Crutchee Libro et at Atro. If there were bumper stickers in the middle ages, this phrase could very

well qualify as a bumper sticker. In many ways, was the motto of monasticism.

Monasticism is a long institution with a long history in the church's tradition. We see the early monks in the 200s. We call these

the Egyptian fathers or the Egyptian desert fathers. And even in the second century we have these monastic communities popping up.

By the time of the sixth century, this monasticism needed a little bit of a structure to

it in some reform and along comes Benedict and Benedict

writes his rule which was intended to bring structure to monasticism and so we have the

rule of Saint Benedict and named for him as the Benedictine order.

Well, from 500 to 1000, this was a time of intense expansion of the church,

and here's where our Latin phrase comes in.

Cruche of course means cross, Libro means book,

and Atro means plow.

So first cross, how close this gospel message was or this message that was

proclaimed by these monks to the gospel? I'm sure that varied and as the

centuries rolled on and the church drifted from the teaching of scripture, well that

distance to the gospel sadly grew even further.

But their intention was to proclaim Christ and so we have Cruiche there.

Libro Book, this of course was a significant activity of these monks as their scribal duties.

One of the fascinating pieces of this is in the monastery where the library was, that room was called the Vavarium in Latin, and we have that word in our houses today. The English translation of Vavarium is living room.

And when you think of the average American living room, what do you think of?

Of course, you think of a big screen TV, right?

Well, the Vivarium in these monasteries

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