Chapter 61: Monastic pilgrims from far away (paragraphs 2-3)
It may even be right to persuade such a one to stay so that others may benefit and learn from such an example. (From para. 2 of Ch. 61 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
The simple things that can "make my day": receiving a kind look, a helping hand, an encouraging word. These small acts come from people it's good for me to have around; I want to be like them.
I am often the pilgrim from "far away" visiting other family members. It is to my "benefit" that these visits take place because there is often much to learn from the younger family members, my children. My thought patterns and views do not have to remain rigid. "We live our lives in a state of continuous expansion", says John Main, "expansion of heart and expansion of Spirit, growing in love and becoming more firmly rooted in God."(from Silence & Stillness In Every Season, April 17 )This realization, for me, can only come from the bedrock of the meditation practice day after day after day where the potential for expansion takes place.
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