Benedictine Lessons in Contentment

Where should you go if you want to live in the happiest country in the world? According to the 2023 World Happiness Report of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, you should pack your bags and head to Finland.

Arto Sabnen, a professor at the University of Eastern Finland, believes that the Finnish people understand an important key to contentment: “When you know what is enough, you are happy,” he says. Coincidentally, St. Benedict also was a proponent of moderation in all things, whether that be eating, drinking, sleeping, reading, working, or praying.

How do we learn how much is enough? Wendell Berry tells us to look to no further than our gardens: too much rain, and the roots rot; too much sun, and the foliage withers; too much fertilizer, and the plant gets out of balance and can’t grow properly. Like plants, we humans are healthier when we take what we need and don’t overconsume. As St. Luke reports in Acts 4:35, “Distribution was made to each one as he had need,” and thus the early Christian community lived in harmony.

Finland has a strong social safety net, so the people there don’t need to worry about obtaining housing, food, health care, and education. That doesn’t preclude other forms of adversity, but a national trait called “sisu”— perseverance without complaining — helps the Finnish people at such times. St. Benedict also was a proponent of perseverance (“…faithfully observing God’s teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom”) and decried grumbling (“First and foremost, there must be no word or sign of the evil of grumbling”).

One other contribution to happiness in Finland is access to an abundance of nature, as 75% of the land is covered by forest, and all of it is open to everyone. St. Benedict too believed in living according to the rhythm of nature, and he adjusted the time for prayers, work, meals, and sleep accordingly.

Perhaps we don’t need to move to Finland to be happy after all. We just need to follow the Benedictine and Finnish practices of knowing what is enough, persevering without complaining, and absorbing the wisdom of nature.