We Are All One in Christ

Sometimes in a large family it appears that some member is being favored over the others. There were 4 girls and 4 boys in our family. We girls were assigned to clean the table and do the dishes. When I was 13, Margaret was 9, and Mary Lois was 8, Mary Lois died with a ruptured appendix. After Mary Lois died, every night when time came to clean the table and begin the dishes my sister Margaret would disappear to my Dad’s tool shed, so I did the dishes by myself. When I told my mother that Margaret was her pet and she let her get out of all her work, my mother took me aside and told me Margaret had to grieve as she had lost her sister and her very best friend. My mother was showing equal love to all of us in a special way.

This is what Benedict is asking the abbot to do--show equal love to everyone.

Sr. Veronica, OSB