What comes to your mind, heart, and senses when you read the word “extraordinary?” It is likely the big or unusual stuff, the events that are hard to believe. We tend to think of the extraordinary as most transformative or valuable. Yet in actuality, it is usually the small, habitual enactment of ordinary actions that tend to form and transform us the most.
Becoming Who We are Meant to Be
On my journey to becoming an Oblate of St. Benedict’s, I have been reading the Rule and meeting with a group of fellow candidates as we study the Benedictine way of life and seek to follow the Rule as lay persons, not professed monastics. Humility is a hard virtue to wrap one’s head around. As pointed out in the Awakening to Wholeness article, “The path involves daily, concrete, and ordinary work, both internal and external.” Humility is becoming who God created you to be. So, what does humility look like?
Topics:
Contemplative Practice
Humility and False Humility
In the Rule of Benedict, written over 1,500 years ago, treatment of the topic of humility is the longest single theme in the whole text. Benedict presents 12 rungs on a ladder of humility and suggests that those who wish to become most fully human, made in the image and likeness of a loving God, can expect to undergo a long and dynamic journey with many ups and many downs.
Topics:
Contemplative Practice
