Good Works

January 18, 2005 The Rule of St Benedict
Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works
In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
Then not to murder.
Not to commit adultery.
Not to steal.
Not to covet.
Not to bear false witness.
To honor all (1 Peter 2:17).
And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
To chastise the body.
Not to become attached to pleasures.
To love fasting.
To relieve the poor.
To clothe the naked.
To visit the sick.
To bury the dead.
To help in trouble.
To console the sorrowing.
To become a stranger to the world's ways.
To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

The reading from the Rule today, above seems to have everything I need to do as a Christian and as a Benedictine Sister. It is so basic and simple and yet so easy to forget in the daily flow of events. First to love God with your whole heart then your neighbor as yourself..to prefer nothing to the love of Christ...Where am I missing the mark the most?....probably to become a strange to the world's way...Today, I will spend an hour extra with the Bible reading the source references that are from this part of the Rule. St. Benedict's simple writing is beautifully seeped in the Scripture with a sense of truly living the Word.