Holy Rule for May 6
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St. Mary's Monastery
May 5, 2026, 5:54:46 PMMay 5
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 5, May 6, September 5
Prologue (33-38)
Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, "Whoever listens to these words of Mine and acts upon them, I will liken to a wise person who built a house on rock. The floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock" (Matt. 7:24-25). Having given us these assurances, the Lord is waiting every day for us to respond by our deeds to His holy admonitions. And the days of this life are lengthened and a truce granted us for this very reason, that we may amend our evil ways. As the Apostle says, "Do you not know that God's patience is inviting you to repent" (Rom. 2:4)? For the merciful Lord tells us, "I desire not the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should be converted and live" (Ezech. 33:11).
REFLECTION
Blessed Columba Marmion wrote:
"You may ask: Is not the monastery the ante-chamber of Heaven? Assuredly it is; but to stay a long time in a waiting room and there to bear monotony and annoyances, can become singularly burdensome and require a big dose of endurance."
Probably no one really likes waiting rooms and some of us loathe them far more than others. I certainly fall closer to the latter extreme! It's not that I can't find anything to do, I usually can read or pray, but not always. There is noisy talk, or there are sometimes noisier TV's, both of which others need, so one can hardly grouse about them. That which makes a waiting room more tolerable (like silence,) for some makes it less so for others!
Had I to wait an entire day in a waiting room, I'd come home truly fatigued. Weeks? Months? No doubt they'd have to crack out the leather wrist and ankle restraints and give me psychotropic drugs IV push!! I would be a mess. Patience is not my strong point and I am sure many can relate to that on one level or another.
But Scripture and the Holy Rule assure us that a loving, all-merciful God waits far more than any of us could stand. He waits for all our lives, every instant, every millisecond. He waits before every conversion and after every fall. He waits till our death, if need be. At our death, when we can no longer run, He opens His arms of Divine Mercy one last all-but-irresistible time. Even then, we could refuse Him, but what folly that would be!
He waits. He does not stalk or crouch in hiding like a predator. His are not the finite limits of some flawed human who watches only for our falls, who delights at every trip or stumble. He perfectly, patiently, lovingly, mercifully waits. GOD waits. For us, who are less than nothing by comparison, God Himself waits!
There were many years when I was so emphatically trying to ignore Him, when "...I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind..." I used to hate it when people quoted Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven" to me in those times. I am still a bit annoyed by the poem insofar as it portrays God as a rather insuperably Herculean pursuer of very heavy foot! (Let us bless God that this is poetry and NOT Scripture!)
I think that God has an infinitely more polite and respectful means of waiting and seeking. But there are great truths in Thompson's poem and I shall leave you with two excerpts, both quite near the end of the poem. Beloveds, may these be the first words we all hear at death!
"All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost. I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!"
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest.
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee who dravest Me."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 5, May 6, September 5
Prologue (33-38)
Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, "Whoever listens to these words of Mine and acts upon them, I will liken to a wise person who built a house on rock. The floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock" (Matt. 7:24-25). Having given us these assurances, the Lord is waiting every day for us to respond by our deeds to His holy admonitions. And the days of this life are lengthened and a truce granted us for this very reason, that we may amend our evil ways. As the Apostle says, "Do you not know that God's patience is inviting you to repent" (Rom. 2:4)? For the merciful Lord tells us, "I desire not the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should be converted and live" (Ezech. 33:11).
REFLECTION
Blessed Columba Marmion wrote:
"You may ask: Is not the monastery the ante-chamber of Heaven? Assuredly it is; but to stay a long time in a waiting room and there to bear monotony and annoyances, can become singularly burdensome and require a big dose of endurance."
Probably no one really likes waiting rooms and some of us loathe them far more than others. I certainly fall closer to the latter extreme! It's not that I can't find anything to do, I usually can read or pray, but not always. There is noisy talk, or there are sometimes noisier TV's, both of which others need, so one can hardly grouse about them. That which makes a waiting room more tolerable (like silence,) for some makes it less so for others!
Had I to wait an entire day in a waiting room, I'd come home truly fatigued. Weeks? Months? No doubt they'd have to crack out the leather wrist and ankle restraints and give me psychotropic drugs IV push!! I would be a mess. Patience is not my strong point and I am sure many can relate to that on one level or another.
But Scripture and the Holy Rule assure us that a loving, all-merciful God waits far more than any of us could stand. He waits for all our lives, every instant, every millisecond. He waits before every conversion and after every fall. He waits till our death, if need be. At our death, when we can no longer run, He opens His arms of Divine Mercy one last all-but-irresistible time. Even then, we could refuse Him, but what folly that would be!
He waits. He does not stalk or crouch in hiding like a predator. His are not the finite limits of some flawed human who watches only for our falls, who delights at every trip or stumble. He perfectly, patiently, lovingly, mercifully waits. GOD waits. For us, who are less than nothing by comparison, God Himself waits!
There were many years when I was so emphatically trying to ignore Him, when "...I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind..." I used to hate it when people quoted Francis Thompson's "Hound of Heaven" to me in those times. I am still a bit annoyed by the poem insofar as it portrays God as a rather insuperably Herculean pursuer of very heavy foot! (Let us bless God that this is poetry and NOT Scripture!)
I think that God has an infinitely more polite and respectful means of waiting and seeking. But there are great truths in Thompson's poem and I shall leave you with two excerpts, both quite near the end of the poem. Beloveds, may these be the first words we all hear at death!
"All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost. I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!"
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest.
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee who dravest Me."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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