June 4

Chapter 7 pt. 10

The Rule of St. Benedict June 4

Contentment is a serious threat to the American way of life.  Our economy is predicated upon the discontentment that lives inside the human being.  If one is truly "content with the poorest and worst of everything", as our Father Benedict describes, no advertising campaign will be able to create the desires that drive consumption.

But the knife cuts more deeply than society on a grand scale.  St. Benedict aims to dethrone self-interested desire within the human psyche so that the individual is empowered to respond to her circumstances from the impulse of divine love rather than from her own perceived needs.  The extent to which one must secure pleasure for oneself through possessions or status is the extent to which one is unable to be a channel through which Christ is manifest in the world.

Br. Chad 2012

June 3

Trinity Sunday

Chapter 7 pt. 9

The Rule of St. Benedict June 3

One expectation put upon a Benedictine canon is that she make "a regular practice of confession to [her] priest."  This is one way that a non-cloistered religious is able to forge a spiritual bond with a local parish and thus live out this vocation within a sacramental community.  We must be clear as we engage in such practices, however, that when we reveal all "of the evil thoughts that enter [our] heart or the sins committed in secret" to our priest, we do so to God.  The priest, in this context, is a sort of icon through which we see and experience the Grace and forgiveness of God for our lives.

As an unordained Prior, I am willing to bear with my sisters and brothers the burdens of their hearts, and I will speak words of peace, but my role is not yet a sacramental one.  It is important, then, that we as canons give ourselves over to the Holy Mystery experienced in the sacrament of confession to one's priest, not because we are unforgiven if we don't, but because we seek to cultivate within ourselves the humility our Father Benedict describes.

Br. Chad 2012

June 2

Chapter 7 pt. 8

The Rule of St. Benedict June 2

The fourth degree of humility is that he hold fast to patience with a silent mind when in this obedience he meets with difficulties and contradictions and even any kind of injustice, enduring all without growing weary or running away.

I find this translation very helpful in understanding this "degree"/step/rung of humility.  I struggle daily to "hold fast to patience with a silent mind" in the face of my circumstances, especially when my children passionately experience their own negative emotions and barrage my senses with their expressions of them.  It feels like they have been taught precisely how to get my goat by some wizened Zen master (with a mischievous twinkle in his eye).

One reason my grip on patience often slips is because I am actually holding more tightly to my expectations about how the world should appear than I am to my connection to Christ within, a connection maintained through a "silent mind" from which the quality of patience ensues.  When I add "Br. Chad being patient" to my list of expectations about how the world ought to proceed, I am setting myself up to be disappointed.  But when, through persistent spiritual practice, I am empowered to carry a silent mind with me and enabled, by the gift of Grace, to perceive the Christ Reality in the midst of my other sense perceptions, patience holds fast to me.  I am no longer at the mercy of my desires and expectations when I encounter circumstances hostile to them.

Br. Chad 2012

June 1

Chapter 7 pt. 7

The Rule of St. Benedict June 1

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.

Ironically, 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 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 2012

May 31

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary


Chapter 7 pt. 6

The Rule of St. Benedict May 31

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 St. Mary, the Mother of our Lord.  Today's feast celebrates the visit of the Virgin Mary to her relative, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, while they were both expecting.  Caryll Houselander has this to say about Mary in the events of the Visitation in her small book, The Reed of God:

And Mary rising up in those days went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judea. Those days in which she rose on that impulse were the days in which Christ was being formed in her, the impulse was his impulse.  Many women, if they were expecting a child, would refuse to hurry over the hills on a visit of pure kindness.  They would say they had a duty to themselves and to their unborn child which came before anything or anyone else.  The Mother of God considered no such thing.  Elizabeth was going to have a child, too, and although Mary's own child was God, she could not forget Elizabeth's need--almost incredible to us, but characteristic of her.

And further,

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 2012

 

 

May 30

Chapter 7 pt. 5

The Rule of St. Benedict May 30

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, 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.

Br. Chad 2012

May 29

Chapter 7 pt. 4

The Rule of St. Benedict May 29

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 Br. Rawleigh's vows, and I will do the same for Ronda this Saturday, as an act of obedience, not as an act 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.

Amen.

Br. Chad 2012