Chapter 3: Calling the community together for consultation (paragraph 1)
When any business of importance is to be considered in the monastery, the abbot or abbess should summon the whole community together and personally explain to them the agenda that lies before them. After hearing the advice of the community, the superior should consider it carefully in private and only then make a judgement about what is the best decision. (From para. 1 of Ch. 3 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
When any business of importance it be considered my life, I often consult my friends. Sometimes they answer my questions or even give me advice, but they know that the greatest gift they can give me is their deep and loving listening. This leads me back to listen to my own secret voice, my relationship with my Source, with God within me. Then I know what to do, or know I will know what to do.
In the closing prayer for group meditation are the words, "May this silence be a power to open the hearts of men and women to the vision of God, and so to each other, in love and peace, justice and human dignity." Consultation of others opens my heart to visions and thoughts beyond my own. It is in the darkness of the grounded heart that the seed of decision grows fertilized by the love and power of the Holy Spirit of Christ in silence. I need to trust in that growth. I need to trust in that silence knowing that Love is the final authority.
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