RB Reflection: 17 July 2008

Chapter 38. The Reader for the Week

Reading will always accompany the meals of the brothers. the reader should not be the one who just happens to pick up the book, but someone who will read for a whole week, beginning on Sunday. After Mass and Communion, let the incoming reader ask all to pray for him so that God may shield him from the spirit of vanity. Let him begin this verse in the oratory: Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise (Ps. 50[51]:17), and let all say it three times. When he has received a blessing, he will begin his week of reading.

Let there be complete silence. No whispering, no speaking--only the reader's voice should be heard there. The brothers should by turn serve one another's needs as they eat and drink, so that no one need ask for anything. If, however, anything is required, it should be requested by an audible signal of some kind rather than by speech. No one should presume to ask a question about the reading or about anything else, lest occasion be given [to the devil] (Eph. 4:27; I Tim. 5:14). The superior, however, may wish to say a few words of instruction.

Because of holy Communion and because the fast may be too hard for him to bear, the brother who is reader for the week is to receive some diluted wine before he begins to read. Afterward he will take his meal with the weekly kitchen servers and the attendants.

Brothers will read and sing, not according to rank, but according to their ability to benefit their hearers.

If you have spent time at Gethsemani on retreat then you know that from time to time they will play a tape of a conference given by some holy person or other. It makes the meal more interesting. The custom is very different from most family tables where people talk about their day, or siblings accuse one another...in general, family life. Some families eat in silence because one parent or the other works in such noisy conditions that they need some silence while they eat in their own home.

How does this chapter speak to us as Lay Cistercians? One way might be as a reminder to respect the food we eat. To slow down, taste the food, think of where it comes from, and what effort someone put into making it for us. Another is to value the silence, and try not to fill our lives with idle chit-chat every moment we are awake. As for being read to, oh what a luxury that would be! In an age of talking books, we can have that luxury. Let us be thankful for our food, our silence, and our technology that allows us to hear holy men and holy women speak to us.

May God bring us altogether to everlasting life.