Following the Rule
Big picture, small steps
If you like to examine beautiful ideas; hold them in the light, and watch them glitter, then the Rule is for you, but not perhaps the following take on it. This look at the Rule is a call to action; a how-to, to be shelved with the cookbooks and knitting patterns. It is about how to live with the recognition of the Reign of God. Take a deep breath, for once you knock, the door shall be opened . . . .
You have nothing to prove before God. The Holy One loves you just as much if you do not follow Benedictine practices as if you do follow them.
So, why do it? Maybe because your ears are blocked, your antennas are dirty, your eyes are shut; or whatever analogy works for you. You do not sense the constant flow of that love, and Benedictine practices will help you get the wax out of your ears. They will help you wake up and notice that the reality we see is undergirded by an invisible reality out of which it sprang.
Or maybe you do sense that invisible reality, and want to live up to it. Benedictine practices are also for you.
The practices come under three headings:
Prayer
Fasting
Works of mercy
Prayer, understood broadly, is your intent to attend to God. Remember Moses and the burning bush? The bush didn’t impose itself on him; he had to turn aside and look. (Ex. 3:4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”) One wonders how many burning bushes we all have walked past without stopping.
Any time you turn aside to look, you are praying, whether you are attending to God in an inner room, or under the stars, or in company with others. You may be still, you may be walking, or you may be handing a buck to that guy on the street.
Is it possible to attend to God at all times? Maybe. Let’s practice, and find out!
For Benedictines, there are three major types of prayer, not counting the spontaneous expressions that may happen at any time.
Silent contemplation is a quieting of the noise in one’s head in order to better hear God.
Lectio divina is a prayerful meditation on a scripture, a work of art, or the view out your window.
Liturgical prayer is the opus dei; work of God. It involves finding oneself and one’s community in psalms sung to God, and readings, many times during the day.
Fasting can be understood as any sort of doing without, which is commonly called asceticism. Asceticism is a great teacher, and is of help to Benedictines throughout their spiritual development. For beginners, it is a speedy and effective way to get out of our comfort zone, and our decrepit mindset.
Works of mercy are works of love. Dom Hubert van Zeller uses the analogy of a lighthouse, which, no matter where the light is pointed, finds objects of compassion. “It is as though God were to halt the revolving light at a particular moment and point it at a particular object of compassion. What we have to do is learn to follow God’s light of compassion as we go round and round from the centre of the lighthouse which is love. There are objects of compassion in every direction if only we take the trouble to look.”