Fridays with Benedict: Chapter 50, Perform the Work of God Wherever You Are

Sometimes monks had to leave the monastery for pilgrimages or to attend to monastery business. Or sometimes the work of the monk was too far away for them to get back for the prayer service. Chapter 50 of The Rule of St. Benedict addresses these situations by encouraging the traveling and working monks to continue to attend to the work of God (worship) no matter where they are:

³[The brothers] are to perform the Work of God where they are, and kneel out of reverence for God...⁴...to observe as best they can...

One of the most widely used instruments to assess religiosity is Gordon Allport's Religious Orientation Scale (ROS). The scale was developed to assess Allport's theory about religious motivation. According to Allport religious motivation--why you practiced your faith--could be either intrinsic or extrinsic. If your motivations were extrinsic you practiced your faith to get some external reward. Social approbation, perhaps, like Jesus describes in the gospels, practicing your faith "before men" so that you might be socially rewarded by others.

By contrast, someone with an intrinsic religious motivation is someone who is motivated by internal factors, like the love of God, someone who practices their faith in the absence of external rewards and punishments.

Another way to make this contrast is to say that extrinsic motivations treat faith as a means to an end. Intrinsic motivations see faith as an end in itself.

So how might you assess the difference?

One item from the original Religion Orientation Scale is this:

If not prevented by unavoidable circumstances, I attend church.

A key test in this regard is if you go to church when traveling or on vacation. If you do, your intrinsic motivation is very high. You go to church when there is zero external social reward or cost.

As an intrinsically motivated believer, you celebrate the work of God wherever you are.

Benedict would applaud you.