Holy Rule for October 4
11 views
Skip to first unread message
St. Mary's Monastery
Oct 3, 2026, 5:20:48 PM (10 days ago) Oct 3
to holyrule
+PAX
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 3, June 4, October 4
Chapter 7: On Humility (49-50)
The sixth degree of humility is that a monk be content with the poorest and worst of everything, and that in every occupation assigned him he consider himself a bad and worthless workman, saying with the Prophet, "I am brought to nothing and I am without understanding; I have become as a beast of burden before You, and I am always with You" (Ps: 22-23).
REFLECTION
While it may be true that some people have self-esteems which are far too low, I think that many people, from my generation onward, have "worked through all that" with more than enough success.
Relax; I think that often we have compensated for any imbalance and then some! With ears attuned to such 21st century self-affirmation, it is hard for us to hear lines like "worthless workman", "brought to nothing" and "a beast of burden before You."
Understandably, we may listen through our filtered ears and wonder how on earth the Psalmist could say such things. Mechanisms to explain them away and denial defenses spring right up: “Must have been his primitive society, must have been some neurotic notion of religion in those days! Boy that David REALLY needed to work on his self-image, so sad in a King, too!"
I don't think any of those things are true in more than the most minimal sense, if that. David COULD say those things with honesty, because he was saintly. Let me hasten to console all concerned with that news that he was also very human. Face it; he had a lusty eye for Uriah's wife and conveniently arranged Uriah's death in battle to "legitimate" things. Nathan the prophet confronted David with the facts and the child born of his dalliance with Bathsheba died. Hardly the type of thing one would read about St. Therese, the Little Flower!
Because this terribly human David, in a sense, had "seen" God, at least with the eyes of his soul, he could easily make truthful remarks like these about himself! Once we see even a bit of God, scales begin to fall from our eyes and we can easily see how the Prophet could say such things: they are true!
I sure know I am nothing, nothing at ALL without God. If I have done a good job here and there, make no mistake that I can tell you from an inside perspective that successes were just that: here and there. Not one of them would (or could!) have ever happened without God's grace, nada, zilch! The total workman profile has a LOT of gaps and stuff undone, deliberately and otherwise. The merit review will probably NOT recommend a raise at this time!
We need the truth of humility because we take ourselves- and the falsehoods about ourselves for good or ill- far, far too seriously. Yes, we sometimes need to know we really did "OK", but we also need to often remind ourselves that we are not so hot as we thought!
"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory"-yet another of David's pithy assessments of self-worth. We are, of ourselves, less than carbon. It is only because of Christ that we carbon kids can truly become the "immortal diamond" of which Hopkins wrote!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 3, June 4, October 4
Chapter 7: On Humility (49-50)
The sixth degree of humility is that a monk be content with the poorest and worst of everything, and that in every occupation assigned him he consider himself a bad and worthless workman, saying with the Prophet, "I am brought to nothing and I am without understanding; I have become as a beast of burden before You, and I am always with You" (Ps: 22-23).
REFLECTION
While it may be true that some people have self-esteems which are far too low, I think that many people, from my generation onward, have "worked through all that" with more than enough success.
Relax; I think that often we have compensated for any imbalance and then some! With ears attuned to such 21st century self-affirmation, it is hard for us to hear lines like "worthless workman", "brought to nothing" and "a beast of burden before You."
Understandably, we may listen through our filtered ears and wonder how on earth the Psalmist could say such things. Mechanisms to explain them away and denial defenses spring right up: “Must have been his primitive society, must have been some neurotic notion of religion in those days! Boy that David REALLY needed to work on his self-image, so sad in a King, too!"
I don't think any of those things are true in more than the most minimal sense, if that. David COULD say those things with honesty, because he was saintly. Let me hasten to console all concerned with that news that he was also very human. Face it; he had a lusty eye for Uriah's wife and conveniently arranged Uriah's death in battle to "legitimate" things. Nathan the prophet confronted David with the facts and the child born of his dalliance with Bathsheba died. Hardly the type of thing one would read about St. Therese, the Little Flower!
Because this terribly human David, in a sense, had "seen" God, at least with the eyes of his soul, he could easily make truthful remarks like these about himself! Once we see even a bit of God, scales begin to fall from our eyes and we can easily see how the Prophet could say such things: they are true!
I sure know I am nothing, nothing at ALL without God. If I have done a good job here and there, make no mistake that I can tell you from an inside perspective that successes were just that: here and there. Not one of them would (or could!) have ever happened without God's grace, nada, zilch! The total workman profile has a LOT of gaps and stuff undone, deliberately and otherwise. The merit review will probably NOT recommend a raise at this time!
We need the truth of humility because we take ourselves- and the falsehoods about ourselves for good or ill- far, far too seriously. Yes, we sometimes need to know we really did "OK", but we also need to often remind ourselves that we are not so hot as we thought!
"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory"-yet another of David's pithy assessments of self-worth. We are, of ourselves, less than carbon. It is only because of Christ that we carbon kids can truly become the "immortal diamond" of which Hopkins wrote!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages