Holy Rule for April 30
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St. Mary's Monastery
Apr 29, 2026, 5:14:28 PM (17 hours ago) Apr 29
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 30, August 30, December 30
Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have
Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good zeal which separates from vices and leads to God and to life everlasting. This zeal, therefore, the sisters should practice with the most fervent love. Thus they should anticipate one another in honor (Rom. 12:10); most patiently endure one another's infirmities, whether of body or of character; vie in paying obedience one to another - no one following what she considers useful for herself, but rather what benefits another; tender the charity of sisterhood chastely; fear God in love; love their Abbess with a sincere and humble charity; prefer nothing whatever to Christ. And may He bring us all together to life everlasting!
REFLECTION
This chapter, full of self-evident and beautiful prose should serve as a short rule of life, a summary of all that has gone before it. Live this one, and you're all right: the details from the other chapters will take care of themselves. Little wonder then that its principal points are love, obedience and humility, practiced in the chastity of wholeness. (Chastity, it must be recalled, is proper to every state in life. It is the well-ordered, balanced and holy use of sexuality.) Even less wonder that, to call Scripture in to witness here, "the greatest of these is love." As Merton wrote, "Love is the Rule."
The beauty here is so great that we often do not spend enough time looking at its converse: "the evil zeal of bitterness." What a great turn of phrase! Like many of us, St. Benedict seems to have known some whose bitterness turned into an energetic zeal, a way of life, a broken power line in a windy world that could strike others or themselves without warning.
And "zeal" is precisely the word! People can put such frighteningly zealous levels of effort into self-loathing bitterness. It becomes a full-time job, one which requires so much energy that it's a marvel that they continue. Bitter anger, self-hatred, unforgiving ill-will towards many, these are viciously involuted cycles. They turn on the self, malignantly. They injure and alienate others to make one's twisted world view remain correct. They never rest, the fist is always clenched, the hand never open.
While all things are possible with God, the terrible thing is that this self-hatred sometimes seems to never get fixed in some people. It is a life sentence. Then, prayer is the only answer, but prayer can still win a happy death, when no more activity or change is evident to us. The souls and God have their own timetable, their own relations which our eyes may not see, nor our ears hear.
In any situation, but perhaps worse when the sufferer is one's spouse or parent or child, this bitterness is a terrible cross, for both the sufferer and those around her. It might seem cold comfort to say that it can make all involved saints, but it truly is not cold comfort at all. Being saints is the only thing, ultimately, that matters. I hope by now some of my crosses of the past are praying for me in heaven, protecting me, by their prayers, from what once ailed them!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 30, August 30, December 30
Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have
Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good zeal which separates from vices and leads to God and to life everlasting. This zeal, therefore, the sisters should practice with the most fervent love. Thus they should anticipate one another in honor (Rom. 12:10); most patiently endure one another's infirmities, whether of body or of character; vie in paying obedience one to another - no one following what she considers useful for herself, but rather what benefits another; tender the charity of sisterhood chastely; fear God in love; love their Abbess with a sincere and humble charity; prefer nothing whatever to Christ. And may He bring us all together to life everlasting!
REFLECTION
This chapter, full of self-evident and beautiful prose should serve as a short rule of life, a summary of all that has gone before it. Live this one, and you're all right: the details from the other chapters will take care of themselves. Little wonder then that its principal points are love, obedience and humility, practiced in the chastity of wholeness. (Chastity, it must be recalled, is proper to every state in life. It is the well-ordered, balanced and holy use of sexuality.) Even less wonder that, to call Scripture in to witness here, "the greatest of these is love." As Merton wrote, "Love is the Rule."
The beauty here is so great that we often do not spend enough time looking at its converse: "the evil zeal of bitterness." What a great turn of phrase! Like many of us, St. Benedict seems to have known some whose bitterness turned into an energetic zeal, a way of life, a broken power line in a windy world that could strike others or themselves without warning.
And "zeal" is precisely the word! People can put such frighteningly zealous levels of effort into self-loathing bitterness. It becomes a full-time job, one which requires so much energy that it's a marvel that they continue. Bitter anger, self-hatred, unforgiving ill-will towards many, these are viciously involuted cycles. They turn on the self, malignantly. They injure and alienate others to make one's twisted world view remain correct. They never rest, the fist is always clenched, the hand never open.
While all things are possible with God, the terrible thing is that this self-hatred sometimes seems to never get fixed in some people. It is a life sentence. Then, prayer is the only answer, but prayer can still win a happy death, when no more activity or change is evident to us. The souls and God have their own timetable, their own relations which our eyes may not see, nor our ears hear.
In any situation, but perhaps worse when the sufferer is one's spouse or parent or child, this bitterness is a terrible cross, for both the sufferer and those around her. It might seem cold comfort to say that it can make all involved saints, but it truly is not cold comfort at all. Being saints is the only thing, ultimately, that matters. I hope by now some of my crosses of the past are praying for me in heaven, protecting me, by their prayers, from what once ailed them!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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