Chapter 5: Monastic obedience (paragraphs 1-3)
The first step on the way to humility is to obey an order without delaying for a moment. That is a response which comes easily to those who hold nothing dearer than Christ himself. ... The obedience of such people leads them to leave aside their own concerns and forsake their own will. They abandon what they have in hand and leave it unfinished. With a ready step inspired by obedience they respond by their action to the voice that summons them. (From paras. 1 and 2 of Ch. 5 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
"With a ready step inspired by obedience they respond by their action to the voice that summons them." That voice, in my life, is the voice of the Inner Teacher, who calls me, in a continuing conversion of life, to respond less and less to fantasy, and more and more to the reality of divine love.
Mconastic obedience, I hear you telling me today, Abba, means picking up the socks my wife reminded me of. It means listening to my annoying little grandson, hearing his tugging at my sleeve as simply his inviting me to play with him. It means listening for you in everyone I meet today.
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