Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 3-5)
Don't let your 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.)
"Nursing" anger: even the phrase itself betrays self-deception. "Nursing" anger is steeping myself in the delusions of the ego --believing that such indulgence is what life is about. What I'm called to nurse, to nurture, is a constant awareness of existing only in the present moment, selflessly, in the Presence.
“23. Not to nurse a grudge.” “No wonder you have so few friends”,Teresa of Avila remarked to God one particularly challenging day. “You treat them so poorly.” Abba, I, too have had a grudge against you, in the midst of those moments of mine of mental illness, the severe depression and self-pity of my youth. Meditation and the mantra and the community they create break me out of this prison of self-centered fear and I reconnect joyfully with you.
ReplyDelete'Not to forsake charity' ... Giving is my favorite virtue. And to give out of love is charity. Oh Lord, please make me always give out of love not out of anything else. Amen
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