Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 8)
The second step of humility is not to love having our own way nor to delight in our own desires. (From para. 8 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
Delight in my own desires, as wonderful as it sounds, is but an aspect of my heart closed in on itself. When life breaks open a heart, as it does, faith teaches me that the heart breaks open to love the whole world.
Delight in my own desires, as wonderful as it sounds, is but an aspect of my heart closed in on itself. When life breaks open a heart, as it does, faith teaches me that the heart breaks open to love the whole world.
Jesus, You never acted the doormat nor have You or Benedict ever asked me or any of Your followers to do so. In Gethsemane, however, sweating blood in fully human terror, You expressed your equally fully human desire to avoid drinking the counterintuitive cup the Father presented to You. Your bottom line surrender, “Not my will but Thine be done”, brought You and models for me, acceptance as the path to peace and joyful resurrection.
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