Holy Rule for January 27
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St. Mary's Monastery
Jan 26, 2026, 5:41:50 PMJan 26
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 27, May 28, September 27
Chapter 7: On Humility (13-18)
Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels. This is what the Prophet shows us when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts, in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" (Ps. 7:10) and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men" (Ps. 93:11).
Again he says, "You have read my thoughts from afar" (Ps. 138:3) and "The thoughts of people will confess to You" (Ps. 75:11). In order that he may be careful about his wrongful thoughts, therefore, let the faithful brother say constantly in his heart, "Then shall I be spotless before Him, if I have kept myself from my iniquity" (Ps.17:24).
REFLECTION
One of the things I always wanted to get for Dame Maggie, my late cat, was a bird feeder that I saw. Picture an air conditioner put in a window backwards, with the protrusion inside. It was like that, but rather like an aquarium made of one way mirrors. The birds, all unwitting, came INSIDE to dine in that mirrored cube and I'll bet she would have loved it. Alas, the price was out of the question.
Ah, how like those birds we are! Unfortunately, we CAN afford the cubes of mirrored walls all too easily: we create them ourselves, with our own illusions and ignorance and forgetfulness. We live and move in the falsity that we are unobserved. We forget altogether that God and His angels see us in every moment, in every place.
Ever look over your shoulder to see if the boss was around? Ever relax because your parent or spouse was gone to the store and you had at least an hour of privacy? Most of us have. Kids behave differently, a LOT differently, when the teacher is out of the classroom or has turned away from them. We are conditioned to monitor our behavior according to who is or is not present.
The big-time difference with our loving God is that He is always in the office, never leaves the classroom, and never goes to the store. Faced with that truth, we defend ourselves with the only foolish thing we have left: forgetfulness of His presence. Well, sorry, beloveds, but it is false.
He doesn't leave. He's always there. The spiritual world is all about us at every second, every instant. We would rather not credit the fact, perhaps, but that in no way makes it otherwise. It's a big mistake to think of the omnipresence of God as outdated, as something that happened "back then" but not now. That omnipresence never changes.
Now, what is all this doing in a chapter on humility? Easy! We can be proud if we think we are not found out. The child who deals with a teacher who hasn't seen is a very different kid from the one who has been caught! We are hopefully humble if we admit we have been caught.
We have to remember that nothing happens in secret and, having said that, that our track record is hardly so sterling as the one we would like to present to the world. Humility is truth, truth is the correct accordance of the mind with reality, and the reality is that we all fall regularly! Thanks be to God for His Divine Mercy for us!
Ever hear married folks talk about things they quit doing when no longer single? They thought they were alone before! Ever have the illusion of privacy yourself, with the door firmly closed? Ha! Thought you were alone, didn't you? Sigh... it is so deep in us! We are never really alone, God and His angels are always watching. The purpose here is to get us more in tune with reality and the reality is that we could always be better. So here comes conversion of manners, that other Benedictine vow: we must never stop striving to be better. Face it, m'dears, we live and move and have our being in the banquet hall of the greatest King. Whether we credit that or not, it is so.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
January 27, May 28, September 27
Chapter 7: On Humility (13-18)
Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels. This is what the Prophet shows us when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts, in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" (Ps. 7:10) and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men" (Ps. 93:11).
Again he says, "You have read my thoughts from afar" (Ps. 138:3) and "The thoughts of people will confess to You" (Ps. 75:11). In order that he may be careful about his wrongful thoughts, therefore, let the faithful brother say constantly in his heart, "Then shall I be spotless before Him, if I have kept myself from my iniquity" (Ps.17:24).
REFLECTION
One of the things I always wanted to get for Dame Maggie, my late cat, was a bird feeder that I saw. Picture an air conditioner put in a window backwards, with the protrusion inside. It was like that, but rather like an aquarium made of one way mirrors. The birds, all unwitting, came INSIDE to dine in that mirrored cube and I'll bet she would have loved it. Alas, the price was out of the question.
Ah, how like those birds we are! Unfortunately, we CAN afford the cubes of mirrored walls all too easily: we create them ourselves, with our own illusions and ignorance and forgetfulness. We live and move in the falsity that we are unobserved. We forget altogether that God and His angels see us in every moment, in every place.
Ever look over your shoulder to see if the boss was around? Ever relax because your parent or spouse was gone to the store and you had at least an hour of privacy? Most of us have. Kids behave differently, a LOT differently, when the teacher is out of the classroom or has turned away from them. We are conditioned to monitor our behavior according to who is or is not present.
The big-time difference with our loving God is that He is always in the office, never leaves the classroom, and never goes to the store. Faced with that truth, we defend ourselves with the only foolish thing we have left: forgetfulness of His presence. Well, sorry, beloveds, but it is false.
He doesn't leave. He's always there. The spiritual world is all about us at every second, every instant. We would rather not credit the fact, perhaps, but that in no way makes it otherwise. It's a big mistake to think of the omnipresence of God as outdated, as something that happened "back then" but not now. That omnipresence never changes.
Now, what is all this doing in a chapter on humility? Easy! We can be proud if we think we are not found out. The child who deals with a teacher who hasn't seen is a very different kid from the one who has been caught! We are hopefully humble if we admit we have been caught.
We have to remember that nothing happens in secret and, having said that, that our track record is hardly so sterling as the one we would like to present to the world. Humility is truth, truth is the correct accordance of the mind with reality, and the reality is that we all fall regularly! Thanks be to God for His Divine Mercy for us!
Ever hear married folks talk about things they quit doing when no longer single? They thought they were alone before! Ever have the illusion of privacy yourself, with the door firmly closed? Ha! Thought you were alone, didn't you? Sigh... it is so deep in us! We are never really alone, God and His angels are always watching. The purpose here is to get us more in tune with reality and the reality is that we could always be better. So here comes conversion of manners, that other Benedictine vow: we must never stop striving to be better. Face it, m'dears, we live and move and have our being in the banquet hall of the greatest King. Whether we credit that or not, it is so.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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