In today's commentary, Chapter 38 of the Rule, Sister Joan invites us to exude the Scriptures. Benedict understood that the human heart moves slowly. Sister Joan understands he was not urging monks to imitate Scripture by sheer will. She knows that Benedict was counseling patience:
- stay with the text long enough until the text stays with you,
- keep company with Scripture until Scripture keeps company with your soul.
And then--without pressure, without display, without self-conscious piety--your very life will exude what you have absorbed.
A contemporary Benedictine might rephrase this saying--like the pine forest:
Do not try to act biblical. Become so soaked in the Word
that your very life gives off its fragrance.
that your very life gives off its fragrance.
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