Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 3)

Any, then, who accept the name of abbot abbess should give a lead to their disciples by two distinct methods of teaching -- by the example of the lives they lead (and that is the most important way) and by the words they use in their teaching. (From para. 3 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I may not often be in official positions of authority, but I am always called to be authentic. Meditation helps me to be authentic, because it helps me to find my proper place, to be my True Self, with God at the center of my life. Being authentic means an entry into the human consciousness of Jesus, a dynamic energy source that can take me beyond my ego's limitations to teach or to touch the heart of another.