Chapter 59: Children offered by nobles or poor
If parents who are from the nobility want to offer to God in the monastery one of their children, who is too young to take personal responsibility, they should draw up a document like that described above and, as they make the offering, wrap the document with the child's hand in the altar cloth. (From para. 1 of Ch. 59 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
It's hard for me to identify offering a child of mine to the monastery, but the mystery is that everything in my life is to be offered to God. There's something achingly tender for me in the image of wrapping the document with the child's hand in the altar cloth. I see in it an image of selflessness, purity, and wholeness.
This morning I become still, silent and simple, or try to, but my mind is still like a kindergarten full of kids at recess. So, once more, I gently begin again and again to focus on my mantra and my breath. I offer the child that is me to you and your care, Abba, just for today.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine giving up your dear and precious child to a monastery? I cannot. Some of the dear and precious "things" in my life become revealed to me as I continue the poor way of the mantra,the way of poverty. The meditation practice and chapter 58,remind me "to give everything to the monastery(to God) "without keeping back a single thing for" myself, "well aware" that I will "not have even his(my) own body at his(my) disposal." This little chapter takes my breath away and I pray for trust through grace.
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