Becoming a Community of Disciples: Guidelines from Abbot Benedict and Bishop Basil (Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics)

The Rules of Benedict and Basil show us how to live in community with one another. Though written for monasteries over 1500 years ago, these Rules contain timeless wisdom about Christian community.

Greg Peters has combined and reorganized the Rule of Benedict and the Rule of Basil for modern readers so that we too can meditate on, enjoy, and apply the insights of two of the most influential Christians ever to have lived.

“Today, when societies are frayed or unraveling, it is hard to imagine people living in close proximity, working and praying together. That is what Christian monks have been doing since the early days of Christianity. By trial and error, with the Gospel for their guide, they gained wisdom that is handed on in the Rules of Basil and Benedict. Greg Peters has distilled their teaching in a very helpful way. Now to live it—together.”

Fr. Hugh Feiss, OSB,
Monastery of the Ascension (Jerome, Idaho)

“Greg Peters, along with his old friends Basil and Benedict, have provided us with a worthy guide to becoming followers of Christ. In this book we learn to live together in a peaceable order. We learn to lead kindly and to follow faithfully. We learn to work, to welcome, and to worship. If we would not only read these Rules, but experiment with them as we rub shoulders with one another, we might just become a force for Christ as powerful today as Basil and Benedict were long ago.”

Evan B. Howard, PhD,
Director of Spirituality Shoppe: A Center for the Study of Christian Spirituality,
author of A Guide to Christian Spiritual Formation: How Scripture, Spirit, Community, and Mission Shape Our Souls

“For thousands of years the Rules of Sts. Basil and Benedict have guided monks and nuns in following Christ and building community. In Becoming a Community of Disciples Greg Peters makes this tried and true wisdom available to Christian in all walks of life. Here readers will find actual texts from both Rules which relate to leadership, community, hospitality, virtue, prayer, and discipline, followed by discussion questions which will enable them to apply this wisdom to present life challenges.”

Sr. Colleen Maura McGrane, OSB,
Editor, The American Benedictine Review