Prologue to The Rule (paragraphs 1-2)
Listen, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure that it pierces to your heart, so that you may accept with willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father. (From para. 1 of Prologue to The Rule of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1973.)
I stand waiting to be delivered into a new year, and the words "child of God" don't strike me with the sentimentality that they sometimes do. Experiencing a kind of womb-like quickening, I emerge with all the vulnerability and strength freedom gives me. I welcome the loving guidance of my Teacher.
I often fear that I do not have the "ears to hear" the message, but I then hear Fr. Laurence's voice, reminding me that this fear is a convenient and sneaky trick of the ego, which does not want to submit, to be obedient, and to allow me to know my worthiness of the love of the Father. It's a struggle, but it is the perseverance of meditation that opens my heart (and not by my own doing) to the loving message.
ReplyDeleteA friend has encouraged me to collect these, my personal reflections on the Rule and put them together in a book, a legacy for my children and grandchildren. Entitling such a reflection collection would be a challenge, however: “A Survival Guide for the Suicidal Christian”, “Sanity in an Insane World”, “Finding Love in a Loveless World”, “Shipwreck and Survival”. How would I entitle appropriately such an account of my experiences with Benedict’s classic, his “little book” that has become such a part of my life? James Bishop entitles his own story of his debt to the Rule, “A Way In the Wilderness: A Commentary on the Rule of Benedict for the Physically and Mentally Imprisoned”. I like that, too. Whatever, Abba! Through the Rule you invite me once more to let go and fall more in love with you, to turn, to repent, to change my mind, and become your little one, safe in your arms.
ReplyDelete“If you want to change something in your life, you have two broad possibilities open to you. You can try to will that change, to redirect your life by acts of the will. . . . There is another way: the way of total openness of the whole person. It is not the way of intention but the way of attention.”(John Main, “Radical Simplicity”, Kindle loc 495). This, for me, is a good summary of the “labor of obedience” (the “way of attention”) versus the “sloth of disobedience” (the “way of intention”) that these first words of the Rule are describing. How wonderful, Abba, that through the gift of Benedict and his simple Rule you offer me this choice, every day, every moment. You show me and offer me this simple path to freedom.
ReplyDeleteI like this interpretation using the words, "child of God" instead of "my son". In the January 5 reading of Silence & Stillness in Every Season, John Main is quoted as saying that in meditation, "we are content simply to be with him, content simply and in a childlike way to say our word, our one word, from the beginning to the end of our meditation." What comes to me is an image of the trust-like simplicity of a child reading to our dog out loud in a library and our dog lying at the feet of the child without fear. "I am very shy", the little child confided but continued to read aloud in a quiet voice with great confidence.
ReplyDeleteCan I be like that child? Can I be like the dog? -content simply to be
in the presence of the Spirit who fills all three-
the dog, the child and me?