Rule of St. Benedict and the Prayer of St. Francis Essay

Rule of St. Benedict and the Prayer of St. Francis - Essay Example Significantly, a variety of monastic traditions have contributed to the growth of the religious life within the Catholic Church. The regulation of monasticism was mainly carried out by the various religious rules such as the Rule of St Basil and the Rule of St Benedict in the early periods of monasticism and these rules were strictly observed by the monks. However, the Church laws of different denominations began to regulate monasticism in the later periods and there was a great change in the attitude towards these religious rules. The selections from the Rule of St. Benedict and the Prayer of St. Francis as given in the textbook provide an important illustration of the monastic traditions of different periods in the Church history. In spite of their apparent differences, both of these texts make sense in the context of the monastic traditions of the different periods. A comparative analysis of these two texts explains how monasticism fits into the Christian tradition generally and t hese texts provide the most effective demonstrations of the religious rules of different monastic traditions. In an analysis of the selection from the Rule of St. Benedict, one comes to recognize the example of the monastic tradition of the early stages of monasticism.