The Rule of St. Benedict October 2
The fourth degree of humility is that he hold fast to patience with a silent mind when in this obedience he meets with difficulties and contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without growing weary or running away.
I find this translation very helpful in understanding this "degree"/step/rung of humility. I struggle daily to "hold fast to patience with a silent mind" in the face of my circumstances, especially when my children passionately experience their own negative emotions and barrage my senses with their expressions of them. It feels like they have been taught precisely how to get my goat by some wizened Zen master (with a mischievous twinkle in his eye).
One reason my grip on patience often slips is because I am actually holding more tightly to my expectations about how the world should appear than I am to my connection to Christ within, a connection maintained through a "silent mind" from which the quality of patience ensues. When I add "Br. Chad being patient" to my list of expectations about how the world ought to proceed, I am setting myself up to be disappointed. But when, through persistent spiritual practice, I am empowered to carry a silent mind with me and enabled, by the gift of Grace, to perceive the Christ Reality in the midst of my other sense perceptions, patience holds fast to me. I am no longer at the mercy of my desires and expectations when I encounter circumstances hostile to them.
Br. Chad 2012
It helps me to realize and bring into the present moment, that, the experience that I am having, is just that...experience. It is happening in that moment in the right now.
ReplyDeleteThis attitude helps me to see beyond the conditioned mind of my society, circle of friends, politics and other things and to also see my place in it.
I then can often see that I have been responding in the anger or angst of the world whirling around me. I can then choose to inhale deeply and draw into my spirit the visualization of the Holy Spirit that is already in residence there and return to the unity of my will with God's will.
Thanks for sharing Bro. chad
Peace,
Br. Rawleigh