Chapter 57: Members of the community with creative gifts

If there are any in the community with creative gifts, they should use them in their workshops with proper humility, provided that they have the permission of the superior. (From para. 1 of Ch. 57 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

My understanding of "creative gifts" is expanding. It includes a growing quality of selfless attention when I practice my own art, or make art with others. This is in stark contrast to the self-centered insecurity that I once knew when making art. Creativity, it seems, also becomes the experience of flowing in something much larger than myself, connecting me to all creatures, to all of creation.