Chapter 37: Care for the elderly and the young

Human nature itself is drawn to tender concern for those in the two extremes of age and youth, but the authority of the Rule should reinforce this natural instinct. Their frailty should always be given consideration so that they should not be strictly bound to the provisions of the Rule in matters of diet. (From Ch. 37 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

I sense two challenges here: The first is to be a protector of the young and old, who are not seen as powerful in our society. And the second is to find practical, down-to-earth and interpersonal ways to do so.