Holy Rule for January 10
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 9, 2026, 5:11:09 PM (7 days ago) Jan 9
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 10, May 11, September 10
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be (6-10)
Let the Abbess always bear in mind that at the dread Judgment of God there will be an examination of these two matters: her teaching and the obedience of her disciples. And let the Abbess be sure that any lack of profit the master of the house may find in the sheep will be laid to the blame of the shepherd. On the other hand, if the shepherd has bestowed all her pastoral diligence on a restless, unruly flock and tried every remedy for their unhealthy behavior, then she will be acquitted at the Lord's Judgment and may say to the Lord with the Prophet: "I have not concealed Your justice within my heart; Your truth and Your salvation I have declared" (Ps. 39:11). "But they have despised and rejected me" (Is. 1:2; Ezech. 20:27). And then finally let death itself, irresistible, punish those disobedient sheep under her charge.
REFLECTION
(Please note: I know some people suffered awfully from toxic, abusive parents. I do not mean to say God willed that, He never wills evil. I do, however, believe firmly that God can turn any evil to good if we love Him and allow Him.)
What is said here applies with ease to parents, too. All things, even pain, work together for the good for those who love God. I needed exactly the parents I got, so did my Dad, so did my Mom, so did their parents. They were each uniquely formed by their parents. We are, in many ways, the fruit of those who raised us.
Consider the marvel of God's tailoring one abbess to 50 nuns; quite a deal, isn't it? Now consider this. For each of us to get our parents, here's a PARTIAL picture of God's fine tuning. Obviously, the whole chain has to fit or it comes out wrong. We each have 8,388,608 21st great-grandparents, with a total of parents and grandparents in those 24 generations of 16,777,214.
That total is comfortably more than the combined populations of the cities of New York, Boston, Chicago, Tampa, Washington, DC, and the entire State of Missouri. And, for a person alive today, that would probably only get you back to about the year 1000 AD. Begin to get the picture of how God has thought of us (and them!) from all eternity? There's a lot more than 50 nuns going on here, in fact, there was a different and equal set of forbears for each of those 50 nuns AND their abbess.
By the way, St. Benedict had a lot of help from the Holy Spirit when he wrote the second part of today's reading, about the acquittal of the abbess who's done her best. It fits right in to our current awareness. God judges us by our efforts, not their results.
Parents and abbatial types, take heart. God not only CAN use anything, He HAS to use anything. The human standards throughout history after Eden have made that more than certain. God knows and loves each of us. He is more parent than we are and He is, unlike ourselves, perfect.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 10, May 11, September 10
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be (6-10)
Let the Abbess always bear in mind that at the dread Judgment of God there will be an examination of these two matters: her teaching and the obedience of her disciples. And let the Abbess be sure that any lack of profit the master of the house may find in the sheep will be laid to the blame of the shepherd. On the other hand, if the shepherd has bestowed all her pastoral diligence on a restless, unruly flock and tried every remedy for their unhealthy behavior, then she will be acquitted at the Lord's Judgment and may say to the Lord with the Prophet: "I have not concealed Your justice within my heart; Your truth and Your salvation I have declared" (Ps. 39:11). "But they have despised and rejected me" (Is. 1:2; Ezech. 20:27). And then finally let death itself, irresistible, punish those disobedient sheep under her charge.
REFLECTION
(Please note: I know some people suffered awfully from toxic, abusive parents. I do not mean to say God willed that, He never wills evil. I do, however, believe firmly that God can turn any evil to good if we love Him and allow Him.)
What is said here applies with ease to parents, too. All things, even pain, work together for the good for those who love God. I needed exactly the parents I got, so did my Dad, so did my Mom, so did their parents. They were each uniquely formed by their parents. We are, in many ways, the fruit of those who raised us.
Consider the marvel of God's tailoring one abbess to 50 nuns; quite a deal, isn't it? Now consider this. For each of us to get our parents, here's a PARTIAL picture of God's fine tuning. Obviously, the whole chain has to fit or it comes out wrong. We each have 8,388,608 21st great-grandparents, with a total of parents and grandparents in those 24 generations of 16,777,214.
That total is comfortably more than the combined populations of the cities of New York, Boston, Chicago, Tampa, Washington, DC, and the entire State of Missouri. And, for a person alive today, that would probably only get you back to about the year 1000 AD. Begin to get the picture of how God has thought of us (and them!) from all eternity? There's a lot more than 50 nuns going on here, in fact, there was a different and equal set of forbears for each of those 50 nuns AND their abbess.
By the way, St. Benedict had a lot of help from the Holy Spirit when he wrote the second part of today's reading, about the acquittal of the abbess who's done her best. It fits right in to our current awareness. God judges us by our efforts, not their results.
Parents and abbatial types, take heart. God not only CAN use anything, He HAS to use anything. The human standards throughout history after Eden have made that more than certain. God knows and loves each of us. He is more parent than we are and He is, unlike ourselves, perfect.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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