Chapter 3: Calling the community together for consultation (paragraph 1)
When any business of importance is to be considered in the monastery, the abbot or abbess should summon the whole community together and personally explain to them the agenda that lies before them. After hearing the advice of the community, the superior should consider it carefully in private and only then make a judgement about what is the best decision. (From para. 1 of Ch. 3 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, 1997.)
The purpose of my seeking advice in important decisions is not to find someone to agree with me, but to open my mind to the wisdom of the community, to the spirit that lives within and among us, and find consensus.
“Do everything with counsel and you will not be sorry afterward”(Sirach 32:24)in Chapter 3 of the Rule.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note when I allow advice to be given and when I close up to advice. As in all the chapters of the Rule, I find a call for more radical self-examination and deep listening to the Spirit. Health-wise, medical advice is pretty much always received. Personal-wise, advice given and advice taken depends on the advisor. This is not what Benedict is advocating in this chapter. Benedict is advocating an openness, “hearing the advice of the brothers”(RB3.2), a prayerful listening, “let him ponder it and follow what he judges the wiser course”(RB3.2)and a humility, “no one is to follow his own heart’s desire”(RB3.8). If I were to choose one word from this reading it would be openness, an openness to God, to self and to others.