VATICAN - Benedict XVI and the teachings of the monk Rabanus Maurus, who demonstrated “with the example of his life that one can be at the same time available for others without neglecting because of this an adequate time of reflection, study and meditation.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The monk Rabanus Maurus “knew how to stay in contact with the great culture of the ancient scholars and the Christian fathers during the centuries of the High Middle Ages...Maurus was extraordinarily productive. With his entirely exceptional capacity for work, he was perhaps the person who most contributed to maintaining alive the theological, exegetical and spiritual culture to which successive centuries would pay recourse.” During the General Audience on Wednesday, June 3, the Holy Father continued with his catechetical series on the great writers of the Eastern and Western Churches in the Middle Ages, this time reflecting on Rabanus Maurus.
Born in Magonza around 780, Rabanus entered monastic life as a Benedictine, at a very young age, adding the name of Maurus. “The extraordinary culture that distinguished Rabanus Maurus very quickly brought the attention of the greats of his time. He became a counselor of princes. He committed himself to guaranteeing the unity of the empire, and on a wider cultural level, he never denied one who asked for a well-thought-out answer, preferentially inspired in the Bible and in the texts of the holy fathers. Despite the fact that he was first elected abbot of the famous monastery of Fulda, and afterward archbishop of his native city of Mainz, he did not leave aside his studies, demonstrating with the example of his life that one can be at the same time available for others without neglecting because of this an adequate time of reflection, study and meditation. In this way, Rabanus Maurus became an exegete, philosopher, poet, pastor and man of God,” the Pope explained.
His works fill six volumes of the "Patrologia Latina" of Migne. He probably composed one of the most beautiful and well-known hymns of the Latin Church, the "Veni Creator Spiritus"; his first theological work is expressed in the form of poetry and had as a theme the mystery of the holy cross, “conceived to propose not only conceptual content, but also exquisitely artistic motivations using both the poetic form and the pictorial form within the same manuscript codex.” Rabanus Maurus was aware of the need to not only use mind and heart but also sentiment in the experience of the faith. “This is important: The faith is not only thought; it touches the whole being. Given that God made man with flesh and blood and entered into the tangible world, we have to try to encounter God with all the dimensions of our being. In this way, the reality of God, through faith, penetrates in our being and transforms it. For this reason, Rabanus Maurus concentrated his attention above all on the liturgy, as the synthesis of all the dimension of our perception of reality,” the Pope said. Rabanus, thus, was committed to “introduce to his contemporaries, but above all to the ministers (bishops, priests and deacons), to the understanding of the profound theological and spiritual significance of all the elements of the liturgical celebration. In this way, he tried to understand and present to the others the theological meanings hidden in the rites, paying recourse to the Bible and the tradition of the fathers.”
He dedicated his entire life to the Word of God. He wrote exegetical explanations for almost all of the biblical books of the Old and New Testaments with a clearly pastoral objective. “His sharp pastoral sensibility carried him afterward to confront one of the problems that most interested the faithful and sacred ministers of his time: that of penance. He compiled 'Penitentials' -- that's what he called them -- in which, according to the sensibilities of the age, he enumerated the sins and their corresponding penance, using, in the measure possible, motivations taken from the Bible, of the decisions of the councils, and of the decrees of the popes.” In various pastoral works, “Rabanus explained to simple people and to the clergy of his own diocese the fundamental elements of Christian faith: They were a type of small catechisms.”
The Holy Father concluded his catechesis by highlighting the relevance of Rabano Mauro's thought: “while at work, with its frenetic rhythms, and during vacation, we have to reserve moments for God. We have to open our lives up to him, directing a thought to him, a reflection, a brief prayer. And above all, we mustn't forget that Sunday is the day of Our Lord, the day of the liturgy, the day to perceive in the beauty of our churches, in the sacred music and in the Word of God, the same beauty of our God, allowing him to enter into our being. Only in this way is our life made great; it is truly made a life.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 4/6/2009)