Holy Rule for January 3
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 2, 2026, 5:02:50 PMJan 2
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 3, May 4, September 3
Prologue (14-20)
And the Lord, seeking his laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries out, says again, "Who is the one who will have life, and desires to see good days" (Ps. 33[34]:13)? And if, hearing Him, you answer, "I am the one," God says to you, "If you will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it" (Ps. 33 [34]:14-15). And when you have done these things, My eyes shall be upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say to you, 'Behold, here I am'" (Ps. 33[34]:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9).
What can be sweeter to us, dear ones, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.
REFLECTION
This is perhaps my all-time favorite reading from the Holy Rule. The gentle, loving tenderness of both the Divine Merciful Christ and our Holy Father Benedict are here in abundance. One is tempted to merely bask in the warmth, rather than write, but I will try to write!
Lest any of us (which, as the Holy Rule would say, God forbid,) tend to pride at undertaking the monastic way, this one deflates that balloon in a hurry. Christ seeks US. What mercy! Our very being is nothing but an act of His love and mercy, all that we have is His love and His mercy, yet, on top of all that, He seeks US! We're talking God here, not some other created being. We're talking the Alpha and Omega, end all and be all, the First Cause, you name it. The very force of life and light and truth and love and mercy in the cosmos, before all time, names us, knows us and calls us.
He already calls us, even before we answer. He knows intimately and well, from personal experience, the fouled up chaotic mess in which we live. He has lived in it, too. He tenderly calls us to "true and everlasting life" and assures us that He knows the way. In fact, He *IS* the Way!
I can gush a bit writing about the Prologue, so indulge me here as I do so. Beloveds, for so you are to me, our fractured hearts and sin-veiled eyes just cannot see the way, nor can we name neither the hurts nor their cures well. God and God alone can pierce that darkness and He offers to do so before we even ask. This is awesome grace; this is enough for a lifetime's meditation on humility. Hard things to come in the struggle are real, but their harshness is in some way illusory: "Behold, in His loving-kindness, the Lord shows us the way of life."
It is solely because of heaven and Christ for all eternity that every suffering, every cross can be diminished into absolute nothingness by the greatness of the reward. Yes, He shows us the way to life, but, as a wonderfully Dominican Doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena, taught us: "All the way to Heaven *IS* Heaven, because He said: 'I am the Way.' "
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 3, May 4, September 3
Prologue (14-20)
And the Lord, seeking his laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries out, says again, "Who is the one who will have life, and desires to see good days" (Ps. 33[34]:13)? And if, hearing Him, you answer, "I am the one," God says to you, "If you will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it" (Ps. 33 [34]:14-15). And when you have done these things, My eyes shall be upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say to you, 'Behold, here I am'" (Ps. 33[34]:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9).
What can be sweeter to us, dear ones, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.
REFLECTION
This is perhaps my all-time favorite reading from the Holy Rule. The gentle, loving tenderness of both the Divine Merciful Christ and our Holy Father Benedict are here in abundance. One is tempted to merely bask in the warmth, rather than write, but I will try to write!
Lest any of us (which, as the Holy Rule would say, God forbid,) tend to pride at undertaking the monastic way, this one deflates that balloon in a hurry. Christ seeks US. What mercy! Our very being is nothing but an act of His love and mercy, all that we have is His love and His mercy, yet, on top of all that, He seeks US! We're talking God here, not some other created being. We're talking the Alpha and Omega, end all and be all, the First Cause, you name it. The very force of life and light and truth and love and mercy in the cosmos, before all time, names us, knows us and calls us.
He already calls us, even before we answer. He knows intimately and well, from personal experience, the fouled up chaotic mess in which we live. He has lived in it, too. He tenderly calls us to "true and everlasting life" and assures us that He knows the way. In fact, He *IS* the Way!
I can gush a bit writing about the Prologue, so indulge me here as I do so. Beloveds, for so you are to me, our fractured hearts and sin-veiled eyes just cannot see the way, nor can we name neither the hurts nor their cures well. God and God alone can pierce that darkness and He offers to do so before we even ask. This is awesome grace; this is enough for a lifetime's meditation on humility. Hard things to come in the struggle are real, but their harshness is in some way illusory: "Behold, in His loving-kindness, the Lord shows us the way of life."
It is solely because of heaven and Christ for all eternity that every suffering, every cross can be diminished into absolute nothingness by the greatness of the reward. Yes, He shows us the way to life, but, as a wonderfully Dominican Doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena, taught us: "All the way to Heaven *IS* Heaven, because He said: 'I am the Way.' "
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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