Chapter 41: The times for community meals
The principle is that the superior should manage everything so prudently that the saving work of grace may be accomplished in the community and whatever duties the community undertakes they may be carried out without any excuse for murmuring.
(From para. 1 of Ch. 41 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
If I need a principle to lead my daily life by, this instruction from St. Benedict would certainly be a top contender. He guides me in the practice of living in a way that every little thing I do mediates the love of Christ. Meditation helps me to grow in the practice of this simple and unifying vision.
"To regulate and arrange all matters so that souls may be saved" says another translation but not different in meaning. All matters whether work or sleep or eating or reading a book or the computer need regulation. "No man(In this case woman)who simply eats and drinks whenever (she) feels like eating and drinking...who gratifies her curiosity and sensuality whenever they are stimulated, can consider (herself) a free person," said Thomas Merton. Benedict devotes three chapters to this topic. Is the person who comes to meditation, slave or free? Am I deluding myself by the fact that I say I meditate that I am free? Meditation works both ways- how do I come to meditation and how do I leave?
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