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Welcome to the Benedictine Cyber Toolbox

A Newsletter for Benedictine Living Today

 

November/December, 2011

 

In This Issue
An Upcoming Program
Welcome!
Light, Love, and Life
A Benedictine Tool
The Book Corner
The Rule According to Randy
Some Upcoming Events
Bring Jane to Your Church, Monastery or Organization

An Upcoming  Program

National Cathedral

Lent 2012: 

Forming a Rule of Life

 

A Phone - In Program

sponsored by

Community of Reconciliation at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

 

If you find daily life fragmenting and are looking for ways to be more centered and intentional, join Jane for this program conducted by telephone

 

For more information


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St. Benedict's Toolbox from Morehouse

 

Welcome to the

Benedictine Cyber Toolbox! 

 

 

As this season of Advent and Christmas unfolds, I wish you peace, joy and many blessings  

 

 May you find a moment to sit quietly and consider the beauty of this time, the hush of expectation of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the wonder that he is with us every moment of our lives.

 

May the lights of Christmas remind you of his Light within; the Light that can shine forth into the world through us to reconcile, heal, cheer and bless.  

 

If your heart aches, my prayer is that the miracles that happen in this season and in your life flow abundntly - miracles of kindness received and given, miracles of generous understanding, miracles of love.  May they surround you and comfort you.

 

As Benedict says to all of us in the very first word of the Rule - "Listen". Listen deeply to the stream of grace that flows to us from God at every moment.  Awake to God-Ever-Present.

 

 

 

                                                               Jane 

 

  

The Beauty...

Longwood View - Nov-Dec 2011
Longwood Gardens at Christmas -
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

 and the Joy of the Season...

 

For a heart-warming rendition of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus, please click this YouTube link! 

 

 

 
Poinsettia Nov-Dec 2011 Featured Article
 
Light, Love, and Life
in the Season of Hope
 
 
 
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."
                                                                                        Isaiah 9:2
 

Please sing the following to "Deck the halls with boughs of holly."

 

            Deck the halls with lots of action. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

            Tis the season of distraction. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

            Don we now our panicked rushing. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

            Troll the constant frantic wailing. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!!  

 

  

Does this ring true for you right now? If it does, I'd like to offer an alternative from Scripture:

 

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness- on them light has shined."                                         Isaiah 9:2

 

And an alternative from the Rule:

 

"Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God." Prol. 9a

 

And one to bring both together:

 

"See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life."  

                                                                                Prol. 22

 

 

We can follow either path. We can choose pervasive distraction, panic, rushing, franticness and wailing. Or we can open our eyes to the light from God, the love of God, and the life that God holds out to us. Light, love, light.

 

Caught up in the preparations for the holidays we can lose sight of who and whose we are-the beloved of God. It is of this I would like to remind us today even if we are in the throes of not feeling beloved or loved by God because of circumstances, responsibilities, heartaches, or whatever else it is that pulls us from God's light.

 

Click here to read on....

A Benedictine Tool:  Noticing


Purpose of the Tool:  To come into the present moment where we can experience the light of God's love and find fullness and joy in life. 

Background on the Tool:  Too often we fly through our days with our minds on something else rather than on where we are and what we are doing. The spiritual discipline of noticing is one way to return our minds to where our bodies are already and be awake to the light of God and the love of God.

 

The Tool:  Try the spiritual practice of noticing. When you look, what do you see? When you listen, what do you hear? When you walk or drive the car or take dinner out of the oven, be there. Observe and notice. Notice what you feel, too. Set a short time period to begin. When you move from the present, gently bring yourself back to "now." Notice what pulls you away from the present. Ask God for help in letting this go or exploring its power so that its power can diminish. As you ntoice, trust in the presence of God in all things and give thanks.

 

"We believe that the divine presence in everywhere."

                                                                                                                                                   RB 19.1

  

Advent and Christmas bring special opportunities to notice - beauty, kindness, joy, music... Watch for these.  Here's something that I REALLY noticed and took great delight in -

 

 

Gr Swamp Nursery 1 - Nov=Dec 2011
Thousands of poinsettia plants at a local nursery - Stunning!

 

  

Godburst

 

When the Holy Child is born into our hearts  

there is a rain of stars

a rushing of angels                                         

a blaze of candles 

this God burst into our lives

Love is running through the streets.

 

                       Anne Weems

                        Kneeling in Bethlehem

 

 
Derkse Cover Nov-Dec 2011The Book Corner 
A Recommended Read

A Blessed Life:

Benedictine Guidelines for Those Who Long for Good Days

By Wil Derkse

 

 

 

As a follow-up to his book The Rule of Benedict for Beginners: Spirituality for Daily Life author Wil Derkse presents the basic attitudes and virtues that characterize Benedictine Spirituality, guidelines for all of us who long for the good days and for life that is not aimless.  Chapters are dedicated to silence, humility, work, daily study, and hospitality.  A catch-all chapter includes topics such as discernment, rest and patience.  For Derkse the goal of the Benedictine spiritual road is becoming human and the attitude in which we approach this road is that God may be glorified in everything. 

 

Derkse frequently turns to the Latin in order to unpack the meaning of the text.  In Chapter 42 on silence after Compline he explains that Benedict used the Latin studere, or "diligence", to illustrate the way we are to apply ourselves to silence.  He then expands that diligence to how we live out the entire Rule. 

 

Derske always brings us back to the context of the whole Rule when he is interpreting individual ideas within it.  I appreciate his use of metaphor and image, my favorite being where he likens listening to using a stethoscope and encourages us to respond immediately to a "beep" that we hear before it becomes a cough, i.e., tend to an issue or concern immediately.  He understands the challenges in applying the Rule in the 21st century.  In his extensive chapter on humility, Derkse sympathizes with modern readers, both lay and monastic, who find some of these steps tough to take.  He provides his own interpretation and "translation" for each step that bears our reflection.

 

One thing that I'll personally take away from this book is what he calls "cultivating a domain of attention" which can be a refuge in the midst of our other cares.  This would be something on which we would concentrate daily, if only for a half an hour.  He described how one monk had a life's "project" around Hildegaard of Bingen and would study her work daily.  I thought, "Do I have a domain of attention?"  What could this be for me?  What could this be for you?

 

Although I occasionally found the text confusing, probably a result of the translation from the Dutch into English, I recommend this book for its honesty and intention to draw the Rule into contemporary life. 

 

Details on the Book:

A Blessed Life: Benedictine Guidelines for Those Who Long for Good Days

by Wil Derkse. Collegeville,  Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2009.

ISBN: 978-0-8146-1863-9.

To order this book through Amazon.com, click here.

  

To order The Rule of Benedict for Beginners: Spirituality for Daily Life, click here.

  

Wil Derkse is married and a father of two adult daughters.  He is an oblate with the Benedictine St. Willibrord's Abbey in Doetinchem, The Netherlands. He has degrees in chemistry and philosophy, has taught secondary and higher education and is a director responsible for the Soeterbeeck Program for Science, Society, and Worldviews at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, where he also holds the Andreas van Melsen Chair.

 

 

Some pictures of Willibrord Abbey in the Netherlands... 

 

Willibrord Bldg Nov-Dec 2011Monks for Nov-Dec 2011

 

 


Randy

The Rule According to Randy

 

  

  

  

Hi! How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was great. We had Mixed Grill instead of turkey which is okay by me. Jane had tofu turkey. Yuck! I don't know how she can eat that stuff.

 

Something happened the other day that sent me to the Rule to answer this question -

  

How much should we try to rearrange things around us if certain things aren't to our liking?

 

While I was intent on washing my front left paw, I heard this really odd scraping noise. "Scra-a-ape. Sca-a-a-a-pe." Turning towards another  "Sc-c-c-r-a-a-ape," I saw Ricky, our youngest community member in age and tenure, with paw curled around the top of a cat bed, pulling the bed across the floor! Not only that - Mickey was in the bed, half asleep and oblivious to his free ride. My guess is that Ricky had been in the bed with Mickey and when John started pumping iron, Ricky had decided that the bed was too close to all this activity and moved it more than a yard!

  

This is what got me to thinking about how much we should meddle in things - our surroundings, situations that aren't to our liking, the behaviors or foibles of other cats...or even the foibles of other people.

 

In the fourth step of humility I found that Benedict asks us to accept things that are difficult or unfavorable and to be patient. He says we are to "endure it without weakening or seeking escape." (RB 7.35-36) I know that I'm not good at this. If meals don't come at the appropriate time I get really annoyed and turn up to full volume my "alms for the poor - alms for the poor" mew. Then, in the chapter on the Reception of Visiting Monks, RB 61, Benedict says that a visitor is not to make excessive demands that upset members of the community but is to be "simply content with what she or he finds." (RB 61.1-3). Good advice for us as we visit friends and family for the holidays, right?

 

Jane needs to reread these parts of the Rule. When John told her about Ricky's interior redecorating, she couldn't believe it. I think that she should be a little less incredulous, however, and assess if she is "simply content with what she finds." I've seen Jane refolding the towels that John has already folded, and turning the flame down when he's cooking tofu scramble. Then I've seen her then turn the flame up when he's cooking Chinese with the wok. I have it from a good source that on her last train ride she changed her seat three times before settling in on the "right one." I know these aren't big things but I know they aren't the only things. Perhaps a tune-up on humility and accepting things as they are might be in order.

 

Benedict is not saying that you and I should never make suggestions or try to change things. He explains that a "reasonable criticism or observation" may be shared, but the sharing is to be done "with all humility and love." As you or I are moved to make a suggestion, we are to be motivated less by wanting to control and more by wanting to be helpful and loving. Jane has barked at me for chasing Marcy. In the great book Why the Rule of St. Benedict is Not Only for Humans, Scholastica Muffin, O.S.B.F. (Order of St. Benedict Feline) quotes Benedictine scholar Terrence Kardong saying, "when it [the truth or the suggestion] is proffered 'calmly and with loving humility,' it is more palatable." It sure would be more palatable to me!

 

I think too often we go overboard on our drive to "drag the cat bed" somewhere else, literally and figuratively, when it would have been just fine where it was. It takes humility to decide when and how to offer those observations. First and foremost Benedict encourages us to respect one another and to put up with one another's weaknesses of body or behavior (RB 72.4-5).

 

When I don't accept things as they are I'm certainly not peaceful inside. Instead I'm forever plotting and scheming about how to change something. Truth is, Ricky looked pretty agitated as he dragged that bed; and he had to work awfully hard. When we approach life with an intent to rearrange whatever we don't like we miss opportunities to experience or learn something new through something different. If Ricky had stayed in that bed with Mickey right where it was, he could have used the clank when the barbell was returned to its holder as a reminder to be thankful that he had a cat bed at all and a friendly, warm friend to share it with.

 

So the next time you want to jump in and rearrange something or even someone else's life, be a little flexible. Pause before you decide to "drag the cat bed". Be gentle and kind with your observation. My guess is that you will be a lot happier and more fun to be with, too.

 

Have a wonderful Christmas and remember to give special treats to your animal friends!

 

                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                             Your feline friend,

  

                                      Randy's Signature  

 

  

P.S.   Sr. Scholastica Muffin cited Terrence Kardong's book Day By Day with Saint Benedict (Collegeville Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2005). 

 

 

 

UpcpmingEventsSome Upcoming Events

   

West Malling Benedict Nov-Dec 2011
St. Benedict at Malling Abbey in England

        A Lenten Phone-In Program:

             Forming a Rule of Life

 

Sponsored by The Community of Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral


Place:  Your own home!


Dates:  Tuesday Evenings during Lent, 2012 from 7:30pm to 9:00pm

  

Piloted in Lent, 2011, this program is being offered again.

 

Participants from around the country will gather by phone and talk together as they would face-to-face in a retreat setting as Jane guides them through a step-by-step process to begin to form a meaningful and doable Rule of Life.

 

Key aspects of the Rule will be introduced which will include looking at personal, relational and spiritual aspects of life.

  

You will meet by phone each week of Lent, excluding Holy Week (February 28, March 6, 13, 20 & 27 and April 10).

 

Feedback from 2011 participants was most positive with comments like "insightful and inspiring" and "a wonderful experience." 

 

For more information or to register, contact The Community of Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral.

 


      Bring Jane to Your Church, Monastery or Organization!

                       
Mobile Dio BethPlan a Retreat ot Program
 

Jane is available to do retreats and programs in the Benedictine Tradition and Spirituality.  Content is personalized.  Programs will bring the ideas to life in a practical and down-to-earth way. 

 

Retreats are modeled by Benedictine balance-time alone and time together, and time for rest, study and prayer.  Black RIver Nov-Dec 2011

 

 

Contact Jane at 908-233-0134,

cell-908-463-3252

or via email at

       [email protected]

 


 

For ideas and possibilities you may wish to view a list of retreat programs and participating groups  on the web site by clicking here.
 

Jane's Scheduled Retreats and Programs are frequently updated and published here.
 


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[email protected]

 

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