GROW WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

 

“They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.  In all they do they prosper.”  Psalm 1:3

 

 

We hear a lot about Benedictine spirituality these days.  Writers like Kathleen Norris, who spent time in a Benedictine monastery, have brought the Rule of St. Benedict, a monk living in the sixth century, to life for contemporary Christians.

 

The discipline of praying the hours, comes from Benedict, as well as the method of praying the scriptures known as lectio divina.  As abbot of his monastery, Benedict was one of the first to write a rule by which the monks would live and order their day.  The rule included instructions on everything from how and when to pray, to who should be kitchen servers of the week.  One writer has said that Benedictine spirituality is the spirituality of the twenty-first century because it deals with the issues facing us now--stewardship, relationships, authority, community, balance, work, simplicity, prayer, and spiritual and psychological development.

 

Benedict introduced a radical concept to the standard vows monks took in the sixth century.  He added to the three standard vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, a fourth: the vow of stability.  Monasticism had started back in the fourth century and by the sixth century there were many orders and many opportunities for restless monks to be on the move.  Monks began to monastery shop, much like we would for a good college or university.  Benedict spoke out against this and claimed that true holiness happens in community, so he made the monks of his order take a vow of stability.

 

These are wise words for twenty-first century spiritual seekers.  There is certainly nothing wrong with moving, or changing jobs, or schools--or churches for that matter--over the course of one’s life.  But there is a spiritual lesson to learn about staying in one place long enough to be known and to know those with whom you are in community.  We become holy by staying in one place long enough to learn to love and be loved, to learn to forgive and be forgiven.  A vow of stability involves putting down roots and allowing our spirituality to become soil specific--shaped in a way that is uniquely determined by our living, moving and having our being in a particular community.

 

Prayer: God of Wilderness Wanderings and Promised Land, give us the courage to stay put when it would be easier to run away from situations that challenge us.  Give us the wisdom in community to be holy, just as you are holy.  Amen