RB Reflection: 21 August 2008

Chapter 64 7-22 (lifted without remorse from the OSB website)

Once she has been constituted, let the Abbess always bear in mind what a burden she has undertaken and to whom she will have to give an account of her stewardship, and let her know that her duty is rather to profit her sisters than to preside over them. She must therefore be learned in the divine law, that she may have a treasure of knowledge from which to bring forth new things and old. She must be chaste, sober and merciful. Let her exalt mercy above judgment, that she herself may obtain mercy. She should hate vices; she should love the sisterhood. In administering correction she should act prudently and not go to excess, lest in seeking too eagerly to scrape off the rust she break the vessel.

Let her keep her own frailty ever before her eyes and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken. By this we do not mean that she should allow vices to grow; on the contrary, as we have already said, she should eradicate them prudently and with charity, in the way which may seem best in each case. Let her study rather to be loved than to be feared.

Let her not be excitable and worried, nor exacting and headstrong, nor jealous and over-suspicious; for then she is never at rest. In her commands let her be prudent and considerate; and whether the work which she enjoins concerns God or the world, let her be discreet and moderate, bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob, who said, "If I cause my flocks to be over driven, they will all die in one day." Taking this, then, and other examples of discretion, the mother of virtues, let her so temper all things that the strong may have something to strive after, and the weak may not fall back in dismay.

And especially let her keep this Rule in all its details, so that after a good ministry she may hear from the Lord what the good servant heard who gave the fellow-servants wheat in due season: "Indeed, I tell you, he will set that one over all his goods" (Matt. 24:27).

As LCG we make a promise to God to live in a way that is consistent with the rule of life we take on when become full members. Yesterday I said that I wished the abbot would receive our obedience, but when and if that happens, who knows what that would look like, and how on earth he would actually keep up with our bursting at the seams membership. So then, what does this chapter have to do with us? Is it just another interesting thing that we read and say, "oh so that's how they do it in the monastery." If that's the case, then are we followers of the Rule? Are we supposed to apply this reading to our own lives in any case? Of course, that's true, but there must be something more to this than just an interesting observation on what makes a good abbot.

It should guide us in our to select our own leadership. Abbot Elias is a busy man, without the extra burden of our extra large membership. My personal preference is to give obedience to him, but until that happens I suppose the only obedience I have to give is to God. I know that some of you will be cheering, but consider this, if you had only made a promise to God to be monogamous in your marriage, and not to your partner, what good is that? Is it not that you make your promise to your partner in the presence of God, and that is what makes the marriage? Are the monastics not our fathers and mothers in this process, and though we are a lay organization, do we not owe something to them as well?

May God lead us altogether to everlasting life.