A Christmas card from Walter Brueggemann and St. Benedict
Brueggemann, Benedict: Christians living in the new year
“The gift of Christmas contradicts everything we sense about our own life. Our world feels unsavable, and here is the baby named Jesus, ‘Save.’ Be ready to have your sense of the world contradicted by this gift from God.”—Walter Brueggemann, Devotions for Advent, Abundance, p. 67.
ed seward
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, brings 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 an alternative way to live together in love and consideration for others and develops The Rule of Benedict.
This, of course, is 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. I am being called to a more intentional living of the rule of Benedict in community. I recently reviewed the rule for a presentation for Community of Hope training. This is training for lay people in pastoral care, which is steeped in Benedictine Spirituality. I give thanks to friends who asked me to help with this. They think they are helping to train others. Maybe so, but in reality, they are re-training me for an intentional living in love for the rest of this Christmas season and in the coming new year.
This is our Christmas card this year from St. Benedict and Walter Brueggemann. May this special card open our hearts as we hear its message of love.
Joanna joannaseibert.com
