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Tag Archives: obedience

Top 10 Quotes from Benedict's Rule: Part 2

The “Rule of Benedict” (RB) is considered one of the classic works of Western literature. More importantly, it challenges the result oriented, numbers-driven, “strategic” leadership models that surround us. Again, I invite you to prayerfully let God speak to you his insights: 1. “The fourth step of humility is that in this obedience under difficult, unfavorable, or even unjust conditions, his heart quietly embraces suffering and endures it” (RB 7:35). 2. “Our holy Fathers read the full psalter (all 150 psalms) in a single day. Let us hope that we, lukewarm as we are, can achieve it in a whole week” (RB 18:2-25). 3. We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. Prayer should be short and pure” (RB 20:3). 4. “Sleep clothed. Thus the monks will always be ready to arise without delay when the signal is given; each will hasten to arrive at. Read more.

Yearly Sabbatical with the Trappists

For the last few years I have approached my vacations as ‘mini-sabbaticals”, seeking to structure my time according to Sabbath principles – Stopping (work), Resting, Delighting and Contemplating God. Part of what this has meant for me the last few years, besides thinking through vacations much more purposefully so that my soil gets fresh nutrients from God through doing holy “nothing”, has been to take a few days alone with the Trappists in St. Joseph’s in Spencer Massachusetts. When this blog is posted, I will be there. Why and what will I be doing? The 60-70 monks, who live as a strict Benedictine community on a 1 by 3 mile plot of land, have taken vows of stability, poverty and conversion of life (celibacy and obedience to the authority of the Abbot). Their lives are so far from contemporary American Christianity that I find my days with them drive me to Jesus, to simplicity, to. Read more.