“The gift of Christmas contradicts everything we sense about our own life.”
—Walter Brueggemann in Celebrating Abundance: Devotions for Advent (Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), p. 67.
War Memorial Chapel National Cathedral Washington DC
We listen to the news. We become depressed. Every day something more terrible happens. We feel helpless, powerless. The gift of love, the gift of Christmas does bring hope. I keep thinking about St. Benedict. The world is crashing all around him. Rome is being destroyed by Germanic invaders who have taken over his country. He tries to escape and become a hermit. It doesn’t work. He joins a community. He decides the community needs a new way to live together in love and consideration for others, and develops The Rule of Benedict.
This is of course an oversimplification of this part of history.
The beginning of the prologue to The Rule is, “Listen with the ear of your heart.” This is the call I hear this Christmas season. We are being called to a more intentional living of the Rule of Benedict in community. We are presently beginning a review of The Rule for Daughters of the King and in for a group called Community of Hope. The Community of Hope is a Benedictine pastoral care program for non-ordained persons. The Daughters of the King are women in our congregation called to an intentional life of prayer. I give thanks for friends who decided to study Benedictine spirituality in these two programs in the new year. They may think we are helping to train them. Maybe so; but in reality, we are all retraining in both of these programs as we prepare for intentional living in love and prayer in the coming new year.
Joanna . joannaseibert.com