Holy Rule for February 4
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St. Mary's Monastery
Feb 3, 2026, 4:58:42 PMFeb 3
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 4, June 5, October 5
Chapter 7: On Humility (51-54)
The seventh degree of humility is that he consider himself lower and of less account than anyone else, and this not only in verbal protestation but also with the most heartfelt inner conviction, humbling himself and saying with the Prophet, "But I am a worm and no man, the scorn of men and the outcast of the people" (Ps. 21:7). "After being exalted, I have been humbled and covered with confusion" (Pa. 87:16). And again, "It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I may learn Your commandments" (Ps. 118:71).
REFLECTION
No one need worry whether or not the blue jay population of our forest will make it through the winter! The blue jays bully and terrorize all the other birds-including members of their own species lower in the pecking order. And it is LITERALLY a pecking order! While they are pretty birds, once in action their belligerent personalities will dispel many a romantic notion!
Contrast the cardinals and chickadees, both far lovelier to look at, and both well aware that they need to stay out of the jays' way! One imagines that the cardinals, strikingly red, might be as numerous as their blue cousins if they were anywhere near as combative. Below even these in the hierarchy are the slate juncos; none too eye-catching, a rather sooty gray, and spending almost all of their time gleaning on the ground, not at the feeder. It is a niche they seem not to mind at all, in fact, it is a survival technique. Their attraction is not in plumage, but in the humility of their dispositions.
Of course, I watch all this from the dining room window and am amused. These scrappy jays are fighting over a front yard that they don't own. They are battling for food that is always there and will be there in plenty. And hey, they are BIRDS, right? What's all this business about who's-better-than-who? It's like watching a lot of Lilliputians in hand-to-hand, mortal combat. It's so silly that it is laughable. This is my front yard, guys, not yours!
Whoops! Just fell into the same stupid snare as the birds...The yard is God's. All things are God's; birds, you, me, the whole universe!
The Israeli astronaut, Ila Ramon, who died on the space shuttle Columbia, said something beautiful about the view from space. He saw that from there, the earth was just one beautiful blue ball, no boundaries, no borders, all one. Surely that is a glimpse of how God sees it.
Therein lies the secret of humility: to see things as God sees them, because that is how things truly are! That means seeing things like neither the scrappy blue jay, nor the monk inside who just as foolishly thinks something is his to control, that he has a privilege others do not, that his hegemony must be protected at any cost!
Of course, it is all too easy to see things in a nation state way, especially these days. One nation hates another or hates their agenda. Ah, but that is how it has worked out! How it started was perhaps one incident, lost in the mists of time, forgotten except for the rivalry it engendered, which took on a life of its own. Perhaps the progenitors of two warring nations of today met once at the same oasis with their flocks. Maybe one decided it was hers, maybe both did. At any rate, the fallout was terrible for centuries.
Each of us faces a desert oasis with others. How little we reflect that our actions there could change history. We will never know until heaven how our choices to assert or defer literally change the history of the cosmos, however slightly. All things start out small, but then they grow! Which outcome do you wish to nourish with your life?
Believe me, what we do with our hearts truly does affect the whole universe.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 4, June 5, October 5
Chapter 7: On Humility (51-54)
The seventh degree of humility is that he consider himself lower and of less account than anyone else, and this not only in verbal protestation but also with the most heartfelt inner conviction, humbling himself and saying with the Prophet, "But I am a worm and no man, the scorn of men and the outcast of the people" (Ps. 21:7). "After being exalted, I have been humbled and covered with confusion" (Pa. 87:16). And again, "It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I may learn Your commandments" (Ps. 118:71).
REFLECTION
No one need worry whether or not the blue jay population of our forest will make it through the winter! The blue jays bully and terrorize all the other birds-including members of their own species lower in the pecking order. And it is LITERALLY a pecking order! While they are pretty birds, once in action their belligerent personalities will dispel many a romantic notion!
Contrast the cardinals and chickadees, both far lovelier to look at, and both well aware that they need to stay out of the jays' way! One imagines that the cardinals, strikingly red, might be as numerous as their blue cousins if they were anywhere near as combative. Below even these in the hierarchy are the slate juncos; none too eye-catching, a rather sooty gray, and spending almost all of their time gleaning on the ground, not at the feeder. It is a niche they seem not to mind at all, in fact, it is a survival technique. Their attraction is not in plumage, but in the humility of their dispositions.
Of course, I watch all this from the dining room window and am amused. These scrappy jays are fighting over a front yard that they don't own. They are battling for food that is always there and will be there in plenty. And hey, they are BIRDS, right? What's all this business about who's-better-than-who? It's like watching a lot of Lilliputians in hand-to-hand, mortal combat. It's so silly that it is laughable. This is my front yard, guys, not yours!
Whoops! Just fell into the same stupid snare as the birds...The yard is God's. All things are God's; birds, you, me, the whole universe!
The Israeli astronaut, Ila Ramon, who died on the space shuttle Columbia, said something beautiful about the view from space. He saw that from there, the earth was just one beautiful blue ball, no boundaries, no borders, all one. Surely that is a glimpse of how God sees it.
Therein lies the secret of humility: to see things as God sees them, because that is how things truly are! That means seeing things like neither the scrappy blue jay, nor the monk inside who just as foolishly thinks something is his to control, that he has a privilege others do not, that his hegemony must be protected at any cost!
Of course, it is all too easy to see things in a nation state way, especially these days. One nation hates another or hates their agenda. Ah, but that is how it has worked out! How it started was perhaps one incident, lost in the mists of time, forgotten except for the rivalry it engendered, which took on a life of its own. Perhaps the progenitors of two warring nations of today met once at the same oasis with their flocks. Maybe one decided it was hers, maybe both did. At any rate, the fallout was terrible for centuries.
Each of us faces a desert oasis with others. How little we reflect that our actions there could change history. We will never know until heaven how our choices to assert or defer literally change the history of the cosmos, however slightly. All things start out small, but then they grow! Which outcome do you wish to nourish with your life?
Believe me, what we do with our hearts truly does affect the whole universe.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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