In 2023, the Biden administration’s surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued an urgent advisory titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” which warned Americans about the significant cost of loneliness: “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling—it harms both individual and societal health.” Since then, various media outlets have amplified this warning and proposed various cures for loneliness, but many of these are little more than life hacks designed to promote greater “connection,” variously—and often vaguely—defined.
But connection is not quite the same thing as community, which is the real cure for loneliness and isolation. And if we want to encourage community, we’ll need to revisit the habits, social structures, and traditions that have long made a sense of belonging possible. Among the traditions that have taken the shape of shared life seriously, monasticism is one of the most enduring. The Rule of St. Benedict, in particular, offers a way of living that can sustain commitment, humility, and presence in community. It wisely assumes that people will sometimes get on each other’s nerves, that attention to details will eventually fray, and that love and community therefore need some kind of scaffolding. They will not survive on sentiment alone.
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