September 14

The Feast of the Holy Cross

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 2 pt. 6

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.

This is how I desire to lead, and for this reason, today's 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

September 13

Feast of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 2 pt. 5

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.  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). 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

September 12

The Rule of St. Benedict: 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, good or bad, 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, quite literally, a radical decision, but one that opens the vowed religious to a beautiful world of true spiritual friendship.

Br. Chad

September 11

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 2 pt. 3

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

September 10

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

"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 the Community of St. Mary of the Annunciation.  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

September 9

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 2 pt. 1

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

September 8

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 1

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 anywhere, but it is especially so outside of 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 those of us who desire to follow in the path of St. Benedict to prayerfully inquire within ourselves which vices of the sarabaites and/or gyrovagues we tend to practice.  Do our spiritual practices generate transformation, or are they merely tools our ego uses to secure its self-interest?  Is our "rule" whatever appeals to us, or do we seek to be conformed to the will of another?  Does our life find its true home in a community gathered around the common intention of spiritual formation, or are we lone rangers, afraid to truly open ourselves to others?

We cannot do this inner work alone, so let us welcome Christ to abide within us to separate wheat from chaff, virtue from vice, and truth from lies.  And with God's help, let us proceed along the path our Father Benedict has laid out.

Br. Chad