Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 4)


[The abbot or abbess] should not select for special treatment any individual in the monastery. They should not love one more than another unless it is for good observance of the Rule and obedience.  One who is free-born should not,  for that reason, be advanced before one coming to monastic life from a condition of slavery, unless there is some other good reason for it. (From para. 4 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I'm not a better meditator than anyone else, and no one else is a better meditator than me. All that matters for me, for anyone, in the practice is growing fidelity. Fruits of meditation manifest according to the grace of God.

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