Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 3-5)
Don't let our actions be governed by anger nor nurse your anger against a future opportunity of indulging it. (From para. 3 of Ch. 4 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Anger, like any obsession, robs me of living in the present moment. When I'm not open to that reality, I can be come dangerous, so to speak, to myself and those around me.
“One of the desert fathers returned from his hermitage to the community speaking about the dangers of spiritual pride when separated from others. Then he added, ‘There, when I was alone, whose feet could I wash?’.” (John Main, “Monastery Without Walls”, Kindle loc 3943). I am sobered by Fr. John’s words as I am by the Rule’s list of “Tools for Good Works”, as Joan Chittister calls them. For most of the year I live in retirement in a relatively isolated beach community in Ecuador. Now for a few months I am living here with my son’s family in a bustling urban settingin North America, out of my “hermitage”. Two grandsons under six and the ordinary challenges of family give me lots of feet to wash. Abba, purify me today in this crucible of family and community.
ReplyDeletePlease, Lord let me not turn away from someone who needs my love because I am blinded by my actions, by deceit, by grudges, by pride. My way of acting can be different from the world's way, only if my gaze is always on You.
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