Rule of St Benedict Reading for August 28, 2009

April 28, August 28, December 28

Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random

Every occasion of presumption
shall be avoided in the monastery,
and we decree that no one be allowed
to excommunicate or to strike any of her sisters
unless the Abbess has given her the authority.
Those who offend in this matter
shall be rebuked in the presence of all,
that the rest may have fear.

But children up to 15 years of age
shall be carefully controlled and watched by all,
yet this too with all moderation and discretion.
All, therefore, who presume
without the Abbess' instructions
to punish those above that age
or who lose their temper with them,
shall undergo the discipline of the Rule;
for it is written,
"Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tobias 4:16).

Some thoughts

"Every occasion of presumption shall be avoided in the monastery." I
am certain this is true, but presumption is to be avoided outside the
monastery also. How many times have we been guilty to presume to
know better than another? How many times have we been guilty of
correcting that person?

And what is the effect of our presumption? I can assure you it is not
what we wanted. We will not have set the record straight or corrected
the error. All we will have done is provided a cause for resentment
and rejection.

I can speak form personal experience. Maybe it is a result of my life
long struggle to control my depression, but I have deep desire to have
things right. I have this idea that if I do every thing right, if
everything goes right, if everyone else does right, then my depression
will not be triggered. Of course, if we did not live in a fallen,
sinful world, this would be true. But this consideration has not
stopped me from attempting to control my environment and often other
people in order to spare myself a depressive episode.

It never works. And I daresay that for all of us who are caught up in
any sort of self-righteousness, perfectionism, legalism, rigorism,
over-scrupulosity that it doesn't work for us either. And here's the
thing... Jesus doesn't call us to it and Benedict, following our
Lord's example, does not either. I am greatly comforted that Jesus
chose to hang out with the ordinary people, the morally compromised so
to speak. Who did God especially love in the Hebrew Scriptures but
the cads and scroundrels, adulterers and the like?

I have no idea how to develop the theology and I surely hope someone
has already done it, but I grow ever more convinced that what is
valuable to God is our weaknesses, not our strengths, where we fail,
not where we succeed.

Reading for Dec 28, 2007

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

April 28, August 28, December 28
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random

Every occasion of presumption
shall be avoided in the monastery,
and we decree that no one be allowed
to excommunicate or to strike any of her sisters
unless the Abbess has given her the authority.
Those who offend in this matter
shall be rebuked in the presence of all,
that the rest may have fear.

But children up to 15 years of age
shall be carefully controlled and watched by all,
yet this too with all moderation and discretion.
All, therefore, who presume
without the Abbess' instructions
to punish those above that age
or who lose their temper with them,
shall undergo the discipline of the Rule;
for it is written,
"Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tobias 4:16).

Some thoughts

Must admit, my mind reels with all that I could say. Hard to distil out just one or 2. It is so very easy, all too easy, to think of entirely too many examples when a person or a group of people have taken upon themselves to right what they perceive as wrongs: vigilantes; those who commit hate crimes; people we run into every single day who are unable to mind their own business and go around correcting people.

Something else that comes to mind is appropriate boundaries and limits. Of course, that is also part of minding one's own business. Seems to me the use of the "should/would/could" language is a very clear indication of when we have exceeded appropriate boundaries and limits and have started to mind someone else's business. "So and so should..." "If only X would" "You could..."

Of course, we are not always intrusive buttinskis when we use these words. But all too often we are. All we have to do is reflect on how we feel when we are on the receiving end to know how someone else feels when we say this stuff to them.

End of Sr. Gloriamarie's thoughts

Insight for the Ages: A Commentary by Sr Joan Chittister
http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

This chapter of the rule is not about fist fighting. This chapter is about the arrogant usurpation of authority and the legitimization of violence. Even in a culture that routinely disciplined its young or unlettered with physical whippings, Benedict simply does not allow a culture of violence. Benedictine spirituality depended on personal commitment and community support, not on intimidation and brutality. Benedict makes it clear that the desire for good is no excuse for the exercise of evil in its behalf. This is an important chapter, then, for people whose high ideals lead them to the basest of means in the name of the achievement of good. To become what we hate-- as mean as the killers, as obsessed as the haters--is neither the goal nor the greatness of the spiritual life.