Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 1)

...everything he or she commands or teaches should be like a leaven of the holiness that comes from God infused into the minds of their disciples. (From para. 1 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)


What does it mean to me to be a leaven in community? To lighten another's burden, to give encouragement and support, to touch another's heart with tenderness.