Chapter 31: The qualities required by the cellarer (paragraph 1)
All the utensils of the monastery and in fact everything that belongs to the monastery should be cared for as though they were the sacred vessels of the altar. (From para. 1 of Ch. 31 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict is telling me that even mundane things can be sacred vessels -- that everything mediates the love of God, and that this is reality.
'As cellarer of the monastery
ReplyDeletelet there be chosen from the community
one who is wise, of mature character, sober,
not a great eater, not haughty, not excitable,
not offensive, not slow, not wasteful,
but a God-fearing man
who may be like a father to the whole community." This is a good guideline for me as steward of God's everyday blessings.