November 30

Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 49

I think most would read our Father Benedict's talk of the "joy of the Holy Spirit" with regard to Lenten abstinence as deluded or darkly humorous.  We have a hard time imagining how "the joy of spiritual desire" can in any way be enhanced by physical denial.  But in the Christian tradition, Lent is not punishment.  It is preparation for New Life in the Easter experience.  For the heart that truly desires this New Life, then, the Lenten practices, painful as they may be in the short term, can produce the profound joy of the Spirit who brings about New Life in us.

Br. Chad

November 29

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 48 pt. 3

Sundays, in this passage, are to be set aside for the cultivation of the inner work that is study, or lectio divina.  I find it fascinating that our own society at large, until very recently, regarded Sundays as a day set aside for "rest"--stores closed, family gathered, home-cooked meals shared, etc.  But a dominant attitude in this recent memory is an entitlement to leisure, or idleness, on Sundays--watching football from the couch, reading the Sunday comics, long naps, etc.  It seems that the days and weeks of most people in our culture are spent between frenetic busyness and complete idleness.  Instead of balancing our time between mindful work, prayer, and study, we are consumed by tasks, one after another, until the sun goes down and we crash in front of some screen.  Sunday, for many, is a whole day set aside for vegetative leisure, in or out of church.

I wonder what it might look like if we were to build into our attitude about Sundays the value of cultivating our inner life rather than the value of leisure.  The key, I suspect, is to order the rest of our days in such a way that preserves internal resources for the work of the soul.

Br. Chad

November 28

Thanksgiving Day (USA)

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 48 pt. 2

Ora et Labora is the ancient Benedictine motto.  "Pray and Work."  Chapter 48 "On the Daily Manual Labor" is one reason why it seems appropriate to add "Study" to the motto's translation.  Our Father Benedict clearly considers reading to be an essential component of the work a Benedictine is to do each day.

We see in this passage the creating of conditions by which ever further spiritual formation can take place throughout the year.  And, as is needed, a support system is provided for those who may resist such ongoing formation.  As Sr. Joan writes, "Study is hard work.  It is so much easier to find something else to do in its place than to stay at the grind of it."  Remaining open to the Spirit's creative energies within us through engagement with the wider world of ideas is a beautiful disposition of the Benedictine heart.

Br. Chad

November 27

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 48 pt. 1

One of my favorite lines in all of Sr. Joan's commentary on the Rule is from today's reading.  She writes, "Benedictine spirituality exacts something so much harder for our century than rigor.  Benedictine spirituality demands balance."

The story of Jesus' visit to Martha's home in Chapter 10 of St. Luke's Gospel is instructive here.  Martha welcomes Jesus and his entourage in, offering them hospitality, but is "distracted by her many tasks" to the extent that she begrudges her sister, Mary, her seat at Jesus' feet.  This passage is often used to extol the virtues of overt religious devotion over and against the vice of being a busybody, but far more than this simplistic dichotomy is at play here.  Jesus' affectionate admonition to Martha contrasts the "many things" about which she is "worried and distracted" with the "only one thing" of which there is need.  To be "worried and distracted" implies that one's attention is absent from one's actual environment.  Presence is the "one thing" that is needed if one is to, like Mary, listen to what the Lord is saying.

Rigor often holds one's attention hostage to a set of expectations around what must be done.  Those who value rigor too highly often direct their efforts toward human-made goals at the expense of presence in each moment.  Yet it is only in each moment that the voice of Christ can be heard.

What Benedictine balance affords us is the opportunity to move from sleep to prayer to study to work in a way that needs only the "one thing".  When it is time to work, we listen to what the Lord is saying through our work.  When it is time to stop working and pray, we leave our work, perhaps undone, and listen to what the Lord is saying through the Office.  It is not magic, nor is it easy, but such is the balanced life that shapes the Benedictine soul.

Br. Chad

November 26

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 47

Sr. Joan Chittister opens her commentary on Chapter 47 by describing Benedictine prayer as "regular and artistic."  I find much resonance with this characterization.

Prayer in the Benedictine tradition is literally regular, in that it conforms to a rule, a regula.  Its starting place is not extemporaneous, but formal.  It begins with a signal and proceeds with a carefully defined series of hymns, Psalms, and readings, and it is put to the religious superior to see to it that this is so in each Benedictine community.

Along with the regulation of prayer, Chapter 47 also tasks the superior with attending to the quality of its aesthetic presentation in the community.  This is the Opus Dei after all, the Work of God, and should be approached with a measure of beauty and excellence.

There are shadow sides to both of these elements that every healthy Benedictine community must acknowledge and address, however.  Regulations and artistry can become idols.  The sneering, upturned nose of the aesthete or the conformist's obsessive anxiety are every bit as damaging to our Father Benedict's intentions as haphazardness and ugliness.  We are to strike a balance in prayer that frees our hearts from the swirling chaos of our environments without shackling them to idols made by human hands.

Br. Chad

November 25

The Rule of St. Benedict: November 25

One delightful aspect of community life is the wealth of stories that accumulate over the years.  One such story I overheard at St. Gregory's Abbey in Michigan had to do with the instructions in this chapter.  It seems that a procedure for "com[ing] immediately before the Abbot and the community" after breaking something took on the form of kneeling with the broken item in hand at the entrance of the place where the community would gather next.  So, if the next community gathering is prayer, one would kneel at the entrance of the chapel, if a meal, one would kneel at the entrance to the refectory, and so on.  One day, many years ago, a brother was cleaning the bathroom before lunch and happened to break the toilet seat.  So, as the community and guests, of which there happened to be a large number that day, came silently into the refectory after the lunch bell, they had to walk past this brother kneeling with a toilet seat.  I was told that the procedure was modified after that.

Chapter 46 calls each member of the community to take responsibility for any fault they contribute to the common life, whether through a small, inconsequential accident or a "sin-sickness of the soul."  Our Father Benedict desires to cultivate a climate of trust and intimacy in the community.  Without trust, the community is poisoned by cycles of deception, suspicion, and accusation.  Without safe intimacy, the individual suffers the soul-killing trajectory of hidden guilt, self-loathing, and hardness of heart.

Br. Chad

November 24

The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 45

In July of 2011 I spent two weeks at St. Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan as a part of their Summer Vocation program.  I saw the instructions from Chapter 45 (aside from the last sentence) play out several times during my time at St. Gregory's.  Almost every member of the community, including the Abbot, at one point or another, made a mistake on a Psalm tone or on a reading and immediately performed a small, quick genuflection toward the Superior or the next-highest ranking member of the community.  This little action seemed to be the beginning and the end of the matter, and I felt it to be refreshing to have such a clear procedure for addressing mistakes rather than a muddled series of apologies and/or reprimands and/or passive-aggressive silence and/or cloying assurances.

As our Father Benedict indicates, the issue for the offender is that of humility, which, in truth, needs not speak a word of excuse or defense.  And the issue for the Superior and community is that of holding the space for that humility to manifest without undue commentary or judgment.

Br. Chad

November 23

Feat of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 44

The oratory and the table are the two pillars of common life in a Benedictine monastery, and when one member violates her responsibilities to the community, she endangers the very life she has vowed to uphold.  Without explaining away the harshness of Benedict's instructions here, I hear in this chapter a call to consider how profoundly our personal spiritual health affects the common life we have vowed to share with others.  As Sr. Joan writes in conclusion to her commentary today,

This chapter forces us to ask, in an age without penances and in a culture totally given to individualism, what relationships we may be betraying by selfishness and what it would take to cure ourselves of the self-centeredness that requires the rest of the world to exist for our own convenience.

Br. Chad

November 22

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 43 pt. 2

Within Sr. Joan Chittister's commentary on this second half of Chapter 43 she writes,

In Benedictine spirituality, . . . the sacramental value of a meal is that the human concern we promise daily at the altar is demonstrated in the dining room where we prepare and serve and clean up after one another.

and further,

The meal becomes the sanctifying center that reminds us, day in and day out, that unless we go on building the community around us, participating in it and bearing its burdens, then the words, "family" and "humanity" become a sham, no matter how good our work at the office, no matter how important our work in the world around us.

Presence at table is an imperative in any household that seeks to walk the path of our Father Benedict.  By "presence" I mean fully awake, conscious engagement with the realities at hand, seen and unseen.  This is true in a household of one or in a household of many.  A Benedictine is to honor the table as a sacramental focal point wherein the invisible is manifest among the visible.

Br. Chad

November 21

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 43 pt. 1

An intention that undergirds each and every one of our Father Benedict's instructions is to further spiritual formation.  The instructions in this passage are no exception. Discipline is applied to the latecomer, not because he really messes up the vibe, but because "nothing . . . [is to] be put before the Work of God."  As a person who is rarely early, I can easily recognize the preferences and choices that result in my being tardy, and, if I'm honest, they are nearly always self-interested in nature.  I find what Sr. Joan writes to be true, that "Tardiness . . . denies the soul the full experience of anything."

As Benedictines, we are called to consciously prefer and choose the Opus Dei, the communal praying of the office, over whatever else seems to demand our time and attention.  Again, Sr. Joan's words resonate:

No matter how tired we are or how busy we are or how impossible we think it is to do it, Benedictine spirituality says, Stop. Now. A spiritual life without a regular prayer life and an integrated community consciousness is pure illusion.

Br. Chad

November 20

Feast of St. Edmund, King of East Anglia

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 42

Silence is a diversity.  I have heard the silence of anger burning.  I have heard the silence of paralyzing fear or guilt.  I have heard the silence of hopeful anticipation and the silence of green beauty.  I have heard the silence of safety and contentedness in the presence of loved ones and of the Beloved.

The silence after Compline is to be a fertile silence into which are planted words of peace and gentleness from Holy Scripture.  It is to be a silence of soul as well as sound, blooming with joy and love among the community.

Noise is also diverse.  We are each settled upon, like many-splendored moss-covered stones in St. Edmund's misty, damp England, by the noises that fill the atmosphere of our lives.  But we, unlike stones, are able to adjust the air in which we live.  We can shut the laptop, turn off the television, put down the smartphone.

I long for the fertile silence our Father Benedict seeks to cultivate in and among us.

Br. Chad

November 19

The Rule of St. Benedict: November 19

" . . . the Abbot's foresight shall decide on this.

Thus it is that he should adapt and arrange everything

in such a way that souls may be saved

and that the brethren may do their work without just cause for murmuring."

"If you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea."

Mark 9: 42

I hear a similar teaching in this passage from the Gospel and the above quote from chapter 41.  We are each given to care for the spiritual well-being of all with whom we are in relationship, and the choices we make in our relationships are to serve in clearing the way for the Work of Grace.  When we ignore this responsibility in favor of small-minded self-interest, we contribute to the proliferation of obstacles in the paths of those for whom God has called us to care.

Br. Chad

November 18

Feast of St. Hilda of Whitby, Abbess

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 40

"Above all else I urge that there should be no murmuring in the community."  These are our Father Benedict's concluding words to this chapter, and they show what is his highest priority regarding the amounts of food and drink consumed by the community.  More than anything else, it's important that those who follow the Benedictine way are content with what is provided for them.  This principle of contentedness goes well beyond food and drink to the heart of what we are about: the relinquishing of our prejudgments and desires in favor of the Spirit's guidance in our lives.  St. Hilda stands before the Presence as a testament to the beauty that comes from a life lived in such a way.  May we follow in her footsteps on this day, opening ourselves to hear from and freely follow God's leading, even if our own preferences must be laid aside to do so.

And from here on out, at the meals shared by the Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation, we shall measure our drinks by the hemina!

November 17

The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 39

"There is nothing so opposed to the Christian character as over-indulgence."

This seems like an awfully bold claim for our Father Benedict to insert nonchalantly into the Rule.  Perhaps he's utilizing hyperbole to emphasize "Our Lord's words, 'See to it that your hearts be not burdened with over-indulgence,'" but what if he isn't?  Why would he claim that this behavior holds the highest rank among things that oppose the development of the Christian character?

For an answer to this question I turn to a concept that would have been central to St. Benedict's thinking as a monk in the 6th century.  It is an understanding of human formation that comes from the Egyptian desert fathers, and would be popularized in the generation or so after our Father Benedict through St. Gregory the Great.  It is the notion of the deadly passions (sins).

Evagrius Ponticus was a late 4th century Egyptian monk and ascetic from whom we learn about eight deadly passions that form a logismos, or train of thought.  For Evagrius, each passion leads a person further and further away from what is real, beginning with the most basic needs of survival and moving to the essence of what makes us distinctly human (i.e., the capacity for divine union).  His formulation of this train of thought begins, as does every other formulation, with gluttony, which is the first among the "Passions of Desire."  These are ways we misuse our natural impulses, and they include fornication and love of money in turn.  Then come the "Passions of Reaction", which are passions directed against others and include depression, anger, and listlessness (later, accidie).  Finally, Evagrius lists two "Passions of Sense of Self", which are a fantasy of self: vainglory and pride.

So, back to Chapter 39 and our Father Benedict's claim that "nothing is so opposed to the Christian character as over-indulgence."  Over-indulgence, or gluttony, is the gateway passion.  It is the most basic misuse of our natural impulses and the easiest.  But as such, it has the power to divert our path without us even knowing it and place us in a prison of the most base, least developed experience of a human being.  Moving past gluttony, then, is essential if one is to be formed in the likeness of Christ and experience our true identity hidden in God.

Br. Chad

The information about deadly passions is from Prior Aelred's lectures at St. Gregory's Abbey during the Summer Vocation Program of 2011.

November 16

Feast of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 38

In my experience, one valuable aspect of practicing verbal silence at meals is that it eliminates many of the problems that common meals provide for new or socially awkward people.  Some might not find it easy to make their way into the life of the tables we share, and this Benedictine practice clears the way for everyone's full participation in that life.

Another valuable aspect of this practice of silence at meals is that it can open the door to what Thich Nhat Hanh calls "mindful eating".  He describes the mindful eating of a carrot:

You may like to smile to it before you put it in your mouth. When you chew it, you are aware that you are chewing a piece of carrot. Don't put anything else into your mouth, like your projects, your worries, your fear, just put the carrot in. 

And when you chew, chew only the carrot, not your projects or your ideas. You are capable of living in the present moment, in the here and the now. It is simple, but you need some training to just enjoy the piece of carrot. This is a miracle.

 We will need some training, indeed.  Thanks be to God for the school of our Father Benedict.

Br. Chad

November 15

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 37

The first sentence of this chapter offers a small window into the intentions behind St. Benedict's Rule, and I think this window gives us a view of an answer to a common question, "Why would anyone want to commit her life to living in this way?"

The natural dispositions of a human being, as good as they can be in certain circumstances, are not a basis on which to build a healthy, whole person or community.  This chapter, for example, deals with the emotional tendencies most people show towards the very young and the very old.  It's clear, however, that not everyone is identically disposed towards children or the elderly.  So by formalizing a good disposition and imbuing it with the authority of the Rule, our Father Benedict frees the value of "special kindness towards these times of life" from dependency on an individual's affectionate emotion and places it in relationship to the standard by which the Benedictine has vowed to live her life.

This, to me, is true freedom when I consider my experience under the tyranny of emotional dispositions as a measure of "health" and "wholeness."

Br. Chad

November 14

The Consecration of Samuel Seabury

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 36

As our ministry of prayer takes root deep in our lives, the outgrowth of that ministry connects us to each other, to the Church, and to the World in bonds of compassion and love.  This compassion is practiced through acts of care for the physically sick among us, as we had the opportunity to experience in the wake of Br. Rawleigh's stroke last October and of Br. Philip's surgery last week.  Our brothers' time of medical care and convalescence has shown us that the lessons of this chapter in the Rule are timeless.  When we open our eyes to our Father Benedict's teaching in this chapter, our sick brothers truly are "Christ in person" to us.  We were graced with an "abundant reward" from being in their holy presence during their time of need.

As new opportunities continue to manifest among us, let us continue to open ourselves, through our prayers and service on behalf of those who suffer, to be clear channels for the healing love of God.  And let us seek to receive the true blessing of the living Christ, who is ever present in the sick and the poor.

Br. Chad

November 13

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 35 pt. 2

This passage is one that has changed little in practice over the last 1500 years among Benedictine monasteries.  It is a simple, yet powerful, ritual . . . a changing of the guard of sorts.  It functions to give an eternal perspective on what might otherwise be seen as only a human endeavor.  Such sanctification of the mundane is one genius of the Rule.  A Benedictine finds her true life in God through each and every aspect of the day--nothing is "secular"; nothing is profane.

To imbue the details of our experience with an awareness of the Divine Presence is a goal of Benedictine community.  The slow, daily work of obedience whittles away at the illusion that our life is our own, that we do anything outside the purview of our life in God.  And it is in the small things of everyday life, in a 3 x 5 card laminated in a drawer in the dining room, that we find the secret hidden in plain sight.

from St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, MI

Br. Chad

November 12

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 35 pt. 1

I am struck by the opening lines of this chapter:

Let the brethren serve one another, 

and let no one be excused from the kitchen service . . .

For this service brings increase of reward and of charity. 

Kitchen service is among the least specialized, least esoteric practices in the monastery, yet the formational value of overtly serving one's sisters and brothers in this way is high.  During the first week of my stay at St. Gregory's Abbey in July of 2011, the abbot of the community served as one of the kitchen servers--standing at the back of the refectory, clearing each plate, each cup, each piece of silverware as we finished, eating his meal after everyone else was dismissed.  I saw clearly how such service acts to demolish any class system.

We would all do well to seek ways in which we can offer regular, humble, empowering service in our own contexts. 

Br. Chad

November 11

Feast of St. Martin of Tours

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 34

In this chapter our Father Benedict demonstrates compassion and generosity rather than reprimand and austerity in response to the infirm and needy within the community.  It is with a disposition of gentleness that we are to treat ourselves and each other along the Benedictine path, especially when one of us needs assistance to continue moving forward.

Our endeavors together are not in the service of an ideal or even of a vow or promise made.  Our practices, animated by our clear intention, are designed to transform us into beings who are fully at home where God is at home.  And if we are to be transformed at all, we must begin from where we actually are right now, spiritually and circumstantially.  Let us be present to our weaknesses and humble enough to acknowledge them.  Any other posture--pride, shame, defiance, resentment--sets our feet upon a path of our own making that leads far from our true home.

Br. Chad

November 10

The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 33

Our national culture places an unqualified positive value on a practice that our Father Benedict here calls a "most wicked vice."  Private ownership generates within a human being a phenomenon that Americans value as a firm foundation on which to build a stable society.  St. Benedict looks at this same phenomenon and instructs that it is "to be cut out of the monastery by the roots."

This striking contrast prompts me to step back and question how it is that private ownership has generated within me the phenomenon that our Father Benedict sees as so wicked and destructive.  How have the roots of this vice infiltrated the soil of my soul in which the Gospel has been planted?  Is the Gospel kept from growing and bearing fruit because of them?  And how does one pull up the roots while living outside of a monastery?

One way I find the vice of possessiveness creeping into my life is in my attachment to the particulars of my vocation and ministry.  I recognize that deep within myself I have begun to tighten my grip on a vision of how the future will unfold, and I am attached to my specific place within it.  Our Father Benedict modeled for us the healthy detachment of one who follows the blowing wind of the Spirit into various settings in which his vocation can be used by God.  His enduring ministry is to facilitate spiritual formation towards a living experience of union with God in Christ, and he does so by always pointing away from himself, like St. John the Baptist, toward the true bridegroom of our souls.  May we follow in his footsteps so that we, free from possessiveness, can be vessels for God's enduring work in the world. 

Br. Chad  

November 9

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 32

In a society built upon the proliferation, consumption, and discarding of commodities, I hear from this chapter a radically alternative way of relating to physical property.  Caring for the things we have, treating them as God-given gifts and responsibilities, orients our lives within an economy wherein enoughness and generosity are the operative values.

The victims of a hurricane or severe winter storm that cuts off their supply of electricity or fuel face the question of necessity in a critical way.  When we are unable to take our possessions for granted, we are forced to recognize the ways in which our property relates to our values.  At once our inability to charge our mobile devices seems like a silly, childish concern next to the needs of our elderly neighbors for food, water, and heat.

What if our everyday values reflected the sacrifice and charity that normally manifests only in times of crisis?  This is the economy of enoughness and generosity that our Father Benedict desires to nurture among us.

Br. Chad

November 8

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 31 pt. 2

This second half of Chapter 31 conveys to me a spirit of hearth and home that our Father Benedict seeks to instill in the Benedictine community.  The gentle organization and the humble carrying out of the duties of cellarer remind me of households I have known wherein love, courtesy, and peace describe the family culture.  There are no power plays, no passive-aggression weaving through the daily interactions.

The cellarer's instructions here point to the heart of Christian authority as self-sacrificial service.  The cellarer serves in the idiom of Christ in the midst of a needy community.  Matthew 20: 25-28 lays it out:

But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Br. Chad

November 7

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 31 pt. 1

A modern equivalent to the role of the cellarer might be that of the business manager in an office.  It is the person who oversees the maintenance of supplies for everyone, of all that is physically needed for sustaining of the work at hand.  But there's a twist in our Father Benedict's instructions for the cellarer that one would not expect to find in the job description of a business manager.

St. Benedict instructs the cellarer to "take the greatest care of the sick, of children, of guests and the poor . . ."  It is not the efficiency and profitability of the monastery that is to shape this person's priorities, but precisely the opposite.  The steward of community resources is to "take the greatest care of" those who are a drag on the very systems that provide the resources.

This is a picture of the "beloved community" spoken of by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wherein property is in the service of life, not life in the service of property.  This is the radical reorientation in Jesus' teaching around the issues of true greatness and power wherein the greatest is the least of all, without any power and without any resources of her own.

Br. Chad

November 6

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 30

I will leave reflecting on this chapter to one who is far wiser than I.  If possible, I encourage you to read all of Sr. Joan Chittister's commentary on Chapter 30, which concludes,

The real lesson of the chapter is not that young people should be beaten. The continuing value of the chapter is that it reminds us quite graphically that no one approach is equally effective with everyone. No two people are exactly the same. In bringing people to spiritual adulthood we must use every tool we have: love, listening, counsel, confrontation, prayer that God may intervene where our own efforts are useless and, finally, if all else fails, amputation from the group.

The real point of this and all seven preceding chapters of the penal code of the Rule is that Benedictine punishment is always meant to heal, never to destroy; to cure, not to crush.

Br. Chad

November 5

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 29

It isn't clear whether "a brother who through his own fault leaves the monastery" is a brother who has just been expelled by the Abbot a la Chapter 28, or whether St. Benedict is changing the subject to address all members who may leave, by their own will or not.  In any case, it is worth noting that our Father Benedict makes no stipulation that would disqualify those who have been expelled through the process laid out in Chapter 28 from re-entry here in Chapter 29.

After all the time and effort and pain that the community has spent to bring the defiant back to the path of their vows, and after the best efforts of the most skilled "physicians" have failed to heal, one would think that the Rule would say, "That's it.  We wash our hands of you."  But it doesn't.  It says that this process may happen, that the community must be willing to bear the painful burden of failed corrective measures and expulsion, up to three times for an individual.

Think of an employee in an organization whose recalcitrant behavior forces her boss to take her through a carefully conceived, skillfully implemented, and very costly series of disciplinary measures intended to bring the employee back to good standing.  But her recalcitrance remains firmly fixed, and she is ultimately fired.  If that former employee were to come back a year later claiming to have learned her lesson, who would expect that organization to offer her a job?  And to do it three times?

This is a lavish mercy.  This is true sacrifice.

Br. Chad

November 4

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 28

To begin, let us set aside the remarks about physical punishment; they are a stumbling block for our understanding. As Sr. Joan writes,

Beating people with the rod is considered neither good pedagogy nor good parenting now, and the notion of whipping full-grown adults is simply unthinkable.  Times have changed; theories of behavior modification have changed; the very concept of adulthood has changed; this living of the rule has changed."

But she continues,

What has not changed, however, is the idea that human development demands that we grow through and grow beyond childish un-control to maturity and that we be willing to correct things in ourselves in order to do it, whatever the cost.

This is the essence of St. Benedict's theory of correction for faults.  If one is to follow upon this path, the defiant self-will must be relinquished, and there is only so much anyone else can do to inspire and encourage its relinquishment.  When, after all the measures at the disposal of human community are undertaken to loosen one's obstinate grip, there comes a point when one must be released from the care of the community to make one's way with clenched fists through the world outside.  To do otherwise would force the community to distort around the defiant one, to accommodate the phenomenon like organs accommodate a tumor.  Any leader who would knowingly allow such tumors to grow and harm the body does not follow in the footsteps of our Father Benedict.

Br. Chad

November 3

The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 27

After all the apparent harshness of the last four chapters, St. Benedict shows clearly in Chapter 27 that love motivates these corrective measures.  The superior is to teach the wayward by means of a threefold approach, "reprove, entreat, rebuke", in order to bring about correction for the good of all.  The practice of excommunication in the Rule, then, is the opposite of outright banishment where the superior is concerned; it is a process of full and diverse engagement.  We see in this chapter that, rather than removing the offender from the realm of concern, the offender is set in the place of highest concern where the most valuable resources of the community, its wise elders, are set in motion to heal and restore.

This is the deep compassion of our Father Benedict.  There is no vindictiveness or punitive motives at play, but love that is willing to bear the burdensome effects of an offender's recalcitrance.  In fact, the Rule reminds the superior that "what he has undertaken is the care of weak souls and not a tyranny over strong ones."  It is to be the disposition of Benedictine authority to care for the weak and struggling, not to cater to the compliant and righteous.

Br. Chad

November 2

All Souls' Day

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 26

The act of relieving pain is alluring to many of us.  We see someone hurting and we want to provide some help, something that will take away the discomfort we perceive.  In and of itself, this impulse is laudable.  It has the potential to heal and comfort.  But, more often than we care to admit, the impulse to relieve pain derives from our own self-interest -- to relieve our own guilt, our own discomfort, to meet some need within ourselves to be needed, helpful, effective.

If our lives are to become a source of true health and healing in the world, there comes a time when we must learn to distinguish between our interests and the interests of others.  Until we learn to do so, we live  under the delusion that all of our impulses to help are pure and all our motives to relieve pain are true.  Under this delusion we have very little idea what effect our behavior actually has on the one in pain, nor do we really care, because we get what we need from the transaction -- the relief of guilt, comfort, the feeling of being needed, helpful, effective.

To act from within this delusion, our Father Benedict understands, is as insidious and destructive to community life as the faults that warrant excommunication.  When I cannot resist inserting myself into a healing process that is being directed by a wise physician, I jeopardize the effectiveness of the cure.  As Sr. Joan writes, "It is not supportive to take away a person's heart medicine simply because they do not like the taste of it.  It is not supportive to fail to set a broken leg simply because the setting will be painful."

Br. Chad