Vigilant....

We are weak creatures, and Benedict never asks us to pretend otherwise. The spiritual life does not begin with the illusion that we will somehow rise above our frailty. It begins with the humility to recognize it.

We will fall throughout the day. We will speak too quickly, judge too harshly, become impatient, distracted, proud, or simply forgetful of God. The danger is not that we fall. The danger is that we fall asleep to our falling.

And so Benedict calls us to vigilance—to be awake at every hour, attentive to the movements of the heart, willing to see ourselves clearly. This is not anxious self-examination. It is the quiet awareness of one who knows that every moment offers the possibility of returning to God.

To recognize a fault is already to awaken. To confess it is to turn toward the light. To begin again is grace.

Our task, then, is not to become perfect creatures who never stumble. It is to become people who continually turn back toward God—again and again, throughout the ordinary hours of the day.

Ever watchful. Ever returning. Ever seeking, in all that we do, to praise and please the Lord.

Amen....