-1-
Here it
is, Thursday, and I haven't written one word on my Friday post. Whoever happens to stop here to read this may
be just as happy if I don't. Oh
well, the blog life goes on.
-2-
l'll have
to say, it's been a quiet week. It seems
like a lull between Thanksgiving now over and Advent yet to come. I don't remember, since I've been in the
Church, that Advent came the week after Thanksgiving, rather than the Sunday
after. Seems to have thrown the entire
holiday schedule off a bit.
-3-
This
year, I decided to pick a book to read for Advent, as I've done every year for
the last 5 or 6 years for Lent. The
Lenten reading is called for in the Rule of St. Benedict, and I think it's a
wonderful habit to get into. It encourages
you to spend time with one author, and one work, and really get some meaning
from the text.
This
year's Advent reading is the first volume of the liturgical sermons of Guerric
of Igny. I realize it may have slipped
your mind who old Guerric is, so I'll remind you. Guerric is one of the founding fathers of the
Cistercian order, roughly a contemporary of St Bernard of Clairvaux, who was
encourage to the monastic life by St Bernard himself. After about 10 years or so in the monastery,
I think at Clairvaux, he became the second abbot of the Cistercian house at
Igny, in the diocese of Rheims. This monastery
or the land therefore, anyway, was given to St Bernard by the bishop of Rheims
for Bernard's efforts in settling a dispute between the bishop and the lay
people in the diocese. All of this
happened nearly 900 years ago; my how time flies.
-4-
I just
learned I didn't win the $560 mil Powerball drawing. I don't understand, the clerk who sold me the
ticket absolutely assured me that it was the winner. Just can't trust anyone these days.
-5-
There was
some excitement this week, involving my neighbor's driveway. This being Colorado, everything is uphill,
especially that driveway, it looks like a ski slope. The neighbor has a Jeep which he usually
drives, however, on Tuesday; his wife decided she should take the Jeep. So, she backed it out of the garage, forgot
to set the parking brake, and got out to fetch something she had
forgotten. Guess what happened? Of course, the Jeep decided to roll down the
driveway, coming dangerously close to rolling off and landing in my dining
room. It eventually turned the other way
and ended in another neighbor's front yard.
In the process of making that turn, it knocked a rock off the retaining
wall that supports the driveway, which ended up against the foundation of my
house, about a foot from my gas meter. I
count myself very thankful that it didn't hit the gas meter and, therefore,
blow my house to smithereens. I would
have been a crispy critter, which really would have ticked me off after going
through the great wood floor project and seeing said project to completion.
-6-
I think
bloggers often like to write more about their blog, and themselves writing the
blog, than about useful topics that should properly be covered in their chosen
area of interest. I see this all the
time and am hardly immune from the temptation.
For instance, I realize I must return the focus of this blog to
Benedictine and Camaldolese topics. I'm
thinking of choosing an overall theme for next year of two or three Benedictine
topics, most likely silence, stability, and obedience. All of these practices are ones that I hope
to enjoy more of once retirement begins.
Still haven't decided about that, and, since I have the attention span
and memory of a gnat, may forget the idea by the time New Year's rolls around
anyway.
-7-
I see
Jennifer, our very kind hostess, is hoping to live in a way that allows more
monastic influence in her life. That, in
the end, is what the life of a Benedictine oblate is all about. It is, sadly, much more difficult for the
oblate than for a professed monk living in a monastery. Still, I think it would greatly benefit the
world we live in if more people followed her example; it would be much more
peaceful and serene.
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