Stability is one of the three vows that Benedictine sisters and monks take. This presentation considers what this vow might mean for lay people in every day life. Originally given as a retreat at St. Paul's Monastery, St. Paul, Minnesota in 2013.
4. Stability and Instability
• Bad types of monastics
• Gyrovague (no fixed abode)
• Sarabaite (desires=rule)
• Strong monastics: cenobites
• Accept a Rule
• Under an abbot / prioress
• Live in a monastery
5.
6. Merton observed that St Benedict
"introduced this vow into his Rule
precisely because he knew that the
limitations of the monk, and the
limitations of the community he lived
in, formed a part of God's plan for
the sanctification both of individuals
and of communities."
In making this vow, "the monk
renounces the vain hope of
wandering off to find a 'perfect
monastery.' "
Schlabach, Gerald. (1998). TheVow of Stability:
A Premodern WayThrough a Hypermodern World
8. Stability in the Rule
• Ch 58.4,9, 17: Promise
• Chapter 4: The "location" for using the Tools
for Good Works.
• Ch 60: Stability applies to priests
as well
• Ch 66: Porter's "maturity will prevent her from
straying about. "
• Ch 64: Abbot/Prioress is "not excitable"
9. Sources of Instability
• Fear (Prologue 48)
• "Craving of their appetites"
(sarabaites)
• "Slaves to own will & delights of the
palate" so "ever on the move & never
stable" (Ch 1: gyrovagues)
• "Own fault" (Chapter 29)
• Free will (Ch 58)
• "Devil's suggestion" (Ch 58)
10.
11. • Theology tells us that God is unchanging
• "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today
and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)
• Yet passages of Scripture paint a picture of
God thinking better of an initial plan.
• What can passages like these tell us about
God's stability?
12. Scripture Passages to Consider
• Exodus 32:1-14
• Genesis 22:1-19
• Jonah Ch 1 - 4
• Genesis 8
• Psalm 77
• 1 Samuel 15
• Luke 22:39-43
• Luke 22:54-62
15. LINEAR TIME, HISTORICAL TIME
Birth Child Youth Adult Death
• We enter at conception
• We live each moment
• Circumstances form us (family, schools, jobs, events)
• We exit at death
• The secular perspective sees time as
motion, progress, a single direction.
• Culture defines the purpose or goal of time
16. Affluenza: The Culture of More
1
6
affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition
of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged
pursuit of more. (de Graaf)
17. Culture of Perfection
• Best quality
• Best deal
• Latest edition or style
• "You deserve better"
• "It's not fair"
• Easily offended
• Easily dissatisfied with service
22. This culture leads to
• Constant sense of
dissatisfaction with life.
• Constant anxiety that
one should be better
• Constant attempt to
make the right choice
• Constant sense that
change is needed
23. How can we find stability in such
an upside-down culture?
2
3
The Whole World in a Crystal Ball by xollob58 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/xollob58/474392091/
24.
25.
26.
27. Some people refer
to these blogs and
books as
"productivity
porn."
They have a
common premise:
change is crucial
and we have to do
it ourselves.
35. The importance of "the team"
• "Thank you" for doing
what you promised.
• Overlooking and
accepting
• Need each other for
survival & success
• "The team" can be just
two people.
36. Community Building in Rule
• Readily confess faults and
ask forgiveness.
• Be ready to make peace
and to forgive.
• Order things so that "no one
is distressed in the house
of God."
37. Avoiding the Negatives
• Be there for prayer,
for the common table.
• Do not grumble and
complain.
• Do not compare what
you get with others.
38. Daily Practices
• Strive to outdo each other in
mutual love and service.
• Honor the elders, love the
juniors.
• Give a kind word if you
have to say no.
• Never turn away from
someone who needs your
love.
39. Stability in the Faith Community
• Liturgical Prayer
• Worship
• Regular time together
• Sharing Joy
40. “The external practices of monastic life are
directly connected with our search for God. In
and through these practices we express our
spiritual values and ideals, and daily live out our
commitment to God.”
Cummings, Monastic Practices
43. “Seeking workers in a multitude
of people, the Lord calls out to
us and asks, “Is there anyone
here who yearns for life and
desires to see good days?”
“What, dear friends, is more
delightful than this voice of the
Lord calling to us? See how the
Lord in his love shows us the
way of life.”
RB Prologue.14-15, 19-20
Nurturing the First Fervor
44. The Desert Abbas
and Ammas
Fidelity by removing from the
source of distractions.
Meditation on Scripture
Habits of life
Amma Mary of Egypt
45. Humility andThe Rule
• Chapter 7 is the longest
chapter in Benedict’s Rule.
• Ch. 7 is the culmination of
its spiritual foundations.
• Humility counteracts the
cultural force of "more"
and "the best"
46. Silence
• Restraint of speech helps us listen to God .
• This allows others to maintain their prayer.
• “The tongue is a small member and yet has great
pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a
huge forest ablaze.” (James 3:5)
• This also includes choosing what other sounds
and presences to have (TV, radio) and when.
47. “Be imitators of me”
• The apostles and fervent
Christians, became the models
for others.
• St. Paul, in the earliest text in
the New Testament, tells the
Thessalonians to imitate him.
• The Epistles record the advice,
the spiritual counsel, shared to
help Christians on the journey
48. “Our life in its outward
practices as well as its
inward spirit becomes
totally oriented towards
seeking and finding God.”
Cummings,
Monastic Practices
51. Lectio Divina
• Monastic reading is a
spiritual encounter
• Nothing rejected as unfit
automatically, if God be sought,
BUT
• Much is better avoided for
guard of the heart
• “Sustained lectio” with a single
text over a period of months or
years”
Sr. Meg Funk
Lectio Matters
52. A regular pattern of lectio
and prayer creates constant
dialogue with God:
Listening
Waiting
Hearing
Speaking
53. • Gravitas is important
to Benedict
• An aspect of wisdom.
• Compare with the
speech we hear
around us daily
• loud
• snappy repartee
• sarcastic
• What happens to our
idea if we don’t
speak?
54. Humble prayer
• The inner practice of humility,
of neither expecting or rejecting
good things.
• The humility of mutual obedience,
listening and attending to the
needs of others.
• Fostering hope not despair.
55. “Finally, whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is commendable,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything
worthy of praise, think
about these things.”
Philippians 4:8
58. There is a wicked
zeal of bitterness
which separates
from God and
leads to hell
There is a good
zeal which
separates from evil
and leads to God
and eternal life.
RB 72.1-2
59. Stability:
BeingWhereYou
Are,
FixingYour Heart
• Moment-by-moment giving of self to the place and
people with which one is engaged.
• Views relationships as meaningful, rather than as a
means to an end.
• Bears the burdens and behaviors of others as
sharing the suffering of the Body of Christ.
60. Learning to MoveThroughTime
• Patient endurance
• Spirituality of waiting
• Remembering God's
mercy and gifts
• Prefer nothing to Chris
61. “Keep on doing the
things you have
learned and received
and heard and seen in
me, and the God of
peace will greatly
rejoice you.”
Philippians 4:9
64. “Is there anything
more painful than
realizing you did not
know the right
questions to ask at
the only time on
earth you would
have the opportunity
to do so.”
Alice Walker:
The Way Forward is with
a Broken Heart.
65. AlwaysWe Begin Again
• We do make progress
on this journey.
• Yet each day offers
both challenge and
opportunity.
• The journey of humility
is filled with the
suffering and the joy of
the Paschal Mystery.
66.
67.
68. "Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, what God has prepared
for those who love Him."
(1 Cor. 2:9)
69. Take 5 minutes to ponder something
you want to take away from this day.
Notas del editor
Our houses differ now – ethnic background, emphasis in ministries, subtle differences in the personalities.
Just as Vatican II sent us back to our monastic roots – to the Holy Rule and the wisdom of the desert – so our monastic life of the future will grow out of our histories – which we have begun to study and preserve so much more carefully.
While I’ve painted a “future” with broad strokes, it will be different in each location. The varieties of monastic life that spring up will respond to those differences.
“More” is a national disease. We have it in the monastery. One sister said, “We used to have to turn in a list of everything we had in our room at the beginning of Lent, and we’d get it back with items crossed off. We don’t do it anymore because it would take some of us all of Lent to make the list.
Lust for items – greed – is an afflictive thought older than Christianity, and its destructive force on the spiritual life, on all sorts of relationships, on families has been well documented.
The inner dynamic of industrial society, though, is producing more with less. Early industrialization made it possible for more people – poorer people – to have food and items once reserved for the rich. When the standard of living had been raised, though, there was a choice:
Work fewer hours to produce the same amount of stuff, and have more leisure
Work the same amount of time to produce more stuff, and have more stuff
We opted for the latter – there are dozens of analyses why. More types of stuff had to be invented. They had to be made obsolete so that we would buy other new stuff – fashion speeded up. The cycle of Affluenza began.
Early in the 20th century – 100 years ago – sociologists were already studying the ways in which the upper classes used consumption and fashion to mark their status; they gained identity by what they owned.
As mass production made similar goods available to middle and lower classes, the upper classes have to constantly find new and expensive things to mark themselves out. And the cycle continues, leading to ….
It’s a bit daunting to talk about the future. There’s a big danger of projecting the world one would like to see, or one fears will happen, and calling it a prediction. The result may sound more intellectual, but it’s not too far different from using a crystal ball.
Even when the image in a crystal ball is quite clear, it still may not match the reality that unfolds. In fact, even the methods of social science are far from perfect. The ideas I’ll present this morning are grounded in solid data, but scholars do disagree regularly about their interpretation.
There are two kinds of forces that help us think about the future, and it’s important to separate them. The first looks at structures or forces that we can see in the present that will constrain the future.
Just as we can understand the present in terms of things we did, or did not, do in the past, so some aspects of the future are already determined. (Money in the bank. Education. Hubble.) Some of these factors escape notice because they are so common place.
Time to ponder
Time for comments
Our monastic communities have come through turbulent times.
We have worked hard to weather them, to grow, to stay together.
Many are weary.
Who wants to hear that the future will be difficult in new ways
That conflicts may continue
That the blessings of modern technology also bring curses
That there is more work to do
Really, this is no different than St. Benedict’s time.
Society was in an upheaval, with norms breaking down.
The only prophecy he made about the future of monastic life was that Monte Cassino would be destroyed.
He says his Rule is just a beginning.
But he asks, in the preface, “Who longs for life?”
It’s a question of direction, of choices among many options.