Chapter 3: Calling the community together for consultation (paragraph 1)
The community themselves should be careful to offer their advice with due deference and respect, avoiding an obstinate defence of their own convictions. (From para. 1 of Ch. 3 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Not only are my egocentric arguments tiresome, but they shatter unity and obscure a clear-eyed view of the heart of the matter.
“Seeing ourselves as the center of the universe, we take our decisions more or less solely on the basis of how they will advance our own comfort, amusement or self-fulfillment. This self-centeredness is a loneliness more terrible than any physical solitary confinement cell in the worst prison.”(John Main, “Monastery Without Walls”, Kindle loc 3721). How terrifying community consultation can be to my narcissistic mind. How it challenges my ego, that spoiled inner child Freud would call “His majesty the baby”, the two-year old in my head who demands to have things my way. Heal me, Lord. Make me teachable and thus by the littlest of my fellows.
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