The God-life, Benedict is telling us, is a never-ending, unremitting, totally absorbing enterprise. God is intent on it; so must we be. The Hebrew poet, Moses Ibn Ezra, writes: "Those who persist in knocking will succeed in entering." Benedict thinks no less. It is not perfection that leads us to God; it is perseverance.
...if we have it, we know we are made for
greatness, we are made for God.
Sr Joan Chittister
We've now begun one of the most important chapters in the Rule of Benedict. I believe Sr Joan is correct when she says...
If the modern age has lost anything that needs to be rediscovered, if the Western world has denied anything that needs to be owned, if individuals have rejected anything that needs to be professed again, if the preservation of the globe in the twenty-first century requires anything of the past at all, it may well be the commitment of the Rule of Benedict to humility.
Humility allows us to form a proper sense of self in a universe of wonders. Humility is the basis for right relationships in life and necessary if we truly want to grow in the Spirit of God. As Sr Joan points out...
...being sinless is not enough. [We are called to be] steeped in the mind of God. [We must] become aware that the God we seek is aware of us.
God is within us to be realized...it is simply a matter of opening our eyes to the light that drives out the darkness within us.
It is a matter of gaining the God within, the love of Whom impels us to good.
Sr Joan writes...
Silence is a cornerstone of ... spiritual development but the goal of monastic silence is not non-talking. The goal ... is respect for others, a sense of place, a spirit of peace.
Benedictine spirituality forms us to listen ... for the voice of God. Benedictine spirituality forms us to know our place in the world. When we refuse to give place to others, when we consume all the space of our worlds with our own sounds and our own truths and our own wisdom and our own ideas, there is no room for anyone else's ideas.
Benedictine spirituality is a builder of human community. When talk is unrestrained, when gossip becomes the food of the soul, then the destruction of others can't be far behind. When talk is loud and boisterous, when we make light of everything, when nothing is spared the raillery of a joke, the seriousness of all of life is at stake and our spirits wither from a lack of beauty and substance.
Grow in the silence.
"Why do you need teachers?" the visitor asked a disciple.
"Because,' the disciple answered, "if water must be boiled it needs a vessel between the fire and itself."
Hold this metaphor gently in your hand...now...think about someone in your life that has always been there to guide, shelter, and shape.
There is no going through life alone. We need wisdom figures ... teachers, fine parents and mentors, tender husbands and gentle wives, good friends ... who listen to us as much as we listen to them....
I worked for a man who had the most interesting smile--it was a quiet smile--not quite Mona Lisa--but surely not what I would call a grin. Today, I realize it was indeed a quiet wize smile. Today, I believe he was watching a young man, loud, always certain and willing to talk...and he was thinking...when will he learn.
I'm more than a little embarrassed to tell you, I remember that smile from 30 years ago--and I am troubled by how little has changed. And so, Benedict and Sr Joan remind us again today,
Benedict wants moderation, balance, control...hold all of life in perspective...not to be overtaken, consumed, swept up, swallowed....
Let me close with a gift from a dear friend...
We are now in the heart of Chapter 4: Tools of Good Works. I pray I am ready. The Christian call is a simple one--but how so hard to live by. Benedict writes
"Do not repay one bad turn with another" (1 Thessalonians 5;15; 1 Peter 3:9). Do not injure anyone but bear injuries patiently. "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27). If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead. "Endure persecution for the sake of justice" (Matthew 5:10).
We are to stay gentle even with those who are not gentle with us. The Gospels, Sr Joan reminds us, don't talk about winning; they talk about loving.
We must be prepared to bear whatever blows it takes for the sake of justice, quietly, gently, even lovingly, with never a blow in return.
What a challenge this is for most of us! And then Sr Joan raises the bar, reminding us we are called to engage in the great Christian enterprise of acting for others in the place of God--every day, in every moment. St. Teresa of Avila made this clear....
Christ has no body but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet, and loves with my heart.
If we can embrace this truth, .... allowing that transformative love to permeate all of our work, we will not only build the Kingdom of Heaven, but we will also find eternal rest and peace for ourselves.
Reading now from Sr Joan....
The monastic heart is not just to be a good heart. It is to be engaged in the great Christian enterprise of acting for others in the place of God.
Sr Joan Chittister
Sister Joan recently talked to us about the role of the abbot or prioress, saying...
The role of the abbot or prioress is to direct their energies to bringing the community to the white heat of the spiritual life....
I invite you to consider if this might be our role in our community--not so much by preaching, but by the way we live out our lives in our community. We are called to care for each other. You are teaching me this every day. And, we are called above all else, to persist; to never lose hope!
Benedict knows there is a spark of the divine in all of us. We are called to see it in each other and to help it grow.
There are times in our lives when we are confronted by ideas that don't seem to belong where we live. I believe, in those moments, we are called to listen even more carefully and seek the word of God in the voice of the other. For some, the following may be one of those moments. For others, it is where they live.
The Time to Embrace
What we need to develop in our time is a spirituality of embrace, the sanctification of feeling. We have been told that the greatest of these is love, but we do not really believe it. Not on the rational level. We have been told to be willing to repeatedly turn the other cheek but we do not risk it. Not on the social level. And yet, until we have the grace to regurgitate at the sight of brutality anywhere, what hope can we possibly have for the success of divinity's great experiment––the mind of God in the human heart.
Santayana writes: "The young person who has not wept is a savage and the old person who will not laugh is a fool." The spirituality of embrace depends on our willingness to put down the trappings of false intellectualism, of rationalism, of patriarchy so that both men and women alike can draw on their emotions without shame and be directed by their noblest feelings without fear.
Human community and globalism hang in the balance. The values we bring to decision making in the modern world are no longer a matter of purely private or personal importance. We cannot pretend to humanity and continue to deprive ourselves of half our way of perceiving at the highest levels of function.
To embrace the other, to take the stranger into our lives, to trust that the other is motivated by the same cares and loves as we are, redesigns the human race. It is the ability to allow human feeling to become a reputable foundation for decision-making at the highest levels that engenders the necessary antidote to a depraved rationalism. For too long have we allowed a false masculinity to guide the judgments of the church and justify the character of the corporate world and engorge a suicidal militarism and direct the policies of governments and reduce humanity to the rationalization of objectivity and deny the people of the world the validity of the feminine, of the feelings, in both women and men.
Reason has become the human sin; independence and individualism our pathology. Facts we have aplenty. It is feelings we lack.
The time to embrace is now, before autonomy destroys community and leaves us less human at the end of our evolutionary process than when we began. Adoration of the rational has not worked. Only embrace can save us now.
––from For Everything A Season, by Joan Chittister (Orbis)
Benedict makes it clear that the desire for good
is not an excuse for the exercise of evil in its behalf.
This reading is important, then, for people whose
high ideals lead them to the basest of means
in the name of achieving good. To become what
we hate — as mean as the killers, as obsessed as the haters
is neither the goal nor the greatness of the spiritual life.
The Rule of Benedict, Sr Joan Chittister
I was rightly reminded today by a dear friend, that context IS important. And so it is that Sister Joan reminds us that the end does not justify the means....
If in the course of life, you find yourself in a position of leadership--read Chapter 64 and Chapter 65 closely.
They were written for you.
Benedictine spirituality reverence for the other based on the spark of the divine that is in us all is a gift to be given to a century alive with distinctions it will not admit and an insight into the sacred, scarred and bleeding, that it does not see.
The Rule of Benedict, Sr. Joan Chittister
Dear Lord, forgive me for self-centered blindness. Help me open my eyes to see and server your world. Amen
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be
Spirituality is a way of life.
We are called to be what we say we are.
Simple.
Centered in God.
To be a Christian is a full-time identify.
We are called to heed the Gospel call
whomever we are with and wherever we are.
It is a never-ending pursuit of faith
and through His abiding Grace
we will prevail.
Work is not what defines the Benedictine--it is the single-minded search for God. The purpose behind everything we do gives our lives meaning. It is this purpose that frees our hearts.
Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow in God!
Humbly asked [God] to remove our shortcomings.
—Step 7 of the Twelve Steps
This week’s meditations continue to explore the wisdom of the Gospels and the Twelve Steps. Father Richard responds to the perennial question, “Why do we pray?”:
If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do both Step 7 and Jesus say, each in their own way: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7)? Are we trying to talk God into things? Does the group with the most and the best prayers win? Is prayer of petition just another way to get what we want, or to get God on our side?
This is the mystery of asking. Why is it good to ask, and what really happens in prayers of petition or intercession? Why is it that Jesus both tells us to ask and then says, “Your Father already knows what you need, so do not babble on like the pagans do” (Matthew 6:7–8)?
I believe prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. (That is why Jesus says all prayers are answered, which does not appear to be true, according to the evidence!) God knows that we need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want.
Prayers of intercession or petition are one way of situating our life within total honesty and structural truth. We are all forever beggars before God and the universe. We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of our preferences and addictions still fully in place, but now well-disguised.
So, Step 7 says that we must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” We don’t dare go after our own faults or we will go after the wrong thing—or, more commonly, a clever substitute for the real thing. Instead, we have to let God first reveal our real faults to us (usually by failing and falling many times!), and then allow God to remove those faults, from God’s side and in God’s way.
It’s important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in right relationship with Life Itself. Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen “attitude of gratitude” will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it.
Selected from Richard Rohr, Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, 10th anniv. ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2011, 2021), 57, 59–60, 61.
Give us, O God,leaders whose hearts are large enoughto match the breadth of our own soulsand give us souls strong enoughto follow leaders of vision and wisdom.In seeking a leader, let us seekmore than development for ourselves—though development we hope for—more than security for our own land—though security we need—more than satisfaction for our wants—though many things we desire.Give us the hearts to choosethe leader who will work with other leadersto bring safety to the whole world.Give us leaderswho lead this nation to virtuewithout seeking to imposeour kind of virtueon the virtue of others.Give us a governmentthat provides for the advancementof this countrywithout taking resources from othersto achieve it.Give us insight enough ourselvesto choose as leaders those who can tellstrength from power,growth from greed,leadership from dominance,and real greatnessfrom the trappings of grandiosity.We trust you, Great God,to open our hearts to learnfrom those to whom you speakin different tonguesand to respect the life and wordsof those to whom you entrustedthe good of other parts of this globe.We beg you, Great God,give us the vision as a peopleto know where global leadership truly lies,to pursue it diligently,to require it to protect human rightsfor everyone everywhere.We ask these things, Great God,with minds open to your wordand hearts that trust in your eternal care.Amen.
Once a little church had fallen upon hard times. The rector and precious few were left in the congregation—most over 60 years old.
In the mountains near the church there lived a retired Bishop. It occurred to the rector to ask the bishop if she could offer any advice that might just save the church.
The bishop welcomed the priest and commiserated. “I know how it is” she said, “the spirit has gone out of so many people. Many churches are struggling—our sense of community seems to be fading.” So the Bishop and priest wept together, and spoke quietly of deep things.
The time came when the priest had to leave. They embraced. “It has been wonderful being with you,” said the priest, “but I have failed in my purpose for coming. Have you no piece of advice that might save our little church?”
The Bishop simply replied, “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is among you.”
The rector, returning to the church, told the small congregation what the bishop had said. In the months that followed, the church members pondered the words of the bishop. “The Messiah is among of us?” As they thought about this, they all began to treat each other more kindly on the off chance that, that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that he or she might be the Messiah, they also began to treat themselves with extraordinary care.
As time went by, people visiting the little church noticed the aura of gentle kindness that surrounded the members of the small church; their care for one another and everyone in the community. Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought more friends. Within a few years, the small church had once again become a thriving church, thanks to the bishop’s gift.
Today is July 15.
Benedict continues to talk about service. Today the focus is on caring for the sick. However, read closely, for Benedict and Sister Joan offer far more than you might first think from a chapter simply titled The Sick.
The purpose of maintaining the body is to make it possible to acquire wisdom. For you see, every day we have gives us another chance to become the real person we are meant to be. Never give up.How much of our precious time do we spend on those with little time left? Every bit of kindness, every tender touch can heal...perhaps even in ourselves.
Today is July 14th.
We are meant to serve the community--for it brings together
the transcendent and the transforming.
Prayer and work influence and fulfill each other.
Today is July 13th.
Chapter 35 speaks to the importance of service to our community. Benedict reminds us that
Members should serve one another. It fosters love.
Serve one another in love.
Sister Joan goes on to point out that the spiritual life is not simply what we think about; it is what we do because of what we think. If we do not serve one another we are, at best, a collection of people who live alone together. Love and accountability should be the fulcrum of community life.
Today is July 10.
Sister Joan reminds us today that Benedictine spirituality cares for the earth and the integration of prayer and work, body and soul, as essential parts of the journey. A seemingly simple idea but essential to becoming who He calls us to be.
Today is July 6.
Benedict and Sister Joan offer us a wonderful reminder today.
We must settle down and do something serious with our lives, knowing that everyday we must make a fresh beginning.
Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord!
Today is July 4, 2024.
There is much to be found in today's reading from the Rule and Sister Joan's commentary. It is yet again one of those readings we might initially think is meant for another time and place. I quietly offer the following observations, drawn directly for Sister Joan's commentary.
The Rule of Benedict is for human beings. We are just simple people who never meet our own ideals. Our role is simply to try to soothe what hurts them, heal what weakens them, lift what burdens them and wait. The spiritual life is a process, not an event. It takes time and love and help and care.
It takes our patient presence.
Today is July 2, 2024. Sister Joan reminds us today of what may be the most important adage in all the Christian literature ever written...
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
God truly loves us beyond measure. Oh my...beyond measure. That dear one is a lot! And, He asks us every day to,
"Pick up my cross and follow me."
We must pick it up. Oh, and yes, we will drop it. And then, He calls us to pick it up again, and again, and again. He understands. And, so His call to us today is,
"...persevere, keep trying--I will be with you always."
His invitation is clear. We must at all time be open and honest with ourselves--truly see ourselves as He see us. And, remembering there is no failure except in no longer trying.
When I returned home today from our time together this morning, I continue to think about our discussion of the gospels and our private morning meditations. I was drawn back to my bookshelf and I came across a worn old book, titled Daily Strength for Daily Needs.
I'm not sure how this book found its way into my library, but I feel fairly certain it was among my parents belongings. The book was originally copyrighted in 1884 and a note from the publisher suggests this book was printed in 1934.
And then the phrase came to me--from generation to generation. Where had I heard this before? Knowing that so much of my faith has been, by His Grace founded in worship and study at Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I turn to the book of common prayer and found this prayer.
Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.
Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.
Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ our great High Priest, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, your Church gives honor, glory, and worship, from generation to generation. Amen
And so from Daily Strength for Daily Needs, I pray for each of us...
Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up bravely from the fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning; there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough.
Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1602)
Today is June 30, 2024. Sister Joan's commentary on Chapter 23 observes that though the Rule of Benedict is one of the most gentle monastic rules ever written, Benedict devotes eight chapters to punishment–of which none of them are acceptable or applicable in today's culture. While all of us live in some form of community most of us do not live under a prior or prioress.
However, in Sister Joan's closing paragraph, she reminds us that the rule does expect discipline and atonement even from us today. We are called to mend things broken; to curb and straighten things running away and awry in us. Self-control doesn't happen by accident and it must be honest and real. Where does it begin?
A beautiful place to start is to slowly read and meditate on Psalm 119. Find a quiet place to sit. Do not be in a hurry. Open you heart and your mind to His word. Allow His Grace to enter in. Today would be a lovely time to start. Amen.
Today is June 26, 2024. I began the day by reading Chapter 19 The Discipline of Psalmody. Benedict begins by reminding us that God is with us and watching us at all times and that we are called to serve the Holy One at all times.
I've been thinking a lot lately about discipline--self-discipline. Today's readings led me to more fully realize that we are called daily to self-disciplined behavior across every planned event and interruption of our lives.
To serve Him well, we need to understand what self-discipline is and what it can mean for us. Most importantly, we need to understand His role in helping us live into this discipline--knowing that everything we do shapes who we are and who we will become.
Quoting Socrates, Sister Joanne reminds us that the unexamined life is not worth living. Joined with the living Christ, we are born anew with each passing day. As such, we are called to reflect on the meaning and consequence of every action we take.
Our prayers have the power to change our lives. Our prayers can burn off the dross that clings to our souls like mildew and set us free for deeper, richer, truer lives--allowing us to become who we say we are. Amen
In the minor hours of Terce, Sext and None, the psalms carry us
I asked ChatGPT to summarize Meister Eckhart’s teachings in the fewest possible words.
Meister Eckhart, a German mystic and theologian, emphasized the direct experience of God, advocating for inner detachment and the surrender of the self to achieve union with the Divine. His teachings focus on the idea that God is present within every soul and that true enlightenment comes from recognizing this inner divinity.
What must one do to recognize this inner divinity?
To recognize this inner divinity, Meister Eckhart taught that one must practice inner detachment, letting go of ego and personal desires. This involves cultivating a state of spiritual poverty, where one is empty of self-will and open to God's presence. By achieving this inner stillness and openness, one can experience the direct presence of God within.
What does it mean to "practice inner detachment?"
"Practicing inner detachment" means letting go of attachments to worldly desires, material possessions, and personal ego. It involves freeing oneself from the influence of external circumstances and emotional entanglements. This practice helps cultivate an inner stillness and openness, allowing one to focus on the presence of the divine within. It requires a deep level of spiritual discipline and mindfulness, encouraging a shift from self-centeredness to a state of spiritual receptivity and union with God.
If we “can” let go of our attachments to worldly desires, material possessions, and personal ego. If we are “able” to free ourselves from the influence of external circumstances and emotional entanglements, "what will we experience?"
If we are able to let go of our attachments to worldly desires, material possessions, and personal ego, and free ourselves from the influence of external circumstances and emotional entanglements, Meister Eckhart teaches that we will experience a profound inner peace and a direct, intimate connection with the divine. This state of inner stillness allows us to recognize and realize the presence of God within ourselves, leading to a sense of unity with the divine and a deeper understanding of our true nature. It brings about a feeling of spiritual fulfillment, clarity, and liberation from the confines of the self.
By the end of the 5th century, the Liturgy of the Hours was composed of seven offices. Of these seven, Compline seems to have been the last to appear, because the 4th century Apostolic Constitutions VIII iv 34 do not mention it in the exhortation "Offer up your prayers in the morning, at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the evening, and at cock-crowing". An eighth office, Prime, was added by Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century. These eight are known by the following names, which do not reflect the times of the day at which in the second millennium they were traditionally recited, as shown by the use of the word "noon", derived from Latin (hora) nona, to mean midday, not 3 in the afternoon:
This arrangement of the Liturgy of the Hours is attributed to Saint Benedict. However, it is found in Saint John Cassian's Institutes and Conferences, which describe the monastic practices of the Desert Fathers of Egypt.
Life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who make the journey with us. So... be swift to love, and make haste to be kind. And the blessing of God, who made us, who loves us, and who travels with us be with you now and forever. Amen
A Blessing and reminder from Cotton Fite
St. Benedict seeks to reveal to us a spirituality that is about caring for the people we live with, loving the people we don't and loving God more than ourselves.
Through reading, study, and theological reflections we will learn to listen for the voice of God everywhere in life, especially in one another and here--together. An ancient tale from another tradition tells that a disciple asked the Holy One:
"Where shall I look for Enlightenment?""Here," the Holy One said."When will it happen?""It is happening right now," the Holy One said."Then why don't I experience it?""Because you do not look," the Holy said."What should I look for?""Nothing," the Holy One said. "Just look.""At what?""Anything your eyes alight upon," the Holy One said."Must I look in a special kind of way?""No," the Holy One said. "The ordinary way will do.""But don't I always look in the ordinary way?""No," the Holy One said. "You don't.""Why ever not?" the disciple demanded."Because to look you must be here," the Holy One said.
"You're mostly somewhere else."
We are called to listen to and to look at what God is saying to us in our simple, sometimes insane and always uncertain daily lives. Simple religiosity sometimes seeks to make a god out of religious devotion itself, walking over the poor on the way to the altar. Known to Benedict as bitter zeal, it all too frequently renders the useless invisible and makes devotion more sacred than community.
Bitter zeal wraps us up in ourselves and makes us feel holy about it. Bitter zeal renders us blind to others, deaf to those around us, struck dumb in the face of the demands of dailiness.
Good zeal, reveals to us the holiness of the human community, immerses us in Christ and surrenders us to God, minute by minute, person by person, day after day after day. Good zeal provides the foundation for the spirituality of the long haul. It keeps us going when days are dull and holiness seems to be the stuff of more glamorous lives, of martyrdom and dramatic differences.
But it is then, just then, when Benedict of Nursia reminds us from the dark of the sixth century that sanctity is the stuff of community in Christ.
Welcome to our new blog....
Notice the links across the top below the banner.
These links open a new tab in your browser and enable you to view other websites. I invite you to explore these links.
In the right hand column you will see a heading Links of Interest. We will add to this list over time as new links come to our collective attention. The first link is a summary of the Education for Ministry reading list. I invite you to ask about this ministry if you would like to learn more.
