January 31

Chapter 7 pt. 7

The Rule of St. Benedict January 31

This third step, or rung, of humility seems especially hard to climb for us Westerners.  Individualism reigns supreme around here.  If not in the outer realm of Ayn Rand-inspired political positions, it reigns inwardly through our enthroned egos, our unfeigned devotion to "our own truth". Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB writes,

Benedict argues that the third rung on the ladder of humility is the ability to submit ourselves to the wisdom of another. We are not the last word, the final answer, the clearest insight into anything. We have one word among many to contribute to the mosaic of life, one answer of many answers, one insight out of multiple perspectives. Humility lies in learning to listen to the words, directions and insights of the one who is a voice of Christ for me now.

Our Father Benedict's intention is for each human being to discover and live according to his true Self, created as a unique expression of God's own life.  But, ironically, if the only voice we heed is our own, we find ourselves unable to embark on the inner journey, unable to climb the mystical ladder that will, through perseverance, lead us there.

Br. Chad 2013

January 30

Chapter 7 pt. 6

The Rule of St. Benedict January 30

We have no greater example of a person who loves not her own will, nor takes pleasure in satisfying her own desires, than that of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  She is completely free of all that compels her to self-interest.  She is free to love the will of another.  Caryll Houselander, in her small book, The Reed of God, describes the experience of loving, like St. Mary, not our own will, but the will of Christ within us:

If Christ is growing in us, if we are at peace, recollected, because we know that however insignificant our life seems to be, from it he is forming himself; if we go with eager will, in haste, to wherever our circumstances compel us, because we believe that he desires to be in that place, we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of his love.  And the answer we shall get from others to the impulses will be an awakening into life, or the leap of joy of the already wakened life within them.

Br. Chad 2013

January 29

Feast of Andrei Rublev, Monk and Iconographer, 1430

Chapter 7 pt. 5

The Rule of St. Benedict January 29

In St. Luke's gospel, Jesus describes the "good soil" in the Parable of the Sower as "the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance."  Goodness in soil is a set of conditions that can come and go and that, without perseverance in maintaining them, are likely to be lost.

As our Father Benedict seeks to orient our hearts towards a pervasive awareness of God's presence in our every moment, he admonishes us to beware of the strong forces within us that would rather operate without the awareness of God.  It is our lusts, our desires that overpower our ability to act reasonably from an honest and good heart, that compromise the conditions of our good soil and prevent us from bearing the fruit we are called to bear into the world.  And if there is anything in the human experience that requires patient endurance and our best effort, it is dealing with the strong forces within us that pull our gaze from the steady gaze of God.  

But God does not leave us alone in this effort.  This passage mentions the role of angels as agents of God's care.  The overwhelming theme of this first step of humility is that we are not alone in our lives, and we ought not pretend that we are.  We move and have our being in realms seen and unseen.

Br. Chad 2013

January 28

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Chapter 7 pt. 4

The Rule of St. Benedict January 28

In this passage we learn that not only our thoughts, but our wills and desires are to be subjected to God.  I am unable to think of a value that is held higher in Western culture than that of self-determination, or freedom of will.  Yet this paragraph sets the Rule in diametrical opposition to such a value.  Our Father Benedict instructs us, in light of scripture, to distrust our own will because what seems right to us may lead us to utter destruction.

It's hard to be more countercultural in our context.  How willing are we, really, to follow St. Benedict on a path that begins with rejecting one of our society's most treasured dictums?

As the Prior of The Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation, my vow of obedience was taken to Holy Scripture, to the Rule, and to Jesus Christ himself as my Shepherd.  Self-will is forbidden to me every bit as much as it is forbidden to those who give their obedience to me as the shepherd of this community of canons.  Accepting this role as one who receives a vow of obedience from others is not what I would choose.  I do not desire that others obey me.  I feel unworthy to hold such trust.  Yet, I stood and witnessed the vows of Br. Rawleigh and Sr. Ronda as acts of obedience, not as acts of my own will.  I have been called to stand up and allow my soul to be the icon through which each member of this community gives up his or her self-will to Christ.  May God be my help.

Br. Chad 2013

January 27

Today begins my third time through the Rule since my profession.  On May 28, 2012, the day after I became a canon, this was the passage concerning which I first posted.  As we begin again, I encourage you to keep in mind that one main value of reading the Rule cyclicly is found in returning to the same passages and hearing them again with ears that have traveled a bit further along the path.  I hope you will continue to listen with me.

Chapter 7 pt. 3

The Rule of St. Benedict January 27

We are called to live in the eternal Now with respect to God because God lives in the eternal Now with respect to us.  The option to turn our attention to God is always available because God, at each moment, inhabits the realm of our inner workings.  Wrongful thoughts are those that make this option difficult to choose, not because God is further away, but because such thoughts overwhelm our perceptions.

St. Benedict reminds me today that I am not the master of anything in my life, not my vocation, not the canon community I shepherd, not even my own thoughts.  In fact, the greatest danger I face as I drape my habit over my head, fasten my belt, and place the cross over my chest is the temptation to pride and vanity that slithers among my semi-conscious thoughts.  If I am to overcome this temptation, I must subject all of myself to the warm, gentle, and piercing light of God, who, my Father Benedict says, is ever present within my mind anyway.  My work is to stop pretending that what I hide from myself and repress deep within is hidden and repressed from God.  God has always seen all of me, and has loved me all along.

Br. Chad 2013

January 26

Feast of Timothy, Titus, and Silas, Companions of St. Paul

Chapter 7 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 26

Our Father Benedict chooses troublesome language to describe the first step of humility.  Words such as "fear" and "hell-fire" seem to fit better in a Flannery O'Connor story than in the Rule.  So what is St. Benedict getting at with such a vocabulary?  I don't want to dismiss or explain away his harsh words, but it's important, I believe, to peer through them to what lies deeper than the literal.  When I do this, I see the essence of the first step of humility to be a shifting of focus from the egocentric to the theocentric.

If we are to be free from our various sins and vices, we must resist them "at every moment."  Such resistance is maintained by keeping the awe of God always "before [our] eyes." And one keeps her eyes on God by returning to prayer again, and again, and again each time the bell rings.  In the realm of my conscious attention, nothing, especially not me and my concerns, is to be given priority over the Opus Dei.

I take the first rung of this ladder in the moment, in the eternal Now, not once and for all.

Br. Chad 2013

January 25

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle

Chapter 7 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 25

Chapter 7 on humility is the longest in the Rule.  Today's selection is a sort of introduction to the chapter wherein our Father Benedict makes a case for humility as the means by which we reach our home with God, or, differently put, the means by which we become a place where God is at home.

I see St. Benedict's path of humility as akin to the kenotic path (self-emptying) described by St. Paul in the hymn from Philippians 2 about Christ Jesus:

who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being born in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross.

To follow the steps along this path, or to "climb" the rungs of this ladder, is the work of a lifetime, and it is to be done in the midst of an intentional and supportive community.  A community that knows the difference between ascent and descent.

Br. Chad 2013

January 24

Chapter 6

The Rule of St. Benedict January 24

The "spirit of silence" that our Father Benedict instructs the disciple to cultivate is of a particular character.  It is not merely the absence of sound, but a presence, a quality of experience.  The spirit of silence is nurtured to further the spiritual formation of individuals and of the community at large.  

The spirit of silence is kind and generous, not stingy, hostile, or resentful.  It is safe.  Safe silence, held in common, is a great gift.  Safe silence need not be comfortable, however.  Silence unlocks our veiled habits of thought and emotion, and sometimes it takes considerable work to feel safe without filling the space.  Yet, with practice, we find that basking in the spirit of silence, which is nothing less than the active Presence of God, is the safest place to be.

Rarely do words ring truer in my life than St. Benedict's quote from Proverbs 10:19: "In much speaking you will not escape sin."

To "hold silence" is to listen for direction from somewhere other than my own thoughts and words.  It is to be fully present and engaged with life without reaching for the steering wheel.

Br. Chad 2013

January 23

Chapter 5 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 23

Obedience creates a framework within which St. Benedict's vision of life can flourish, and the greatest threat to this framework isn't defiant refusal to obey, but murmuring.  The activity of murmuring, or grumbling, establishes a realm of relationship that exists outside the circle of mutual trust, and, from the outside, attacks the common life.  A Benedictine community can handle legitimate complaints and even blatant disobedience within this framework, but not murmuring, which forms the heart of the murmurer into a place of conflict and deceit.

Murmuring occurs whenever feelings of opposition to the community's leadership rise up in our hearts and are given a bed and a seat at the table of our conscious awareness.  Appropriately addressing those feelings directly to the leadership is not murmuring, nor is acknowledging them and showing them to the door.  But when we welcome, feed, and house them in the privacy of our hearts, they keep us from being able to listen to God and respond with joyful action.

Br. Chad 2013

January 22

Chapter 5 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 22

Before we are able to obey, we must be able to perceive that which is being asked of us.  St. John the Baptist says that Jesus comes as one with a winnowing fork in hand to separate the wheat from the chaff.  On a personal level, I have experienced this to mean that Jesus, my Master, comes to separate that which is true from that which is false within me.  

Each morning my Master gathers me onto his threshing floor and separates that which has grown by the will of God in the soil of my deep inner life from that which has grown by my own will, desires and agendas.  I ask him to burn the chaff "with unquenchable fire."  I then ask him to gather the wheat into God's storehouse for God to distribute by way of my life for the nourishment of the world.  

Obedience for me, as a Benedictine, is to act as a vessel for the truth, the wheat, that Jesus reveals to me through the lens of Holy Scripture, the Rule, and the community.  It is to learn the difference within myself between the wheat and the chaff, and to respond, in the pinpoint of the given moment, in accordance with God's will, not mine.

Br. Chad 2013

January 21

Chapter 4 pt. 4

The Rule of St. Benedict January 21

Today's list of tools mostly pertains to interpersonal matters within the community, and it's clear that our Father Benedict does not expect such matters to be a cake walk.  It requires constant vigilance--employing these tools "unceasingly day and night"--to keep the inner states of hate, jealousy, contention, and haughtiness at bay and to cultivate those of respect for seniors, love for juniors, prayer for enemies, and peace with adversaries.

We Benedictines are given the great benefit of having a workshop provided for us in which we are able to apply these tools.  We canons do not have an enclosure, per se, but we have stability in the community that is made manifest in our common practice and unity of intention.  As with any benefit, however, what we get from it is what we give to it.

Let us, with all diligence and resolve, arise from our tasks that lead away from what "God has prepared for those who love him," roll up our sleeves, and get to work where Christ has called us to labor.

Br. Chad 2013

January 20

Chapter 4 pt. 3

The Rule of St. Benedict January 20

In much of the bible, the Judgment of God is a great hope to be invoked by the people of God.  It is invoked, at its worst, as a punishment of enemies or as a means of control.  In its best form, the hope is in a Reality that frees us from the need to be judge, a posture that, when we assume it, reflects back upon us and a condition that profoundly clouds our vision (Matt. 7:1-5).  When God is Judge, I don't need to be.  I can accept what is as it is.

How often do my thoughts and my words seek to manipulate what is?  How often do I avoid the uncomfortable, formative moment?

One poignant image from this passage is in number 50, "When evil thoughts come into one's heart, to dash them against Christ immediately," or, as another translation puts it, "to cast them down at the feet of Christ."  This metaphor plays out often in my experience.  I find myself, daily, falling prey to habits of thought and emotion that are at home in my small, egoic mind instead of in God's large, unitive mind. I become the judge: impatient, overwhelmed, contemptuous, defensive, and, at the core, lonely. When I am given the grace to recognize this in myself, if I turn the attention of my heart to the Master (Christ), I find him to be as close as my breath: patient, at peace, kind, generous, and hospitable. At this point I find on my lips the request, "O God, make speed to save me. O Lord, make haste to help me," and Christ comes to me in the moment as liberator, as savior, as the judicious and longed-for judge.

Br. Chad 2013

January 19

Chapter 4 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 19

In this portion of chapter 4, Benedict casts a vision of a human heart bereft of violence, defensiveness, and self-importance.  This is no easy ideal to fulfill.  It requires courage to lay down my defenses, give up "being right," and entrust my worth to God.  It requires generosity of spirit and vulnerability.  It is the heart of Christ.

The thing is, instilling these qualities into my being is not a matter of trying to do or trying not do all the things on the list, checking them off, one by one, from 22 to 43.  Such an approach would only serve to enshrine my false self that operates along the lines of success and failure, good and bad, in and out.

This vision must be viewed with the eyes of my true self, with my inner sight.  In other words, it must be seen through the clear, quiet lens of regular, daily prayer.  It is through prayer that I am able to attend to the contours of my emotions and desires.  Through prayer I can witness anger lying in wait; I can observe the deceit that I have entertained; I am able to identify the falseness of peace that I have given.  Through prayer I open myself to grace and welcome the qualities of hope in God, truth speaking, and love of enemies.

Chapter 4 is about awareness and attention to those things that comprise our response to the world around us.  Like a master gardener, our Father Benedict knows what to remove and what to nurture as we grow into the fullness of Christ.

Br. Chad 2013

January 18

Feast of the Confession of St. Peter the Apostle

Chapter 4 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 18

Numbers 10-13 in this chapter about the tools for good works:

To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.  

To chastise the body.  

Not to become attached to pleasures.  

To love fasting.

provide a fascinating perspective from which to view number 9:

And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.

Our culture generally conceives of the golden rule with regard to simple pleasure or pain: "I don't want to feel pain, so I won't cause it in others," but our Father Benedict prescribes a treatment of oneself that is difficult and unpleasant in the service of transformation.

So perhaps I should ask myself the question, "which me does not want to be treated in such and such a way," when considering my actions towards others.  Is it the me that wants to be transformed and is willing to suffer difficulty and unpleasantness in order to change?  Or is it the me that simply wants to feel pleasure and not pain?

Jesus practiced the deeper golden rule when he did not hesitate to rebuke Peter in the moments after his confession of Jesus as the Christ.  Peter had let pride arise in the moments after Jesus had praised him for speaking God's words, and when he spoke again, this time to contradict the call of God upon the Christ, Jesus calls the place from which Peter spoke "Satan".  The golden rule can seem harsh at times in the service of transformation, but it is always good.

Br. Chad 2013

January 17

Feast of St. Antony, Abbot in Egypt

Chapter 3 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 17

Part of what it means for us to bear the title "Benedictine" is for us to accept the Rule of St. Benedict as a rule, or a standard, by which to measure our lives.  This does not imply that we subject ourselves to a simplistic, one-to-one application of the Rule, but rather that we each submit ourselves to the authority of the Rule instead of to our "own heart's fancy" in matters pertaining to our spiritual formation.

Such submission takes place in the realm of practice.  There is no Benedictine spirituality without the Daily Office in some form or another.  Prayer, balanced with work and study, in the course of a daily schedule, creates the conditions that form us into people who are at home where God is at home.

Br. Chad 2013

January 16

Chapter 3 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 16

Directly on the heels of a chapter in which his religious superior is entrusted with the sacred responsibility of spiritual formation for the entire community, our Father Benedict instructs that no important matter is to be resolved without summoning the community to counsel "because it often happens that the Lord makes the best course clear to one of the youngest" (tr. Patrick Barry OSB).  It seems to me that we have here an instance of St. Benedict's profound wisdom as a master of the Way.  Yes, some are called to assume responsibility for the spiritual well-being of others, but God is no respecter of persons and will not be confined to the minds and lips of the powerful.  The culture of a Benedictine community has built into it the capacity to listen to the Lord through the voice of every last member.

Any healthy community is in need of participation from the range of voices present at the table.  Let us continue, for our part, to endeavor to add our voice with "all deference required by humility" and not "presume stubbornly to defend [our] opinions."

Br. Chad 2013

January 15

Chapter 2 pt. 7

The Rule of St. Benedict January 15

This concluding passage in the chapter on the qualities of the religious superior brings into clear focus the priority of values that Benedictine leadership is to hold.  Never are the material needs to outweigh the cuna animarum, the cure, or care, of souls in the hands of the superior.  Our Father Benedict wants there to be no mistaking that a Benedictine community is to be an environment wherein nothing supplants spiritual formation as the primary undertaking.

This priority of values is to exist especially within the leader herself, who St. Benedict reminds to take care of her own soul as she assumes the role of caring for others.  For an insight into some of the context behind this chapter, I turn to my friend, Ruth Lindsay, who commented on this blog in 2011.  She writes,

A role imposes order, discipline, and expectations upon us in order to transform us into something better.  This is the classical/medieval concept of prudence, which basically referred to the process of intellection that helps us discern proper actions in light of our circumstances.  Prudent behavior has the potential not only to change us as individuals, but the world we occupy.  Through prudence we are empowered to bring about accord between heaven and earth.

It is the virtue of prudence, the queen of all virtues, as St. Thomas Aquinas calls her, that our Father Benedict seeks to instill in each Benedictine, from the greatest to the least in the community.  Each member of the community, especially the leader, is tasked with the responsibility to act under the direction of prudence in all things.  When prudence is seated on her throne, all our actions are themselves transformed into virtues.  Heaven is brought to earth.

Br. Chad 2013

January 14

Chapter 2 pt. 6

The Rule of St. Benedict January 14

When the superior accepts the charge to lead, he is allowed his weaknesses.  No leader is perfect, nor should he need to be.  If there is any possibility of the the religious superior serving the members of the community without the fear and defensiveness of his ego running the show, he must remember who he truly is, weaknesses and all, and place his trust in the One by whose grace he is called and empowered to serve.

For this reason, the remainder of this passage seems to advocate a way of being that is repulsive to my sensibilities.  My path to God involves the removal of my masks and defenses, not using them to "rule" others.  But if I turn the focus from myself, the picture our Father Benedict is painting becomes clearer.

We have here not the putting on of airs to enforce the leader's will, but the transcendence of the ego on the part of the superior.  When a leader operates from her true self--vulnerable, weak, and saturated with Divine favor--she is freed from the egoic need for what appears "authentic," and is able to perceive the deep and true needs of the other.  The varied postures the superior assumes when leading from this place of union with God are, then, not a means of earthly power, but manifestations of Divine grace in response to the deep, true needs of each sister and brother.

Br. Chad 2013

January 13

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Chapter 2 pt. 5

The Rule of St. Benedict January 13

This passage assumes that all types of personalities are in need of transformation.  It's not just the lazy or the arrogant who need wise leadership and careful correction, it's also the compliant and the quiet.  But the very presence of all such persons in the vowed community shows us that transformation is available to everyone who places herself on the path.

In order for the superior to effectively "vary with circumstances" the means of spiritual formation, as Sr. Joan's translation puts it, there needs to be a clear vision of that into which we are being formed, however.  Our Father Benedict lays out in the Prologue his vision of spiritual formation as a process by which the soul is made fit to dwell with God where God is at home.  This is what St. Paul speaks of as "be[ing] conformed to the image of [Christ]" (Romans 8:29), who is fully at home in God's tent (Psalm 15).  This is a universal vision for the Church that we celebrate this day as we remember the Baptism of our Lord into which every Christian is baptized.  Like Jesus, we are welcomed into the household of God as beloved children and commissioned to realize our soul's divine calling, our true vocation.  Our vocations are manifestations of the likeness of Christ filtered through the particularities of our being.  Our unique vocations flow out of and participate in our ongoing process of transformation.

It is this process in the lives of the sisters and brothers for which St. Benedict lays responsibility on the shoulders of the superior.

Br. Chad 2013

January 12

Feast of Aelred of Rievaulx

Chapter 2 pt. 4

The religious superior must guard against all criteria that serve to set some people over others in society at large, such as money, degrees, appearance, or politics.  But he must also guard against criteria that do the same in church, such as those visible acts of devotion and piety that Jesus mentions in Matthew 6.

The only acceptable criteria within Benedictine community by which the superior evaluates the vowed members are those of obedience, good works, and humility.  Obedience is to the word of Christ heard in prayer and from the superior; good works are the fruit of that obedience; and humility is the attitude that enables the ear to listen and hear.

Our Father Benedict's vision of the cenobitic religious life regarding family and social status is a profound departure from the norm of his or any age.  To truly drop one's inherited history at the door and be subjected to evaluation on the basis of one's spiritual identity alone is a step most human beings will never take.  It is, literally, a radical decision, but one that opens the religious to a beautiful world of true spiritual friendship as described by the 12th century Abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx in Yorkshire, Aelred.

I am brought to wonder what the implications of this passage in the Rule are for us canons as we live into our own religious identities.  What does the title "Brother" or "Sister" mean if not that our membership within a family group has fundamentally changed?  Do we realize how radical we are?

Br. Chad 2013

January 11

Chapter 2 pt. 3

The Rule of St. Benedict January 11

The life of the religious superior is to be an example for the community of a good life lived in obedience to Christ.  Any instructions she gives must flow from her manner of life, which itself flows from the teaching of the Lord.  This is the "twofold teaching" our Father Benedict lays out: words matched by deeds.

This all sounds well and good until we actually take our place beside Jesus in the yoke and begin the hard work.  The call from the seaside to "follow me" can appear idyllic until we feel the weight of our own cross on our back.  We don't know how to imitate a Jesus who not only taught peaceableness toward the enemy, but chose to act with compassion when he was attacked.

Sr. Joan writes, "To hold people under us to a law that we ourselves have no intention of respecting is to make a mockery of what we ask."  This is true, yet the mockery many of us leaders make of our instructions is not a result of our duplicitous intentions.  When I am unable to look someone who has wounded me in the eye and genuinely wish for them the peace of Christ, it is because I myself am unpracticed in Christ-like peace.  When I react impatiently or with anger to my child, it is not a result of my intention, but of the fact that I have not cultivated the capacity to act with patience in the moment.

Benedictine leadership is to derive from the depths of the leader's inner life.  There can be no dark corners that are not subjected to the light of Christ.  There can be no stone that remains unturned.

Br. Chad 2013

January 10

Chapter 2 pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 10

"The purpose of Benedictine spirituality is to gather equally committed adults for a journey through earthen darkness to the dazzling light that already flames in each of us, but in a hidden place left to each of us to find."

This sentence from Sr. Joan's commentary on today's reading in Chapter 2 shapes my approach to leadership in our community.  As the religious superior, the prior, as we call the role, I am responsible before God to accompany each member on the journey to his hidden flame and, once found, to help protect and fan the flame.

At the same time, our Father Benedict knows well that there is only so much that anyone can do to assist another on the inner journey.  No one is relieved of the responsibility to do her own work, to face her own "earthen darkness" in her search for the "dazzling light."  But, as Benedictines, we are never expected to face such things alone.

Br. Chad 2013

January 9

Chapter 2 pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 9

The religious Superior is never to be her 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).  Her first task must be to listen for the will that finds its origin in God and not in herself.  This is the only way that her words can be a leaven of divine justice, or a vehicle by which the values and culture of God's household spreads throughout the community.

In this concluding metaphor, divine justice must be kneaded into the minds of the disciples.  I can see a baker, sleeves rolled up, covered in flour, working yeast into batch of dough.  Such kneading, it would appear, requires persistent and close contact between the superior and the members of the community.  It also requires a kitchen, a life structure in which the ingredients are accessible and the process has room to occur.

Br. Chad 2013

January 8

Chapter 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 8

Our Father Benedict's harsh condemnation of sarabaites and gyrovagues stems from his strong beliefs about spiritual formation.  We are formed in community, St. Benedict insists, and not just any community, but a community gathered around the instructions of the Lord put into practice under a rule and a superior.

It is a challenge to live according to the Rule of St. Benedict outside a monastery.  The momentum of life in our society propels us along a path very similar to that of the Sarabaites, who, "In their works they still keep faith with the world," and whose "law is the desire for self-gratification: whatever enters their mind or appeals to them, that they call holy; what they dislike, they regard as unlawful."

I hear from this chapter a clear call for us, as members of the Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation, to prayerfully inquire within ourselves which vices of the sarabaites and/or gyrovagues we tend toward in our fledgling practice as non-cloistered Benedictines.  And in response to that inquiry, let us each seek to discern what about them is harmful to us and expel those vices from our hearts.

Br. Chad 2013

January 7

Prologue pt. 7

The Rule of St. Benedict January 7

In these final words of the Prologue to his Rule, our Father Benedict declares that his intention is to establish a school for God's service.  In Benedict's school we learn how to obey the commands of the Lord so that our souls might be a place that God calls home.  As a non-cloistered Benedictine order, our school looks less like dorm life at a residential seminary and more like the degree I am now pursuing from a distance.  The goal, the end, is the same, but the means that get from here to there must be re-imagined and creatively engaged.  In many ways, it takes greater discipline and more effort to stay the course and embody the identity of a student when one's residential circumstances remain physically unchanged.

My desire for the Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation is that "as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts [will] expand and we [will] run the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love."

Let us not, therefore, shy away from what seems difficult.  There are no illusions about this path in St. Benedict's Rule.  The entrance to the way of salvation cannot but be narrow, but with the help of God's grace and the movement of God's Spirit among us who have heard the call of our Lord to follow in this way, let us pursue our studies in this school for God's service with discipline and faith.

Br. Chad 2013

January 6

The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Prologue pt. 6

The Rule of St. Benedict January 6

In a sentence, our Father Benedict states the purpose of Benedictine community: to "prepare our hearts and our bodies to serve [God] under the guidance of holy obedience" (translation by Patrick Berry OSB).  Therefore, "Conscious in this undertaking of our own weakness let us ask the Lord to give us through his grace the help we need."

What is the Feast of the Epiphany but a celebration of God's grace in bestowing upon us who are far off and in darkness a glimpse of the Christ Light come into the world?  It is our very weakness, the depth of our darkness, that makes such a glimpsing so brilliant.

We respond to the Light by our deeds, and Christ patiently waits for us to do so.  Each day is new, and the kind expectation of the Lord does not grow weary even when, through our long habit, we feel sure that God's patience is spent and that the Light no longer burns for us.

Sr. Joan shares a counterintuitive story:

"God," the elder said, "is closer to sinners than to saints."  "But how can that be?" the eager disciple asked.

And the elder explained: "God in heaven holds each person by a string.  When we sin, we cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot--bringing the sinner a little closer. Again and again sin cuts the string--and with each knot God keeps drawing the sinner closer and closer."

Even our weaknesses take us to God if we let them. 

Br. Chad 2013

January 5

Prologue pt. 5

The Rule of St. Benedict January 5

Our Father Benedict begins this passage by connecting the actions of the wise builder on the rock of Jesus' instructions to those who attribute all good in themselves to God (from yesterday's reading).  It is to the rock, not to our actions, that St. Benedict desires to fix our attention.  And it is our clear perception of God as the wise, patient source of all goodness that frees us to become who we are called to be: a people who respond to Jesus' instructions by acting upon them.

God's part is always to show the way and to provide ongoing grace for our journey.  Our part is always to listen, change our inner orientation (metanoia-repent, convert), and obey.

Br. Chad 2013

January 4

Prologue pt. 4

The Rule of St. Benedict January 4

Our Father Benedict continues here to demonstrate from Holy Scripture the conditions in which God is at home, both in the human soul and in a community.  But, he instructs, it is vitally important that neither the soul nor the community develop pride as a result of its purity.  Yes, we must cast temptations from the sight of our hearts and dash them against Christ before they take hold in our soul and/or community, but it is imperative that we simultaneously cultivate the humility that attributes no glory to ourselves, but to the Name of God alone.

Heartfelt good intentions are not enough, if we hope to dwell within God's tent.  Without faith, relational trust in the presence and work of God, our efforts become the tools of our pride.  Our "goodness" becomes the property of our self-interest.  Yet, truly good works flow from a life surrendered to the order of God's household.

Our Father Benedict seeks to establish such an order in our daily lives.  By it, through the grace of God, we are slowly formed into people who dwell in God's tent, who are fully at home where God is at home.

Br. Chad 2013

January 3

Prologue pt. 3

The Rule of St. Benedict January 3

To God's call for workers who desire true life that lasts forever I have answered, with my vows, that I am such a worker.

This true life is the Resurrection here and now in my life.  But if I am to walk on the path of life, I must experience the death of my old ways of being and know the power of God who raises to new life.  I must give myself over to Christ's own difficult, painful, life-giving cycle.

There is, indeed, nothing sweeter than the compassionate voice of our Lord calling us, hand outstretched, inviting us to place our feet on his path of life by way of death.

I will have life.  I desire to see good days.  I will keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile.  I will turn away from evil and do good.  I will seek after peace and pursue it.

Your eyes are upon me.  Your ears are open to my prayer.  Thank you for whispering your "Behold, here I am," within me before I could so much as open myself to call upon you.

Br. Chad 2013

January 2

Prologue pt. 2

The Rule of St. Benedict January 2

Our Father Benedict seeks here to inspire a disposition of urgent attention in the hearts of his disciples.  This urgency is set against our own lethargy and tendency to harden our hearts to the light and voice of God.  It is set against procrastination and ambivalence--the thought that we can get by without giving our all.

St. Benedict strikes this tone at the outset of the Rule because one's disposition at the beginning of a journey sets one's course.  As we begin again, let us do so with earnest, eager, urgent attention to what the Spirit is saying in the actual circumstances of our real lives.

Br. Chad 2013

January 1

The Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Circumcision of Christ

Prologue pt. 1

The Rule of St. Benedict January 1

Listen carefully, my child,

to your master’s precepts,

and incline the ear of your heart.

Receive willingly and carry out effectively

your loving father's advice,


that by the labor of obedience


you may return to God
 

from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.

Thus begins the Rule of St. Benedict, one of the most influential documents in the history of Western Civilization.  These words have been read aloud in countless languages, in empires long passed and in nations young and old, among humble wood and towering stone, for fifteen centuries.

To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,


whoever you may be,


who are renouncing your own will


to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,


and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.

Imagine yourself, somewhere along that winding trail of history, hearing as one that has come from the fields as a peasant, or as a noble from the manor on a hill, to the gate of a Benedictine monastery.  You’ve been given food and lodging in the guest quarters, and you’ve been received among the novices where you have studied, eaten, slept, and been instructed for several weeks.  When the time arrives that you have shown yourself ready, you are brought into a common room, you sit down, and the Rule is read aloud to you by your Novice Master.  There is no doubt that it is “you” to whom St. Benedict’s “words are now addressed.” 

What might you have heard that first time?  What would have captured your imagination or cut you to the quick?  What would have scared you?  What would have offered comfort?

As you sit in that room, you hear that your first priority along the Benedictine way is to develop the capacity to listen with the ear of your heart to the Voice of God in your every given circumstance.  Your second priority is to learn to obey that Voice rather than your own.  

You hear that this capacity is to be developed and obedience is to be learned through receiving the loving advice of your Holy Father Benedict.  This advice calls you into an ordered life that holds a gentle balance between prayer, work, and study that will slowly and persistently shape you into a new person, a fully realized being who dwells in the very Presence of God.

Br. Chad 2013