A Daily Lent

Listening As Openness and Willingness Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent – March 26, 2020 Benedict of Nursia wrote a guide for persons who sought to live in community out of a common desire to orient life around God. That guide is called The Rule of Benedict. And the “vows” we have explored this week are all integral to Benedictine spirituality. The Benedictine vow of stability means that we stand still and attend to who we are in this moment. We intentionally nourish the soul, we tend to the fires of the inner life. We do not move at such a frantic pace that we cease to know ourselves. Be still. The vow of continual conversion means that we are always journeying on. God is continually forming us, shaping us as the people God created us to be. We continue to journey, to explore, and to make new discoveries, both in the outer world and in the our own inner world. We are still moving. The vow of obedience , as Esther de Waal describes it below, simply asks us to listen . . ....

A Loving Surrender Tuesday of the First Week of Lent – March 3, 2020 I am one of those persons described by Henri Nouwen who cringes at the word “obedience.” I can ascribe that to experiences earlier in life which were painful, in which I was expected to be blindly obedient to a way not my own. Like those Nouwen describes below, the word conjures up negative connotations for me. Yet, I realize that when I love and trust someone, I am willing to surrender, submit, and even be obedient to the beloved one. It is this sense of obedience St. Benedict leans into when he offers a Rule of Life as a guide for living together in monastic community. Within community, not everyone can be in charge. You cannot get your own way all the time and form a healthy community. So Benedict addresses vows of obedience made in the monastery. And the beginning of obedience, he says, is listening. Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advi...