Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 15)
The eighth step of humility teaches us to do nothing which goes beyond what is approved and encouraged by the common rule of the monastery and the example of our seniors. (Paragraph 8 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
This passage speaks to me of the paradoxical dynamic of discipline and liberty. A living rule, one that I am living, gives me structure, returns me to God, and can allow me to participate in gifts of resilience, appropriateness, and creativity.
This reminds me to restrain my sometimes excessive enthusiasm for the novel and to trust the Tradition: to say my word is enough.
ReplyDeleteI know what it means to do. In fact, I had become principally a human doing! Now, as much as my workaholic ego hates it, my fidelity to the poverty of the mantra is teaching me day by day what it means to be, and how to become a human being.
ReplyDeleteThe humility here for me is in the constant awareness of others. According to
ReplyDeleteJohn Main the root of conversion is "turning from" myself to my "brethren in community; and to Christ in prayer; and to God in Christ." I may be solitary but I am not alone in this Community. In fact before we start our meditation, we pray that "our hearts may be open". I notice the plurality not the singularity.