Chapter 40: The proper amount of drink to be provided
It may be that local circumstances may make it impossible to provide the amount of wine we have suggested above so that there may be much less available or even none at all. Those who live in such a locality should praise God and avoid any murmuring. Above all else I urge that there should be no murmuring in the community. (From para. 3 of Ch. 40 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Simple: Replace habits of overconsumption and complaining with praise of God. Not easy: But the work of the mantra teaches me that I have a choice about where I place my attention.
“Spititus contra Spiritum”, wrote Carl Jung to Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. “The Spirit against Alcohol” goes the literal translation from the Latin Jung was citing. One out of nine of us who drink (one out of five of us who are health care professionals) develops a problem with alcohol or its multiple substitutes, its “powdered” forms: prescription or illegal drugs. Wine gladdens the heart, the scripture says. But St Benedict recognizes that wine can also destroy the heart and all of the rest of my bodily and mental parts, not to speak of my spirituality. The only real alternative, the only real remedy for what ails me, including alcohol, Spiritum, is Spiritus, your Spirit, Lord Jesus. Come. Maranatha.
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