Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 9-13)
The workshop in which we are called to work along these lines with steady perseverance is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in community life. (From para. 13 of Ch. 4 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Monastic enclosure and stability, fitted to my life as a contemplative householder, take on a quality that I identify as discipline. I ask myself: What does the discipline of Christian meditation teach me? About the priority of prayer before the demands of my ego? About knowing what my practice is, even if I miss it. About learning to pray continuously? About the necessity of growing through relationship? About resolving upsets in a spirit mutual respect? About service?
“Now the workshop in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community.” The monastery without walls is a big blessing to me who is living in the world yet striving to live a stable life in the spirit of the rule. The sharing alone of the oblates in this blog is a source of inspiration and strength for me in this journey.
ReplyDelete“Now the workshop in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community.” (Translation by Leonard J. Doyle). My workshop, my laboratory, my place of employment, the place where I get to experiment daily in practicing one or all seventy-two of these guidelines or tools, is my family and neighborhood and each and every person I meet today. I like the idea of each day as the gift of another day in this workshop called my life. Today, this present moment, wherever life places me, Abba, is your work assignment for me, for the day, your employment offer to me. I am only a day worker. You are, indeed, the Employer who gives me all I need as long as I do your work well.
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