Holy Rule for January 18
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 17, 2026, 5:48:44 PM (2 days ago) Jan 17
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 18, May 19, September 18
Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works (1-21)
In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength. Then, one's neighbor as oneself. Then not to murder. Not to commit adultery. Not to steal. Not to covet. Not to bear false witness. To honor all (1 Peter 2:17). And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ. To chastise the body. Not to become attached to pleasures. To love fasting. To relieve the poor. To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury the dead. To help in trouble. To console the sorrowing. To become a stranger to the world's ways. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
REFLECTION
St. Benedict follows Christ's teaching of the two greatest commandments, putting them first in his list. He had, however, also lived in community, so look what he puts at #3: not to murder! In the PBS drama “The Best of Friends”, Dame Laurentia Maclachlan, OSB, Abbess of Stanbrook and friend of George Bernard Shaw, said that the miracle was not that so many nuns could live together, but that they'd never had a murder.
In a very real sense, living the first two instruments would render the rest of the Holy Rule more or less superfluous commentary. If we lived them, no doubt God would reveal the rest to us in time. Ah, but there's the rub: in time...
We can easily forget that the Holy Rule is a time and labor-saving device. It was not written for arbitrary control, it was written to save us the lengthy process of learning all its wisdom unaided. The Rule not only saves us a lot of time and trial and error, it also frees us to do good long before our own stumbling efforts could ever have produced as much fruit.
A final note about preferring "nothing to the love of Christ." This line is so popular and frequently duplicated that we can become blind to it, shrugging and saying: "Oh, yeah...favorite Benedictine phrase..." Stop today and look at it, REALLY look at it. People often glance and look away because they fail to prefer nothing, but hey, that's the human condition! You, me and most of us strugglers are in the same boat, so relax and look at what it means carefully.
If we truly preferred nothing to the love of Christ, we would be sinless saints. We would need no other rule! Small wonder that most of us read and look away in embarrassment. But ALL of us, every one, can chisel at that mountain day by day, resolutely. A day in which the seemingly tiniest and most token of obstacles to the love of Christ is conquered and removed is a day of great rejoicing in heaven!
As St. Teresa of Calcutta observed, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." We HAVE to start small, because, for most of us, if it weren't for small, we'd never start at all! Ah, but those tiniest things done with love delight the heart of the Divine Merciful Christ more than we could ever imagine! Go for it!!!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 18, May 19, September 18
Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works (1-21)
In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength. Then, one's neighbor as oneself. Then not to murder. Not to commit adultery. Not to steal. Not to covet. Not to bear false witness. To honor all (1 Peter 2:17). And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ. To chastise the body. Not to become attached to pleasures. To love fasting. To relieve the poor. To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury the dead. To help in trouble. To console the sorrowing. To become a stranger to the world's ways. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
REFLECTION
St. Benedict follows Christ's teaching of the two greatest commandments, putting them first in his list. He had, however, also lived in community, so look what he puts at #3: not to murder! In the PBS drama “The Best of Friends”, Dame Laurentia Maclachlan, OSB, Abbess of Stanbrook and friend of George Bernard Shaw, said that the miracle was not that so many nuns could live together, but that they'd never had a murder.
In a very real sense, living the first two instruments would render the rest of the Holy Rule more or less superfluous commentary. If we lived them, no doubt God would reveal the rest to us in time. Ah, but there's the rub: in time...
We can easily forget that the Holy Rule is a time and labor-saving device. It was not written for arbitrary control, it was written to save us the lengthy process of learning all its wisdom unaided. The Rule not only saves us a lot of time and trial and error, it also frees us to do good long before our own stumbling efforts could ever have produced as much fruit.
A final note about preferring "nothing to the love of Christ." This line is so popular and frequently duplicated that we can become blind to it, shrugging and saying: "Oh, yeah...favorite Benedictine phrase..." Stop today and look at it, REALLY look at it. People often glance and look away because they fail to prefer nothing, but hey, that's the human condition! You, me and most of us strugglers are in the same boat, so relax and look at what it means carefully.
If we truly preferred nothing to the love of Christ, we would be sinless saints. We would need no other rule! Small wonder that most of us read and look away in embarrassment. But ALL of us, every one, can chisel at that mountain day by day, resolutely. A day in which the seemingly tiniest and most token of obstacles to the love of Christ is conquered and removed is a day of great rejoicing in heaven!
As St. Teresa of Calcutta observed, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." We HAVE to start small, because, for most of us, if it weren't for small, we'd never start at all! Ah, but those tiniest things done with love delight the heart of the Divine Merciful Christ more than we could ever imagine! Go for it!!!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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