Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 7)

[The abbot or abbess] should reflect on what a difficult demanding task they have accepted, namely that of guiding souls and serving the needs of so many different characters; gentle encouragement will be needed for one, strong rebukes for another, rational persuasion for another, according to the character and intelligence of each. (From Ch. 2 of St. Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

What this paragraph says to me more than anything else is that I am both unique and that I share a common humanity. Wherever I am, whatever my role, there this uniqueness and unity to be seen in each person, and this is how relationships can become transformational.