Monday, November 26, 2018

Chapter 46: Faults committed elsewhere


Any member of the community who in the course of some work in the kitchen, in the stores, while fulfilling a service to others or in the bakery, the garden or the workshops or anywhere else does something wrong or happens to break or lose something or to be guilty of some other wrongdoing, must as soon as possible appear before the superior and the community with a voluntary admission of the failure and willing reparation for it. (From para. 1 of Ch. 46 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

For me, this passage poses an examination of conscience: do I allow every task, every moment, every relationship to be an opportunity to work with love and gratitude?  Does I allow my work to mediate Christ's love for me, no matter how small the work seems? Am I alert to the difference it makes to my consciousness, and to those around me?

1 comment:

  1. “Clearly, Chapter 46 is not about punishment. Chapter 46 is about social consciousness.” (Joan Chittister) Abba, you and Benedict today ask me to use your gift of my “ability to respond” to the needs of our “Common Home”, this planet. You and the Rule ask me to be socially responsible, socially “response-able” and not just another mindless consumer of Mother Earth’s resources.

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