Prologue to The Rule (paragraphs 1-2)
It is not easy to accept and persevere in obedience, but it is the way to return to Christ, when you have strayed through the laxity and carelessness of disobedience. (From para. 1 of Prologue to The Rule of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
What has meditation taught me? To move naturally like the breath, not harshly, like the ego. To listen, with the ear of the heart, to life itself. And to return, always to return, with fidelity. Christ welcomes me, and resolves the paradox implied in "returning" to fidelity.
Again at the beginning of a new year I return to the the beginning of the Rule. It reminds me to return to the mantra again and again in obedience to the call to leave self behind.
ReplyDelete“LISTEN carefully, my child, to your master’s precepts, and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20).” Today, as we are celebrating the feast of Mary, the mother of God, I can’t help but imagine a Mary who constantly listened with the ear of her heart. Having known myself as a talkative person, I pray for the grace of a listening heart.
ReplyDelete“Listen”. Abba, you have given me two ears, two eyes and only one mouth. This should remind me that I need to listen, to take in, your word, at least four times as much as I should chatter. The word “obedience”, in fact, comes from the Latin “ob-audire”, “to hear--in the direction of”, in this case, “in the direction of” you. This is where the Rule begins. And that is where we begin today, Abba, with you inviting me to do the work (opera dei) of listening to you, hearing you, here within me, in meditation. The mantra coaxes me beyond my ego’s cacophonous babbling, one repetition at a time.
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