Holy Rule for January 22
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 21, 2026, 5:39:35 PMJan 21
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 22, May 23, September 22
Chapter 5: On Obedience (1-13)
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. This is the virtue of those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ; who because of the holy service they have professed, and the fear of hell, and the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior, receive it as a divine command and cannot suffer any delay in executing it. Of these the Lord says, "As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me" (Ps.17:45). And again to teachers He says, "He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
Such as these, therefore, immediately leaving their own affairs and forsaking their own will, dropping the work they were engaged on and leaving it unfinished, with the ready step of obedience follow up with their deeds the voice of him who commands. And so as it were at the same moment the master's command is given and the disciple's work is completed, the two things being speedily accomplished together in the swiftness of the fear of God by those who are moved with the desire of attaining life everlasting. That desire is their motive for choosing the narrow way, of which the Lord says, "Narrow is the way that leads to life" (Matt. 7:14), so that, not living according to their own choice nor obeying their own desires and pleasures but walking by another's judgment and command, they dwell in monasteries and desire to have an Abbot over them. Assuredly such as these are living up to that maxim of the Lord in which He says, "I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
REFLECTION
Ever wonder what was so great about obedience? What is so hot about dumping our own wills? Sometimes our wills are innocent, sometimes they're even downright good. Let's be truthful, sometimes our own wills seem even better than the choices presented to us by other circumstances. What gives?
Good rhetorical question that: what GIVES. Genuine obedience is a gift, to God and to all His people. Make the monastic better and you have made the home or monastery better, and so the neighborhood, the city, the state and onwards to the whole world. We forget the ripple effect, because we cannot clearly see it. We are not giving that gift to falsehood, but to truth. If we look at particle physics, it is very true that what we do with our hearts really DOES affect the whole universe.
Our self-gift of obedience heightens truth in the world, and Jesus is the Truth. There is a very incarnational aspect of obedience. Like Mary, we are, in our own halt and lame, partial ways, birthing God. In our actions today, Christ can become visibly human in us, in our tiniest drop of fresh water, the sea becomes less salty, the desert, less dry. No one can make the Sahara a rain forest alone, and God knows that, but He wants us to try, to be part of the solution, not the problem. Enough drops together would make the Sahara bloom.
Obedience and humility are conjoined twins which share one heart: both will die if they are separated. Humility, in its healthiest perfection, is truth and that truth births bits of God into the world, confetti mosaics that the wind of the Spirit can blow into fuller, more accurate portraits. Yes, humility is the most often mentioned of connections, but the root of humility is truth and the root of truth is God. Obedience without humility would be no better than a fascist troop’s lockstep.
Some of us spend large portions of our lives carefully building a false self, who lives in a false world, with matching false imperatives. Merton speaks of this false self again and again. One goal of monastic struggle is to uncover and nurture the TRUE self, the true world view and values. We often cheerfully ignore the real imperatives of God and life, substituting our own and elevating them to a level they truthfully (literally!) do not deserve. It's a moral displacement activity. We fail altogether in one area, so we compensate by raising another. Trouble is, the other one raised is so often false, or made false by its unjust elevation. Sigh... It becomes a vicious circle.
Give a good parent a critically ill child and you will find out what's true or important in a hurry. Everything gets dropped at once, without hesitation or care. Everything. Give a single person a really bad case of the flu and you will soon find imperatives pared to very few. (The flu or any illness is a superlative teacher: if it doesn't matter when you're that sick, it often doesn't matter, period!)
See what obedience points us toward? Obedience says: here is Jesus, the Truth. Embrace Him now, don't wait for the threatened child or the ghastly flu to scare you into appropriate action. The Truth Whom we sometimes only see in crisis is here all along. Keep what you have learned from crisis. Live it all the time. Make it a gift, because it is one that will enrich others and yourself!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 22, May 23, September 22
Chapter 5: On Obedience (1-13)
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. This is the virtue of those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ; who because of the holy service they have professed, and the fear of hell, and the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior, receive it as a divine command and cannot suffer any delay in executing it. Of these the Lord says, "As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me" (Ps.17:45). And again to teachers He says, "He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
Such as these, therefore, immediately leaving their own affairs and forsaking their own will, dropping the work they were engaged on and leaving it unfinished, with the ready step of obedience follow up with their deeds the voice of him who commands. And so as it were at the same moment the master's command is given and the disciple's work is completed, the two things being speedily accomplished together in the swiftness of the fear of God by those who are moved with the desire of attaining life everlasting. That desire is their motive for choosing the narrow way, of which the Lord says, "Narrow is the way that leads to life" (Matt. 7:14), so that, not living according to their own choice nor obeying their own desires and pleasures but walking by another's judgment and command, they dwell in monasteries and desire to have an Abbot over them. Assuredly such as these are living up to that maxim of the Lord in which He says, "I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
REFLECTION
Ever wonder what was so great about obedience? What is so hot about dumping our own wills? Sometimes our wills are innocent, sometimes they're even downright good. Let's be truthful, sometimes our own wills seem even better than the choices presented to us by other circumstances. What gives?
Good rhetorical question that: what GIVES. Genuine obedience is a gift, to God and to all His people. Make the monastic better and you have made the home or monastery better, and so the neighborhood, the city, the state and onwards to the whole world. We forget the ripple effect, because we cannot clearly see it. We are not giving that gift to falsehood, but to truth. If we look at particle physics, it is very true that what we do with our hearts really DOES affect the whole universe.
Our self-gift of obedience heightens truth in the world, and Jesus is the Truth. There is a very incarnational aspect of obedience. Like Mary, we are, in our own halt and lame, partial ways, birthing God. In our actions today, Christ can become visibly human in us, in our tiniest drop of fresh water, the sea becomes less salty, the desert, less dry. No one can make the Sahara a rain forest alone, and God knows that, but He wants us to try, to be part of the solution, not the problem. Enough drops together would make the Sahara bloom.
Obedience and humility are conjoined twins which share one heart: both will die if they are separated. Humility, in its healthiest perfection, is truth and that truth births bits of God into the world, confetti mosaics that the wind of the Spirit can blow into fuller, more accurate portraits. Yes, humility is the most often mentioned of connections, but the root of humility is truth and the root of truth is God. Obedience without humility would be no better than a fascist troop’s lockstep.
Some of us spend large portions of our lives carefully building a false self, who lives in a false world, with matching false imperatives. Merton speaks of this false self again and again. One goal of monastic struggle is to uncover and nurture the TRUE self, the true world view and values. We often cheerfully ignore the real imperatives of God and life, substituting our own and elevating them to a level they truthfully (literally!) do not deserve. It's a moral displacement activity. We fail altogether in one area, so we compensate by raising another. Trouble is, the other one raised is so often false, or made false by its unjust elevation. Sigh... It becomes a vicious circle.
Give a good parent a critically ill child and you will find out what's true or important in a hurry. Everything gets dropped at once, without hesitation or care. Everything. Give a single person a really bad case of the flu and you will soon find imperatives pared to very few. (The flu or any illness is a superlative teacher: if it doesn't matter when you're that sick, it often doesn't matter, period!)
See what obedience points us toward? Obedience says: here is Jesus, the Truth. Embrace Him now, don't wait for the threatened child or the ghastly flu to scare you into appropriate action. The Truth Whom we sometimes only see in crisis is here all along. Keep what you have learned from crisis. Live it all the time. Make it a gift, because it is one that will enrich others and yourself!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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