Holy Rule for August 26
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St. Mary's Monastery
Aug 25, 2026, 5:55:41 PM (6 days ago) Aug 25
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 26, August 26, December 26
Chapter 68: If a Sister Is Commanded to Do Impossible Things
If it happens that difficult or impossible tasks are laid on a sister, let her nevertheless receive the order of the one in authority with all meekness and obedience. But if she sees that the weight of the burden altogether exceeds the limit of her strength, let her submit the reasons for her inability to the one who is over her in a quiet way and at an opportune time, without pride, resistance, or contradiction. And if after these representations the Superior still persists in her decision and command, let the subject know that this is for her good, and let her obey out of love, trusting in the help of God.
REFLECTION
This chapter, I think, holds even more for Oblates in the world than it does for monastics. There aren't many superiors around today who insist on the impossible very often, nor are the "impossible" tasks asked of one in the monastery likely to compare very favorably with some of the things people in the world are asked to do. Those things often come from God directly or indirectly, by His will or His permission, so argument isn't going to be extremely helpful. All that one can do is apply the last three phrases of this chapter to the situation, often with trembling and with gritted teeth!
"...let the subject know that this is for her good, and let her obey out of love, trusting in the help of God." That is a dauntingly tall order! The people who keep this Rule in their hearts are, let us be frank, practicing heroic virtue. How touching it is to sometimes see their humility. Far from complaining, they apologize that they questioned, struggled, or plodded through without much feeling!! Hello??!? That's nothing short of fabulous and would be humanly impossible without very great cooperation with God's grace.
"...KNOW that this is for her good," not believe or trust, but know. WOW! That takes a tremendous act of faith. Often hindsight can help here. One can look back at other presumed tragedies and see the hand of God's love clearly in retrospect. This, however, is often not easily possible when the first tragedy hits, nor is it easy when the latest cross is so utterly overwhelming that one can be tempted to think that this time is a BIG exception.
God is the ONLY force that can change evil to good, to triumph. He is the only One Who can not only make evil's consequences tolerable for those who love Him, but even make them profitable victories! All things really do work together for the good if one loves God. We need to own and know with all our hearts and might that this is always and everywhere true; always.
"...let her obey out of love." Whoa!! We will spend most of our lives working on that one, but, as Benedictines who must always strive to do better, we cannot put off working on it till later. We need, however blindly, to seek the way of loving obedience. When we cannot find it at first, God, Who knows better than we how hard it is, receives our trust and intention as great, great things of merit.
"...trusting in the help of God." Trust can be unspeakably hard, and is made the more so by the many times humans and history have betrayed our trust. We become fearful and wary after many human hurts. Unfortunately, this impedes our ability to trust even God, Who is incapable of betraying us. He will never, ever abandon us.
St. Faustina said that even if the ground beneath her feet were to drop away, she would still trust Him. That's a way off for most of us, but a worthy goal which we should long to achieve. Trust like that is the herald of great sanctity. And great sanctity is our call!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 26, August 26, December 26
Chapter 68: If a Sister Is Commanded to Do Impossible Things
If it happens that difficult or impossible tasks are laid on a sister, let her nevertheless receive the order of the one in authority with all meekness and obedience. But if she sees that the weight of the burden altogether exceeds the limit of her strength, let her submit the reasons for her inability to the one who is over her in a quiet way and at an opportune time, without pride, resistance, or contradiction. And if after these representations the Superior still persists in her decision and command, let the subject know that this is for her good, and let her obey out of love, trusting in the help of God.
REFLECTION
This chapter, I think, holds even more for Oblates in the world than it does for monastics. There aren't many superiors around today who insist on the impossible very often, nor are the "impossible" tasks asked of one in the monastery likely to compare very favorably with some of the things people in the world are asked to do. Those things often come from God directly or indirectly, by His will or His permission, so argument isn't going to be extremely helpful. All that one can do is apply the last three phrases of this chapter to the situation, often with trembling and with gritted teeth!
"...let the subject know that this is for her good, and let her obey out of love, trusting in the help of God." That is a dauntingly tall order! The people who keep this Rule in their hearts are, let us be frank, practicing heroic virtue. How touching it is to sometimes see their humility. Far from complaining, they apologize that they questioned, struggled, or plodded through without much feeling!! Hello??!? That's nothing short of fabulous and would be humanly impossible without very great cooperation with God's grace.
"...KNOW that this is for her good," not believe or trust, but know. WOW! That takes a tremendous act of faith. Often hindsight can help here. One can look back at other presumed tragedies and see the hand of God's love clearly in retrospect. This, however, is often not easily possible when the first tragedy hits, nor is it easy when the latest cross is so utterly overwhelming that one can be tempted to think that this time is a BIG exception.
God is the ONLY force that can change evil to good, to triumph. He is the only One Who can not only make evil's consequences tolerable for those who love Him, but even make them profitable victories! All things really do work together for the good if one loves God. We need to own and know with all our hearts and might that this is always and everywhere true; always.
"...let her obey out of love." Whoa!! We will spend most of our lives working on that one, but, as Benedictines who must always strive to do better, we cannot put off working on it till later. We need, however blindly, to seek the way of loving obedience. When we cannot find it at first, God, Who knows better than we how hard it is, receives our trust and intention as great, great things of merit.
"...trusting in the help of God." Trust can be unspeakably hard, and is made the more so by the many times humans and history have betrayed our trust. We become fearful and wary after many human hurts. Unfortunately, this impedes our ability to trust even God, Who is incapable of betraying us. He will never, ever abandon us.
St. Faustina said that even if the ground beneath her feet were to drop away, she would still trust Him. That's a way off for most of us, but a worthy goal which we should long to achieve. Trust like that is the herald of great sanctity. And great sanctity is our call!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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