Have you ever gotten into trouble for just being yourself? You are being who you are and someone else takes offense and gives you a nasty look, a word of reproach or a hard time. Like me, have you then been puzzled and wondered why the kerfuffle? Is it wrong that I...
Purpose of the Tool To begin a spiritual discipline of playing catch every day, tossing words and acts of kindness. Background on the Tool One of my favorite verses in The Rule of St. Benedict is about kindness. In Chapter 31 – Qualifications of the Monastery...
"See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life."Prologue 20It is the liturgical season of Lent as I write this. Is it for you as well?Many of us spend Lent in clutch mode, interspersed with bouts of guilt when we fall off the Lenten wagon. Suddenly we...
Do playing games and The Rule of St. Benedict seem miles apart? On first glance it might seem so. St. Benedict was serious about the search for God and salvation. And the times were uncertain and harsh. Yet Benedict was understanding and compassionate. Might he...
Way back in August of 2015 Esperanza ( "hope" in Spanish), Espy for short, then a four month old kitten, appeared at Amma’s back door. Acting really cute so that Amma Jane and Prior John were enamored, she landed abruptly in the cloister. Well this really disrupted...
I have some sad news to report. We lost one of our faithful members in the cloister of eight. Marcy had cancer and got really thin and weak. Amma Jane and Prior John did all they could to help her. The vet tried hard as well. But when Marcy left the house...
Hello! Hope you are having a good day. Do you ever think about things that happened to you years ago, maybe when you were a child or teenager? This morning I was thinking about my early history, living with my mother, my sisters and my brothers in the "wilds" of...
I was reading the Rule today and came across what Benedict says about cultivating fairness in our lives. The Rule is loaded with instructions about how to treat others with fairness and consideration. He was concerned that the monastics, and by extension, us felines...
Hello! I hope you are curious about the title I gave to this article. It’s an acronym for a way to live within your family, workplace, church or other organizations, and anywhere you go. R-I-C-K is really helpful when we get into those emotion-packed discussions,...
“Place your hope in God alone,” Benedict says in Chapter 4 – The Tools for Good Works. Boy, have I had to do that over the last month! I’m only now starting to feel and eat better. Here’s what happened to me… Last month I just couldn’t eat and was hiding in dark...