Chapter 38: The weekly reader
Everyone on the community should be attentive to the needs of their neighbours as they eat and drink so that there should be no need for anyone to ask for what they require. (From para. 2 of Ch. 38 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict asks for complete silence, without even whispering, total attention to the reader, and simultaneous attention to the needs of neighbors while eating one's own meal. I don't think this is multitasking. I think this is like what a pilot might call "situational awareness", but in the best sense of being totally present to the reality in which the love of God is interpenetrating.
“The way to become fully conscious of this essential harmony of our being is to be silent.” (John Main, “Word into Silence”, Kindle loc1236). My being silent twice a day for twenty to thirty minutes, along with the mantra, are introducing me to “this essential harmony”, an inner harmony I had not even dreamt of. It is so far beyond any possible product of my imagination or my thought, a peace beyond all understanding.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbors are all around me. Being attentive to what they require takes a lot of attention on my part. Sometimes I see but do not take in all the details. Sometimes I think I hear but am not really listening. The weekly reader draws focus on the necessity of the spiritual nourishment of my neighbors and not only their physical nourishment. This is where the silence ,stillness and simplicity of meditation opens up my heart to sensitive consciousness for others, uncomplicated and direct. Sometimes a simple, uncomplicated response is just deep, totally attentive, listening completely directed at the other.
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