On Sundays, let all occupy themselves in reading, except those who have been appointed to various duties. But if anyone should be so negligent and shiftless that she will not or cannot study or read, let her be given some work to do so that she will not be idle. Weak or sickly sisters should be assigned a task or craftof such a nature as to keep them from idleness and at the same time not to overburden them or drive them away with excessive toil. Their weakness must be taken into consideration by the Abbess.

The decalogue is clear in its instruction to keep a sabbath day separate and sacred.

But the early church - and Graeco-Roman culture - was conflicted regarding the sabbath.

For some the Jewish rites for keeping sabbath had been swept away, along with most of the old laws fulfilled in the new covenant. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, "We have seen how former adherents of the ancient customs have since attained to a new hope; so that they have given up keeping the sabbath, and now order their lives by the Lord's Day instead."

Roughly two centuries before Benedict, the Emperor Constantine - who did so much to mix sacred and secular - pronounced an imperial edict: "On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."

Allowing practical economic concerns take priority has a long Christian pedigree, for better or, probably, for worse.