Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue. (Rule of St. Benedict 4. 24-28) Do not lie to your children. What about Santa Claus and …
Tag Archives: teaching
Discipline To Win
In his teaching, the abbot should always observe the Apostle’s recommendation, in which he says: Use argument, appeal, reproof 2 Timothy 4:2. This means that he must vary with circumstances, threatening and coaxing by turns, stern as a taskmaster, devoted and tender as only a father can be. (Rule of St. Benedict 2.23-24) The purpose of …
The Call: Awake!
Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep” Romans 13:11 (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.8) This “sleep” is the spiritual stupor of ordinary people who imagine that the front line is somewhere else. They think that they themselves …
The Challenge
This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord. (RB Prologue.3) St. Benedict is of course not the first to describe the …
The Motivation
Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.1) When I first thought of writing a domestic rule, the idea was completely sarcastic. In …