Living the Rule....

The eighth step of humility reminds us that the Rule is our guide. We are not called to invent the spiritual life for ourselves, but to enter the stream of wisdom that Benedict received, shaped, and passed on—and that generations of faithful people have lived ever since.

There is humility in accepting that others may know something we do not.

We are called to value the truth taught by others, to seek out wisdom wherever it may be found, and then to enshrine that wisdom in our hearts. Benedict warns us, in effect, against becoming our own blind guides. Left entirely to ourselves, we can too easily mistake preference for principle, stubbornness for conviction, and our own desires for the voice of God.

And so we attach ourselves to teachers.

We listen to those whose lives bear witness to wisdom. We pay attention to the experience of the community. We allow ourselves to be instructed by those who have walked the road before us.

Our communities have much to teach us if we are humble enough to listen.

This wisdom is not confined to the monastery. It comes to us through family, through the Church, through friends and teachers, and through those quiet people whose faithful lives reveal truths that words alone cannot convey. Their experience becomes part of the great inheritance from which we learn how to live.

The eighth step of humility asks us to recognize that we do not travel toward God alone. We stand within a living tradition. Others have struggled where we struggle, fallen where we fall, and discovered paths through darkness that we have not yet seen.

Humility allows us to receive their wisdom.

We honor those who have gone before us not by copying them blindly, but by listening carefully, learning gratefully, and allowing their experience to deepen our own.

The Rule keeps us in the stream.

The community keeps us from wandering alone.

And humility gives us the wisdom to remain teachable.