Rediscovering a Rule of Life 2025 course
Rules of Life are patterns or structures within which we choose to live in order to be healthy, fruitful, flourishing Christians. They have been part of Christian discipleship since early ages, influenced and shaped particularly by monastic communities, and perhaps most significantly by the sixth century Rule of St Benedict.
More recently we have rediscovered the way which shaping and trying to live by a Rule of Life can be transformative for all Christian people, lay or ordained, older or younger, at any stage of our discipleship journey. Rules of Life generally focus on finding healthy balance or equilibrium in our faith journey, considering how things like engagement with Scripture, personal prayer, participation in the life of the Church, awareness of the world around us, and our own personal situation in terms of work, education or retirement can be held in a creative and life-giving equilibrium.
This short course of four online lunchtime seminars spread over four months will continue to reflect on some of the key principles of either creating a new, or refreshing an existing, Rule of Life. We will draw from the tradition, but not be confined by it.
This course stands alone as it explores four aspects of a Rule of Life not covered in the 2024 course: silence and stillness; the Lenten disciplines; private prayer, and simplicity.
There is an optional 30-minute briefing session at 11:30am on 15 January for those attending for the first time and previous attendees will find new material in this second set of sessions.
About the course leader
Tom Clammer OC is a spiritual director and a Brother of the Anglican Order of Cistercians, and has been living under that Rule for the last five years, which has excited him to encourage every Christian to consider forming their own Rule of Life. In June 2024 he was appointed as Novice Master.
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