Reflections by Maggie Roberts, oblate candidate for Stanbrook

 

PROLOGUE

1 Sept

The Prologue 1-7

From the very start of the Rule, as though setting the scene, St Benedict asks us to ‘Listen’ to the advice of a loving father. Here is perhaps the most remembered line ‘Listen with the ear of your heart’. In today’s parlance, the heart is the source of love, so this is really about reciprocal love of the sort only found in the covenant relationship with God the Father. So let us listen to what the Lord has to say to us. The heart is not a benign filter of love, but holds our raw human emotions of anger, hurt, indignation, fear, loneliness. But it’s role is broader than that. A more ancient understanding of the role of the heart has been the beating, living centre of the person, the central source not only of feelings but of the wisdom arising from them, and rather than pure intellect coupled with love, this wisdom of the heart, this understanding, is perhaps the key to the Rule. And we are not expected to go it alone, we are told it is a caring reciprocal arrangement. Benedict talks as a father-figure, the type of human father we ideally wanted or want to be: listening, caring, protective, a provider of our needs and there for his children when we need him.

The Rule is deeply rooted in scripture, which can clarify this a little. For example, these passages in the OT book of Proverbs seem to echo Benedict’s words, with similar wise advice: ‘Hear my child your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching’ (1:8),  and ‘My child, if you accept my words…making your ear attentive to my wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, …if you seek it like silver…you will find the knowledge of God’ (2.2), and ‘ My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years and abundant welfare they will give you.’(3.1).

So how do we absorb this counter-cultural message into today’s world that we live in, which so firmly encourages independent thinking and individuality, and in which perhaps authority (or the wisdom of our elders) is a little old-fashioned. St Benedict (and other ancients) have advice for us, calling for trust and a reciprocal obedience, which are lifegiving.  Perhaps it is as straightforward as taking time to pray (though this may in itself be a challenge), inviting God’s presence, to really listen, and to hear and to be open to adjusting, to responding. The promise is that the change will be life-giving.

2 Sept
The Prologue 8-13

So for those who have chosen this path of obedience and service to Jesus Christ, here is some advice from St Benedict and from scripture on how to proceed, to ‘go forward’ in today’s phrase. The way requires a disposition of openness, of all senses and the heart and the will, from the moment of waking. With eyes and ears at the ready, I need to see and hear God around me. ‘What does the Spirit say?” asks Benedict. Filled with enthusiasm, the ‘light of life’, I should run with the ball. Life can be all too short, so seize the day, carpe diem.

This is sound advice, surely, but today and every ordinary day, how should I proceed? Does this advice make a difference? Perhaps Benedict’s words are a reminder that life is precious, we live in a context of gifts, from creation (the dawn chorus, or the wind in the trees), to the love of family and friends, from having food for breakfast, to seeing the beauty of the hills on the way to work, the list is endless. Life and the energy to live it are also gifts of God. When times are tough the gifts are harder to see, but they are still there, and in that surety I can ask the Holy Spirit to help me see them, to light up my day, to light up my life.

3 Sept
The Prologue 14-20

However, that benefit does not arrive without some effort on our part, Benedict reminds us. We have a covenant relationship with God, such that He loves us but needs us to ask, to meet him part way. In this part of the prologue Benedict reminds us that we need to follow some basic rules, acting out of goodness, kindness and integrity, and take the way of peace. And taking time to pray, so that God can be there for us, as indeed He is everywhere, and will hear and answer our prayers. So, Benedict tells us, this is my and your invitation to life, and for anyone who asks to be part of it. Each of us is God’s workman, and visible to Him amongst others as a needle in a haystack, and he will show us the way.

4 Sept
The Prologue 21-32

In this section Benedict warns us against self-congratulation. He tells us that above all we need a combination of faith and good works, and the guidance of the Gospel (which comprises examples of the life and teaching of Jesus) to enter the Kingdom of God, and that indeed these good works are key.  But we also need to acknowledge that the good in ourselves is in itself a gift from the Lord, not something to be proud of, and like the Apostle Paul, realise that goodness comes by God’s grace. This section of the Rule has an onerous list of things not to do, which when achieved, we will be able to rest on His holy mountain (as Psalm14 says), and boast only in the Lord.

In practice it seems to me that this section is saying that as every day goes by in which we decide to try our best, aspiring to be a good and truthful person, doing what is right, being kind and polite to others, alert to temptations to do otherwise, and, in all humility, attributing the ability to do this (and even to want to do this) to the interior actions of the Holy Spirit, it is then that we will draw closer to the God that loves us. For myself, I think will help me to grow to live at peace with myself and at peace with others, the community in which I live.

5 Sept
The Prologue  33-38

In this section St Benedict reminds us of the Lord’s words, by way of guarantee that in doing our best to behave in the way he has described and which comes from the wishes of the Lord, we will become as strong and resilient as the house built on the rock (Matt7) which could withstand daily buffeting, gales and floods. The rock can be a hard place at times, and we are expected to make our endeavours daily, and when we fail, to make our amends – for which the Lord with patience will provide due time and opportunity, but equally we should not delay in case we are taken first. This is good advice, and sound, so that for something we have done or failed to do, we make our reparations or apology without allowing the matter to drag on and drag us down.

I have an old-fashioned biscuit tin, in which sewing bits and pieces are kept, decorated with pictures of embroidered samplers – and on one of the sides are the words ‘And I oft have heard defended – little said is soonest mended’. (I do note it is not saying ‘nothing said is soonest mended’).  This flies in the face of the ‘let’s talk it through’ more modern approach, but perhaps Benedict’s 6thC way will help us strike a balance.

It is an invitation to look life and its end straight in the face, to act, to clear the air and make the peace with God and with others.