Today the Church remembers St Dunstan...

Before St Dunstan was a bishop (the Bishop of Worcester, then Bishop of London, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury), he was the abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, shaping the Abbey community around the Rule of St Benedict. He is perhaps most remembered for breathing new life into monasticism in England during his ministry.

Benedictines place particular emphasis on prayer (unsurprisingly!), and work, and reading Scripture (attentively and meditatively, in what is known as lectio divina) - all to be done to glorify God. The Rule of St Benedict is split up so that each day of the year is assigned to one of the chapters. How about reflecting prayerfully on the chapter for 19th May? It shows the emphasis on prayer and work really well, I think...

Chapter 4 - What Are the Instruments of Good Works

1. In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
2. Then, one’s neighbour as oneself.
3. Then not to murder.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To respect all people.
9. And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to become attached to pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To become a stranger to the world’s ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

(Rule of St Benedict available here.)

♫ From Glastonbury (but not the Abbey...) last year:   Stormzy - Crown