But in St. Benedict himself we have a layman writing a guide for his household, his extended family of brothers with their busy shared life and all its inevitable demands: preparing food and washing up, looking after guests, maintaining buildings and property, educating children, caring for the sick, and also earning a living. His concern was to help them impose on this busy life such a structure and order (both external and interior) that they could make prayer the one essential priority, the central focus of everything else. There was here no separation of prayer and life. Everything flowed from one center...
from the Preface to Seeking God: the way of St. Benedict, both preface and book by Esther de Waal
How delightfully domestic! How mundane! How normal these inevitable demands of life! But to find no separation of prayer and life - that's the unusual thing.
This is just what the great physician ordered. I am so looking forward to reading this book.
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2 comments:
"There was here no separation of prayer and life." Yes, may it be! Amen!
Esther is one of them people I just want to hang out with... like that old fantasy game -- if you could have dinner with 5 people, living or dead, who would they be? Esther DeWaal, Emilie Griffin, C.S. Lewis, Benedict, and Ignatius (I didn't include Jesus, cuz he'd be there anyhow.
What a blast!
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