To Do and Not To Do
From time to time, we talk about the Rule of St Benedict. It's basically a guidebook or a set of instructions he wrote for his monks to read daily, over and over again. Typically it's read daily, in small sections, so that you get through it three times during the year. I typically follow it daily and find much that's helpful to my spiritual life, even though I'm not a Benedictine monk.
A few weeks ago, the cycle (the second cycle for this year) started again. We recently got to the point where St Benedict writes a kind of "Things to Do" and "Things Not to Do" list. It's packed with stuff you can just apply to your own life and I wanted to share it with you. I find it best if you read the list slowly and think of how each item applies to you in your own life. I guess you could probably do this every day, now that I think about it, although I don't. But I do think about each item every time I run across it in my daily reading of the Rule.
I especially like this list because you can spend as much time on it as you want - or, in the case of us busy Catholic men getting ready to go to work, as much time as you can make as you prepare for a day's work.
I hope you find this helpful to your spiritual. Let's start:
I highlighted 12, 17 and 19. That's because this time, my first thought in reading through the list (which I've read many times) was that if I could concentrate on these items today, rather than some of my typically self-centered thoughts and actions, my spiritual life would get a good boost.
We'll explore these more in coming posts.
A few weeks ago, the cycle (the second cycle for this year) started again. We recently got to the point where St Benedict writes a kind of "Things to Do" and "Things Not to Do" list. It's packed with stuff you can just apply to your own life and I wanted to share it with you. I find it best if you read the list slowly and think of how each item applies to you in your own life. I guess you could probably do this every day, now that I think about it, although I don't. But I do think about each item every time I run across it in my daily reading of the Rule.
I especially like this list because you can spend as much time on it as you want - or, in the case of us busy Catholic men getting ready to go to work, as much time as you can make as you prepare for a day's work.
I hope you find this helpful to your spiritual. Let's start:
(1) In the first place to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
(2) Then, one's neighbor as one's self.
(3) Then, not to kill.
(4) Not to commit adultery.
(5) Not to steal.
(6) Not to covet.
(7) Not to bear false witness.
(8) To honor all men.
(9) And what one would not have done to himself, not to do to another.
(10) To deny one's self in order to follow Christ.
(11) To chastise the body.
(12) Not to seek after pleasures.
(13) To love fasting.
(14) To relieve the poor.
(15) To clothe the naked.
(16) To visit the sick.
(17) To bury the dead.
(18) To help those in trouble.
(19) To console the sorrowing.
(20) To hold one's self aloof from worldly ways.
(21) To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
I highlighted 12, 17 and 19. That's because this time, my first thought in reading through the list (which I've read many times) was that if I could concentrate on these items today, rather than some of my typically self-centered thoughts and actions, my spiritual life would get a good boost.
We'll explore these more in coming posts.
Comments