Sunday, December 7, 2014

Chapter 54: The reception of letters and gifts in the monastery


No one in a monastic community may receive or send to others letters, gifts of piety or any little tokens, without the permission of the superior, whether it is their parents who are concerned or anyone else at all or another member if the community. (From Ch. 54 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Gifts and letters are good, I think, except when I use them to manipulate others or make them indebted to me. True generosity comes from one realized heart respecting another, and carries with it liberty of spirit.

1 comment:

  1. "The reception of letters and gifts" is an appropriate reading for this time of year and especially on this feast day of Mary, December 8. Reflecting on her Gift and her reception of this Gift, the Word of God, the "love letter" of God to the world, helps me to understand my own gift of meditation and the reception of it. There is no pretension, no pride, no separation, no desire to hide the gift, nor no presumption of deserving it. Mary in her quiet gratefulness lived her daily ordinary life with love and humility sharing this gift with the whole world. What a lesson for me and the gift I have received, the gift of meditation, and the mantra.

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