February 13

Ash Wednesday

Chapter 11

The Rule of St. Benedict February 13

There is no fasting on Sundays, even during Lent.  Sunday is always the greatest and highest of feasts.  Sr. Joan describes it as "the weekly celebration of creation and resurrection, . . . always a reminder of new life, always special, always meant to take us back to the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the Center of life."

Our Father Benedict seeks to emblazon this centerpiece of the Christian life with a special liturgy intended to enact what Sr. Joan describes.  A Benedictine finds peace and joy in returning each week to the rhythm and tradition of the ages, to the pomp and solemnity that fixes her identity among the heavenly hosts, in the Great Hall of the Eternal Now.

There is no denial here that God is to be sought in the mundane details of everyday life, as the Lenten Season calls poignantly to mind.  An ordered religious life moves from hour to hour in pursuit of divine imminence.  Yet the transcendent also beckons the soul from time to time to shake off the holy dust of the earth, the crumbled ash on our brows, and take flight.

Br. Chad 2013