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5.0 out of 5 stars
The one book to read this Advent and ever after, along with the Rule, December 2, 2011
This review is from: The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict (Paperback)
In these radicalized and dangerous days, as terrifying as the fall of the earlier Empire 1500 years ago, we need this book to draw us back to the sanity and the peace, the justice and the equity, the humility and the wisdom, of a fifteen hundred year old book,
RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict.
The Reverend Sister Joan Chittister OSB, past president of American Benedictine Prioresses, has generously and graciously served as our own religious superior in gifting us with several of the standard examinations and meditations and explanations of this ancient Rule for Monasteries. We read recently
The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (Spiritual Legacy Series), building upon her meticulous labors in
Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today with its useful
Wisdom Distilled from the Daily Leader's Guide: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today.
We also read from this Reverend Sister Prioress such spiritual works as
The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life,
The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully,
The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer, and now,
Happiness, along with countless other edifying and strengthening, consoling and comforting, reinforcing and compassionate pieces so generously and readily available here upon this amazon, all highly recommendable reading for everyone with a human heart in these heartless and divided days.
Here in this present work we find the way to live this year, opening now this Advent, thus preparing us for the new and increasingly uncertain year to come. This work provides a firm rock of peace upon which to rest. This work alone in fact makes excellent Advent lectio divina, as we contemplate trembling the uncertainties of the year to come, reminding our God is ever near, if only we will hear.
We may therefore conveniently keep this pocketbook close to us throughout this coming year's pilgrimage towards firm peace, reading each month, beginning with January, the nourishment and strength she brings.
Humble, and portable, finding space upon any desk, or reading table, by any bed, without overly demanding precious real estate, but paying well the rent on the small space it takes, this book will fill you with pearls of great wisdom, drawing us ever closer to peace, each day, each day drawing from the world's great religious traditions, centering and circling always in Our Holy Father Saint Benedict's Rule, like a gentle liturgical dance.
A perfect gift for the ones you love most, and for yourself, as this is the voice we each need to follow upon this long and lonesome pilgrimage to peace. Far more nourishing and centering than superficial stuff following the enormous, lucrative
Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise, this one humble, profound treatise upon our Rule provides an infinitely deep call to peace, and brings us the strength to move on, towards God's peace, each day.
At random let us look at August the first, where the very Reverend Sister Joan remembers
--- One of Eleanor Roosevelt's personal assistants, Mary McLeod Bethune, was black. On one of Eleanor's frequent public trips in the 40's, the two of them were seated together in a first-class railroad compartment working on national projects when the conductor informed Miss Bethune that blacks were not permitted in first-class cars. She would have to move, he said, to one of the back cars. Eleanor Roosevelt was shocked at the situation and immediately began to protest the move. "That's all right, Mrs. Roosevelt," Mary Bethune calmed her. "I don't mind going to a second-class car in the least because, when I get there, it's gonna be first-class." Now that's what you call authenticity. Can you name two places where you were told you didn't belong? How did you feel about it? Why? (p. 79)
For more on the great Mary McLeod Bethune, you might start with
Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World. For more about yourself, please begn with this wonderful, revelatory, strengthening book from Sister Joan, please.
Deo gratias.
Dona nobis pacem, pacem.
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