Holy Rule for January 7
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 6, 2026, 5:46:54 PM (10 days ago) Jan 6
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 7, May 8, September 7
Prologue (45-50)
And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord. In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity for the amendment of vices or the preservation of charity, do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot but be narrow (Matt. 7:14). For as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts expand and we run the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love. Thus, never departing from His school, but persevering in the monastery according to His teaching until death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13) and deserve to have a share also in His kingdom.
REFLECTION
"Our hearts expand..." they truly do. Mine has already been wonderfully stretched and pulled and enlarged beyond my wildest dreams, often with me kicking and screaming every inch of the way. I have no doubt that it will grow bigger still, capable of holding more, but I know I could not stand that now, it would be too much. God works slowly, according to our individual needs. Better than anyone, He knows that doing it all at once would reduce us to shivering panic.
The biggest factor that I can see in God's work of heart renovation for me has been intercessory prayer. When you renovate a building, you have to tear down some walls, a dusty, ugly, painful mess. Ah, but the light and air and space that one finds in those new areas where walls had stood! In praying for God's people, I learned to love them, more prayer equaled more love and so it spiraled upward and spirals on!
Christ is the One I encounter in praying for His members, for His Mystical Body. It is, after all, a very powerful reminder that Christ IS His members, that we are all cells in His awesome Body.
When a novice in my twenties, I used to look at two real saints of St. Leo Abbey, Brothers David Gormican and Raphael Daly, both now gone to God. I am not even sure I thought it had become easier for them at the end of their lives, I thought, with the mindlessness so easy for me then, that they were just so old they didn't care anymore. Wrong!
My dear friend Ann Chatlos was a FABULOUS cook and she had been at it for years. One day I went to see her and we sat talking in her kitchen, she was fiddling around, nothing special. Frankly, I didn't even notice any activity that would have produced a meal. She finally turned around and said to me: "Stay for dinner." I asked when it would be ready and she said, "Now." I was floored. While we spoke, a pie, chicken and roast potatoes and something else I forget had been going on. A full meal with nothing out of cans and a homemade dessert, yet it appeared that she had just been chatting.
That's the nonchalance of Brother David and Brother Raphael. It wasn't that they didn't care, it was that things of sanctity had become so much second nature to them that many of those around them never noticed that dinner was ready. May that nonchalance of sanctity come to us all. Say a prayer for Brothers David and Raphael and especially for Ann, now also gone to God.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 7, May 8, September 7
Prologue (45-50)
And so we are going to establish a school for the service of the Lord. In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome. But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity for the amendment of vices or the preservation of charity, do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation, whose entrance cannot but be narrow (Matt. 7:14). For as we advance in the religious life and in faith, our hearts expand and we run the way of God's commandments with unspeakable sweetness of love. Thus, never departing from His school, but persevering in the monastery according to His teaching until death, we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13) and deserve to have a share also in His kingdom.
REFLECTION
"Our hearts expand..." they truly do. Mine has already been wonderfully stretched and pulled and enlarged beyond my wildest dreams, often with me kicking and screaming every inch of the way. I have no doubt that it will grow bigger still, capable of holding more, but I know I could not stand that now, it would be too much. God works slowly, according to our individual needs. Better than anyone, He knows that doing it all at once would reduce us to shivering panic.
The biggest factor that I can see in God's work of heart renovation for me has been intercessory prayer. When you renovate a building, you have to tear down some walls, a dusty, ugly, painful mess. Ah, but the light and air and space that one finds in those new areas where walls had stood! In praying for God's people, I learned to love them, more prayer equaled more love and so it spiraled upward and spirals on!
Christ is the One I encounter in praying for His members, for His Mystical Body. It is, after all, a very powerful reminder that Christ IS His members, that we are all cells in His awesome Body.
When a novice in my twenties, I used to look at two real saints of St. Leo Abbey, Brothers David Gormican and Raphael Daly, both now gone to God. I am not even sure I thought it had become easier for them at the end of their lives, I thought, with the mindlessness so easy for me then, that they were just so old they didn't care anymore. Wrong!
My dear friend Ann Chatlos was a FABULOUS cook and she had been at it for years. One day I went to see her and we sat talking in her kitchen, she was fiddling around, nothing special. Frankly, I didn't even notice any activity that would have produced a meal. She finally turned around and said to me: "Stay for dinner." I asked when it would be ready and she said, "Now." I was floored. While we spoke, a pie, chicken and roast potatoes and something else I forget had been going on. A full meal with nothing out of cans and a homemade dessert, yet it appeared that she had just been chatting.
That's the nonchalance of Brother David and Brother Raphael. It wasn't that they didn't care, it was that things of sanctity had become so much second nature to them that many of those around them never noticed that dinner was ready. May that nonchalance of sanctity come to us all. Say a prayer for Brothers David and Raphael and especially for Ann, now also gone to God.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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