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Holy Rule for March 10
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St. Mary's Monastery
Mar 9, 2025, 4:59:12 PMMar 9
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 10, July 10, November 9
Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of the Monastery
For the care of the monastery's property in tools, clothing and other articles let the Abbess appoint sisters on whose manner of life and character she can rely; and let her, as she shall judge to be expedient, consign the various articles to them, to be looked after and to be collected again. The Abbess shall keep a list of these articles, so that as the sisters succeed one another in their assignments she may know what she gives and what she receives back.
If anyone treats the monastery's property in a slovenly or careless way, let her be corrected. If she fails to amend, let her undergo the discipline of the Rule.
REFLECTION
OK, for "monastery" substitute the word "planet" and you will understand that there is a very Benedictine imperative for ecology! The planet on which we live is surely a great treasure for which any monastery or any one of us is responsible.
And that is the further message here: responsible! Monasteries do own things, but always with stewardship, always with sharing. So it must be for each of us, for every Christian. We are stewards of great and priceless goods. We are entrusted with the very arena of life, the only arena of life as we know it. God created this awesome world, this splendor of life and beauty for the common good and salvation of all people. We must keep that fact in clear focus.
Contrast how things of actually much less worth are guarded and protected. Would that we surrounded the earth with as much love and care as the Crown Jewels of England receive, or the Pieta, or other great treasures of art or history. What if all rainforests were as protected as the freakishly embalmed body of Lenin? These are things on which much care has been expended, but our lives do not depend on them. Our lives do depend on the earth, and so do the lives and chances for salvation of many others who would come after us, who ought to come after us, who will need our planet on which to live.
Americans in particular can equate lack of waste with stinginess. It's a terrible view of things, but deeply rooted. Consumerist society encourages waste because it fuels profits for the few at the top. Sad that many below cannot be made to see that when we waste, we are hurting ourselves in more ways than one: ecologically, economically and spiritually.
Waste is a lack of thoughtfulness for others. The reasons we have been subtly taught to live with criminal waste as if it were nothing are false, totally false. They are not luxury, they deny others. Why live a lie? We do not live on a planet of infinite resources.
Monasteries and homes are microcosms of the universe. We must never look at conservation as if our actions alone will advance the rise or prevent the fall. They very well may do neither. What our actions CAN do is limit our complicity. That is the only safe rationale for undertaking them.
St. Teresa of Calcutta said that we must start small, that every drop of fresh water makes the ocean less salty. It is, however, a fair bet that the Atlantic will remain quite salty, indeed, in spite of our efforts! That's not the point.
One day God will ask us what we added to the problems around us, what we failed to do to make things different or better. We will be judged on efforts, not results. The results are often completely out of our hands, but the striving never is. The littlest things done with great love can truly change the world, whether we can see that or not.
God knows that many things cannot be single-handedly cannot be fixed by us. No average person could have stopped the Holocaust in Nazi Germany alone, but some chose not to be in any way part of it, even at the cost of their own lives. What if everybody had done that? See what I mean? A wealth of opportunity in choice awaits all of us.
We have failed to call most valuable what is truly most valuable. Nothing and no one at all can live, can seek God or do His works without the planet on which we live. Benedictinism must always and everywhere call us to a conversion from the falsehood that would deny that fact.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
March 10, July 10, November 9
Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of the Monastery
For the care of the monastery's property in tools, clothing and other articles let the Abbess appoint sisters on whose manner of life and character she can rely; and let her, as she shall judge to be expedient, consign the various articles to them, to be looked after and to be collected again. The Abbess shall keep a list of these articles, so that as the sisters succeed one another in their assignments she may know what she gives and what she receives back.
If anyone treats the monastery's property in a slovenly or careless way, let her be corrected. If she fails to amend, let her undergo the discipline of the Rule.
REFLECTION
OK, for "monastery" substitute the word "planet" and you will understand that there is a very Benedictine imperative for ecology! The planet on which we live is surely a great treasure for which any monastery or any one of us is responsible.
And that is the further message here: responsible! Monasteries do own things, but always with stewardship, always with sharing. So it must be for each of us, for every Christian. We are stewards of great and priceless goods. We are entrusted with the very arena of life, the only arena of life as we know it. God created this awesome world, this splendor of life and beauty for the common good and salvation of all people. We must keep that fact in clear focus.
Contrast how things of actually much less worth are guarded and protected. Would that we surrounded the earth with as much love and care as the Crown Jewels of England receive, or the Pieta, or other great treasures of art or history. What if all rainforests were as protected as the freakishly embalmed body of Lenin? These are things on which much care has been expended, but our lives do not depend on them. Our lives do depend on the earth, and so do the lives and chances for salvation of many others who would come after us, who ought to come after us, who will need our planet on which to live.
Americans in particular can equate lack of waste with stinginess. It's a terrible view of things, but deeply rooted. Consumerist society encourages waste because it fuels profits for the few at the top. Sad that many below cannot be made to see that when we waste, we are hurting ourselves in more ways than one: ecologically, economically and spiritually.
Waste is a lack of thoughtfulness for others. The reasons we have been subtly taught to live with criminal waste as if it were nothing are false, totally false. They are not luxury, they deny others. Why live a lie? We do not live on a planet of infinite resources.
Monasteries and homes are microcosms of the universe. We must never look at conservation as if our actions alone will advance the rise or prevent the fall. They very well may do neither. What our actions CAN do is limit our complicity. That is the only safe rationale for undertaking them.
St. Teresa of Calcutta said that we must start small, that every drop of fresh water makes the ocean less salty. It is, however, a fair bet that the Atlantic will remain quite salty, indeed, in spite of our efforts! That's not the point.
One day God will ask us what we added to the problems around us, what we failed to do to make things different or better. We will be judged on efforts, not results. The results are often completely out of our hands, but the striving never is. The littlest things done with great love can truly change the world, whether we can see that or not.
God knows that many things cannot be single-handedly cannot be fixed by us. No average person could have stopped the Holocaust in Nazi Germany alone, but some chose not to be in any way part of it, even at the cost of their own lives. What if everybody had done that? See what I mean? A wealth of opportunity in choice awaits all of us.
We have failed to call most valuable what is truly most valuable. Nothing and no one at all can live, can seek God or do His works without the planet on which we live. Benedictinism must always and everywhere call us to a conversion from the falsehood that would deny that fact.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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