knitternun

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Reading for Feb 06, 2008

Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

February 6, June 7, October 7

Chapter 7: On Humility

The ninth degree of humility
is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that "in much speaking there is no escape from sin" (Prov. 10:19)
and that "the talkative man is not stable on the earth" (Ps. 139:12).

Some thoughts:

Silence is something I long for. One of my most cherished fantasies is to live some place where all i hear is the bird song and wind song.

Why are we so noisy? Are we scared of what thoughts might come to mind if we don't fill them with sounds? Are we lonely? Are we afraid to face ourselves? I have certainly read as much in Those Who Claim To Know.

The Bible tells us in various ways that it is not what goes into a person that defiles them but that which comes out of our mouths off our tongue to pass through our lips to speak that which can never be taken back and made as if never said. Many of us live with the scars of things that never should have been said to us. Do we stop to think about the wounds our own words cause to others?

Why is it so hard to create a period of silence in our lives so we can listen to God? I know so many of us cope with almost unbearable stress that scheduling 20 or 30 minutes of silence seems like Just One More Thing Too Many. I lived that way for years myself.

Lent does began today. Many of the readers of this list are well into Ash Wednesday as I write this during my mid-morning. Maybe a Lenten exercise could be to look at the materials found in the Files section of the list, MereBenedictines,on the subject of writing a personal Rule to help us carve out that time for God. URL is in my http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MereBenedictines/.

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