do little things well. Any task that Jesus or Mama Mary gives us. When you look at the great saints, they did the same thing. They learned what to say, but at the same time what they did is do little things well. Before I make my bed, help me make my bed your way. You know, keep it simple. That's what they did. Say it... When you say the rosary, celebrate the rosary, but say it with love of the Mother. And that's what this other program does, is just, you know... But anyway, that's on another side and everything else. Yeah, that's- But for here, but for here, this is St. Benedict, and if you need some more information about St. Benedict, uh, check our flocked notes or however it, that thing works. And I'm sure there'll be a, a URL pushed up to where it'll say The Life of St. Benedict, you know- Mm-hmm dot, dot- Oh yeah dot, dot. We can put it on the URL. Yeah, we have a website now. Yeah. So I, I'll close for that, but I think she has some other in- now that we're sharing at this stage of the game- Mm-hmm now, now we can tell the people how, what kind of, uh, stuff, religious materials or whatever el- religious references and everything else that they have when they sign up. And be sure to... When you sign up, just be sure to make a reference point to our, our weekly podcast too. So- Yeah and- So the, our website is, if you just type in blessedmarymessages.com, then you'll see our site, and then it'll... It has a lot of information about what we do, how to reach us, and, um, previous podcasts as well. So, um, yeah, I think I'll make a page about St. Benedict there for this, for this week. So anyway, that's... I don't know where you live in, in part of the United States or perhaps other places, but right now we have some wind, and it's probably about 55 degrees out. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's nice weather. Mm-hmm. All right. Father, would you like to, um, say a closing prayer? Uh, here's a clo- a clo- closing prayers. And again, we're going to St. Benedict for it. Oh, glorious St. Benedict, sublime mo- model of all virtues, pure vessel of God's grace. Behold me, humble, kneeling at your feet. I implore you in your g- loving kindness to pray for me before the throne of God. To you I have recourse in the dangers that daily surround me. Shield me against my selfishness and my indifference to God and to my neighbor. Inspire me to imitate you in all things. May your blessings be with me always so that I may see and serve Christ in others, and work for His kingdom. Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces which I need so much in the trials, busies, and afflictions of my life. Amen. Amen. In the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us today on Mary's Message, Leading Hearts to Jesus. If this conversation brought you closer to Jesus, I invite you to subscribe, leave us a five-star review, and share this episode with someone who needs a little hope. And every time you do, you help Mary's message reach more hearts, and we bring people closer to Jesus. For links, resources, and ways to stay connected, be sure to check the show notes below. And if you'd like to go deeper, we now have a website which has links to our newsletter, um, how to keep in touch with us. And so you can also, um, get a hold of Father Perry that way and ask him questions or spiritual direction. And until next time, may Mary's message echo in your heart and lead you ever closer to the loving embrace of Christ.