Stability in the Community

The workshop where we are to toil faithfully at all these tasks is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community. RB80.4.78

Chapter 4 of the Rule of Benedict speaks of the Tools of Good Works or as some translators refer to it, The Tools of the Spiritual Craft. We have just finished listing the various tools or skills which are necessary in order to live Christian/monastic life well. It is a list which includes the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule, the 2 Great Commandments as well as bits of common folk wisdom.

Living a life according to the Tools of Good Works sounds a bit like an ideal at times. After all, there are 78 verses of wisdom contained in this chapter. Who but the most diligent among us can live up to these precepts if not all the time, at least half the time??? I know I can't.

My natural tendency would be to run in the face of such a daunting task. I do not like to fail...so if failure is a possibility (or a sure certainty) I think I will just opt out. But this is about living life fully, I have to at least make the attempt.

Today's passage gives me a glimmer of hope to persevere. It invites me to remain at the task I committed to at the start. It reminds me that although I may not get it perfectly all the time, or even any of the time, all I am asked to do is to remain faithful to the life I chose when I said yes to the monastic life. I don't have to get it right, I just have to keep trying with everyone else.

How am I using the tools of good works in my life today?

Sr. Catherine