From The Desk Of Deacon Judy

Musings on St. Benedict’s Rule

In his March 11 Forward Day by Day reflection, my friend Tyler described himself as a “solitary Benedictine”. He noted that St. Benedict’s Rule gives “structure and meaning” to his life as he seeks to “balance work, study, play, and rest.”

Tyler inspired me to ponder my struggle with St. Benedict’s Rule. I bought the little red Rule of St. Benedict book years ago and decided there was no way I could be that strictly disciplined.

When in the sixth century Benedict of Nursia retreated from the corrupt world and entered into community with others, they began to practice a daily rhythm of prayer, spiritual reading, work, eating, and sleeping. Benedictine monasteries follow this rule, praying the hours at certain times and scheduling the other activities at specific times.

My rule of life is a rhythm of life but I find it difficult to punch a clock for prayer, study, work, and a healthy lifestyle.

When I shared my musings with a friend of 50 years, she gave me a book called Oblation: Meditations on St. Benedict’s Rule by Rachel M. Srubas. I now feel affirmed that the “Rule” can be flexible.

The meditation on this rule reassures me (Oblation, pp 6-7):

Your Paradoxical Gospel

Your hope of fulfillment should be centered in God alone. (Chapter 4, St. Benedict’s Rule)

Sacred Encircler, I’m far less ready

to surrender my independence

than you are to surround me with your love.

I dodge your embrace.

I busy myself, chase down achievements,

then trip on some humbling truth and stumble

into your paradoxical gospel,

a story so old, so told, I’m startled

when it confronts me with the falsity

of my frenetic efforts,

the reality of greater mercy.

You don’t hand me glory. You ask me

to empty my hands of my burdens,

my mind of my plans.

You command me to love you entirely, and others

as though they lived in my skin.

In my fear that I’ll disappear

if I give in to you, I fall to the depths

of my unbelief. This inward poverty

comes with a challenge:

to give up my pretense of self-sufficiency –

or to persist in it,

and see where it gets me.

Lenten Blessings,

Judy Q+