Chapter 35: Weekly servers in the kitchen and at table (paragraphs 1-2)
Everyone in the community should take turns serving in the kitchen and at table. None should be exonerated from kitchen duty except in the case of sickness or the call of some important business for the monastery, because serving each other in this way has the great merit of fostering charity. (From para. 1 of Ch. 35 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Rank or role does not exempt me from taking my turn in handling the small acts of charity, that knits together my heart, with the hearts in my family and in community and in creation.
"It is no good . . . meditating twice a day. . . and it is no good having our ;spiritual' life in order unless our practical life is equally in order and commensurate with it." (John Main, "Community of Love" p83). How I so need to be reminded that the simple touchstones of my spiritual ideals are how I wash the dishes, pay a bill promptly or pick up my socks.
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