January 9

Chapter 2 pt. 1

The Rule of Benedict January 9

We have established in the BSBSB that our monastic superior is to be called Prior or Prioress and that this role correlates most closely to the Abbot or Abbess in Benedict's Rule.  For the purposes of my comments here I will use the term Prior.

The Prior is never to be his own counsel or authority and, in this way, holds the place of Christ who said, "not what I will, but what you will" to God, whom he called Abba (Mark 14:36).  The Prior's first task must be to listen for the will that finds its origin in God and not in himself.  This is the only way that his words can be a leaven of divine justice, or a vehicle by which God's moral rightness spreads throughout the community.