Chapter 1: Four approaches to monastic life
For a rule of life [Sarabaites] have only the satisfaction of their own desires. Any precept they think up for themselves and then decide to adopt they do not hesitate to call holy. Anything they dislike they consider inadmissable. (From para. 3 of Ch. 1 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
This represents a kind of inner disorganization to me -- not knowing what to choose from among the smorgasbord of spiritual practice, wasting energy on a constant reference to my conflicting opinions. With the practice of meditation I'm guided into a kind, loving and other-centered approach to life. Even when my practice falters, I know for sure what my practice is, and find a glimmering of spiritual freedom in this stability.
Lord, Jesus, enlighten my mind and heart with your will. Let me view the things of life with your eyes leaving behind my "self-serving individualism" that has been my "regular mainstay in thought and action." Let me not be a Sarabaite viewing life in the light of the satisfaction of my own desires. Strengthen my attention to the meditation practice and the repetition of the mantra through the waves of life as well as to the daily reading of Benedict's rule. Amen.(some paraphrasing from Casey's, Strangers In The City, p.xii)
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