I’m trying to see life more playfully, from a child’s point of view. For the reward of necessary joy, I’m ready to turn my adult-y, logical way of knowing how upside down. Sometimes adult life feels inelegant, unmanageable and hard. There is sickness, suffering and death. There are fractured relationships we can’t repair. The international, national and …
For the next year or so, I will be studying Michael Casey’s Seventy-four Tools for Good Living: reflections on the fourth chapter of Benedict’s Rule with my oblate group at Saint Benedict’s monastery. Among those seventy-four tools is this one: “To have death present before one’s eyes every day.” (RB 4:47) And this is a …
What do spiritual practices do? Practice is how people develop the skills to become adept at anything. Music students practice their instruments. Gymnasts practice routines, yoga students practice poses, swimmers practice strokes, and tennis players practice their serves. Successful organizational leaders practice self-mastery and teamwork. Just as all these people practice to become more proficient, spiritual …
23 Spiritual Practices Taught by The Rule of Benedict Read More »
At the intersection of reading and writing, in the spaces where listening, silence, prayer, and wonder happen–there is poetry. There, too, is where I find support for living as a Benedictine. Some months ago I decided that my blog will focus on “Reading, Writing, and the Benedictine way of life.” Since then, I’ve been pondering …
Judith Valente–poet, journalist, and Benedictine oblate–on "How To Live" Read More »
How will we get through this? Entering April, 2020 with a global pandemic and social distancing, we are likely encountering uncertainty, anxiety, fear, perhaps even dread, all triggered by our past experience of suffering and sorrow. To get through this painful time, to come out on the other side with wisdom and resilience, we would …
Invitation: Let's Walk Care-Fully THROUGH this Together Read More »
Healing is a Never Ending Departure an improvisation after the poem STUFEN by Hermann Hesse Tracy Rittmueller Like every flower fades and every childhood withers into age, every stage of life blooms; each insight, too. And every goodness blossoms in its time yet will not last forever. In every purpose, in every call of life, …
The Irony of Facebook “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission–to make the world more open and connected.” –Mark Zuckerberg The irony of Facebook is that while its founder says he intended it to bring people together, there is ample evidence it is doing the …
If you know how to ask for help, please help me (and others) learn this skill For some years now, I’ve been connecting with people like you, who care about building a life around kindness, compassion, and the concept of enough. The people I like to hang out with, online and in person, believe that …
What is the time pressure-paradox? When I toured the early 20th-century caretaker’s cottage at the Rockefeller family’s historic Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont, the guide explained that the caretaker’s wife and three daughters took the entire day, every Monday, to wash the caretaker’s shirts and their own few dresses and undergarments, hang them …
How 3 months at a Benedictine monastery set me free from the time-pressure paradox Read More »
This is the sixth of 6 Visio Divina Meditations, as an alternative to New Years Resolutions. Professed Benedictine monastics formally promise to uphold a 3-fold commitment to listening (obedience), stability, and fidelity (conversatio morum) while living within their communities. Oblates (lay associates) strive to apply these principles while living “in the world” outside the monastery, …
Envision Benedictine Listening (Obedience) through Visio Divina (Divine Seeing) Read More »