Chapter 64: The election of an abbot or abbess (paragraphs 3-4)
They should not be trouble-makers nor given to excessive anxiety nor should they be too demanding and obstinate, nor yet interfering and inclined to suspicion so as never to be at rest.
(From para. 4 of Ch. 64 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
My job is not to be busy about controlling people or events, but to rest in the Lord. Here I discover the resourcefulness that springs from being grounded in my source.
"The goal must be profit for the community members, not preeminence for themselves." In order for others "to profit" I have to let go of the way that I think that the profit for the community should be expressed because ego-preeminence is even in that thought. The God-life in me needs freedom to be expressed in Its own life-giving and loving way which is often "new" and surprising and not in my usual way of doing things.
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