Jan 11 - The Beauty That Oozes

Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord, O my soul! *
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Psalm 146:1

...proposing God's commandments to a receptive community with words, but demonstrating God's instructions to the stubborn and the dull by a living example.
Benedict's Rule 2.12 (Chittister, Pg 37)

Benedict is saying that the function of spiritual leadership is not to intimidate people into submission by fear or guilt. The function of spiritual leadership is to show in our own lives the beauty that oozes out of those who live the spiritual life to the fullest.
Chittister, Pg 39

When first looking at this portion of Benedict's Rule, I had the sense I could skip these instructions as I am not a spiritual leader, I am not a prioress or an abbot. Upon reflection I think again. I think of the community that is, hopefully, developing at St. George's, I think of my own life where I lead others at work, and where I co-lead a wonderful two-person community of being a married couple...

At home and at work it isn't fair to ask others to spend time I am not willing to spend or to do things I am not willing to do. I am to do my part, I am to lead by example. (This isn't to say I can do everything that others can do. The others I work with do things that I can't. For example, I work with experts that do things with technical equipment. I ask them to operate and care for that equipment. I make sure they have the resources, time, and training to do their work. Then I stay out of their way as much as possible.)

Our budding instance of the Community of Hope at St. George's is another place where we all will be leading, where we can all lead with both words and example. We hope to provide comfort, stability, and a listening ear where there may be pain, frustration, even loneliness. We will often lead only by example, being examples of presence, hope, peace, and love...

We do lead, may our leadership be such that beauty does ooze from us as we live our spiritual lives.

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, Crossroads, 2010. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Unless stated otherwise quotes from St. Benedict's Rule from the translation in this same book.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 10 - Finding The Dazzling Light In Each Of Us

Search me out, O God, and know my heart; *
try me and know my restless thoughts.
Psalm 139:22

Let the prioress and abbot always remember that at the judgment of God, not only their teaching but also the community's obedience will come under scrutiny.
2:6 (Chittister, Pg 35)

The purpose of Benedictine spirituality is to gather equally committed adults for a journey through earthen darkness to the dazzling light that already flames in each of us, but in a hidden place left to each of us to find.
Sister Joan Chittister, Pg 36)

It is true, our spiritual leaders will be held accountable for the lessons they teach, but each of us in our families, our jobs, in our school of spiritual growth will also be held accountable. We must concentrate on our journey, our growth toward the dazzling light that flames within us. Great lessons are provided, but we must be open to absorb them, we must listen. We must respond. As "equally committed adults" we must do our part. Thanks be to our God who searches us, who knows our heart, who tries us, who knows our thoughts, both restless and rested. Ultimately, if we are quiet and listen for God with the ear of our heart we can know our part, we can grow.

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, Crossroads, 2010. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Unless stated otherwise quotes from St. Benedict's Rule from the translation in this same book.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 9 - Either Way

My help comes from the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:2

They [the prioress or abbot] are believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery. ...Everything they teach and command should, like the leaven of divine justice, permeate the minds of the community.
Benedict's Rule 2:2,5 (Chittister, Pg 33)

"The superior of a monastery of Benedictines will be a Christ figure, simple, unassuming, immersed in God, loving of the marginal, doer of the gospel, beacon to the strong."
(Chittister, Pg 33)

We are called to be disciples of Christ in our communities. We look up to our superiors. I, and many of us reading this are not subject to the direct authority of a prioress or abbot, but many of us in church communities, have pastors, rectors, bishops, priests, elders, or spiritual directors we look to. We look to see the simple and unassuming leader immersed in God. We also hope, ourselves, to grow in our love of the marginal, to be more of a doer of the gospel, to understand we are a beacon to the strong...

But we, and our leaders and superiors are human. We make mistakes, sometimes big, public, and humiliating errors. Some of them we label "sins". Today my church, the Episcopal Church in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region has come face to face with a leader who appears to have made a very public, and in this case fatal error. (On 09-Jan-2015 Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook was charged with manslaughter in an accident that occurred on 27-Dec-2014.) What happens when someone in a leadership position, this position we have equated with Christ, acts in such a way we all question them, their leadership, their authority? Can they be the Christ figure for us?

They must. I don't know how. Christ was perfect, we are not. While representing Christ, none of us is Christ. All of us are sinful.

And all of us must go on and meet Christ and ask forgiveness no matter what. And even harder, we must accept that forgiveness from Christ. The rest of us can grow stronger. No matter what our fellow, sinful, leader does (asking for forgiveness and being forgiven, or giving up and falling) we have an example to learn from. Either way.


Oh yes, we must also pray. Lots of prayer. A life of prayer.

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, Crossroads, 2010. Unless stated otherwise I am using the translation St. Benedict's Rule from her book. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 8 - Living in a Cenobitic Way

"You are my God, and I will thank you; *
you are my God, and I will exalt you."
Psalm 118:28

First there are the cenobites, that is to say, those who belong to a monastery, where they serve under a rule and an abbot or prioress...
Third, there are sarabaites...
1:2, 6 (Chittister, Pg 27, 29)

My thought, as I read this yet again, is how much I need a leader. While I am not a monk, I am a church member and an oblate and I have chosen to join others in communities, communities with spiritual leaders and guides. I find it all too easy for me to off on my own, to decide for myself what is holy, what is good. When I decide for myself I tend to pick the easy as holy. As I read further in Sr. Joan's reflection I find more of the rule: "Their [Sarabaites] law is what they like to do, whatever strikes their fancy. Anything they believe in and choose, they call holy; anything they dislike, they consider forbidden." (Rule 1:9)

I put myself in the structure and surroundings of our school of spiritual learning, I seek the guidance of others to hold me accountable. I am striving to live in a cenobitic way, one of those who "are seekers of the spiritual life...(to) live with others --and are not a law unto themselves (Chittister, Pg 25). As I read Sr. Joan's reflections I find depth, words, advice, in almost every sentence. I learn that "In monastic spirituality, there is no escape from life, only a chance to confront it, day after day in all its sanctifying tedium and blessed boredom and glorious agitation in the communities of which we are a part at any given moment of our lives." (Pg 27)

A prayer: "Lord Jesus: Please agitate me, help me live my life in your service."

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, Crossroads, 2010. Unless stated otherwise I am using the translation St. Benedict's Rule from her book. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 7 - A School for God's Service

Therefore we intend to establish a school for God's service. ... It is bound to be narrow at the outset.
Prologue:45, 48b (Chittister, Pg 21)

Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, *
you ministers of his who do his word.
Psalm 103:21

Sr. Joan Chittister adds "The spiritual life is not something that is gotten for the wishing or assumed by affectation. The spiritual life takes discipline..." (Pg 21) So true. I find my discipline lacks some of the time. This "school" where I discern a possible new aspect of my ministry excites me exactly because of my lack of discipline, the need for the narrowness at the outset becomes obvious! And I am doing it with others! I have a community that shares frustrations AND GROWTH.

I want growth, I do not want to be stagnant, to keep from being challenged, to stay the same as I was yesterday. I need the discipline I expect to find in being part of this group, discipline to help me through the days when I am tired, when challenges hurt, when being just the same person I was yesterday or last week feels like the easier way...

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, Crossroads, 2010. Unless stated otherwise I am using the translation St. Benedict's Rule from her book. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 6 - We Cannot, But With God We Can

What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Holy One to supply by the help of grace.
Prologue:41 (Chittister, Pg 19)

"Be still, then, and know that I am God"
Psalm 46:11a

I cannot do it. I forget one of the morning tasks at work. My boss still needs to remind me of the item I committed to finishing. I expect my spouse to be there after my hard day forgetting about her hard day. And then I remember I have given my life to God. Benedict's Rule and the psalm I read put it all together: My nature fails, the Holy One supplies grace. I can simply be still and know that God is with me.

Over the rest of this four month cycle we will read in the Rule and Ms. Chittister's reflections different ways of seeing and living this same truth. We are in this together, and not just us, God is with us. As are all the others that read these passages and the scriptures on a daily basis. We build a community where we can help each other, and all people, to experience the grace of the Holy One.

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, Crossroads, 2010. Unless stated otherwise I am using the translation St. Benedict's Rule from her book. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.

Jan 5 - Of Miracle Making and Relationships

"Whoever hears these words of of mine and does them is like a wise person who built a house upon rock..."
RoB Prologue:33 (Chittister, Page 16)

In Ms. Chittister's reflections for today (Jan 5, pages 16-19) I am reminded that family is not "just a routine relationship" and work is "our exercise in miracle making". Powerful reminders.

Today I tried something different. For the first time this year I read my psalm and Benedict's Rule early in the day, before heading off to work, then waited until this evening to write my thoughts and reflections. Previously I have been waiting for a "good" time to read, reflect, and write the blog entry. Tonight I came back to the reading and am working on the blog entry.

My day worked differently too. I more reflectively included thoughts of God after the reading time as I was starting to organize more work. More than once I came back to the "miracle making" line. It reminds me that others have said that work and family can be seen as times when we co-create with God. I certainly believe God calls us to use our time to assist in making our world a better place.

This miracle working and remembrance that family (and really, most other) relationships are not routine helps counter the frustrating agreement I felt as I read this morning's psalm:

Why are the nations in an uproar? *
Why do the people mutter empty threats?
Psalm 2:1

May we remember all the creative, miracle making times we have so we are less likely to join the uproar of making empty threats (or any threats, for that matter...)

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, Crossroads, 2010. Unless stated otherwise I am using the translation St. Benedict's Rule from her book. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading Ms. Chittister's book and to anyone that is interested.

Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

Comments are welcome, and encouraged, please use the blog comment feature.