Chapter 57: Members of the community with creative gifts
If there are any in the community with creative gifts, they should use them in their workshops with proper humility, provided that they have the permission of the superior. (From para. 1 of Ch. 57 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997).
In my deepening wonder and awe of the creative process, I realize that humility is exactly the key. Like entering into the prayer of Christ, creativity is something I enter into, or relate to, or am. The ego only holds me back.
Julia Cameron in her classic “The Artist’s Way: Creativity and Spirituality” claims that everyone is an artist in his or her own way. I can feel so “all thumbs” when I pick up a brush or a pen or peck away at this keyboard. That’s my ego at work. Then someone reminded me yesterday to think of this comment as a love note to my friends. Any expression of my art no matter how tiny or simple it may seem to me, is ultimately a love note to you, Abba, in the person of anyone who encounters it.
ReplyDeleteA great gift can be one of compassion. It comes from a deep place of being and knowledge that I am known, acknowledged and loved. This is a gift that can be shared with others through listening and responding and acknowledging their being.
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