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Welcome to the Benedictine Cyber Toolbox
A Newsletter for Benedictine Living Today

 

January-February, 2012

 

In This Issue
An Upcoming Program
Welcome!
Reframing Lent
Featured Article
A Benedictine Tool for Lent
The Rule According to Randy
The Book Corner
Bring Jane to your Church

An Upcoming  Program

by Telephone

 

Old Telephone with Lenten

 

Lent 2012: 

Forming a Rule of Life

 

There is still time to join!

 

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

 

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click here.

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           Greetings!  

 

St. Benedict's Toolbox from Morehouse

Welcome to the
Benedictine Cyber Toolbox!

   

 
I'm happy to be here with you at last and to extend a warm Benedictine welcome to you.
 
My article this month focuses on perhaps a different way in which to view Lent .
 
My cat Randy continues his careful observation about how I do or don't keep the Rule.  He is becoming quite popular for his pithy insights.   Check it out!

 

 

Have a most holy and joyful Lent.

 

 

                                                                     Jane

 

 

For Jan Feb 2012
A Lenten Rose

  

             Featured Article


             Reframing Lent

 

"You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
so that my soul may praise you and not be silent."

 

Psalm 31:11, 12b

 

Ash Wednesday is just around the corner. Can you envision where your Lenten practice will be in a week? Perhaps in vanishing chocolates or disappearing glasses of wine? 40 plus days of grim determination to follow through on your discipline only to know you may fall off the wagon on Day Three?

   

 Whoa!!! Let's turn to our wise guide and friend Benedict to re-frame Lent the Benedictine way and mount a course correction!

   

I invite you to whip out your copy of the Rule and read Chapter 49 - The Observance of Lent. Then, please return to the article and we'll explore the Benedictine way of Lent together. For an on-line version, click here.

 

                              Welcome back!

 

What stood out for you as you read that chapter? What seems important to Benedict? Take a moment of two to think about what you noticed in Benedict's instructions for Lent. Then read on as I share my thoughts with you.

 

It's impossible to ignore his opening statement, isn't it? "The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent." (Trans from RB 1980 - The Rule of St. Benedict in English) Why does he say that the life of a monk, and here I'll add the life of any Christian, should be a continuous Lent? Is the man nutty, if you pardon the expression?

 

           Click here to read more about Reframing your Lent...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tool for Discovering Your Benedictine Lenten Practice

 

Purpose of the Tool: To discern your practice for Lent using the Rule of St. Benedict as a guide.

 

Background on the Tool: It is important that we discern a practice for Lent that fits us and helps us towards a life most pure and opening the heart to the joy of the Holy Spirit.

 

Mark Scott offers several signs as to whether or not our practice is motivated by God. These include having the approval of a spiritual confidant, if we can be cheerful and not melancholy or self-absorbed as we do them, if we undertake them after calm consideration, if they increase our humility, and if we can pray better doing them.[1]

 

The Tool: Set aside some time of quiet to reflect on your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you are neglecting and what would be transformative in your life and in your communities. For example, are you being asked to abstain from food, drink or certain words or actions? Are you being asked to let go of something or to take on a new service to others or a different way of acting or speaking?

 

Write down your Lenten practice.

 

Share the practice with another person as Benedict advises in Chapter 49 of the Rule.

 

Begin by offering your love and the practice to God.

 

As you move through Lent, if you "fall off the Lenten wagon, despair not. Turn to God and once more offer your intention and practice as a gift of joy and thanksgiving.

 

Look forward to Easter with joy and spiritual longing!

 

 

                February, 2012

© 2012 The Rev. Dr. Jane A. Tomaine



[1] Mark Scott, The Road to Eternal Life, 269-270.

 

Randy
 

. 

  
  

The Rule According to Randy

 

  

   

Hi! I'm Jane's cat Randy here to tell you about how Jane does or doesn't keep the Rule from my feline perspective.

 

I think I've told you about my pal Mickey, the oldest of our community. Twice a day Jane puts drops in his eyes because he has glaucoma. Here she's clearly following Benedict who says, "Care of the sick must rank above and before all else," and that the abbot or prioress (Jane) must make sure that the sick and the elderly are not neglected. (RB 36.1,10;
 RB 37)

 

Mickey's drops need to be ordered at least three weeks before the last bottle runs out because the medicine comes from Turkey!   (I've been wondering why Jane doesn't just go to the local Walgreen's.)  One morning we were stopped cold in our pre-breakfast milling about when Jane suddenly shouted in a LOUD voice, "Oh, no!! What happened to the other two bottles of Mickey's meds that we just got??  This third bottle almost gone!! John!"  She really flipped out and ran to find John. Had he used up or thrown away the full bottles? she demanded to know. What turmoil before breakfast, which was considerably delayed I might add.

 

Is this the way the superior is to act?  No!  It's not that Jane shouldn't have been concerned.  If Mickey doesn't get drops every day, his eyes get bad.  But the superior is not to be "excitable, anxious, extreme, obstinate, jealous or oversuspicious." (RB 64.16)  Except for the jealous part, I saw it all that morning but thought it best not to approach her right then and point this out.  I could see that she was aware of it all herself.

 

Benedict gives us lots of tips on how we should conduct ourselves like "You are not to act in anger"(4.22); "Hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do"(4.48); "Guard your lips from harmful or deceptive speech"(4. 51); "Let peace be your quest and aim"(Psalm 34 and Prologue 17b). There are many more. Now I didn't want to be overly critical because Benedict says, "Do not grumble or speak ill of others." (4. 39-40). I decided instead to be constructive. I asked Ricky, our very youngest member, to help me cull the Rule to find Jane an antidote to this problem of being excitable, anxious, extreme and oversuspicious, especially when confronted with something that really concerns her and appears to be an immediate disaster.

 

Here's what Ricky and I found. We hope that one or two of these antidotes helps Jane, and maybe even you, too.

 

In the Prologue Benedict quotes that wonderful passage from Matthew 7 where Jesus tells us to build our houses upon rock (Him) so that when the floods and winds come our house (us) doesn't fall. (Prologue 33-34) We can make it a priority build life upon the rock of Christ. "Prefer nothing whatever to Christ," Benedict advises. (72.11)

 

Ricky found the next antidote: "What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace." (Prologue 41) We can ask God to help us stay calm and handle whatever it is from that place. We can even consult with our community, be that family, workplace, church and so forth, when there is a problem. This is what the superior does in the monastic community. (Chapter 3 - Summoning the Monastics for Counsel). We don't have to figure out everything on our own.

 

I added the tried and true monastic practice of self-knowledge. We need to gain skill in catching the very, very beginning of these troubling thoughts and actions, acknowledging them yet not acting from the emotion. Several places in the Rule Benedict tells us to right away "dash these things against Christ". (Prologue 28, 4.50)

 

I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the first step of humility in Benedict's ladder of twelve rungs and that is, as Jane herself interpreted it, "To accept that God is present in my life and to live from that awareness." She wrote, "God always sees us and knows what we are about. We, then, need to be vigilant, striving from evil and turning to do good."[1] Our motivation comes not from a place of fear, but from our love of God and our knowledge that God can help us. Remember - "God is God; I am not God." We are not ultimately responsible for everything!

 

Finally, as Benedict says, "Place your hope in God alone" (4.41).

 

Funny thing was, later that infamous day Jane discovered that she had ordered the new three bottles only a couple weeks before, and that the bottles were due to arrive at the house within the week. She'd forgotten about the order! I know this isn't in the Rule, but to ward off future turmoil and delayed meals I'm going to recommend a daily dose of ginko biloba!

 

See you next issue when we've made it through Lent!

                                                                                                                        Your friend,

 

                                                                                                                         Randy's Signature

 



[1][1] Jane Tomaine, St. Benedict's Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Everyday Benedictine Living (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2005), 68.

 

Jan Feb 2012 Book

 

The Book Corner 
A Recommended Read

 

The Road to Eternal Life:

Reflections on the Prologue of Benedict's Rule

By Michael Casey

 

 

I found this book to be thought-provoking and a worthy springboard for reflection and meditation not only on the Rule but on life. His writing is clear, gentle and inspiring.

 

The book began as a series of ten-minute website talks by Fr. Michael Casey, a Cistercian monk of the Tarrawarra Abbey in Australia and author. He encourages us to read these reflections over time, perhaps over the course of a year. Drawing on other parts of the Rule, the monastic tradition and his own life experience, Casey unpacks the Prologue, offering us a gem of wisdom in its interpretation of Benedictine thought and practice.  He also takes care in drawing those of us outside the cloister into the practice of Benedictine living.

 

Casey calls us to the importance of single-mindedness in the spiritual journey as well as having the openness to change.  

 

"The whole purpose of the Rule," Casey writes, "is to provide us with a map that will  lead us to the tent of meeting, to a profound and intimate encounter with God" which is "the whole reason for our spiritual or monastic journey." (p. 87)  

 

Jan-Feb 2012 book
The Tarrawarra Abbey Choir

Daily life presents constant opportunities for "conversatio," for being open to change and to the choice for following Christ by way of the Gospels. "God's will for us is that we change, because change is the best evidence of being alive. God's will is for us to loosen our hold on limited life in order to grasp more firmly a more abundant and lasting life." Change is a gift from God to call us forth from "our harmless comfort zone" into a strange and unfamiliar territory." (p. 135-136)   We set aside our self-limiting behavior for the abundant life that Jesus offers. Reading about change I found myself asking, "Where do I need to loosen my hold on life? Where am I limiting myself instead of moving ahead in trust?"

 

Reading this book you'll find many opportunities to reflect on Benedict's and Casey's wisdom in the context of your own life. Although I have read the book in its entirety, I've decided to return to it as a resource for meditation and reflection during Lent. I encourage you to join me in this journey. The journey with Michael Casey in this book will be a journey of discovery and meaning. 

 

Details on the Book:

The Road to Eternal Life: Reflections on the Prologue of Benedict's Rule by Michael Casey. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-8146-3384-7

 

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

 

Michael Casey has written many other wonderful books about the Benedictine way and about prayer. I can't list them all but, among those I have read and found interesting and helpful here are a few:

 

A Guide to Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori/Triumph, 2001.

 

Toward God: The Ancient Wisdom of Western Prayer. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori/Triumph, 1996.

 

Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Brewsyter, MA: Paraclete Press, 2005.

 

See Michael Casey's books on Amazon.com

 

To read an interview with Michael Casey conducted at the time he was writing The Road to Eternal Life, travel here.

  

 

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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

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

 

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