It's been a long time since my last post. Creating and maintaining a blog is a work that requires a good deal of discipline. It seems to require as well a strong sense of its purpose. It is uncertain to me which of these requirements is lacking in this blog, perhaps both. Yet, periodically, I renew my inspiration to post to the blog because of some new insight or special reading that I happen to encounter.
New inspiration has arrived! It is coming from a little booklet entitled "Benedict of Nursia, His Message for Today". The following quotes from this 63 page booklet I found to be resonant with a post from April 13, 2009. I also noticed a similarity between the environment St. Benedict describes as prevalent at the time and our current environment.
"… Newer studies have shown that Benedict relied very much on models for his Rule, especially the so-called Regula Magistri. …it is precisely in comparison to the model that the originality and the true greatness of Benedict can be seen. In contrast to a pessimistic, suspicious, and often rigorous review of humanity in the model, Benedict shows a trustful attitude toward his monks. Trusting in the good core of human beings was anything but a matter of course in a time when hostile parties vied in committing horrors against each other, in which the moral strength of Roman culture was being extinguished and no new initiative toward a peaceful common life for human beings was on the horizon.… In this unreliable age when people lived in fear and mistrust one another, Benedict ventured to believe in the goodness of human beings and did not lead his monks with suspicious harshness, but in trust, kindness, and brotherly love." p. 14
