Benedictines - The Restoration Project: a Benedictine path to wisdom, strength, and love

Cover: Albonetti Design

2013 by Forward Movement

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-88028-368-7

Printed in USA

The Psalms quoted in this book are from the Psalter in The Book of Common Prayer. All other scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Forward Movement www.forwardmovement.org

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
show the light of your countenance
and we shall be saved.

Psalm 80:18

For Chloe, Harper, and Simon
and in memory of Br. Paul Wessinger, SSJE

How can we know the way? Christopher Martin writes with tested wisdom about our need for restoration if we are to become what we already are. He is as conversant with Benedict of Nursia and Bernard of Clairvaux as he is about abuse, addiction, and the tedium of making mistakes. Christopher is a master weaver of poetry and art, ancient and new. He gives very shrewd spiritual direction when we stumble because of the fear or aggression we are loath to face. Some of his compelling stories will make your eyes twinkle; others will lance a wound, your wound. How counterculturalhis writing about the steps toward humility, admittedly "a long climb,"yet something so helpful and hopeful, and which he models. Christopher helps us settle into stillness so that we can really and finally listen to God.

BR. CURTIS ALMQUIST SSJE
THE SOCIETY OF SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

I love the book! I have told friends about it already, and they are excited to read it as well. When Our Potters House bookstore reopens, I will make sure it "hits" our shelves.

MIKE LITTLE
CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR,
WASHINGTON, D.C.

In The Restoration Project, Father Christopher Martin has applied ancient Benedictine wisdom to the twenty-first-century spiritual journey and embattled post-modern Church. He has rediscovered (maybe re-presented) habits for living that are radically changing the character of Christian community and wonderfully enriching the lives of the people of God. Reader be forewarned: the ideas in this book may change your life. They have changed mine!

THE RT. REV. J. SCOTT BARKER
EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEBRASKA

Christopher Martin not only does the difficult work of translating Benedict's thoughts from the fifth century to our world but also has created a process in community for putting Benedict's teachings into practice. Altogether, Christopher has created a useful tool for Christian living. If you and some friends embark on the journey laid out in The Restoration Project, God will meet you and guide you into a life of authenticity, peace, and joy.

THE RT. REV. MARC ANDRUS
EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF THE
DIOCESE OF CALIFORNIA

I love my church. St. Paul's is a hidden jewel in the heart of the largest town in Marin County in the Bay Area of California. The outside of the building is a non-descript, pale grey stucco, but the inside is stunning. It was built in 1869 in a style called Carpenter Gothic. This means it has the shape and furnishings of an ancient village church in England, but it is constructed out of wood, not stone. As a result, it has the dignity and depth of tradition combined with the warmth of well-aged local wood.

Even more than the building, I love what the space brings out in people. It is a long, narrow church with the altar some distance from the front pew. When the community sits to worship, nearly everyone faces to the west, toward the altar, toward what can feel like God. As the leader of the worship service, I am frequently facing the east and looking into the faces of the people. I know nearly everyone well, so I recognize that when they are in this space in worship, any semblance of a mask falls away. The faces I see are open, vulnerable, and yearning. There are tears, there are smiles, and there is often an expression suggesting the person is focused on some new life that is just coming into being.

As beautiful and moving as these moments in worship are, they are only moments. I know all of us will soon go out into a world that will do almost nothing to encourage what we experience in these sacred moments in church. If, like me, you want to be a good person, to be known and loved in a spiritualcommunity you trust, and to have an intimate sense of God's presence in your everyday life, then church on Sundays is not enough. Jesus warns us that the cares of the world can choke out our love of God. We need something during the week to keep our love of God alive. A church building can't be the only religious structure we have.

This book is a guide for keeping God at the center of our lives by using one of the most ancient and reliable structures, Saint Benedict's twelve steps of humility. While The Rule of Saint Benedict is often embraced by monastic communities, this book applies the saint's ancient wisdom to the daily lives of those of us who are not monks or nuns. As a way to guide you through the twelve steps, I connect the process of spiritual growth to the story of the restoration of The Last Supper, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Imagine that your soul is like the face of one of the disciples before the painting was restored: your soul is fundamentally beautiful, created by the hand of the master, but it needs some restoration work so that you may reveal the God-given beauty of your soul to the world. If you would like to see what the faces of the apostles looked like before the restoration, just look at the cover of this book.

This book and the proposed spiritual practices emerged from ceaseless experiments to help people bring their Sunday experiences of God into their weekday lives. Several years ago I began sharing my discoveries with friends and colleagues around the country. Our conversations grew into The Restoration Project, a nationwide movement of churches creating vibrant experiences for people to explore and claim their faith during the week. We are an "open source" community sharing with each other ways to createand maintain a variety of structures that hold us in the love of Christ every moment of our lives. The core of our movement is a simple structure for small groups. I describe these Discipleship Groups throughout the book.

Whoever you are, from whatever walk of life, you are welcome to join our community. What binds us together is a common desire to follow Jesus through a shared set of practices. We build upon our love of worship by adding twenty minutes of prayer each day and by regularly serving the poor in our communities. On the sure foundation of these simple practices, we hope to grow and mature in our shared life in Christ. We are not a community of experts or of the ultra-holy. Some of us are brand new to the church and to Christianity, while others are church veterans open to a new thing. I encourage you to read this book as an invitation to join The Restoration Project.

CHRISTOPHER H. MARTIN

Leonardo da Vinci loved faces. If he saw a face in the streets of Milan, Italy that fascinated him, he would take the day off from painting his famous masterpiece,