Chapter 48: Daily manual labor (paragraphs 3-5)
From the first of October to the beginning of Lent they should devote themselves to lectio divina until the end of the second hour, at which time they gather for Terce and then they work at the tasks assigned to them until the ninth hour. (From para. 3 of Ch. 48 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
My translation of the Rule has an intriguing footnote: "Note on 'hours' in the Rule. For the Romans, each day (from dawn to dusk) and each night (from dusk to dawn) was divided into twelve 'hours'. The actual length of these 'hours' varied according to the season... Timekeeping, therefore, called for a special expertise and flexibility."
For the Romans, timekeeping was based on the seasonal amount of daylight. For me, I hope, my time is tuned to the rhythms that emerge from meditation.
There is a vast difference between living to work and working to live. With my ego-driven workaholic tendencies, it has taken a long time for me to awaken to this distinction. How easily that ego of mine, and the culture of "more", can drive me to overdo anything. They tell me that “anything worth doing is worth doing to excess” and they reward me for my insanity. My twice daily stopping to enter the silence, stillness and simplicity of meditation begins to heal me as I do the work of becoming faithful to it.
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