Prologue to The Rule (paragraph 3)
However late, then, it may seem, let us rouse ourselves from lethargy. This is what scripture urges on us when it says: the time has come for us to rouse ourselves from sleep. (From para. 3 of the Prologue to The Rule of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
St Benedict seems to me to be suggesting that lethargy is a rather continuous state, and I recognize myself in that, if I consider that the laxness and distractedness of my habitual state of mind as a kind of dozing. And, if I add to that thinking a dose of "it's too late anyway", then I am well and truly struck. Saying the mantra is the dislodger of my mental muddle, rousing is not unlike beginning again, and practicing small kindnesses is a way to stay alert.
The early Christians summarized their faith and hope by declaring, in wonder, that “God became man so that man might become God”. Today, now, in that same wonder, the silence, stillness and simplicity of the work of meditation opens my eyes to “the light that changes [me] to the likeness of God.”¬¬
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