What is a rule of life, and why do you need one? Find out. In this episode of the Catholic Money Show, a rule of. I first ran into that phrase. I think it was maybe when we joined staff with focus as missionaries. For some reason, we never really read it or talked about it, but they gave everybody a copy of the rule of St. Benedict.

Well, for some reason being that potentially.

Well, we were at Benedict of Benedict and Abbey Benedict and college or. No, what was it called?

Belmont Abbey.

Belmont Abbey. So they had Benedictines?

Were they benedictines?

Yes.

Oh, okay. I didn't know that.

Maybe that's why.

I don't know, is probably because St. Benedict might have been one of the fathers of monastic life, and monastic life is kind of who established rules of life. This idea. This idea that you would have a plan in which you have designed your lifestyle. Design 101, you know, that's a popular phrase nowadays, is to sit down and intentionally design the life that you want and then commit to it. Well, it isn't trendy, it isn't new. It's been being done since thousands of years ago.

So you're trying to tell me they wanted us to live an ordered life planned out so we knew what to do in the moment?

Knew what to do in the moment, but also so that we were aimed towards that which we were created for so that we could be the most fulfilled as possible, because we're committing to living a life of virtue and pursuing the kingdom of heaven. And then, yeah, when we do commit to things, we have a deeper satisfaction and we feel a sense of pride that we have fulfilled our commitments. There's immense wisdom, and we'll get into some of the benefits as well.

But, yeah, apparently 22 year old Jonathan didn't quite pick up on all that.

No, we'll say that. But I also think, yeah, in our modern world today, how often do you see people, influencers, or course creators acting as if they are the first person to stumble across? Lifestyle design is what the popularized phrase is today when it's been being done by christians since the earliest days.

And maybe an interesting distinction there between maybe the two in philosophy and practice and everything is, I think, maybe modern day. It's, what do I want my life to look like? How do I want things to go? What can I do to make my life as maybe pleasurable as possible, as comfortable as possible?

The aim is selfdevelop.

Yes. And then the real way you want to do it, which has been being practiced for years and years and years, is what is God calling me to do? What is my vocation? What's my state in life? And how can I live my life so that I can more fully enter into that call and become more of who I am?

Absolutely. And there's deeper satisfaction in that one. Even though it seems a little counterintuitive. Wouldn't it seem like if I just focus all on myself, I'll be more happy and content? No, it's always going to be just ever out of grasp because we're so fickle and we change and it's, you know, Jesus already told us this. When we die to ourself and we live for him, that's when we find. We find ourselves truly.

That's right.

And I think calling back to those early days in focus, we would go to a summer training and we would receive all this wonderful wisdom and teaching. And I will never forget a phrase, and it goes right to the heart of the beauty of the rule of life. You know what I'm gonna say?

I am.

We've said this to each other many times over the years. Doctor Reyes said, you build the life and the life will builds you. Meaning. It's also kind of an iteration.

It's true, though.

It's an iteration of, you know, is it plan fail to plan, plan to fail. But really, the building of a life, the building of a rule of life is so that you can essentially get on a little bit of a conveyor belt. And now this thing is gonna. At the end of it, the goal is that it's gonna spit you out into the heavenly gates.

Not a bad destination.