The Rule of St. Benedict

The following is a collection of quotes from a book I’m reading for one of my classes. It’s the Rule of St. Benedict, a 1500 year-old classic. A lot of the quotes I took were from the commentator’s comments. I included the page numbers from the version I have, if that will be of any help (some people who read these ponderings are actually in this class, so it will help them): “The Rule of St. Benedict: Insights for the Ages” by Joan Chittister, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992

“Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” (St. Benedict, 19)

Those are Benedict’s introductory words. It sounds like wise advice from a father. Something I wish I could say about my ponderings. ;) The rest of these quotes seem to echo what I was talking about yesterday. It’s kind of odd how that happens, although I doubt it’s a coincidence.

“We are being called to something outside of ourselves, something greater than ourselves, something beyond ourselves.” (Chittister, 20)

“We each have to begin to consider the eternal weight of what we are spending our life doing. We have to start someday to wonder if we have spent our lives on gold or dross. (Chittister, 22)

“Is there life before death?” (24)

“…the lure is to let it be, to stop where we are, to coast. We begin to make peace with tepidity. We begin to do what it takes to get by but little that it takes to get on with the spiritual life. We do the exercises but we cease to ‘listen with the heart.’ We do the externals–the church-going and church-giving–and we call ourselves religious, but we have long since failed to care. A sense of self-sacrifice dies in us and we obey only the desires and the demands within us.” (Chittister, 34)

Will you be more tomorrow than you were today? (paraphrase of Chittister, 43)

Do you want to make things right; or are you intent on making life right? (paraphrase of Chittister, 46)

Some important questions to ask ourselves.

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