Prologue to The Rule (paragraphs 1-2)
This, then, is the beginning of my advice: make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that you attempt. (From para. 2 of Prologue to The Rule of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
John Main tells me that, in leading the disciplined life, resolutions are not necessary. What I understand to be necessary is one thing: being in the moment, in the stream of loving awareness that flows between the Father and the Son. All good action flows from being. Such prayer is what I hear Benedict calling me to, as I begin, once again, to dispose myself to the teaching of the Rule.
John Main tells me that, in leading the disciplined life, resolutions are not necessary. What I understand to be necessary is one thing: being in the moment, in the stream of loving awareness that flows between the Father and the Son. All good action flows from being. Such prayer is what I hear Benedict calling me to, as I begin, once again, to dispose myself to the teaching of the Rule.
One of Chittister's lines at the end of Chapter 73(The Rule of Benedict, p.302)points to some of the underlying reasons for me to follow Benedict's Rule: "(I) we will be disposed to the will of God, attuned to the presence of God, committed to the search for God, and just beginning to understand the power of God in (my life)our lives." But just reading the Rule is not enough. One of the key phrases in the Prologue urges me to pray earnestly before beginning any good work. How fittingly then does Fr. Laurence's Daily Wisdom today bring home to me the need to recite the mantra at all times in order to remain in the presence of God and His will. In that presence my life and the Rule become one.
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