The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (Spiritual Legacy Series)

In the minor hours, the psalms carry us from hardship to joy, from inner captivity to liberation, from despair to trust. It is a message to us all that remembering to trust in God can be enough to carry us for a lifetime.

The question in the Rule is not who is right and who is wrong. The question in the Rule is who is offended and who is sorry, who is to apologize and who is to forgive. Quickly. Immediately. Now.

Here, as a result of these concepts, is a prayer life grounded in faith, witness, attention, and serious study.

the message of Benedictine spirituality is a consistent one: live life normally, live life thoughtfully, live life profoundly, live life well.

We run from experience to experience like children in a candy store and wonder how serenity has eluded us. It is walking through life with a relaxed grasp and a focused eye that gets us to where we’re going.

the function of leadership is to call us beyond ourselves, to stretch us to our limits, to turn the clay into breathless beauty. But first, of course, we have to allow it to happen.

whatever authority we hold, we hold it for the good of the entire group, not for our own sense of self.

They are to be directors of souls who serve the group by “coaxing, reproving, and encouraging” it—by prodding and pressing and persuading it—to struggle as they have struggled to grow in depth, in sincerity, and in holiness, to grow despite weaknesses, to grow beyond weaknesses.

those who hold authority in a community are not to be above the group, they are to be the centers of it, the norm of it, the movers of it. They themselves are to mirror its values. Their job is not simply to give orders. Their job is to live out the ideals.