Today is the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western Monasticism. I've not had a huge devotion to or focus on Benedict most of my Christian life - probably more implicitly than explicitly because I share a drawing to similar monastic ideals. He does sit in my "cloud of witnesses" you could call it - icons on top of my desk in the study. He's there with Patrick, Francis, Jesus the Teacher and the Blessed Mother. Jesus with his burning Sacred Heart takes up residence across the room in a special, central place on top of my book shelves. Thank God for visual aids.
I don't have tons to say about Benedict. You can read a sketch there at the link. The thing that always, without fail, comes to mind when I focus on him is that, and consider all he has been and is to the Church, to monks, to many in Orders that bear his name, to Christians all over - is that he was really just a lay person who wanted to find a way to serve and focus on God with others while they were being transformed into the Image of Christ. Not a priest. Not even a Deacon as far as I know. But he is Father Benedict. There's hope there. Pray for us, O Abbot.
"Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." John Wesley
"Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." Fulton J. Sheen
"...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self." Henri Nouwen
Today is the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western Monasticism. I've not had a huge devotion to or focus on Benedict most of my Christian life - probably more implicitly than explicitly because I share a drawing to similar monastic ideals. He does sit in my "cloud of witnesses" you could call it - icons on top of my desk in the study. He's there with Patrick, Francis, Jesus the Teacher and the Blessed Mother. Jesus with his burning Sacred Heart takes up residence across the room in a special, central place on top of my book shelves. Thank God for visual aids.
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