Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 6)
As to pursuing our own will we are warned against that when scripture says to us: turn away from your own desires; and in the Lord's prayer itself we pray that his will may be brought to fulfillment in us. (From para. 6 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Meditation teaches me that God's will is to follow the most loving, attentive, redemptive path through any situation.
In this same reading, Benedict reminds me that, "we must believe that God is always with us." Today is the feast of the Ascension and one of the Vigil readings for today reaffirms the way of Benedict and John Main and my meditation practice--to believe "without hesitation what escapes the bodily eye and to desire unswervingly what cannot be seen."(from St. Leo the Great's "Sermon on the Ascension",today's Vigil's reading) There is the need for humility --to "persevere, with humility" and "say my mantra" gradually pushing back the limits of my unbelief in God's unremitting presence in my life.
ReplyDelete“ . . . the Spirit . . . is a power of irresistible joy and peace. Its power is released if only we allow ourselves to be who we really are, to believe what we really believe and to say what we really mean.” (John Main, “Monastery Without Walls” Kindle loc 2911). I am struck again, Abba, by the simplicity of your call to me to that “irresistible joy and peace” through today’s daily humble “yes” to Reality, to opening up and letting you love me as I am. That is what “Thy will be done” means.
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