Prologue to The Rule (paragraphs 1-2)
Listen, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure that it pierces to your heart, so that you may accept with willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father. (From para. 1 of Prologue to The Rule of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1973.)
To discover my Inner Teacher, to listen to her message and to absorb the paradox of heart-piercing liberty, and to live this out through my life . . . St Benedict speaks of obedience, Fr John speaks of fidelity. Either way, it is the practice of selfless attention that puts me on this path.
“Listen . . . that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.” These first words of the Rule remind me of the Twelve-Steppers’ definition of procrastination: “a five-syllable word for sloth.” So, Abba, forgive me my sloth, the times I put off fulfilling my primary committed work of obedience, of listening: my twice-daily meditation.
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