It has been suggested that we only do this reflection one time through, and then just let people come and read it on the appropriate date. You can always find each mailing on RB Reflections. The mailing list is for your convenience only. Since the Rule is a living document, meaning that people still find meaning in it, and application to life in it, I don't think one static interpretation of any given year is sufficient to digest this rule, which we are vowed to do, every day of our lives.
Also, I will try to write the reflections in the evening so that those of you who like to do your praying, meditating, etc., in the morning, may do so. We have some volunteer writers coming up soon, which will provide a little break for me. Ha ha.
Prologue
Listen carefully, my [child] son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.
These opening words, this one sentence, opens for us a small manual on how to live the life of a Christian.
He says, to listen carefully. How often do people listen carefully to anyone? For that matter, how often do you listen carefully to someone? So the very first phrase, listen carefully is a command to a mindset that the majority of humanity will never understand, much less pursue. As LCG we are committed to this mindset to listen carefully to those in our homes, our work place, our worshiping communities, and, in our Lay Cistercian community.
But lest we "be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas," James 1:22, we must embrace this first phrase of the Rule listen carefully. We can only listen carefully with the "ears of our heart."
This is the advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. The labor of obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the sloth of disobedience. this message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.
Since Fr. Elias has been elected Tenth Abbot of Our Lady of Gethseamni, it would seem a proper time to think about a father who loves us. Perhaps one day, with him, we will make some obedience to the Abbot. The Lay Cistercian's of Gethsemani want obedience because we do not want to drift off into the sloth of disobedience again. We do want to give up our own will, but heavens! how hard that is to do.
First of all, every time you being a good work, you mut pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.
That is why I wonder why the monks do not include us in their daily intercessions. Through them has come the charism to us. So, it would seem that they have begun a good work and need to start praying so that we the LCG may bring it to perfection. Oops, did I say that? Yes, because we are the new vocations to the OCSO.
May God Bless Each of You Today
Steve
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