ENLARGING THE HEART UPDATE: 1ST January 2015 We now begin a new series of commentaries on the Rule of our Holy Father Saint Benedict (Series 3). We hope this will continue to be a source of spiritual nourishment for you. Daily readings from the Rule of Saint Benedict By a Benedictine of Saint Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde "... as we progress in our monastic life and in faith, our hearts shall be enlarged, and we shall run with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God's commandments." (From the Prologue of the Rule of Saint Benedict) |
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St Benedict wrote his Rule for monks some fifteen centuries ago. Driven by his love of Christ, he wanted to establish his monastery as a "school of the Lord's service": a place where people who truly seek God could find him; places where "authentic Gospel values prevail"(1); where nothing whatever would be preferred to Christ. The Rule of St Benedict spread all over Like many monasteries we divide the Rule into sections so that the whole Rule is covered over a period of three months. The commentaries will follow the sequence of the sections. (1) Pope John Paul II, to Benedictine Abbots, |
Sept 19 22. Not
to follow the promptings of anger. 23. Not
to seek an occasion of revenge. 24. Not
to foster deceit in one's heart. 25. Not
to make a feigned peace. 26. Not
to forsake charity. 27. Not
to swear, lest perhaps one perjure oneself. 28. To
utter the truth with heart and lips. 29. Not
to render evil for evil. 30. To do
no wrong to anyone, but to bear patiently any wrong done to oneself. 31. To
love one's enemies. 32. Not
to speak ill of those who speak ill of us, but rather to speak well of them. 33. To
suffer persecution for justice' sake. 34. Not
to be proud. 35. Not
to be given to wine. 36. Not
to be a glutton. 37. Not
to be given to sleep. 38. Not
to be slothful. 39. Not
to be a murmurer. 40. Not
to be a detractor. 41. To
put one's trust in God. 42. To attribute any good one sees in oneself to God
and not to oneself. 43. But
always to acknowledge that the evil is one's own, and to attribute it to oneself. Today we shall focus on the 26th tool: Not to forsake charity.
This is a striking maxim. St Benedict says we should never abandon charity.
There are many ways of forsaking charity: we may simply give up trying to put
another’s needs before our own. We may
lead a narrow, limited life with the minimum amount of good works, as little
threatened by the needs of others as possible.
We may decide that the best way of dealing with so-and-so is to keep
right out of the way. I may define
strictly what my business is and what my business is not. There are in numerous
ways, attitudes that replace charity in us, and that are really a deviation
from it. To really love is difficult,
costly. Our love must be founded on the
love of Christ; only then will it survive and be strengthened. Only then will it not depend on other people,
on their response. |
CHAPTER 4: The tools of good works Sept 18 1. First of all, to love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.
2. Then, to love thy neighbour as thyself. 3. Next, not to kill. 4. Not to commit adultery. 5. Not to steal. 6. Not to covet. 7. Not to bear false witness. 8. To honour all men. 9. Not to do to another what one would not
have done to oneself. 10. To
deny oneself in order to follow Christ. 11. To
chastise the body. 12. Not
to seek after luxuries. 13. To
love fasting. 14. To
refresh the poor. 15. To
clothe the naked. 16. To
visit the sick. 17. To
bury the dead. 18. To
help in affliction. 19. To
console the sorrowing. 20. To
keep aloof from worldly actions. 21. To
prefer nothing to the love of Christ. It is very revealing of St Benedict’s
spirituality that his tools of good works begin with the two-fold commandment
of love. Everything in his Rule - the
liturgy, community life, enclosure expresses the fundamental option for God and
Christ; and St Benedict in his Rule teaches how to receive Christ in others and
in ourselves. The Church has taught that
the contemplative nun fulfils this great commandment of love: “The contemplative nun fulfils to the
highest degree the First Commandment of the Lord: “You will love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all
your mind” (Lk 10:27), making it the full meaning of her life, and
loving in God all the brothers and sisters. She moves towards the perfection of
charity, choosing God as “the one thing necessary” (cf. Lk10:42),
loving him exclusively as All in all. .. This is the reason why the earliest
spiritual tradition spontaneously associated complete withdrawal from the world
(27) and all works of the apostolate with this kind of life, “which thus
becomes a silent emanation of love and superabundant grace in the pulsing heart
of the Church as Bride.”
(Verbi Sponsa, Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns, 13 May 1996).
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