Holy Rule for January 9
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 8, 2026, 8:22:04 PM (8 days ago) Jan 8
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 9, May 10, September 9
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be (1-5)
An Abbess who is worthy to be over a monastery should always remember what she is called, and live up to the name of Superior. For she is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, being called by a name of His, which is taken from the words of the Apostle: "You have received a Spirit of adoption ..., by virtue of which we cry, 'Abba -- Father'" (Rom. 8:15).
Therefore the Abbess ought not to teach or ordain or command anything which is against the Lord's precepts; on the contrary, her commands and her teaching should be a leaven of divine justice kneaded into the minds of her disciples.
REFLECTION
Folks, the abbot is a parent, so, while I am writing about abbots in particular, this is also largely true of parents, or any authority position. Stick with me, you'll see what I mean in the end.
It will no doubt come as a great relief to other cranky types like me to note that the leaven gently kneaded into the minds of certain disciples often seems to have a downright underwhelming effect. A hallmark of us curmudgeonly types is impatience: we do not suffer fools gladly, the miracle is that we endure them at all. Most of all, we want them FIXED, right now, or yesterday at the latest!
The tragedy of this is that, in assuming we can recognize fools so terribly well, we completely miss the fool at work in ourselves.
That's not the only issue, though. This leaven-in-the-dough stuff works two ways. Throw a measure of leaven into a heap of cornmeal and you'll wind up with a different critter than several cups of buckwheat or flour would produce. For all I know, you could probably throw yeast into concrete and wind up with a meringue-like patio. Both components are essential to the change, both elements affect the outcome.
Abbot and monastic, parent and child, boss and employee, all these are very, very intricate duets of God's mercy and grace. Neither may be very evident to one while in the midst of things! Time and wisdom and hindsight bring a different view. Beyond that, all of us change: the characters in the catalyst are always changing, no matter how subtly. God has done some awesomely loving fine-tuning here!
God uses human means to accomplish His will, as my dear professor, Dr. Jean Ronan, so often said. Ah, but the abbacy scores doubly on this maxim. A very human abbot is elected by a very human community. Sometimes, abbots are elected to counteract each other. The human community gets tired of the very human tendency of an abbot to stress one thing above others. Hence, tight reins are sometimes replaced with loose ones and vice versa.
Those human means which God uses are often quite firmly addicted to extremes. The extremes then vex a majority to the opposite extreme. (I know this is the Marxist dialectic and I know it is not always true, but it does have a kernel of application. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.) Sometime after we are all so fatigued with polarization that we have briefly stopped watching, perhaps a median virtue ensues!
And what about that leaven that I couldn't notice having much effect? Well, neither I nor anyone else knows, save the person and God. Some die, some leave before the effect is seen. Leaven works. It may work slowly, it may work in a variety of ways, but leaven does something sooner or later! Faith and trust in God's Divine Mercy require that we have a LOT of patience with bread cast on waters in tremendous hope!
A final note, much, maybe even MOST of the leavening work of grace and sanctification in our own hearts and souls takes place unnoticed, the silent, unsung, yet constant, workings of the Divine Mercy. Usually we don't even realize it till much later, after its completion. One day we wake up and finally notice something is different, something is better in us. Such secret works are all the gratuitous gift of the Leaven of all leavens Himself! Deo gratias!!!!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 9, May 10, September 9
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be (1-5)
An Abbess who is worthy to be over a monastery should always remember what she is called, and live up to the name of Superior. For she is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery, being called by a name of His, which is taken from the words of the Apostle: "You have received a Spirit of adoption ..., by virtue of which we cry, 'Abba -- Father'" (Rom. 8:15).
Therefore the Abbess ought not to teach or ordain or command anything which is against the Lord's precepts; on the contrary, her commands and her teaching should be a leaven of divine justice kneaded into the minds of her disciples.
REFLECTION
Folks, the abbot is a parent, so, while I am writing about abbots in particular, this is also largely true of parents, or any authority position. Stick with me, you'll see what I mean in the end.
It will no doubt come as a great relief to other cranky types like me to note that the leaven gently kneaded into the minds of certain disciples often seems to have a downright underwhelming effect. A hallmark of us curmudgeonly types is impatience: we do not suffer fools gladly, the miracle is that we endure them at all. Most of all, we want them FIXED, right now, or yesterday at the latest!
The tragedy of this is that, in assuming we can recognize fools so terribly well, we completely miss the fool at work in ourselves.
That's not the only issue, though. This leaven-in-the-dough stuff works two ways. Throw a measure of leaven into a heap of cornmeal and you'll wind up with a different critter than several cups of buckwheat or flour would produce. For all I know, you could probably throw yeast into concrete and wind up with a meringue-like patio. Both components are essential to the change, both elements affect the outcome.
Abbot and monastic, parent and child, boss and employee, all these are very, very intricate duets of God's mercy and grace. Neither may be very evident to one while in the midst of things! Time and wisdom and hindsight bring a different view. Beyond that, all of us change: the characters in the catalyst are always changing, no matter how subtly. God has done some awesomely loving fine-tuning here!
God uses human means to accomplish His will, as my dear professor, Dr. Jean Ronan, so often said. Ah, but the abbacy scores doubly on this maxim. A very human abbot is elected by a very human community. Sometimes, abbots are elected to counteract each other. The human community gets tired of the very human tendency of an abbot to stress one thing above others. Hence, tight reins are sometimes replaced with loose ones and vice versa.
Those human means which God uses are often quite firmly addicted to extremes. The extremes then vex a majority to the opposite extreme. (I know this is the Marxist dialectic and I know it is not always true, but it does have a kernel of application. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.) Sometime after we are all so fatigued with polarization that we have briefly stopped watching, perhaps a median virtue ensues!
And what about that leaven that I couldn't notice having much effect? Well, neither I nor anyone else knows, save the person and God. Some die, some leave before the effect is seen. Leaven works. It may work slowly, it may work in a variety of ways, but leaven does something sooner or later! Faith and trust in God's Divine Mercy require that we have a LOT of patience with bread cast on waters in tremendous hope!
A final note, much, maybe even MOST of the leavening work of grace and sanctification in our own hearts and souls takes place unnoticed, the silent, unsung, yet constant, workings of the Divine Mercy. Usually we don't even realize it till much later, after its completion. One day we wake up and finally notice something is different, something is better in us. Such secret works are all the gratuitous gift of the Leaven of all leavens Himself! Deo gratias!!!!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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