Holy Rule for January 4
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 3, 2026, 5:20:25 PM (13 days ago) Jan 3
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 4, May 5, September 4
Prologue (21-32)
Having our loins girded, therefore, with faith and the performance of good works (Eph. 6:14), let us walk in His paths by the guidance of the Gospel, that we may deserve to see Him who has called us to His kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12). For if we wish to dwell in the tent of that kingdom, we must run to it by good deeds or we shall never reach it. But let us ask the Lord, with the Prophet, "Lord, who shall dwell in Your tent, or who shall rest upon Your holy mountain" (Ps. 14[15]:1)? After this question, brothers and sisters, let us LISTEN to the Lord as He answers and shows us the way to that tent, saying, "The one Who walks without stain and practices justice; who speaks truth from his heart; who has not used his tongue for deceit; who has done no evil to his neighbor; who has given no place to slander against his neighbor."
This is the one who, under any temptation from the malicious devil, has brought him to naught (Ps. 14[15]:4) by casting him and his temptation from the sight of his heart; and who has laid hold of his thoughts while they were still young and dashed them against Christ (Ps. 13[14]6 [137]:9). It is they who, fearing the Lord (Ps. 14 [15]:4), do not pride themselves on their good observance; but, convinced that the good which is in them cannot come from themselves and must be from the Lord, glorify the Lord's work in them (Ps.14[15]:4), using the words of the Prophet, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give the glory" (Ps. 113 [115:1]:9).. Thus also the Apostle Paul attributed nothing of the success of his preaching to himself, but said, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). And again he says, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Cor. 10:17).
REFLECTION
Ever have that funny feeling of surprise that the world and time and life and events go resolutely on, even when you are stalled in heartbreak? It is a strange egocentricity that allows us to feel that. I remember clearly such a feeling when my father died. I was not quite eleven. My world was shattered, everything had stopped or changed or been put on hold.
Child that I was, it stunned me slightly to notice from the car window on the way to the cemetery that it was just another sunny day for everyone else. People were working, shopping, going to school. The world WAS going on, nothing had changed for them. It made me feel strangely even more alone in my pain: he wasn't as important to the rest of the world as he was to me.
We can still have these feelings as adults, but hopefully we are at least more used to them and less inclined to think the world really DOES stop when we think it should. Tough though that can still be, it is reality and reality is truth and truth, after all, is not only humility but also what Jesus called Himself.
What does all this have to do with the Prologue? The same sort of really unfortunate egocentricity can let us think that we are the center of the known universe in other ways, can allow us to foolishly think that our gifts or the tiny packets of virtues we have stashed here and there are our own. No way, folks! It is grace, it is gift, ALL is gift, beginning with our very existence!
Everything good, in every way is all from God, not us. We dare glory in nothing but Him, for we would be less than nothing without His grace acting in us. He is the Source that allows us to be good.
If a city has clean, wondrous, spring water, no one in their right mind praises the pipes. No, one praises the purity of the Source. So it is with us, m ‘dears, pipes one and all, nothing more or less. God is the Source, God's mercy and love and grace and gift are the purest of waters. We are His conduits and we dare not glory, except in the Lord! "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory!"
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 4, May 5, September 4
Prologue (21-32)
Having our loins girded, therefore, with faith and the performance of good works (Eph. 6:14), let us walk in His paths by the guidance of the Gospel, that we may deserve to see Him who has called us to His kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12). For if we wish to dwell in the tent of that kingdom, we must run to it by good deeds or we shall never reach it. But let us ask the Lord, with the Prophet, "Lord, who shall dwell in Your tent, or who shall rest upon Your holy mountain" (Ps. 14[15]:1)? After this question, brothers and sisters, let us LISTEN to the Lord as He answers and shows us the way to that tent, saying, "The one Who walks without stain and practices justice; who speaks truth from his heart; who has not used his tongue for deceit; who has done no evil to his neighbor; who has given no place to slander against his neighbor."
This is the one who, under any temptation from the malicious devil, has brought him to naught (Ps. 14[15]:4) by casting him and his temptation from the sight of his heart; and who has laid hold of his thoughts while they were still young and dashed them against Christ (Ps. 13[14]6 [137]:9). It is they who, fearing the Lord (Ps. 14 [15]:4), do not pride themselves on their good observance; but, convinced that the good which is in them cannot come from themselves and must be from the Lord, glorify the Lord's work in them (Ps.14[15]:4), using the words of the Prophet, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give the glory" (Ps. 113 [115:1]:9).. Thus also the Apostle Paul attributed nothing of the success of his preaching to himself, but said, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). And again he says, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Cor. 10:17).
REFLECTION
Ever have that funny feeling of surprise that the world and time and life and events go resolutely on, even when you are stalled in heartbreak? It is a strange egocentricity that allows us to feel that. I remember clearly such a feeling when my father died. I was not quite eleven. My world was shattered, everything had stopped or changed or been put on hold.
Child that I was, it stunned me slightly to notice from the car window on the way to the cemetery that it was just another sunny day for everyone else. People were working, shopping, going to school. The world WAS going on, nothing had changed for them. It made me feel strangely even more alone in my pain: he wasn't as important to the rest of the world as he was to me.
We can still have these feelings as adults, but hopefully we are at least more used to them and less inclined to think the world really DOES stop when we think it should. Tough though that can still be, it is reality and reality is truth and truth, after all, is not only humility but also what Jesus called Himself.
What does all this have to do with the Prologue? The same sort of really unfortunate egocentricity can let us think that we are the center of the known universe in other ways, can allow us to foolishly think that our gifts or the tiny packets of virtues we have stashed here and there are our own. No way, folks! It is grace, it is gift, ALL is gift, beginning with our very existence!
Everything good, in every way is all from God, not us. We dare glory in nothing but Him, for we would be less than nothing without His grace acting in us. He is the Source that allows us to be good.
If a city has clean, wondrous, spring water, no one in their right mind praises the pipes. No, one praises the purity of the Source. So it is with us, m ‘dears, pipes one and all, nothing more or less. God is the Source, God's mercy and love and grace and gift are the purest of waters. We are His conduits and we dare not glory, except in the Lord! "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory!"
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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