Chapter 33: Personal possessions in the monastery
Following the practice of the early church described in Acts, everything in the monastery should be held in common and no one should think of claiming personal ownership of anything. (From Ch. 33 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
This is a difficult teaching for me to grasp. Benedict mentions things in this chapter things as dear to me as books and writing materials (today he would probably even include computers), and I'm at a loss to know how to practice such non-possession in my solitary life. Especially because I know that the most clinging possession can be the ego. And yet, I also know that in meditation I own nothing; that the meditation isn't even "mine". I'm simply opening myself to the grace of entering into the prayer of Jesus. So, entering into grace may be the way I need to see my life today.
This is a difficult teaching for me to grasp. Benedict mentions things in this chapter things as dear to me as books and writing materials (today he would probably even include computers), and I'm at a loss to know how to practice such non-possession in my solitary life. Especially because I know that the most clinging possession can be the ego. And yet, I also know that in meditation I own nothing; that the meditation isn't even "mine". I'm simply opening myself to the grace of entering into the prayer of Jesus. So, entering into grace may be the way I need to see my life today.
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