Feb 17 - Chaos Ordered, Order Transfigured

O Lord, I call to you;
my Rock, do not be deaf to my cry; *
lest, if you do not hear me,
I become like those who go down to the Pit.
Psalm 28:1

On the feasts of saints, and indeed on all solemn festivals, the Sunday order of celebrations is followed...
Benedict's Rule, 14:1 (Chittister, Pg. 116)

The lesson is that we must keep the human dimensions of the faith very much in mind and find in models from the past proof that daily chaos can be ordered and the ordinary transfigured for us, too.
Chittister, Pg. 117

Transfiguring the ordinary. In my area we had the day off for snow. A fine example of chaos being ordered. Everything has changed, yet the view out the window is wonderful. Later I will go out and clear my driveway and sidewalks. And what is ordinary is transfigured. Waking up in the morning becomes a time of discovery as we look out the window at the clean white blanket of snow over what has been a dull brown lawn...

Does the chaos of my life become ordered, are the ordered mundane moments of my life transfigured? It all depends on my attitude. If I call upon the Lord, if I enjoy the special days as they come along, if I remember I am only human, it seems that days are transfigured, that the moments become special, even when surrounded by the mundane...

A Note To Anyone Reading:

This entry is part of a series that is developing as I read The Rule of Benedict, A Spirituality for the 21st Century, Joan Chittister, OSB, Crossroads, 2010. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading this book and to anyone that is interested.

Unless stated otherwise quotes from St. Benedict's Rule are from the translation in this same book.Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

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