December 31

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 73

Here at the conclusion of his Rule, St. Benedict models remarkable humility with regard to his own work.  From his example we can learn to hold gently the good that comes from our lives, recognizing that it is by God's love and grace that we have been brought to the place we inhabit.

This final chapter is a good reminder that means to do not equal ends, and that it is the end, the goal, the telos of our life that matters.  We are formed by our Benedictine practices to find our true self at home with God, and to find God at home in our lives.  We are all beginners, and we will always need to begin again.

Let us adopt our Father Benedict's humility, then.  Let us seek to learn from other masters of the spiritual life and welcome the company of those on parallel journeys of spiritual formation.  We do not own the pathway along which we hasten "to the heavenly homeland."  St. Benedict would have us, here at the end, to open ourselves to whatever comes next.  We are not to be proud of our identity and closed off to all that is not Benedictine.  Built into our Benedictine spirituality is an understanding that it is not the be all and end all of human striving toward God.  It is but one means to the end, but one for which we can be deeply grateful.

Br. Chad

December 30

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 72

I read a book a while back that I've talked about often called Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders.  In it are profiles of and interviews with the oldest living Benedictines in the United States.  One of the questions put to each elder was "What is your favorite chapter in the Rule of Benedict?"  More than any other chapter, Chapter 72, On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have, was said to be the favorite.

I find much resonance within this chapter as a lifelong church goer and as a vowed member of a religious community.  The first sentence rings true as a statement about every community I've ever spent time in.  There is something tangible about the zeal of a group, and the difference between evil and good zeal is as apparent as the difference between a touch of blessing and a slap in the face.  The evil zeal is bitterness, and it separates from God.  If our life's journey was represented on a map, the zeal of bitterness would point us in the direction opposite of where God's is at home.  The good zeal consists of mutual honor, patience, and charity and points us precisely in the direction of God's household and our true home.

The source of these two zeals is found in the depths of our inner life, at the intersection of our emotions, desires, and will.  Good zeal must be cultivated and grown within by our clear intentions, consistent effort, and by Divine Grace.  Good zeal is a purse that will not wear out, our treasure stored up in heaven.  Evil zeal is a storehouse in which the possessions of our false self slowly disintegrate, eaten by rust and moth (Luke 12: 33,34).  We embody one zeal or the other in our lives and in our communities, and those with ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to feel will perceive it clearly.

Br. Chad

December 29

The First Sunday after Christmas Day

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 71

In Gethsemane we witness Jesus fully owning his emotions and desires, bringing them before his Abba whom he trusts, and fully releasing them with the words, "yet, not what I want, but what you want."

Our Father Benedict teaches us in this chapter that the road of obedience brings us to God, and I perceive that the road of obedience Jesus walked in Gethsemane is the same road we all must walk among our own emotions and desires.  It is a road from total ownership to complete release.

Benedictine obedience comes down the point at which we, in the thick of our emotions and desires submit to another.  It is a painfully difficult practice.  It requires the laying down of whatever story I tell myself that justifies my self-interested feelings and behavior.  And at no time are my self-interested feelings more intense than when I am in conflict.  Yet it is precisely at this point that our Father Benedict instructs us to face the matter head on, putting aside excuses or blame.  He would have us to own and release our feelings of self-interest.

The next time you find yourself being offended, imagine extending a blessing rather than a rebuttal or a curse.  Seek the place within yourself from which you can own your feelings, release them to God, and genuinely offer a blessing to the one who has offended you.  And the next time you find yourself having given offense, imagine setting aside explanations and asking for unqualified forgiveness.  Seek the place within yourself that you do not need to defend, that is safe enough with God that you are able to be wrong.  This is the inner freedom that St. Benedict seeks to cultivate within us.

Br. Chad

December 28

Feast of the Holy Innocents

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 70

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod.  Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In response to tragedies such as the one we commemorate today wherein greed and lust for power lead to the slaughter of innocents, I have often found it easy to set myself up as judge and executioner.  From my perspective trapped behind my two small eyes, I succumb to the temptation to act as though I see the world as it is, unadorned and objective.  My angry reactions are then justified as acts of defense in the service of Truth and Justice.  Our Father Benedict seeks to uproot this disposition here in Chapter 70.  Sr. Joan comments,

Benedictine spirituality depended on personal commitment and community support, not on intimidation and brutality.  Benedict makes it clear that the desire for good is no excuse for the exercise of evil on its behalf. . . . To become what we hate--as mean as the killers, as obsessed as the haters--is neither the goal nor the greatness of the spiritual life.

As Benedictines, we are to consider carefully the posture we assume toward each other, with those we encounter in our daily lives, and with our ideological adversaries.  As much as it might appear at times to be the case, we have not been set up as vigilantes for God's own Truth.

Br. Chad

December 27

Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 69

An unspoken assumption in this chapter provides a key to understanding its deepest meaning.  The assumption is that God is the one against whom any act of defense is undertaken in a Benedictine community.  Each member has handed himself over totally to being formed by God, a sacred pact that must not be compromised by even the best of intentions.  Sr. Joan reflects,

In a life dedicated to spiritual growth and direction, there is no room for multiple masters. Friends who protect us from our need to grow are not friends at all.  People who allow a personal agenda, our need to be right or their need to shield, block the achievement of a broader vision in us and betray us.

It takes profound trust and true discipline both to submit to being formed and to keep from acting in another's defense when we feel as though there is a need for protection or intervention on her behalf.  None of us can do the hard work of another's formation.  Each of us must entrust each other to the Master.

Br. Chad

December 26

Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 68

Until one faces one's own resistance and overcomes one's own sense of inability, a human being is confined within the boundaries of personal desire, preference, and fear.  We are often in need of a firm shove if we are to transgress those boundaries.  Our Father Benedict desires to lead us beyond our self-imposed borders into an experience of Divine union wherein it is not our personal identities, but God's creative work in the world around us that guides our movement.  We are to become vessels for Spirit, channels of Power through which the Kingdom of Heaven flows into our circumstances.

Each small breakthrough in the matter of prayer practice, in study, in work frees us more and more to listen to and obey God's voice rather than the voice of our resistance.  Each time we find that we were wrong about our inabilities, we find it easier to accept that we are not the designers of our own lives, that a larger Purpose is at play through us.  Each step outside of our own boundaries confirms the truth of the opening line of Psalm 127: "Unless Adonai builds the house, their labor is in vain who build it."

Br. Chad

December 25

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 67

Christmas Eve services at our church seem to fill the pews with unfamiliar faces.  I see brave souls who venture into an unfamiliar church in search of something enchanting and mysterious on this holy night.  I watch the family members of a wife, a mother, or a grandmother who dutifully accompany her to her parish for the evening.  I feel the fear and sorrow of those seeking comfort on what is for them the darkest night of the year. 

Our Father Benedict acknowledges and seeks to deal here with this spiritual reality that I experience often in my life and work in church.  Each person brings with her to church an invisible crowd of other people and past experiences that affect the spiritual climate of the gathering.  Sometimes the presence of this unseen crowd is overwhelming.  Sometimes it is overwhelmed and ignored.

In a Benedictine community, ignoring it is not an option, so St. Benedict wisely makes the unseen dynamics explicit by establishing a protocol whereby the spiritual climate of the community can be cleansed. When we commit ourselves to a vowed life in a religious community, we place ourselves at the mercy of each other's inner well-being.  In a significant way, we release our right to carry our baggage alone and claim that its dark contents are nobody's business.  We own the fact that we were never successful in the first place at keeping the contents from spilling out onto the people around us.  With the illusion of independence removed and replaced with mutual commitment and compassion, we are able to unpack our bags in safety and begin the hard work of bringing what has sat in long darkness into the Light.

Br. Chad

December 24

Eve of the Nativity

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 66

Over the last year and a half, I have felt much like the porter at our parish.  The circumstances of my life have been such that I am physically at the church for most of the working hours of the week.  When I hear the clicking of the latch, the squeaking of the hinges, and the banging of the heavy wooden door against the frame down the hall, I rise from my work and stand to greet whomever will appear momentarily at the entrance to the church office.

The disposition of the porter towards the visitor that our Father Benedict describes in this chapter is a tall order to fulfill.  St. Benedict is not simply interested in a butler's formal, detached politeness, but in a genuine celebration of the presence of Christ in the person of the uninvited guest.  Such a disposition cannot be snapped into place like a clip-on bow tie, but must abide already in one's heart, awaiting the opportunity to be called forth.

The role of the porter offers a view of an inner posture that St. Benedict desires for us all to assume.  It is a posture that receives whatever may come with an eye for where God is in it.  It is a posture that remains free from entanglement within the deadlines and agendas that keep us from perceiving and welcoming Christ in the moment.

Let us, therefore, like the carol beckons, prepare room within our hearts for the Christ who comes to bring joy to the world.  Let us seek to recognize the Christ who searches for a place to be born this night, and may we rise with welcome to receive his blessing.

Br. Chad

December 23

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 65 pt. 2

Our Father Benedict goes to great lengths in this chapter to make very clear that the Abbot is in charge and that there is no question whatsoever about under whom the Prior serves.  Let us remember, though, that the authority exercised by the Abbot is in the spirit of Christ, not in the spirit of the world around us.  Christlike authority can hold in tension the two statements: "All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me" and "not my will, but yours be done."

A Benedictine community is to be centered around the mystical reality of a soul's union with God and with others.  Just as Christ lives to remove that which separates from God and each other, the Abbot holds the space in community for this reality to manifest.  Conflicts of the nature described in this passage serve to shift focus from this central intention of the group onto, as Sr. Joan says, "the multiple minor agendas of its members. At that moment, the mystical dimension of the community turns into just one more arm wrestling match among contenders."

Br. Chad

December 22

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 65 pt. 1

St. Benedict was no stranger to the nitty gritty of institutional authority dynamics.  Clearly he had seen enough trouble around the issue of appointing a second in command that he saw fit in this passage to shed light on the primary circumstances surrounding that trouble.  But the root of this trouble is deeper and more basic to the human experience than the circumstances described here.  The root is egoic self-interest attached to a position of leadership.  When leadership is exercised in the interest of the leader, it is not leadership in the Spirit of Christ.

The Christ leads as a servant, leads as a slave -- humble, poor, marginalized -- without attachment to the interests of the small self.  A leader with the eyes of Christ perceives the true needs of the one who rises up to usurp her authority.  A leader with the heart of Christ desires to fulfill that true need, even if it is fulfilled at great personal expense.  Such a leader can genuinely utter the words, "Abba, forgive them, for they know not what they do," in the wake of betrayal, a sham trial, and from the midst of a brutal execution.

Br. Chad

December 21

Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle
Winter Solstice

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 64 pt. 2

This passage paints a picture of authority in the idiom of Christ that is full, wise, and beautiful.  Returning to it three times a year as I read through the Rule clears my vision and strengthens my intention.  Inasmuch as I am called by God into positions of leadership, I desire to lead in this manner and no other.

A poignant example from this passage of our Father Benedict's vision of authority:

Taking [Scriptural] examples of discretion, the mother of virtues, let her so temper all things  that the strong may have something to strive after, and the weak may not fall back in dismay.

And another:

Let her know that her duty is rather to profit her sisters than to preside over them. She must therefore be learned in the divine law, that she may have a treasure of knowledge from which to bring forth new things and old. 

And remembering our host parish priest, Fr. Gil, and his modeling of "non-anxious presence" in our midst:

Let her not be excitable and worried, nor exacting and headstrong, nor jealous and over-suspicious; for then she is never at rest.  

Thanks be to God for wisdom that has cleared a path for us to walk and for those in whose footsteps we can place our own unsteady feet.

Br. Chad

December 20

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 64 pt. 1

This passage calls to mind the need for every Benedictine community to be in transparent relationship with the wider Church in which it finds itself.  Although St. Benedict's vision for a monastery is non-diocesan, he clearly intends that each community will be intimately connected to the life of the diocese in which it is located and to other monasteries.  Such connection is built into the structure of the Canon Communities of St. Benedict, each of which is hosted by a local parish with the approval of the priest-in-charge and the bishop.

I'm struck by how intent our Father Benedict is to establish a structure of authority that is the antithesis of worldly power.  Worldly power is always self-interested, but here the Superior is chosen by the community to serve God's intention, not the community's own perceived needs.  And if the community chooses someone "who will acquiesce in their vices," St. Benedict relies upon the wider Christian community to perceive God's intentions and intervene.  It is commonly expressed that the Rule of St. Benedict is hierarchical and authoritative with a heavy focus upon abbatial obedience, but we see here that it is Christ alone whose authority is to be revered in a Benedictine community, not that of any human.

Br. Chad

December 19

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 63 pt. 2

The practice of the Canon Communities of St. Benedict is for canons and novices to take on the title of sister or brother when they take their vows.  This practice brings the reality of the community very close to home, as our Father Benedict indicates in this passage.  We take on a particular identity in our relationships with each other when we enter into religious life, and it is appropriate for our names to reflect it.

This passage also has much to offer us as we live out our Benedictine lives in a parish setting.  The way in which we think about, talk about/to, and treat the elders and the juniors in our parish is an important matter.  I have been guilty harboring ungracious thoughts about some in the older generation at our church, and I hear from this passage that it is mine to lay aside my own sense of entitlement and/or rightness in the face of the inevitable conflicts of interest that will arise in a multi-generational community.  We are to practice deference and gracious concern for the best interest of every person in our parishes, old and young, rich and poor, grumpy and cheerful.

Br. Chad

December 18

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 63 pt. 1

While the structures within which we live seem at times indestructible, they will all pass away: nation/states, ecclesiological institutions, the villages we inhabit, the work of our hands, our very families.  Nothing on earth lasts forever.  But we are called to live in light of life's eternal purpose, unencumbered by wealth, power, or prestige, free to love, welcome, and partake in the Realm of God.

Our Father Benedict's system of community ranking is intended to prepare us for life in God's household by setting up a structure that tears down all other structures. One is unable to keep hold of the positions inherited or earned outside the community.  There is only the date of entry--the time at which one's intention to be conformed to the likeness of Christ was formally taken up.  And the new structure is not indestructible either.  It will also pass away, like countless raided and burned monasteries throughout history.  But as Benedictines, we learn to live without undue attachment to the particulars of our earthly existence.  We learn to live in light of the Eternal Oneness of Being, which alone will never pass away.

Br. Chad

December 17

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 62

This chapter underscores the story of my dual vocation as a vowed religious and (future, by the will of God and the consent of the bishop,) priest, and it provides a great deal of insight into the dynamics I encounter as I make my way forward.  Our Father Benedict is very clear that the religious identity is to occupy the primary place in the life of a Benedictine priest.  He writes,

But let the one who is to be ordained beware of self-exultation or pride; and let him not presume to do anything except what is commanded him by the Abbot . . . Nor should he by reason of his priesthood forget the obedience and the discipline of the Rule, but make ever more and more progress towards God.

I have taken vows of stability and conversion to a monastic way of living, a component part of which is becoming, as Sr. Joan reflects, "a community person whose sanctification hinges on being open to being shaped by the word of God in the human community around us."  It is incumbent upon me, therefore, to satisfy the requirements of my bishop for ordination in such a way that does not compromise my spiritual formation as a member of my Benedictine community or my role in the formation of my brothers and sisters.  For some this path might seem constraining, but for those of us who are so called, it is a gentle road on which our willingness to be limited and vulnerable is met with grace upon grace upon grace.

Br. Chad

December 16

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 61 pt. 2

The spirit of hospitality in this chapter is not separate from the spirit of discernment.  The welcome is of the visiting monastic as she is, and the ear of the community is tuned to hear what God has to say through the presence of the visitor.  Our Father Benedict makes it clear, however, that the community is likewise responsible to perceive clearly whether that presence is helpful or harmful and to act accordingly.

Among the most powerfully transformative experiences I've had in recent years are those in which I have consciously participated in discerning who is safe and who is not when it comes to intimacy and shared life.  I have been made aware of ways in which I have not been safe for others and ways in which others have not been safe for me and for my family.  Such discernment processes are not comfortable or pleasant, and they often involve tension around idealized versions of the values of hospitality and welcome.  Yet, if such discernment does not take place, an individual, a family, and/or a community is placed at the mercy of those who are unrepentant of their dysfunctions, and, as our Father Benedict indicates, the corruption of others is not far behind.

True hospitality is not blind to the brokenness that accompanies each human being.  It does not deny the dangers that accompany the person who refuses to be mended.  True hospitality is not accompanied by a need to call evil good.

Br. Chad

December 15

The Third Sunday of Advent
Gaudete Sunday and the oblation of Michelle Kate Allen

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 61 pt. 1

Today's passage from the Rule correlates well with today's celebration of Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday.  A Benedictine community is instructed here to open itself to receive with rejoicing whatever God has to give through the presence of the visiting monastic. This is a posture of the heart that Caryll Houselander identifies as the "virginal quality" embodied by St. Mary.  Listen to her words from The Reed of God.

"That virginal quality, which, for want of a better word, I call emptiness is the beginning of contemplation. 

It is not a formless emptiness, a void without meaning; on the contrary it has a shape, a form given to it by the purpose for which it was intended. 

It is emptiness like the hollow in a reed, the narrow riftless emptiness which can only have one destiny: to receive the piper's breath and to utter the song that is in his heart. 

It is emptiness like the hollow in the cup, shaped to receive water or wine.
It is an emptiness like that of a bird's nest, built in a warm, round ring to receive the little bird. 

The pre-Advent emptiness of our Lady's purposeful virginity was indeed like those three things. 

She was a reed through which the Eternal Love was to be piped as a shepherd's song. 

She was a flowerlike chalice into which the purest water of humanity was to be poured, mingled with wine, changed to the crimson blood of love and lifted up in sacrifice. 

She was the warm nest rounded to the shape of humanity to receive the Divine Little Bird."

 We are each to seek this virginal quality within ourselves.  We are each "to receive the piper's breath and utter the song that is in his heart."  We are each to free ourselves from our attachments to the particulars of our circumstantial landscape so that we can welcome the Divine Word that seeks a channel into the world.  Kate's Act of Oblation today shows that she embodies this quality in her life.  Let us listen together for the piper's song blowing through the reed of our growing community.

Br. Chad

December 14

Feast of St. John of the Cross, Mystic

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 60

St. Benedict's question from the Gospel of Matthew, "Friend, for what have you come?" is a question we each must consider regularly as we orient ourselves along the path we are called to follow.  Whether one's vocation is religious, priestly, diaconal, lay, or some combination thereof, the soul's answer to this question looks no different than the answers of those to whom our Father Benedict posed the question in the sixth century.

A Benedictine's answer to this central question is found back in the Prologue to the Rule.  We come to be formed in the likeness of Christ--as souls in which God is fully at home--by means, as Sr. Joan writes, of "a way of life immersed in the Scriptures, devoted to the common life, and dedicated to the development of human community . . . simple, regular, and total, a way of living . . ."

When we have walked a long while on a certain path, it is to be expected that challenges will arise when we are called to change course and follow a different way.  We must each encounter our own dark night of the soul as our attachments to old ways of being are removed and we become acclimated to life in union with God.  Our ability to persist in the face of these challenges depends on the clarity of our our intention, on our firm answer to our Father Benedict's question, "Friend, for what have you come?"

Br. Chad

December 13

Feast of Santa Lucia, martyr at Syracuse

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 59

Of the many issues at play in this chapter, I am drawn to that which our Father Benedict says has been "learned by experience" about the erosion of zeal over time.  Sr. Joan reflects,

The fact is that when the full realization of what we have promised begins to dawn on us, it is often more common to come to dubious terms with the demise of the commitment than it is to quit it.

The solution, as presented in this chapter, is what she calls "the spirituality of the long haul." She continues,

We must learn to complete in faith what we began in enthusiasm; we must learn to be true to ourselves; we must continue to become what we said we would be, even when accommodation to the immediate seems to be so much more sensible, so much more reasonable, so much easier.  

One practical example of this tendency can be seen in my own life over the year and a half since my profession.  I've found that the amount of effort it takes to overcome the inertia that keeps me in the mold of "secular" life is more than I had anticipated.  It's a matter of habit, yes, but it's also a losing sight of what I said I would be when I professed my vows.  The social reality, "mother culture," as it were, has proved stronger at times than my will to live out of my new identity.

I imagine that the experience was much the same for the families described in Chapter 59.  The inertia towards passing down wealth and privilege to one's children is difficult to overcome, especially as the months and years wear on and the enthusiasm surrounding the oblation wears off. 

Intentions must be renewed regularly in every community that seeks to radically re-orient the cultural dispositions of human life.

Br. Chad

December 12

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 58 pt. 2

The ceremony here is much like the ceremony of a marriage in which one's identity shifts before God and the community--what used to be many is now one.  Ceremonies surrounding sacramental mysteries are full of rich imagery and ritual that are meant to convey outwardly, in a physical way, that an unseen reality, an "inward grace," is at play. In a wedding, the inward grace is the mystical union of two souls in Christ.  In a profession rite, the inward grace is one soul's mystical union with the community in Christ.  And as anyone who has taken vows knows, such unseen realities require persistent effort and intention if they are to manifest in the relational dynamics we inhabit.

Those who have been present at St. Augustine's when The Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation has undergone our Rites of Profession have witnessed us taking the vows from this passage in the Rule.  We profess the vows of stability, conversion (reformation of life), and obedience as Benedictine canons.  Along with our oblates and friends we comprise The Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation and together seek to manifest through our faithful prayers and practice a relational dynamic that reflects the inward grace we enacted in ceremony.  I ask your prayers for our community and for those in various stages of approach, whether we are knocking on the proverbial door or staying in the guest quarters.  May the Spirit of Christ and of his blessed Mother be ever more palpable in our midst like the Castilian roses in the mantle of little Juan Diego.

Br. Chad

December 11

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 58 pt. 1

As foreign as this passage sounds to modern ears, I find great comfort in its description of the long, slow, deliberate process by which one comes into the community. It's the polar opposite of a tent meeting revival in which life-changing decisions are supposed to be made once and for all in an instant of skillfully generated religious sentiment.  Such revival-inspired spirituality is psychologically naïve and creates problems of identity and belonging such as those I experienced during my childhood alongside my earnest evangelical peers.  "Did I really mean it when I went forward to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior?"  "I don't feel saved, maybe I didn't mean it."  "If I were really saved, I wouldn't be struggling with these sinful thoughts; I better go forward and pray 'the prayer' again."  These quotes are not exaggerated or a caricature of a stereotype.  They are a window into the mindset of a religious culture predicated upon the offer of a wholesale change of life in one fateful moment of earnest believing.

Our Father Benedict holds no such illusions about the psychological realities we face as human beings. Real transformation occurs over the course of a lifetime, and even the decision to be formed cannot be entered into on impulse.  We must know exactly what we are getting ourselves into before we are allowed to promise our always and forever.

Br. Chad

December 10

Commemoration of Thomas Merton, contemplative and writer

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 57

My son, Ira, believes that everything is art.  When pressed for clarification by his older brother or by his parents he simply asserts that everything, in its own way, is art.  He is quite insistent.  He has not arrived at this belief by careful reasoning and study of philosophical aesthetics, but by means of the way the world comes to him and moves through him.  Ira is an artist.  He attends to a set of phenomena in everyday life that escapes the notice of most people.  This capacity to perceive is not something he learned as much as it is something he bears into the world.  Sometimes it is a burden for him, but most of the time it is a gift for all of us.

The fact that our Father Benedict makes room in the community for Ira is a source of great joy for me.  It can be challenging to share life with an artist, especially with regard to creating structure and order according to an imposed standard, or rule.  Yet, as my dear friend, the principal of a secondary school for the arts, has taught me, providing a clear and livable structure wherein daily life and art are carefully integrated is salvation for artists and their art.

As is evidenced by the life and work of a visionary like Thomas Merton, Benedictine spirituality does not squelch creativity and stamp out the inner light that burns in an artist's soul.  It tends the fire by building a furnace and carrying the wood and channeling the life-giving heat as a gift for the world.

Br. Chad

December 9

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 56

This little chapter shows the importance of caring for the needs of the guest, the outsider, the one who does not belong.  The Superior holds the place of Christ, and Benedict would have her behavior mirror Jesus' in this act of eating with those outside the community.  We see here the (super)natural flow of spiritual formation from a disposition inward, cultivating knowledge and love of God, to a disposition outward, practicing love of neighbor.

Sr. Joan offers,

It was the abbot and prioress themselves who showed the community the price and the process of availability and hospitality and presence to the other.  Hospitality was not a warm meal and a safe haven. Hospitality in the Benedictine community was attention and presence to the needs of the other. . . . And, as the presence of the abbot and prioress proves, none of us can afford to be too busy or too important to do the same.

Br. Chad

December 8

The Second Sunday of Advent

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 55 pt. 2

I have had the privilege of walking alongside parents of a child with reactive attachment disorder, and this passage reminds me of many issues they face.  Attachment disorder occurs when a person does not form the normal attachments to a parent or primary caregiver during early childhood.  The result is a human being who believes, on a primal level, that she must fend for herself in a hostile world that does not meet her needs.  Children with this disorder can be, in turn, violent, charming, hoarding, indiscriminately affectionate, sneaky, and self-harming among other things.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that the Rule of our Holy Father Benedict is a kind of therapy for a soul that has lost its attachment to God, that conceives of the universe as hostile to her best interests.  Benedict's instructions here can seem harsh until one realizes the nature of the illness to be cured.  The sort of love that is willing to bear the bruises of a screaming, striking child in a calm, firm, four-limbed embrace while repeating the words, "You are safe; I will not let anyone harm you; I love you," is the kind of love displayed here by our Father Benedict.

Awakening to those things we keep hidden in our bed and facing, forgiving, and healing the child within who does not trust God is among the most difficult and beautiful work a human being can do.  And it is work we do from the midst of firm, unyielding love.

Br. Chad

December 7

Feast of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 55 pt. 1

The middle school my oldest son attends has returned to the practice of requiring a uniform to be worn on campus.  It is claimed that such a practice eliminates one way that middle and high schoolers regularly go about distinguishing themselves from one another in order to gain attention, display wealth, or identify themselves with a group.  While clearly there are other ways to gain distinction and do these sorts of things, the requirement to wear a specific uniform can often be a relief to students.  One major weight seems to be lifted from the minds and hearts of pre-teens and teenagers during a critical developmental period in their lives.  Everyone, at least when it comes to clothes, is in the same boat at school.

Benedict's instructions on dress seem to be a part of his overall approach to life in common.  It boils down to the point at which we each release our claim on Creation as one who must obtain, possess, and secure resources and distinction.  I hear Jesus' words in Matthew 6 echoed here: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear."  This is a central counter-cultural component of the process of inner transformation that our Father Benedict seeks to further among us.

Br. Chad

December 6

Feast of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 54

How appropriate that this chapter concerning the giving and receiving of gifts falls on the feast of St. Nicholas!  On this ancient feast from which are derived many of our Christmas traditions such as stockings and the giving of gifts to children, let us attend to that within us which needs to possess and which needs to control what comes to us.

In the words of Isaiah we hear during Advent, these needs are the mountains we make low to prepare the way of the Coming One.

And let us also attend to that within us which feels unworthy to receive from the generous hand of God.  

These feelings are valleys we lift up.

When God's path into or lives is level, we are able to receive God and bear God into the world, joyfully offering what has been entrusted to us for the benefit of all.

Br. Chad

December 5

Feast of St. Clement of Alexandria

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 53 pt. 2

Benedictine monasteries functioned as a hospice system within early Medieval Europe, with a constant flow of guests from all walks of life, and the instructions here about a separate kitchen and quarters for guests enabled the monastery to still be a monastery despite the traffic.  Part of the way the monastic atmosphere was to be preserved was for the instructions at the end of Chapter 53 to be followed regarding the interactions of monks with guests.  Monks are to be humble and kind to guests, but not necessarily nice.

Niceness, a perceived affect according to social norms, is a poor substitute for kindness, which is a genuine concern for the well-being of the other.  It is easy for some of us to confuse smiles and pleasant tones of voice with the things that make for true kindness and hospitality.  If we continue in this confusion for long enough, we become unable to distinguish between kindness and unkindness, hospitality and inhospitality.

My experience growing up as a person who was generally considered to be nice is that niceness is entirely oriented outwardly.  It is something one measures by what bounces back from the exterior of other people.  My developing ego was very successful at getting what it needed from this external exchange, and I have come to realize that being nice usually serves to keep me self-absorbed--caught up in my own self-interest.  People who are regarded as reserved or distant, on the other hand, may exhibit self-absorption differently, but this disposition can be just as self-interested as the other.

It is possible for one person to be outgoing and nice without being self-absorbed, and it's possible for another person to be quiet and reserved without being self-absorbed.  What matters is our ability to perceive clearly our own motives and to develop a sense of ourselves that is derived from our inner and true identity, our life hidden with Christ in God.  When we act from that place, we are able to be truly kind. 

Br. Chad